America is not giving $95 billion dollars to Ukraine and Israel. They’re giving $95 billion dollars to the American arms manufacturers who will be supplying both nations with weapons. The obscene profits will go into the retirement accounts of the managements of those companies, and the investment accounts of their stockholders.
Admittedly most people don’t realize the U.S. military and the industrial entities that serve it are, for all practical purposes, a massive jobs program.
Its not like in Uganda where you ask parliament to approve millions of dollars to buy fighter jets from Russia- an act that ends up enriching Russians more than Ugandans. Few Ugandans benefit from such deals through ‘enjawulo’ and other benefits.
BTW, it’s indeed insane that Russia is somehow still managing to find resources when it fights Ukraine that is armed by the whole western world. Russia has also transitioned lost markets from sanctions into a war producing one.
War economies are surprisingly strong and shouldn’t be underestimated. Russia has shown that it’s willing to rely on a war economy to stabilise it. This probably surprised the West since by doing so you’re making a bet to win the war and to be capable of making a smooth transition back to a normal economy once the war is over. Currently, it doesn’t look like Russia is anywhere near to be capable of transitioning back to normal markets since they don’t exist anymore due to sanctions.
And if Trump wins the presidency this year, it’s going to be interesting how things turn out in Ukraine and the rest of Europe. I honestly thought that the Israel- Gaza conflict had warned off western interest in the Ukraine war, but, obviously something happened and they are back at it.
There are a lot of theories out there on the people that run the world. Some people believe that the government is the ultimate authority, and they call the shots. Others believe that large corporations have more power and influence than any one government. And then there are those who believe that it’s actually a select group of wealthy individuals who control everything behind the scenes.
President Woodrow Wilson said: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
I believe the whole world is influenced directly and indirectly by the collective forces and actions of a top wealthy elite class. I believe that there are people who are controlling the greater processes of geopolitics and the global economy.
Every country is divided into four categories of people: the poor(P), the rich(R), Ultra rich people (URP) and Super Ultra Rich people (SURP). I believe that the SURP run the world and they play key roles in every integral global decision.
The P are in the bottom of the food chain and are struggling. Some call themselves middle class people when they build a nice house, buy a car and a few investments. The Ps have high risk of getting killed, being misinformed, and being controlled via threats. Hence, they can’t make major decisions.
The R and the URP are people in power, and they serve as arms of the SURP. They even have potential to become SURPs themselves. They have low risks of getting killed or being threatened. Hence, they work as executors of major decisions.
SURP are at the top of the food chain (Giant business magnets, Royal family members and Secret societies) where no scavenger or predator can bother them. They’re mostly people who have parlayed generational wealth into something that resembles a societal institution. Their command is the law, even in a democratic country. They are at their highest potential, they can crash the markets, they can choke a nation to poverty, and they can lift a nation from poverty. Hence, they control the world.
Most of the Rs and URPs answer to SURPs who financed their campaigns, who influenced (or own) the media, and put them there in positions of power to protect their wealth. The generally used term for these people is oligarchs, and the form of control is oligarchy, from the Greek for “rule by the few”.
There are people out there who have wasted their entire lives hunting down the Illuminati when all they really needed to do was to look out of their window and find the nearest corporation. The top 100 wealthiest individuals control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. So, a very small number of people have more wealth literally than billions of people.
MONEY IS A BIG FACTOR
Basically, the thing that runs this world is money and the people who run it are those who have money. Rich people essentially control everything, whether they are rich and in public office because they are rich, or merely have bought politicians off.
For instance, Museveni’s family can actually dictate how things are to be done in Uganda, and they can make it stick. They can even determine an opposition leader for the poor if they wish, and the Ps will follow that person because the SURP control information flow.
Even when it comes to committing heinous crimes, money may save you. It determines how much justice you receive in the world. It determines whether you can afford the best legal representation, or not. A man accused of a crime for which the state ended up taking his life, once quipped: “Capital punishment means that those without capital get the punishment”. His name was John Spenkelink and there was reasonable doubt surrounding his guilt. He was born in a poor family; his fate was determined the moment he was arrested. Had he been able to afford the finest lawyers, he’d likely be alive today. He was executed in 1979 when Amin was still president of Uganda.
MONEY AND POLITICAL POWER
Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, discusses women with his friend in the film, ‘Scarface’, but the topic can just as easily be applied to anything in the world. “In this country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women,” Tony explains to his friend. Power makes the world go round. And power is acquired through wealth. Once you have wealth, you have everything. His words are as true in 2024 as they were back in 1983.
However, Museveni didn’t follow Tony’s advice as he invested in political power first before acquiring wealth. Museveni served in Obote 1, Lule and Binaisa’s governments, but he invested his money in acquiring political power first. He could have built a mansion for himself as most ministers or opposition leaders do nowadays, but he didn’t. He only had a plot of land at Rwakitura before becoming president, but he’s now arguably the largest landowner in Uganda.
Money gives you some power and buys you access to a lot more, but when the chips fall down, people with political power have the power, because they have the coercive might of the state behind them. For instance, the late Sulaiman Kiggundu(inalilahi wahina ilayihi rajiuna) was inarguably extremely rich and had a tremendous amount of power right about until the point he was arrested. Now, people born in the last 17 years don’t even know that Greenland Bank once existed on Kampala Road.
My point though is that there is an upper echelon of people who have far more power than you and me and they’re in varying degrees of shadow. The good news is that God controls all humans in this world.
People with money rule this world. It’s as true in capitalist America and Europe as it is in the “communist” China. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you gain access to the highest echelons of power and life’s a cake walk from there on out. Money opens doors that nothing else will open for you, and this is true everywhere in the world. Go and make money,guys!
Pope Francis has said that Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia that followed Moscow’s full-scale invasion two years ago.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is the largest Eastern Catholic Church in the world. As of 2019, it had approximately 4.1 million members.
It just doesn’t make sense that the Vatican would risk alienating over 4 million Ukrainian Greek Catholics to somehow seek to protect 3 thousand Russian Greek Catholics.
No matter how holy one is, when it comes to physical affairs, I have found out that one is more influenced by his belief than his intimacy with God when making decisions. You just have to look at all the past Popes and how they handled physical issues.
the no nonsense authoritarian Cardinal Achille Ratti, Pope Pius XI (1922–1939) despite being an anti communist, he hated Adolf Hitler with all his breath. He had already commissioned an Encyclical in which he strongly condemned Antisemitism derided Nazism and spoke very firmly and prophetically about Nazi Germany.
Unfortunately three days to the convention in which he was supposed to denounce the Nazis he died at 81 years. His doctor was also responsible for Mussolini’s health, so it’s believed that the Nazis got rid of him!
His successor Pius XII turned out at best to be a coward and at worst a Nazi sympathizer. Don’t ask me what happened to the Encyclical after Pius XI died!
