Monthly Archives: January 2011

Day 2 of the Exhibition

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“Day 2? Sha! How about Day 1?”

Ha! Day one of the exhibition went really well. That was yesterday at the Uganda National Theater.

But before I tell you all the good stuff that happened, the day did not begin very well. As the morning began, and as I was heading to the national theater dealing with the logistical issues of the exhibition, I knocked (in my borrowed/rented van) a bodaboda (motorcycle rider) and his passenger. It took about tqo hours to resolve the issue between the aggrieved parties and me and the police. It had to cost some good amount of money.

When all that was resolved, the exhibition started 30 minutes later than it was thought to start. People showed up and our volunteers answered questions, and guided dialogues.

We were surprised by the visit of Uganda’s music icons. Hip hop star, GNL Zamba came on in the early afternoon, and later on, my good friend and International Award Winning artist Maurice Kirya showed up with a group of friends. Both Maurice and GNL took photos at the exhibition and we will post some soon.
As for today, the event is going even better. It has been less work, we are kind of used to the way things run here at the theater, and it seems that more people now know about this.

Special thank yous to the media houses who have already covered this event, including New Vision, UBC tv, WBS tv, et al. It is great to know that people are believing in this work and that they are taking it upon themselves to spread the message.
Before we go, there is a call for more volunteers. Please drop by and tell us that you want to help, and it’s done!

For God and My Country.

The Kampala Exhibition

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The Voices of Uganda Kampala Exhibition is taking place this Thursday January 20, to  Sunday January 23, beginning daily at 10.00am to about 08.00pm. It will happen outside on the pavement of the National Theater, lining up from Dewinton Street all the way to Parliament Avenue, and we become the first to be allowed to hold such an exhibition in that way. Somehow, the question of the venue has worked out well. Initially, that was never my choice. The first choice was the constitutional square, but the Police does not permit any body or any organisation, government or private, to hold any activity at this venue until the end of the elections.

The other choice was the Railway Grounds, but the people who are in charge of it wanted hefty amounts of money for a 5 day event, which was way way way beyond our budget. Our explanations to them that this was a not for profit initiative, and also a nationalistic event fell on deaf ears. In the end, they refused, and we were forced to talk to the National Theater. Had we known that we would find favor with the National Theater – for them to allow us to exhibit on the pavement, we would never have gone to the second place, at all. The second place (railway grounds) would have been better just for the fact that we would get more “everyday people”, but then that would have had to come with security risks and costs and all. In a nutshell, we are excited and please with our available venue, and so should you!

We can’t wait to see you all here, and expect a lot of discussions, debates, and the whole nine yards.

For God and Our Country.

Day 26

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Elect a leader/s who will ensure proper monitoring and improvement of service delivery in the health sector.”

If you have been following this photo blogsite, or if you have taken time to go through many of the photos and their messages, you have then noticed that some themes or issues are recurrent – what we mean is, several people have spoken on the same problem. There are two things that you need to understand before this recurrence gets boring to you. First, is that the subjects are from different geographic areas of Uganda, and speak different languages. In fact, most of them are so poor that they have never traveled more than 50 miles from their villages. That they can speak of same issues without having contact with each other only underscores the prevalence of the problem. Second, is that the situation is real, true, and has been confirmed from community to community. Uganda is hurting, it’s people are truly suffering from the lack of basic health services.

When the Prime Minister, Apollo Nsibambi was involved in a chopper crash, he experienced this misery firsthand when he could not get access to a functional medical facility in the nearest place from the crash site. He was taken to some health center, where there was not a single private ward. Instead, he was taken to a room near the maternity ward, and across that room was a pit latrine only a few feet away, unleashing an un comforting stench. He experienced this only for a while, but our people have experienced these situations their life times.

Uganda needs a leadership that puts the needs of the people first. Unfortunately, this has not happened in a long long long time….

Day 24

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“A corrupt leader is an enemy of our society/community. Please vote wisely.”

Ever thought about it and how corruption denies many Ugandans their basic rights? So, how come we keep seeing “convicted felons” in leadership, voted into office by us the very people they steal from? How ironic! When a politician cheats and steals from the government, it is us that suffer with inadequate and poor health services, a laughable Universal Primary Education, potholes the size of small rivers in the middle of streets and highways, et al. A corrupt leader is indeed an enemy of the state. Their offenses are tantamount to treason. Educate our people in the countrysides of the need to exercise the power of their vote to bring meaningful change. Do not sit down and do nothing, for when you do that, evil will triumph!

