Uganda led by environmental barbarians
Dear friends and readers,
Sorry I have not been able to write for the last couple of years. However, I am happy to announce that I am back and can once again make the time to write and comment on global and African issues of interest, particularly democratization in Uganda.
Interestingly, I was away in Uganda, trying to do my bit about changing the world....putting to test and good use all that Professors Rodger Schwass, Peter Penz, Bill Found, Roger Keil, David Morley, Gene Desfore, Jennifer Clapp, Jack Craig and the good people at York University based their lectures, talks, conversations, workshops, debates and those ever useful brownbag lectures on sustainability. And not forgetting the Summer Practicum with Greg Albo and Vandan Shiva.
Yes, Uganda has been one of the bright spots for the last several years as far as neoliberal indicators for development are concerned. However, in terms of sustainability as I learnt at York University, and as propounded by Vandana Shiva and her colleagues, Uganda is inhabited by environmental / ecological barbarians. Its autocratic president, dictator Yoweri Museveni, vowed from the beginning of his rule a quarter century ago that development was always to be ahead of the environment. As a follow up, he cut down trees and drained wetlands to make way for industrial parks. What attempt his governement made in the 1990s in terms of development national environmental framework for sustainability, was convenient angling for donor money under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) fundings. But underneat, the country pursued a slash and burn development and environmental approach.
Just this week, the chief environmental barbarian himself, has declared war on forest and for the causes of big business and sugar cane monoculture. What little of the rainforest on the outskirts of the capital Kampala escaped his industrial park steam rollers in the 1990s, is back on his sights and slated for clear cutting to make way for sugar can plantatation. Not only this, up north on the eastern bank of the Nile, a few kilometres north of the great Karuma Falls, pristine ecosystems teaming with fauna and flora, and a corridor for migrating big bame between northern Uganda and South Sudan, is threatend with another of his sugar can project and oil drilling.
What ecologists and conservationists and environmental activists can take heart from is that, like church missionaries and explories of yore in "darkest Africa" risking their lives, there are Ugandan econologists, environmentalists and conservationists working hard to bring "ecological" and "environmental" enlightenment to Uganda. From Hon. John Ken Lukyamuzi to writers and reporters and community organisations, there is a small army of environmentalists who are determined to to bring environmental light to Uganda and put the country on the true path of sustainability, not the kind that have been appropriated by big business and environmental barbarians like dictator Museveni.
Well, I did not mean to come back to announce my return by delving into this sad story which we shall find time to talk about at length. It is therefore proper to sign off here, and hope to be seeing you more regularly as we speak candidly about issues and events that affect our lives and future and provide a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves.
Okello Lucima
Sorry I have not been able to write for the last couple of years. However, I am happy to announce that I am back and can once again make the time to write and comment on global and African issues of interest, particularly democratization in Uganda.
Interestingly, I was away in Uganda, trying to do my bit about changing the world....putting to test and good use all that Professors Rodger Schwass, Peter Penz, Bill Found, Roger Keil, David Morley, Gene Desfore, Jennifer Clapp, Jack Craig and the good people at York University based their lectures, talks, conversations, workshops, debates and those ever useful brownbag lectures on sustainability. And not forgetting the Summer Practicum with Greg Albo and Vandan Shiva.
Yes, Uganda has been one of the bright spots for the last several years as far as neoliberal indicators for development are concerned. However, in terms of sustainability as I learnt at York University, and as propounded by Vandana Shiva and her colleagues, Uganda is inhabited by environmental / ecological barbarians. Its autocratic president, dictator Yoweri Museveni, vowed from the beginning of his rule a quarter century ago that development was always to be ahead of the environment. As a follow up, he cut down trees and drained wetlands to make way for industrial parks. What attempt his governement made in the 1990s in terms of development national environmental framework for sustainability, was convenient angling for donor money under the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) fundings. But underneat, the country pursued a slash and burn development and environmental approach.
Just this week, the chief environmental barbarian himself, has declared war on forest and for the causes of big business and sugar cane monoculture. What little of the rainforest on the outskirts of the capital Kampala escaped his industrial park steam rollers in the 1990s, is back on his sights and slated for clear cutting to make way for sugar can plantatation. Not only this, up north on the eastern bank of the Nile, a few kilometres north of the great Karuma Falls, pristine ecosystems teaming with fauna and flora, and a corridor for migrating big bame between northern Uganda and South Sudan, is threatend with another of his sugar can project and oil drilling.
What ecologists and conservationists and environmental activists can take heart from is that, like church missionaries and explories of yore in "darkest Africa" risking their lives, there are Ugandan econologists, environmentalists and conservationists working hard to bring "ecological" and "environmental" enlightenment to Uganda. From Hon. John Ken Lukyamuzi to writers and reporters and community organisations, there is a small army of environmentalists who are determined to to bring environmental light to Uganda and put the country on the true path of sustainability, not the kind that have been appropriated by big business and environmental barbarians like dictator Museveni.
Well, I did not mean to come back to announce my return by delving into this sad story which we shall find time to talk about at length. It is therefore proper to sign off here, and hope to be seeing you more regularly as we speak candidly about issues and events that affect our lives and future and provide a voice for those who cannot speak up for themselves.
Okello Lucima
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