The Vatican has been invaded in the past, it’s been sacked, it’s been looted, it’s gotten burned a little bit, and there was a little over half a century where the French kidnapped the pope and set up their own papacy in Avignon.Last time was 1870, by the army of united Italia.
On June 5, 1944, Vatican City was occupied by a battalion of the American 5th Army.
Ukraine’s biggest problem is, as far as NATO ships are concerned, is its lack of a secure sea port. Supplying Ukrainian forces would be much easier, if there was a secure sea lane and port access. But the Black Sea has always been under Russian control, it would be suicide for USNS or USN ships to transit to Odessa or any other port in the Black Sea. Everything NATO has sent to Ukraine has been mostly by land or air, which can get real expensive- as we learned in Afghanistan.
America is not giving $95 billion dollars to Ukraine and Israel. They’re giving $95 billion dollars to the American arms manufacturers who will be supplying both nations with weapons. The obscene profits will go into the retirement accounts of the managements of those companies, and the investment accounts of their stockholders.
Admittedly most people don’t realize the U.S. military and the industrial entities that serve it are, for all practical purposes, a massive jobs program.
Its not like in Uganda where you ask parliament to approve millions of dollars to buy fighter jets from Russia- an act that ends up enriching Russians more than Ugandans. Few Ugandans benefit from such deals through ‘enjawulo’ and other benefits.
BTW, it’s indeed insane that Russia is somehow still managing to find resources when it fights Ukraine that is armed by the whole western world. Russia has also transitioned lost markets from sanctions into a war producing one.
War economies are surprisingly strong and shouldn’t be underestimated. Russia has shown that it’s willing to rely on a war economy to stabilise it. This probably surprised the West since by doing so you’re making a bet to win the war and to be capable of making a smooth transition back to a normal economy once the war is over. Currently, it doesn’t look like Russia is anywhere near to be capable of transitioning back to normal markets since they don’t exist anymore due to sanctions.
And if Trump wins the presidency this year, it’s going to be interesting how things turn out in Ukraine and the rest of Europe. I honestly thought that the Israel- Gaza conflict had warned off western interest in the Ukraine war, but, obviously something happened and they are back at it.
There are a lot of theories out there on the people that run the world. Some people believe that the government is the ultimate authority, and they call the shots. Others believe that large corporations have more power and influence than any one government. And then there are those who believe that it’s actually a select group of wealthy individuals who control everything behind the scenes.
President Woodrow Wilson said: “Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”
I believe the whole world is influenced directly and indirectly by the collective forces and actions of a top wealthy elite class. I believe that there are people who are controlling the greater processes of geopolitics and the global economy.
Every country is divided into four categories of people: the poor(P), the rich(R), Ultra rich people (URP) and Super Ultra Rich people (SURP). I believe that the SURP run the world and they play key roles in every integral global decision.
The P are in the bottom of the food chain and are struggling. Some call themselves middle class people when they build a nice house, buy a car and a few investments. The Ps have high risk of getting killed, being misinformed, and being controlled via threats. Hence, they can’t make major decisions.
The R and the URP are people in power, and they serve as arms of the SURP. They even have potential to become SURPs themselves. They have low risks of getting killed or being threatened. Hence, they work as executors of major decisions.
SURP are at the top of the food chain (Giant business magnets, Royal family members and Secret societies) where no scavenger or predator can bother them. They’re mostly people who have parlayed generational wealth into something that resembles a societal institution. Their command is the law, even in a democratic country. They are at their highest potential, they can crash the markets, they can choke a nation to poverty, and they can lift a nation from poverty. Hence, they control the world.
Most of the Rs and URPs answer to SURPs who financed their campaigns, who influenced (or own) the media, and put them there in positions of power to protect their wealth. The generally used term for these people is oligarchs, and the form of control is oligarchy, from the Greek for “rule by the few”.
There are people out there who have wasted their entire lives hunting down the Illuminati when all they really needed to do was to look out of their window and find the nearest corporation. The top 100 wealthiest individuals control more wealth than the poorest 3.5 billion people in the world. So, a very small number of people have more wealth literally than billions of people.
MONEY IS A BIG FACTOR
Basically, the thing that runs this world is money and the people who run it are those who have money. Rich people essentially control everything, whether they are rich and in public office because they are rich, or merely have bought politicians off.
For instance, Museveni’s family can actually dictate how things are to be done in Uganda, and they can make it stick. They can even determine an opposition leader for the poor if they wish, and the Ps will follow that person because the SURP control information flow.
Even when it comes to committing heinous crimes, money may save you. It determines how much justice you receive in the world. It determines whether you can afford the best legal representation, or not. A man accused of a crime for which the state ended up taking his life, once quipped: “Capital punishment means that those without capital get the punishment”. His name was John Spenkelink and there was reasonable doubt surrounding his guilt. He was born in a poor family; his fate was determined the moment he was arrested. Had he been able to afford the finest lawyers, he’d likely be alive today. He was executed in 1979 when Amin was still president of Uganda.
MONEY AND POLITICAL POWER
Al Pacino’s character, Tony Montana, discusses women with his friend in the film, ‘Scarface’, but the topic can just as easily be applied to anything in the world. “In this country, you got to make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women,” Tony explains to his friend. Power makes the world go round. And power is acquired through wealth. Once you have wealth, you have everything. His words are as true in 2024 as they were back in 1983.
However, president Yoweri Museveni didn’t follow Tony’s advice as he invested in political power first before acquiring wealth. Museveni served in Obote 1, Lule and Binaisa’s governments, but he invested his money in acquiring political power first. He could have built a mansion for himself as most ministers or opposition leaders do nowadays, but he didn’t. He only had a plot of land at Rwakitura before becoming president, but he’s now arguably the largest landowner in Uganda.
Money gives you some power and buys you access to a lot more, but when the chips fall down, people with political power have the power, because they have the coercive might of the state behind them. For instance, the late Sulaiman Kiggundu(inalilahi wahina ilayihi rajiuna) was inarguably extremely rich and had a tremendous amount of power right about until the point he was arrested. Now, people born in the last 17 years don’t even know that Greenland Bank once existed on Kampala Road.
My point though is that there is an upper echelon of people who have far more power than you and me and they’re in varying degrees of shadow. The good news is that God controls all humans in this world.
People with money rule this world. It’s as true in capitalist America and Europe as it is in the “communist” China. Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you gain access to the highest echelons of power and life’s a cake walk from there on out. Money opens doors that nothing else will open for you, and this is true everywhere in the world. Go and make money,guys!
Eight days ago,Vladimir Putin called upon all Russian women to have a least seven to eight children in a speech he delivered Tuesday. This is presumably to compensate for the number of Russian men being killed in Ukraine.