Day 21

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“I adjure the youth/students to stay away from bad groups that might influence them into violence during the elections period.”

When I was a sophomore at Makerere University, my kid brother came to visit. He crashed with me for the week as his school was on holidays. I was a resident of Northcote/Nsibirwa hall, sharing the room with my cousin who doubled as a very close friend. My brother’s visit coincided with a strike, and I can not recall what the university students were fighting for. Even though I enjoyed strikes (they paralyzed school and therefore there would be no classes for about a weak, etc), I never liked to partake in them. I hated teargas, and anyhow, just enjoyed maximizing that time in my room, sleeping in and watching movies on our computer or VCR. Oh, I also had a girlfriend who demanded a good share of my day’s time.

Anyhow, to cut the story short, I woke up one morning to find my kid brother gone. He returned later with tales of being involved in the university strike, even though he was only in about 13th or 14th grade (S1 or S2). I was in university and I wasn’t hurling stones at people and property. He was in a secondary school, and he was fighting our battles! The thrill and excitement led my brother to the encouter, which could have ended up dangerously for him and me. Him dead, and me, explaining to a devastated mother.

Election violence is no different. Children who are not yet of voting age may ironically be caught in the mix, thinking it is exciting and in the end may end up dead, in prison or other consequences. We need to educate them to stay away from trouble, as the young man in the image rightly stresses. If you are student and have landed on this page, you need to spread this word to your friends, make a campaign in your school, on your social pages, etc. By doing that, you will be saving lives and building your country. Let us know how we can support your efforts.

Sudan Referendum Twitter Hashtag is #Sudanref

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Hello folks! It seems that today we are mostly interested in updating you on the twitter hashtags. We just wanted to quickly let the whole world that the twitter hashtag for the January 09 Sudan referendum is #Sudanref. This hashtag is not our creation. Others have come up with it so that you may be able to share information and updates on the proceedings of the referendum that is widely seen as going to result in the splitting of Africa’s largest country by geographic size into two, that is, the Northern Sudan with a government in Khartoum, and the Southern Sudan govertment at Juba.
The referendum follows a comprehensive peace agreement signed between the above two sides in 2005, which, ended a two decade civil war.
We hope and pray that this historic activity will go on unhindered and very peacefully. Despite having received the offer from a South Sudan mission in Uganda fo travel and photograph in Sudan, out team has not been able. We wish to thank the government of South Sudan for their generosity, and in all honesty, pray for an Independent Southern Sudan!
In the meantime, do not forget to pray for Uganda’s own 2011 general elections, and remember that the twitter hashtag for Uganda’s 2011 elections is #Ugandavotes.
Please share his post with your network and leave a comment.

Uganda Elections Twitter Hashtag is #Ugandavotes

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Today, social media is part of the way we communicate to those in, around and out of our space. Social media tools such as facebook, stumble upon, youtube, flickr and twitter are at the center of how we communicate and share information.

Perhaps, the most powerful microblogging and information sharing tool in the world today is twitter. Twitter is a web platform designed for users to share information to other users (followers) by typing a maximum of 140 characters, such as the maximum characters for a single text message transmitted by cellphone. In a twitter update, one is able to share website links, news of what’s happening etc. In the recent London riots, students effectively used twitter to evade police capture by posting the whereabouts of anti riot police, etc.
In the aftermath of elections in media phobic Iran, people were able to share information of harassment and news updates were gathered through twitter. Today, there are tools that also used to analyze data gathered on the platform which can be used to early warning (prevention) of violence, monitoring of elections, etc.
Ugandans need to sign up more and more on twitter. While facebook is a good place for chatting up friends and sharing photos, et al, it is not as helpful in a situation of elections such as the one were heading in.
To effectively search for information, twitter uses what is called hashtags, represented by the hash symbol # and followed by the keyword. In essence, hashtags are key words that people who post information should include in their posts, so that others can easily find the information.
The hashtag for Uganda 2011 elections Is #Ugandavotes. In short, if you post a link or anything related to uganda 2011 elections, you should follow it up with the above hashtag so it can be easily searchable, found and read. Other important hashtags mag include just #Uganda and #voicesofuganda.
If this post has been helpful, please post a comment. This is not a researched article. Intact, I am also trying to learn this whole twitter thing. Also, if you have additional information that is helpful, put it below in the comments dialogue box.