Ugandans Blog

Of expired, sub-standard and toxic products from Asia sold to the African market.

ugandans — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:55:49 +0000

The relationship between China and Africa is one which has to be determined by speaking out and letting them know through boycotts and other means of protest that it is not acceptable to sell toys to our kids that are laced with lead or high levels of BPA – it is not going to fly if the appliances sold to us are fire hazards and electrocuting our children – we need to call the Chinese and Indian embassies and log our complaints when such products show up in Uganda. It is not acceptable that African women are sold makeup and other feminine products that are sub-standard, burning to the skin and causing toxic shock syndrome. Our sick should not be subjected to the double jeopardy of dealing with the illness and the prolonged pain of utilizing ineffective and expired drugs.
If we have managed to see some of these harzards with just the naked eye , what of those hidden chemicals, such as plastic food wraps which carry a cancer causing agent when heated to 80 degrees urea – formaldehyde and many other chemicals found in plastic wraps and bottles. We need to let folks at the other end know that we are also human and we deserve better.
The equivalent of the FDA(Food and Drug administration) in Uganda, has to be vigilant in discovering these consumer products and banning them at the ports of entry. The last I checked, they had a few employees and had already lost the battle of expired drugs from India – it is a mess out there and if we are not careful an entire generation could become retarded due to lead poisoning and dependent on China and India for all our brain trust. It is an economic war that we must win, because our best resource at this moment is the brilliance of our kids. We need to form a consumer group to act as a watch dog for such products.

Museveni has lost the legitimacy to lead the people of Uganda

ugandans — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:41:23 +0000

Having witnessed the brutality unleashed on the citizens of Uganda today, young men being shot indescriminately through the eyes by snipers too ready to do his biding, it is ironic that he wants to continue with the invitation of the heads of states to come and congratulate him on a presidency won through the buying of votes from poor people.

The Ugandan people have stomached too much violence and death at Museveni’s watch- from the Luweero triangle killing fields to the encapment of the Acholi people, where multitudes were relegated to these camps to perish. Every institution that was once vibrant and working in the nation has become stunted, orphaned or corrupted under his auspices.
He has failed to strike a working discourse or dialogue with the opposition and those in the progressive camps to provide joint practical solutions to a miriad of problems facing Uganda. He has become insular and far removed from the main stream, where he would rather spend the little resources in the treasury to buy additional instruments of war, torture and repression, while those stricken by poverty are left to die due to lack of medicines supplies, services and other essential commodities.

He has definitely failed to impress it upon himself, his security operatives and those in his immediate sphere of influence to govern the country through constitutional means. His continued disregard of the constitution as the supreme law of the land has caused the country to revert back to tyrannical days- where the judiciary and the legislature provided no checks or balances to an executive that had run amok.

Our common aspirations and hopes for a better Uganda will never wane – these continued acts of torture, death and violence against the citizens of Uganda under Mr. Museveni, can only serve to strengthen our resolve to have him out of office, and to further emphasize a well established fact that he has completely lost the legitimacy to lead the people of Uganda.

Tendo Kaluma
Ugandan in Boston

This is a matter of indiscipline within the PGB’

ugandans — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:40:14 +0000

Fellow Ugandans,

The moment we let our military police collapse or become secondary in protecting the public, we run the danger of loss on all sides, and the consequences become dire as witnessed here. The American police is made up of former MPS-who are called upon at an instant to lift up such fellows and throw them in the slammer to cool off, the minute such utterances or threats to the public are heard by colleagues of the soldier or any citizen for that matter.

We ought to invest in a special police unit, well armed and capable of dealing with such incidents, militarily.
Major Felix Kulayigye, has missed the point here, by blaming the victims of this veteran, who had clearly run amok, I wish he had used a different choice of words, that took responsibility and showed some sensitivity towards the grieving families of those whose lives were violently taken, due to lack of proper safe guards and training that would have prevented such an incident from occurring.

This is not the first incident of indiscipline with the Ugandan Presidential Guard Brigade, the person in charge has to take full responsibility and needs to remind those who have frayed, that they are citizens first and within the confines of the law of Uganda. Guarding the president and visiting dignitaries is a privilege and a professional job, extended to the elite within the security organs, just like being a minister or the president for that matter.
If the president they are supposed to guard: can’t go around prostituting, getting violently drunk or on shooting sprees, every time he is upset, what makes them think that they can do this with impunity?

Major Felix Kulayigye, should leave no wavering doubt in the minds of those on this elite force, that they are not immune to prosecution or public scrutiny and they cannot bring shame to a unit that prides itself in being the best in the world-for it’s job is to protect the president and visiting world leaders.

A test of sobriety should be the first qualifying measure of any would be Guard to the president, to avoid danger to the president or any visiting world leader.
If a man or woman cannot control his or her liquor or is seen prostituting, what makes you think that he won’t sell out the president or a visiting world leader he or she is supposed to protect?

I have not seen the elite men of the secret service in this country bar hoping, prostituting, threaten the public or causing such mayhem as we see in Uganda.
I’m sure the unit has such good men of integrity, but one bad apple can taint the whole Unit, so it is the job of the person in charge of the elite unit to take the matter very seriously, by admitting full responsibility and weeding out fellows of this caliber from the PGB, before it is too late-carry out random urine tests, if you have to but, keep them professional.

Members of this unit are supposed to have passed an high level psychological profile, random sobriety tests, picked from a very intelligent elite class of security, the cream of the crop and exemplary to all other security professionals.
Intolerance to fraternization, non-professionalism, individual acts that put it to shame, and avoidance through due diligence such monstrous acts by it’s members ought to be the order of the day. The key here is proactively; teach them how to tread softly while carrying big sticks.

That said, we also have to look at the issue of not properly caring for our returning soldiers or those who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I wonder whether the person who is charge of the PGB, is fully aware that such Rambos exist within his special unit? If they do exist, he needs to seek help for them; today we have all sorts of pills, therapies that can help out soldiers in crisis. I truly believe that this fellow was somehow deranged, and had been suffering for a while, and we should start helping our soldiers deal with PTSD.

We cannot afford to expose the president or any visiting dignitary to such dangers, remember Indira Gandhi, Anwar Sadat were all killed by a person from their presidential guard. My condolences to all the families, lets make no excuses please raise the bar, and keep them professional.

Tendo