“Many of our peoples maintain the tradition of the family, where four, five or more children are raised,” he said on Tuesday. “Recall that in Russian families our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had both seven and eight children. Let us preserve and revive these traditions. This will become the norm, our goal for the coming decades.”
“The rescue and multiplication of the Russian people is our task for the coming decade. I will say more – for generations to come. This is the future of the Russian world and a thousand-year-old, eternal Russia,”
It sounds like Romania when Ceaușescu wanted to increase the Romanian population to 30 million.Target was not met even close but plenty of neglected children were dumped in children’s homes instead. And a tragic AIDS epidemic followed with utter disregard for the innocent victims! That was one of the policies that got Nicolai Caucescu and his wife executed by their own Romanian soldiers in 1989.
However,the fact that he is saying this, he is most likely aware of Russia’s demographic decline.Birthrates normally decline during the uncertainty of wars and only increase after they have finished.
But what does this mean for the rest of the world? Are we going back to having so many children? China is already encouraging families to have atleast 2 kids which wasnt the case before. Here in the UK, the old population that will need pension is higher than the young population, and this is a headache for the govt. UAE pays men(citizens) to marry as many women as possible to boost their population.
Its now winter here in the UK, and our heads are all covered up.
By Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
The US and some countries in Europe have come to the conclusion that Ukraine has lost this war. On the other hand, there is a lot of gas in the sea off the coast of Gaza. If the Gazans can be forced to leave Gaza, then the US and Israel can get their hands on that gas.
Yes, the US has lots of oil and gas and they probably don’t need it, but the US does not act on need. They act on “control”. They want to control all the oil and gas of the world, if they can. That is why they have plundered the Syrian and Iraqi oil fields. That’s why they don’t want Russia to control Crimea and Donetsk where lots of oil and gas were found.
The fact is, pretty much, the world today is in two Blocs. One side led by the USA, and the other side led by the joint leadership of China and Russia.It is thus obvious that the United States wants to keep regional wars, via proxies.
Wars are also the favoured way to bump the US economy via military expenditures, it’s access to expanded budget & all, plus the business that comes post-war in terms of rebuilding contracts.
Meanwhile, the Israel strategy isn’t only to control Gaza, but they are also interested in the West Bank. About 600,000 Israelis already live in the West Bank.Palestinians are excluded from the Israeli “settlements” inside the West Bank.
The West Bank is a made up name given to the territory captured by Jordan in the 1948 war and annexed by Jordan in 1950.
Then Jordan lost the territory in 1967.It’s not like the West bank is some historic area that has always been referred to that way.
Israel wants all the land.Gaza is an hour’s drive from central Israel. I can’t see Israel ever leaving that place after this war unless a miracle happens.
I took this picture inside the Royal Scots Regimental Museum of Scotland. The building is among those located in the Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.
The guy in the picture behind me was called Donald McBain. Before the battle of Malplaquet in 1709, his wife abandoned him leaving a 3 year old boy with him. His regiment was matching into the battle against the French; so, do you know what this guy did? He stuffed the child in his haversack, and fought the whole battle with a child at his back as shown in the photo.
I’m shocked with the statements coming out of European and USA leaders in regard to more support for Ukraine.
1.Canadian Chief of General Staff: Russia is replenishing its ammunition reserves faster than expected.
2.British Foreign Secretary Cleverley publicly admitted that “supporting Ukraine is difficult and painful”. The Telegraphy today has reported that Britain doesn’t have any more ammunitions to send to Ukraine.
3. The House of Representatives of the American Congress passed a budget bill to finance the government for 45 days without allocating funds to help Ukraine.
4. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, seems to have fallen out with Zerensky, and they are publicly mocking each other, although people will do well to remember he gave the Ukrainians these terminals in the first place. They couldn’t have afforded to run Starlink or anything like it. They’d be no better off than now.
5. Farmers from neighbouring countries said very clearly that Ukrainian wheat affects their domestic market and exports. Although Poland is the second country after the USA to arm Ukraine against Russian illegal aggression and has welcomed with open arms millions of Ukrainians who fled the war, the cocky Ukraine had the audacity to sue Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia because they do not allow cheap Ukrainian wheat.
Poland is by far the biggest logistics hub, not only for the military but also for humanitarian operations. There are several modern airports close to the Ukrainian border (Krakow, Rzesow), and the road and railway networks in Poland are excellent. In my opinion, the whole mini “crisis” is temporary for the simple reason that neither Polish nor Ukrainians want Russia to conquer Ukraine. After the elections, I presume the Polish govt will resume service to Ukraine, but probably not on the same high level as before. The war itself is no longer popular in Ukraine among the people.
I think the west underestimated Russia in this war. Since the middle of last year, we have been told that Russia had no chance of meeting production requirements to carry this war on for very long at anything like the intensity they were trying to fight it. However, the longer the war goes on, the more it’s not favouring Ukraine because its allies are no longer motivated to supply them. Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering in large numbers, and they request that they are not sent back to Ukraine. They want to remain as POW until the end of the war.
One of the things the Ukraine war has taught us is that the days of tanks are over. Tanks are getting less and less useful in every war they’re used in, air superiority or no. As far back as the Gulf War, analysts from China’s PLA reviewed records and published a report saying “America expected to win the war with their tanks, but America’s helicopters defeated Iraq’s tanks and outperformed Iraq’s. Every helicopter-vs-tank engagement of the war proved helicopters are the best tank terminators, and they fulfilled the infantry support role traditionally ascribed to tanks more efficiently than tanks did.”
And now, nearly 30 years later, we’re seeing a war where both Russia and Ukraine are finding tanks to be almost a liability.
George Friedman, who isn’t even a military man but a geopolitical forecaster, explained it in terms even an officer could understand. “Tanks exist to protect infantry. They’re built so if someone is in a machine gun nest shooting at your infantry, you’ve got a mobile cannon ready to blow up the pillbox. But now, infantry squads carry so many anti-tank weapons that before you can use a tank you have to send out infantry to screen for anti-tank weapons and protect the tanks. Which raises the question of why you’re using a tank, but never mind.”
Ukrainians try to attack without air superiority, without artillery superiority and without long range Atacams – no surprise here it goes slow and looks like the Great War from 1914 – 18. That’s why their second counter offensive isn’t working out yet. I’m yet to understand why NATO is still reluctant to provide them with F-16S. Russia has had time to prepare and build fortifications like massive mine fields that take time to clear.–
“Men in authority will always think that criticism of their policies is dangerous. They will always equate their policies with patriotism, and find criticism subversive.” – Henry Steele Commager 1902-98
IS IT POSSIBLE THAT PUTIN AND WAGNER PLAYED US ALL?
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
As a former student of the hospitality industry myself, I got excited a few days ago seeing a well-rounded chef cooking up something deadly in Russia in a heartbeat. But there’s this feeling in me that the so-called attempted coup by the Wagner group (made up of mainly ex Special Forces) might have been staged by Putin himself.
