UgandAshis 57 Riots in Kampala II

UgandAshis 57 Riots in Kampala II

September 13, 2009

Friends around the world have commented about the fact that so little about what has happened over the last couple of days has made it to main stream media. True there were stories on CNN and BBC. So information did trickle down.

When you Google ‘Kampala riots 2009’ of the first 30 entries only ten are from traditional media (Daily Monitor 3, New Vision 1, Independent 2, BBC 1, RFI 1, France 24 1, Guardian 1. It seems that finding up to date information your best bet is to follow links through Google or on Twitter (#Kampala, #uganda) or bloggers and blog sites.

Google ‘Kampala riots 2009’ news and you get 246 results, ‘Serena Williams US Open 2009’ news 7356. Yes tennis popular and yes having a tennis player shout at a lines woman brings back memories of John McEnroe but really is it that more important?
http://www.techmasai.com/2009/09/11/what-the-african-cyberspace-is-doing-to-monitor-the-riots-in-kampala-uganda/ gives all kinds of information about what has happened in Uganda over the last few days. It seems internet is the place to be to get citizens reports, pundit opinions, gossip, facts, back ground history, academic information, factoids and all other forms of information.

Then again relatively few people in Uganda have access to Internet therefore blocking a radio channel (the prime form of information transfer in Uganda) or filtering Ugandan television channels is extremely effective in giving a ‘rosy’ picture of the events of the last days.

One journalist had been arrested immediately after he blasted the government in a live talk show on a big television station. Arguably one has to consider the incitement that a radio/television station can create (remembering that the conflict will be solved rapidly and that loss of life and goods will stop. It takes only a few bad men to spoil all people in one area. Cohesion intra and inter tribes need to be addressed and media should be given a free AND fair platform remembering the role of the flaming hatred that Radio Mille Collines incited in Rwanda during the Genocide in 1994.

Through my Facebook, Twitter and g-mail account get tens of requests if all is ok and that people are praying for Uganda, my family and myself. That I am fortunate with that is crystal clear.

Images speak more than a thousand words. I can write for you that we saw the police station in Ntete burnt down to the ground. Up to a certain level of violence can be manifested through descriptive idioma. Yet when one realizes that the Batwa (pygmies) are set to suffer from in-equality nothing is doen . There still will be a up-hill battle awaiting those people that have a migratory (hunter gathers versus agriculturalist versus pastoralists)

Awaiting the results of free and fair elections is the story. As for today I think that the violence has reduced significantly and that more or less due to the heavy military presence in town the riots may well sizzle out.

Let us hope

Namaskar,

Ashis Brahma