I’m not underrating Progozhin because of his former occupation as a mere cook/chef. After all, Pol Pot was a cook, too – he did wonders for Cambodia and fertilised the countryside with lots of human bodies.
Prigozhin’s Wagner is state funded, and his catering business relies heavily on state contracts. It is,therefore, hard to see Wagner biting a hand that’s feeding it. Putin himself allowed Wagner to set up a shadow command and supply chain inside Russia.
Secondly, the outcome of that short uprising has largely benefited Putin. Prigozhin is retiring and will stay in Belarus. Putin has basically put the genie back in the bottle – the Wagner group would have been difficult to contain after the Ukraine war. Some of Wagner’s fighters will now be absorbed into the Russian military, and this will give Russia a boost in the number of experienced and disciplined soldiers. The Wagner weapons will be transferred to the Russian military. Now, decide for yourself whether Russia is strengthened or weakened.
Anyway, it was incredible for us to believe that a private army was capable of defeating a large, recognized government military. It is like Blackwater PMC of USA taking down US Army, Air force, Navy and space force. Prigozhin was in the midst of an advance to Moscow and was less than 130 miles from the capital city when he announced he had halted his troops.
The history of Russia, including modern episodes since the fall of the USSR, clearly indicates that the Russian military has no qualms about shooting at civilians if necessary. It was, therefore, odd that the Wagners took over Southern Military Command Headquarters without a struggle.
Meanwhile, Russia was still able to launch missile attacks on Kiev and other parts of Ukraine as the uprising was going on inside Russia. Unbelievable!
Please, don’t get me wrong; the Ukraine war seems to be a good incentive for a coup against Putin, but Russia has been through a far worse crisis back in 2008 which put much more strain on Putin’s close elite allies due to recession. Still, nobody managed or even seemed to attempt to contest Putin’s authority. Since then, he further solidified his rule and disposed of his potential rivals.
If you can make the king bleed, people will cease to believe in him, but nothing happened to Putin personally, apart from the uprising, making him look a bit weak. He still didn’t show panic during the uprising.
In fact, the day of the attempted coup, On TV show “Good Morning, Little Ones!”, children were being taught how to wash hands. A brass orchestra performed military songs on federal TV stations to mock Prigozhin’s Wagner troops.
In Moscow, authorities announced a counter-terrorist operation, but where were the terrorists? Oh, they were held up about a thousand miles south. Honestly, It was odd that Prigozhin’s forces apparently approached Moscow on a highway without being destroyed. I would have thought that the FSB (or FSO subunit of FSB, which protects the Kremlin) would do or say something, but they didn’t.
Putin is a seasoned spy who knows how to protect himself. The first thing to remember here is that if a coup was really in the works against Putin, the best chance for it to succeed would be if no one knew about it. But Wagner broadcasted their intentions to remove Putin in advance, and then a few hours later, they were retreating.
So, is it possible that Putin was deceiving NATO? Is it possible he wanted to see who was still loyal to him and who wasn’t?
The tricks of deceiving the enemy isn’t something unusual. For instance, another seasoned spy in Uganda, Museveni, did so during the Luwero Bush War in the early 1980s. Apparently, the NRA would reportedly dress in UNLA uniforms, kill a few people, and then blame it on the then Obote government.
Hitler also did a similar trick when he was looking for a reason to attack Poland. His pretence was to protect Germany from Polish incursions, when poles attacked a German radio station inside Germany. It was, in fact, the Schutzstaffel (SS) dressed as poles who carried out the attack, then shot concentration camps (KZ) inmates and left them in German uniforms.
However, Putin declaring Prigozhin, a traitor on TV, didn’t give a lot of room for manoeuvres. So, till Prigozhin is dead soon, I won’t believe any more stuff about a coup against his boss. The Wagner chief is now in Belarus – it’s hard to believe that Prigozhin abandoned his forces to exit Russia in a deal he can’t enforce.
There is nothing the rest of us can do except eat popcorn and wait for the next Putin and NATO moves as we continue to pray for peace.
It will take decades for Ukraine to go back to what it was before the war.
Forget what the western media are reporting, but Russia has done real damage in the country. A friend of mine is well familiar with both countries, lived in Russia for 8 years, and he’s married to a Ukrainian lady, showed me devastating pictures.
Ukraine naively decided to get in between competing nuclear superpower nations(Russia and USA), and its paying a huge price; so is the rest of Europe. it seems their comedian president doesn’t understand geopolitics of hegemonic empires and their strategy of proxy wars to maintain their global reach and dominance.
He reminds me of a singer – politician of Uganda who naively kept telling Ugandans how Museveni was going to be isolated by Washington, only for Museveni to continue being a US darling. Obviously, the singer displayed his noviceness in East African geopolitics.
Why get your third world country involved in the decade’s old fight of two bull testosterone charged elephants in the jungle geopolitically speaking and expect not to get trampled upon. All these billions of aid from USA will have to be paid back in one way or another in future.
Zelensky is now widely viewed as a US puppet or puppy. He presented the Ukrainian flag to the Americans on his recent US visit, which meant his complete surrender to the administration in Washington.
He should have negotiated with Russia instead of opting for war. Yes, Russia’s bullying behaviour is unacceptable, but there’s a lot at stake here.
Taiwan is next in a geopolitical proxy war which will destroy its infrastructure and kill thousands if not millions ,if they don’t smartly take a strategic decision not to continue allowing the USA to use it to antagonize a nuclear and economic powerful nation like China.
The two nuclear superpower nations will never fight directly over a third world nation’s interest except proxy wars on the territories of those vassal states. They must wise up or be used by the USA and dumped for geopolitical strategic shifting interests.
In post-WWII, the rebuilding of Germany became a fundamental Cold War NATO policy helped along by the Marshall Plan. It was called “The German Miracle” in the late 1940s. The Americans realized as the war ended that they needed Germany to provide the great battlefield they expected to have with the Russians. A powerful, stable, and compliant Germany was in their best interests. So they dumped billions into Germany.
This was the same case with Japan after bombing it with an atomic bomb. The U.S. made a very strategically sound decision of rebuilding Japan and making it even stronger as an important ally in the fight against Communism. They supported Japan after WWII as an ally against China and not in Japan’s interest, and if there was one, it was secondary. Countries will always act in their own benefit on geopolitics.
However, the USA didn’t do the same in small countries it destroyed, such as: Vietnam, Somalia, Libya(recently), etc. I suspect it will be the same in Ukraine if Russia manages to hold on to Crimea forever. Just look at the mess US has created in the Middle East.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the 12th and current president of Turkey, who has held the office since 28 August 2014.
Hungary have vetoed the latest aid package to Ukraine, and as a result, there are calls for the country to be suspended from the European Union and NATO. The Hungarian stance is that the aid shouldn’t be a loan taken by the EU but dedicated amounts from individual countries’ budgets. Orban claims that Hungary has already set aside the amount for this aid. Hungary applied to NATO in 1999 and to the EU in 2004.
I don’t know why Hungary is important to NATO because they is always a strategic reason why countries are accepted as members.
For example, Turkey is too geographically critical to be ejected from NATO. Turkey controls the Bosphorus Straits. They control the passage from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. However, it has dual stance in the Ukrainian war and the Americans have understood it.
Basically, USA may end up fighting Turkey in future using Greece as a proxy, like they are using Ukraine as a proxy against the Russians. Because of this, USA has built two bases in Greece — one in Crete and one in Alexandroupolos, at just 45 km from the Turkish borders. They have given France the green light to sign a military agreement with Greece of mutual military assistance in case Turkey shows any signs of attacking Greece again. It has given France the green light to upgrade Greece’s aviation with the mighty Rafales (the ones which destroyed the Al-Ouatiya Turkish base in Libya.
USA is also withholding the F-16 sales to Turkey while arming Greece heavily. They are upgrading Greece’s F-16s into F-16 Vipers, denying Turkey the sale of spare parts for their own F-16. 60% of Turkey’s 294 F-16 are down due to lack of spare parts.
Turkey didn’t want NATO weapons like the Patriot missile system stationed in Turkey, they wanted the rights to produce and export that equipment. At the same time, Turkey sells drones to Ukraine to fight the Russians.
Basically, Turkey’s Erdogan plays the game really well — he’s no friend of Putin or USA. Putin did not hesitate to punish Turkey’s economy with a full embargo when a single Russian fighter jet was shot down over Syria. Turkeys has been in NATO for 70 years; so Russia cannot touch it at the moment.
Personally, I have massive respect for the Turks; they fought with great bravery and honour against New Zealand at Gallipoli during WW1. They have built a lot of Islamic projects in USA, Uganda and all over the world. They are putting money in a lot of Islamic charities in the developing countries. They are probably doing more to finance Islamic causes more than Saudi Arabia.
Banange,
What was so special about Iran’s Gen.Sulaiman? At first, I thought it was the usual ‘pokopoko’ of ” Mbabazi is powerful “, yet he isn’t, but it seems Trump touched a nerve here. We are, probably, witnessing the biggest funeral in the Arab world in the last 30 years.
So crazy how easy it is for those that don’t have to fight a war to start a war.57,939 American military personnel died in Vietnam, 2,372 have died in Afghanistan, and, nearly,5,000 in iraq. In no way can these wars even compare to the carnage of vietnam. Anyone who tries to start a war with Iran, thinking it will be a normal tea party, has absolutely no idea what they are talking about. God help us such that there’s no war!
Obama’s deal with Iran was/ is the best in this Iranian situation. Trump is only picking noses with Iran to distract Americans from the pending impeachment, and shower up his support before this year’s elections. Targeted assassination, or war with Iran, is very unnecessary at the moment. Actually, we should be more worried about a possible war between Uganda and Rwanda, than one between USA and Iran.
Trump’s people are also spreading propaganda that Obama gave America’s money to Tehran, which isn’t true.
“When Iran signed the multinational deal to restrain its nuclear development in return for being freed from sanctions, it regained access to its own assets, which had been frozen abroad. There was no $150 billion gift from the U.S. treasury or other countries. Iran was allowed to get its money back.
The $1.8 billion refers to a separate matter, also misstated by the president going back to before the 2016 election.A payout of roughly that amount did come from the U.S. treasury. It was to pay an old IOU.
In the 1970s, Iran paid the U.S. $400 million for military equipment that was never delivered because the government was overthrown and diplomatic relations ruptured. After the nuclear deal, the U.S. and Iran announced they had settled the matter, with the U.S. agreeing to pay the $400 million principal along with about $1.3 billion in interest.
The $400 million was paid in cash and flown to Tehran on a cargo plane. The arrangement provided for the interest to be paid later.”
A transfer that is well documented is not shady.The money was Iran’s to use as they saw fit.
Kayihura decorated with something by Museveni during the happy days
Dear friends,
Gen. Edward Kalekezi Kayihura Muhwezi ‘s written response to the USA sanctions, was something expected, and it shows that he isnt ready to go down quietly. Basically, USA is indirectly shaking Museveni up because he probably denied them something, because, if they wanted Museveni himself to be weak, they would have slapped sanctions against him ages ago. My guess is that they are just shaking Museveni up- a case of ” we know what you did or do, and we can use it against you.” Yes, you heard correctly, the sanctions are aimed at Museveni- Kayihura is just a pawn in a big game.
And nobody should think that the Americans are doing this out of evidence, favour or pressure from anybody in the opposition.Petitions, demonstrations, or whatever, don’t make the “big boys” remove any dictator from power. They only make their decisions basing on the nine letter word- INTERESTS. That said, I believe that both Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame will end up with eggs on their faces, if Kayihura isn’t handled properly. His response today says it all- I didn’t do what I did on my own – ‘the IGP in Uganda is appointed by the President with the approval of Parliament. .. ‘. It was a cleverly drafted document!
Once upon a time a referendum on restoring multi-party politics was held in Uganda on 28 July 2005, and as expected, parties were restored. On 30 September 2005, Parliament repealed art.105 (2) of the Constitution- which created unlimited terms for the office of the president.The stage had been set, and Mr.Yoweri Museveni needed a royalist who could do anything for him, and as such, he appointed Kayihura as the Inspector General of Police, a position he held on to till March 2018. The 2006 elections that followed, made a lot of people even crazier than they started out being.Kayihura went to work and established a unit at the Criminal Investigations Department to monitor, investigate and prosecute people who commit political crimes. That was the beginning of Kayihura and his eventual downfall- because a lot of attrocities were commited in that election,and he was only concerned with serving the president.
Standard wisdom says that Hitler was the greater evil. He tried to exterminate a culture based on religion.For Stalin, however, it was impersonal.People simply got in the way- nothing so crass and hateful as racism. Stalin was worse than Hitler, the way I see it, now,though I used to see it the other way round.During Kayihura’s reign, a lot of Muslim leaders were assasinated, a lot of Muslim were arrested- some are still in prison up to now, a lot of people were murdered- not forgetting women that were raped and killed in Entebbe on almost a weekly basis, kidnapings were an ongoing thing,tortures in safe houses, e.t.c. This made a lot of people very upset.Some even cried, but, hey, just like Stalin, Kayihura was only doing his job not knowing that it will catch up with him in future.
Now you may ask why no one came out to openly fight the govt with guns. Well,people had seen the same situation under Obote 11, they supported Museveni to remove him, and it tore the country apart. So, starting another war was a no-go area, something FDC’s Besigye continues to preach against- up to now. So the people in the govt who knew about the stolen elections and human right abuses remained silent. After all, this had happened on their watch. And to admit that such things would “destroy the confidence of the few Ugandans in their government. It seemed like a good idea at the time, like covering up vomit, but everyone knows that vomit will stink real bad if it isn’t cleaned up and just covered up instead.
Of course, there are those cynics who contend that we get the government we deserve. Now, we wait and see what the Americans are planning with their baby steps against those who violate our rights- my feeling is that everything will go back to normal after they’ve sorted out their issues with Museveni. As for the opposition, I must advice you that anybody who wants to oppose Museveni in any way, must take loyalty, anger and emotions out of the equation. Museveni can do all these things to you, make up with the USA,and then he laughs.
I like the clean politicians, feels clean. That is the feeling i’m increasingly getting as I start reading Daniel Kalinaki’s book, ”Kiiza Besigye And Uganda’s Unfinished Revolution”. Besigye critics have long argued vehemently that if a politician has been around the bloke for a long time, he must give a chance to someone else to take over. But truth be told, we are a little bipolar on that subject. Though they criticize Besigye for having contested against the incumbent since 2001, the same critics rarely make the same argument against Mr.Museveni. Our attitude towards people that have been fighting for freedom in Uganda is so sickening. We want to replace them as fast as they come, with an avalanche of abuses, yet freedom itself is still a long journey away.
Let’s smile and appreciate an intelligent politician in Besigye. His last press conference on current security in Uganda was awesome. I’ve not seen anybody explain things from the head systematically as this guy did.He’s really a gifted person. As Kalinaki puts it mildly,Besigye has paid a big price to try to remove Museveni from power,’he has been assaulted, teargassed, pepper-sprayed, and forced into exile’, yet you still find voices that say that he’s working for Museveni. What a bunch of nonsense!
I’m not in any way discouraging the youths, or more people, from raising up to take the mantle from Besigye. Hell no, but I want people to show this man respect. Some people were slating him after both the Bugiri and Arua eelctions won by candidates supported by Bobi Wine.These young politicians, with due respect, may hold the key to Uganda’s future, and the future they create might not be what you expect, and need more exposure. Increasingly they have come to consider the machinations of the current politics in the country, as Besigye also came to learn in 2011. One of the things Besigye learned was that Museveni is still a darling of the donors, and no election will ever take him out of power. That’s why, after the 2011 elections, he walked into the Irish Ambassador’s residence in Kololo, demanding for an explanation as to why donors were folding hands yet things were bad in the country. According to Kalinaki, ‘they saw a sore loser, a could-have-been who had fired his last bullet’. It hurts, doesn’t it? Failing to become president because USA or UK haven’t endorsed you? Or someone, somewhere is busy making up elections results? On top of that, you’ve got the Andrew Mwenda’s jumping on you quoting %s of Museveni’s wins since 1996.
The truth is that this world is centered in Washingtom, though it has counterparts elsewhere.The day USA will say Museveni must go, he will go. Which begs the question as of why they temporarily gave all that limelight to Bobi Wine after the Arua debacle. What exactly were they trying to do? Besigye had been charged with rape, treason and illegal possession of firearms, and held under house arrest, but we never saw the international community give him that audience they gave Bobi. Up to now, i dont understand what that was all about.
Just as crucial, emerging politicians have built an enthusiastic, growing audience that, while mostly young, is expanding across age and demographic lines. If they mix that up with the network already supporting Besigye and other old guards, there is a lot the opposition could achieve in the long term. Having poured his stylistically wide-ranging thoughts into his music, Bobi is an asset to the opposition and he should be protected, regardless of our differences. There is no reason the two worlds(Besigye and Bobi) could remain porous to their enemies.
This will likely cause a barrage of abuse, but it is something which society shouldn’t ignore anymore. Women are indeed abused by predatory males, and those males deserve punishment, not correction, not rehabilitation, but punishment. Unfortunately, there already also females who will lie about being sexually assaulted, one incident you out to read about is the Duke lacrosse team, and the Besigye Kiiza-Kyakuwa case in 2006.
Ask yourself, if what we have witnessed in USA since the charges were levied by Ford were a trial, would a jury have found Judge Brett Kavanaugh guilty of sexual assault beyond a reasonable doubt? Is a mere allegation enough to disqualify someone from becoming a supreme judge? If someone is going to level a criminal charge then a criminal standard burden of proof should be appropriate. In this case that burden hasn’t even come close to being met. Not by a long shot. This is why it is crucial that Dr. Ford be required to provide some sort of corroboration beyond her word, that Judge Kavanaugh attacked her. Thus for that corroboration has not been forthcoming. Until it is, the judge is innocent, and should be confirmed.
In addition Brett Kavanaugh has provided evidence which casts doubt on the fact that he was even in town when Ford was assaulted. So, what if its case of mistaken identity?Sexual assault is a heinous crime, and one which has far too often been ignored, and in which far too often the victim is blamed. That does not mean that we automatically believe the victim, especially when the accusation is made 35 years after the fact. I have a hard core attitude toward sexual assault, I believe that one who would force himself on a woman deserveslife sentence(dont belive in death penalty), but I also believe that such accusations must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Kavanaugh has not been charged with any crime, but that does not mean that his accuser does not have the responsibility to support her accusation.
Now, footballer Christian Ronaldo is also facing rape allegations from a woman he claims to have had consensual sex with.He may be saved by the video cameras in a hotel where they are shown enjoying each other’s company before going upstairs in the bedroom for a shag. The fact is that its difficult to prove rape in the courts of the law, especially if it happened in the past. Its even more difficult to give credible evidence if subpoenaed to testify in the court, which reminds me of a rape story by one of the greatest composers of all time, Gustav Mahler.The version of it i know was that the girl (the maid of the house where he was staying as a boy) was merely enjoying sex with the son of the house when Mahler happened on them. Its believed that he may have mistaken her orgasm for protest and was chased off. Just a mere hearing a loud ” oh no”, doesn’t mean there’s a rape going on inside the room.
There’s a chance of Jeremy Corbyn becoming UK’s next PM but its still a long road for him. People have lost trust in the current Conservative govt but, at the same time, they don’t see much difference from Labour. But they see a difference between Jeremy Corbyn and Labour itself.Since the terms “left” and “right” emerged during the French Revolution, the definitions have undergone some changes, sometimes the boundaries have got more or less blurred, but most of those characteristics continue to be emblematic of the left.
———————————
By George Okello via UAH
Abbey Semuwemba,
Have you heard of Momentum? The left-wing organisation behind Jeremy Corbyn? Momentum is organising to capture power in the UK within 2 to 3 years time using democratic means. And it will do this the hard way, campaigning door to door, to reach all the 40 million eligible voters of the UK. No other left wing organisation in the world has attempted what Momentum is attempting. The entire hope for the left and for democratic socialism in the world lies on Momentum. This small UK organisation is now at the very front of a world revolution. Momentum is leading the world revolution, just as the Soviet Communist Party did in in the early 19th century, and later the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Ze Dong did in the mid 19th century. Jeremy Corbyn is just at its spearhead. From Momentum will spring up a new left revolution in Europe and in the rest of the world. It is not for nothing that Jeremy Corbyn called All Oppressed Of The World To Rise Like Lions. Did you not hear this call? That’s precisely what we are going to do. Rise Like Lions and put terror into the hearts of the oppressors.
The largest part of the military is the Korean People’s Army Ground Force, which includes about 1 million active personnel and millions more civilians
Folks,
Despite the rhetoric by Trump and North Korea, I don’t think there will be an all out war between the two sides. North Korea (NK) isn’t Uganda. They have got nuclear and are armed to the teeth, a reason their dictators gave survived for ages. North Korea has got more submarines than the US has, 76 to 70, and not all 70 US subs are in that area, they’re spread out across the world, so there’d be little to stop NK from sinking US aircraft carriers and other ships and spinning out more nuke missiles to wherever. An all-out war with NK this time would make the last one in the 50s look like kindergarten. Then again, we also really don’t know how China and Russia would react to a US pre-emptive strike, seeing that both border NK and despite their agreeing to sanctions against NK. There’s no happy ending to this story if it comes to an all out war.
North Korea military parade.Reuters
North Korean soldiers salute on tanks during a massive military parade marking the 65th anniversary of the communist nation’s ruling Workers’ Party
Nobody knows how many nukes they actually have. Nobody knew that they had as many missiles as they’ve launched to date, and if they’ve launched that many as test missiles then Kim Jong must feel pretty confident about how many more he’s got to waste on tests and still have plenty left over for the hard core stuff. And there’s also his stash of chemical weapons that can be loaded on those missiles as well as ones fired from their jet fighters.
Abbey
“In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism.”
‘The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency, rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system, according to officials briefed on the matter.
Intelligence agencies have identified individuals with connections to the Russian government who provided WikiLeaks with thousands of hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and others, including Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, according to U.S. officials. Those officials described the individuals as actors known to the intelligence community and part of a wider Russian operation to boost Trump and hurt Clinton’s chances. ‘
Its embarrassing that Russia possibly ”intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency” but the real attempt to delegitimize TRUMP is actually more embarrassing to the Americans. It kind of signifies that one way or the other, Russia controls USA,it(Russia) is the top dog……. Let the Americans leave things as there are;give Trump his 4 years, fix the leaks in the electoral system, then either find a way to impeach him or vote him out at the end of his term!
Has anyone got a video of this rhetoric?
——-‘——————-
“I want to reiterate here before America’s greatest heroes that I will not condone any dictatorial tendencies exhibited by dictators around the world especially the two old men from Zimbabwe and Uganda”
Mugabe and Museveni must be put on notice that their days are numbered and that I am going to arrest them and lock them in prison. If the past American administrations have failed to stop these two despots, I will personally do it”
Mugabe and Museveni have given the world enough troubles and its about time someone puts to an end all these madness for peace to prevail” said an unapologetic Trump.
If Obama fears them, I will never fear them. If clinton and Bush feared them, If the Pope kneels before them, I will never be reduced to that level. I will never be cowed. I promise to clean all the political mess around the world and promote international justice,”
Trump wont execute of any his rhetoric,It’s all talk. He’s literally describing creating heaven on earth and because people feel so destitute and hopeless they want to believe him.The president doesn’t have unilateral control over the country.I think we should be more concerned with the racist, sexist xenophobic people he has emboldened with this bs talk. But the fact is that we are moving towards a changed world. There’s change going on everywhere. Trump wont remove Museveni or Mugabe from power.
Ugandans and Zimbabweans will do it respectively, and they will probably do it soon. Trump wont ban Muslims from USA but his rhetoric will definitely make life harder for Muslims. He cannot afford to create a 1933 German in USA right now.If Trump was like Hitler then you are about to find out.I’m actually downloading his books, yes, they are all about business and negotiations but its key to know at least his way of being, i want to know what we’re dealing with this time.
“Laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that.”
“I don’t want the people from Syria coming in because we don’t know who they are.”
“You have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m
talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country,”
“I will build a great wall – and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me – and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault ”
‘I’ve said some foolish things but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people,’ he went on. ‘Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims.’
ADD MORE PLEASE
Donald Trump’s early life
Donald was born on the 14th of June, 1946 in New York, to Fred and Elizabeth Trump. His father, who ended up being one of New York’s biggest property developers, was American-German. Fred Trump was once arrested at a KKK rally and was sued by the US Justice Department for refusing to rent flats to African-American people. His mother was Scottish and had left poverty in Scotland to live in America. So Trump does actually have a family, which might come as a surprise to those of us who’d assumed he was forged in a cave, like an orc. Trump was expelled from school at the age of 13 and sent to the New York military academy.
Hope all you posters there are okay after the earthquake! What number on the richter scale was it. Hopefully there won’t be any damage from the after shocks.Sometimes when a fault line unzips at one point another bit further along unzips soon after. It is something one can’t predict.The one thing we can be sure of is most of the houses in Uganda aren’t built to strict earthquake codes.Sometimes we jump the gun with survival mania and do it in an unbalanced way
God, of course, can be “tyrannical” because he is perfect, and he has his reasons for testing us with earthquakes.Humans are not and therefore must rely on institutional safeguards and protections, imperfect though they may be. We should, therefore, try to do prepare ourselves for the future:
1.Have mandatory insurance laws put in place – so that victims who happen to be injured can get some sort of redress;
2.Develop and enforce strict building codes to stop the builders do what they may.Unregulated building may lead to unsafe, ecologically unsound results;
3.Force builders to put sprinkler and other fire safety measures in buildings. Considering how important fire protection is, it would most likely become a mandatory feature in the opinion of the market–everyone would be willing to pay the extra twenty dollars a month to avoid being incinerated.
You never know what might happen by taking one small action.Disasters seem to be epidemic at the moment.From all accounts it seems Tanzania suffered most.
Besigye didnt say,while on BBC, that he’s gonna stand for presidency in 2021, when even the presidential results of the 2016 are still in contention…….wrong headline from Campusjuice aka campuspoison!
Dr Wrn Kizza-Besigye at the BBC studio.
Besigye said that such discussions, particularly the removal of the age limit from the constitution, are meant to distract people from the rigging that happened during the 2016 elections.
”Hi,The issue of the Chinese in Africa is a very serious one and every African country needs to be aware of what is going on.
I am reading a very interesting book, which I can recommend, (Africa) China ’s Second Continent – How a million migrants are building a new Empire in Africa . By Howard W. French who speaks Mandarin, Portuguese, French and English amongst other languagesHe was a foreign correspondent for the New York Times before travelling the length and breadth of Africa researching for this book.
One-two million Chinese have immigrated to Africa . French travelled through 15 countries: including Mozambique , Tanzania , Liberia , Mali , Ghana , Sierra Leone , Namibia , Botswana , Zambia .The story is the same everywhere.The Chinese come in and offer to build things (roads, hospitals, palaces, stadiums, mines etc and in return they want access to, and control, of the countries raw materials and want special treatment for their immigrants and want to waive local labour laws (what they pay the locals).
No Chinese will take orders from an African. They bring in their own experts and don’t pass on their skills. They regards with amazement the resources of Africa – the fertile lands, the forests, the resources – compared to what is left in China.Their ability to pay their way into favoured status with government is apparent time and time again.
The resources of Africa are being harvested and mined at an amazing rate. It’s a cash crop that is not benefiting the local people; French recounts the terrible poverty he sees in his travels. This is a sobering and sad story for Africa.”
Question Time on Feb 4th here in the UK was all about Muslims.And the open “refreshing” support for Trump just makes you realise the direction this country is going.On top of that,Donald Trump has been ‘nominated for Nobel Peace Prize’- alongside figures such as Pope Francis and a campaigner for Isis rape survivors.I guess definition of peace has changed the past 15 yrs.
Donald Trump will be be arguably worse than Hitler if he got presidential powers because he isn’t as intelligent as Hitler! He is mainly gifted with stupidity, and I don’t think he will ever become a USA president.It’s no secret that Donald is quite popular with white supremacists, Islamophobists and racists of all stripes. After all, he’s the guy who wants to build a big, beautiful wall to keep brown people out of the country and give Muslims big, beautiful special badges like Hitler made the Jews wear during their time in concentration camps.
In economic terms, there is an excellent case for not building a fence, and indeed for not even controlling the flow of migrant workers.
In security terms, there is no point in building a fence and closing the Southern border without doing exactly the same to the North.
I was once a strong Andrew M. Mwenda fan and I think, deep inside, i still have a soft spot for him, but he just keeps breaking my heart, man! He is such a collection of different personalities; it is no wonder that at times his confrontations end with a falling out.Now, I’m not gonna go into the rubbish of labeling him anything, as in like him being on both Museveni and Kagame’s payroll because I don’t have any strong evidence, but it it takes a rare kind of callowness, from a kid who obviously doesn’t understand what Ugandans want, to make that kind of argument he made, which the Aljazeera naively gave the beautiful title of ‘Africa to Obama: Mind your own business’.
Mwenda asked:’Why doesn’t Obama openly admonish leaders of Western Europe whenever he visits their countries?’
This is like asking why England was openly criticizing Hitler for torturing and killing Jews yet it was ironically the first country to evict them? Edward I confiscated all Jewish wealth and evicted them permanently in 1290. Not until 1655 was a Jew legally permitted to re-enter England. Actually,by 1500 all of Western Europe except northern Italy, parts of Germany, and the Papal possessions around Avignon, had been rid of Jews. The Jews started returning around 1650. But guess what? That didnt stop various leaders from ‘obamanising’ Hitler later on as Obama did recently in Ethiopia in regards to ‘failures’ of African leaders. It’s a matter of saying what’s right to the right audience regardless of the repercussions, and I think for most of the part, Obama got it right.
Like any sensible person in the Africa today, I’m skeptical about anybody claiming racial or ethnic victimhood.Yelling “we are poorer” and that’s why Obama can afford to outstrip our leaders, has turned into a mendacious racket. Africa isn’t poor as such, as it is gifted with a lot of natural resources, and any African could be anything they want to be if we had good leaders. Unfortunately, we have only got ‘rich’ leaders, rich with a lot of money and power, as Obama helped to point out but so useless to our people. Some of our leaders are even admittedly rich agriculturalists but shamelessly surrounded by majority substance farmers, and they seem to be OK with it.
Obama talked about a lot of issues that are vital to Africans especially the presidential term limits, and I didnt see them highlighted anywhere in Mwenda’s article.Basically, I think Mwenda selectively picked and chose which admonitions to highlight as a cover for his raw prejudices.
I think the days Obama spent in Africa qualified to be bad days in office for all those doing PR for African dictators especially after that famous Obama speech in Ethiopia. And I totally agree with Obama on term limits: the removal of the country’s term limits is like tap dancing on a landmine.
Normally, I’d consider it a boondoggle, but given the abuse by Uganda leaders since 1966, I think we need to start teaching constitutionalism as a subject from primary school to A’ Level. We shouldn’t leave it to the lawyers to know everything about our laws and also fight for us! In any case, lawyers tend to interpret laws in a way that suits them!
The rest of of Mwenda’s article was about the USA, its problems at home and and its two faced hypocritical approach to issues, and i agree with him. I only wish he had used that space for something else rather than telling Obama what he already knew. And I think all this stems from the fact that failing regimes need somebody to blame, anybody, and African dictators have two favorite scapegoats: donors and colonialism. Even our Museveni routinely rants against the United States, though he knows there are many times they’ve pulled his cookies out of the fire.
George Bush apologized for the Iraq war last month, saying that the conflict was “his biggest mistake”. For some reason, I didnt oppose the Iraq war simply because I hate dictators, but the hanging of Saddam Hussein was one of the saddest days of my life. And what happened afterwards is so regrettable by any standards. I guess we’ve all got lessons to learn out of this war!
Late Saddam Hussein
“After the events of September the 11th, I focused all my energy on protecting America from the next attack,Regrettably in our zeal to defend America, my administration exaggerated threats which – although real – did not constitute a clear and present danger to the United States……After my presidency I have come to the belief that the Iraq War, although well intentioned, was unnecessary and too costly to justify. I deeply apologize to the American people and to our soldiers and veterans in particular for engaging them in such a conflict.I may have made a mistake. But I think all Americans know that I pride myself on being able to admit my failures.”
“In the run up to the war,my administration made claims that turned out not to be factual.Personally, I truly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. But when we couldn’t find the evidence, we fabricated it.It was wrong to over exaggerate the nature of the threat. And although men like Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith were the most directly involved, ultimately I was the man at the top and I accept full responsibility.”
“Additionally, once we went to war we should have gone in with a detailed plan. I thought it was more important to topple Saddam Hussein quickly than to prepare for the post-occupation. Clearly I was wrong, and I am sorry.”
“The entire war was the biggest mistake of my life. I have asked my God for his forgiveness, and now I ask the American people. I hope history records that I was a good person, just trying to do the right thing”~ George Bush Jr.
Home and Away! 