I’m attending the HIV Implementers Conference this week. It’s a whole bunch of PEPFAR officials in town for a few days.

A few facts about the conference, compared to facts about ARVs:

1,500 people attending the conference
$22 for lunch

$33,000 for lunch. In Kampala, you can get a nice local lunch for about Ush 3,000 ($1.50). The conference goes from Wednesday to Saturday, so that’s 4 lunch sessions, for a total of $132,000.

$15 Generic ARVs for one month

Therefore, if all these delegates forgo their pricey lunch, 8,800 people could be on ARVs for a month, or 733 people for a year.

Citizen Uganda does a review of GayUgandan Blogger:

In the blogosphere though, Uganda’s government is not able to enforce its censorship policies. This leaves GayUganda free to tell his story to those who will listen. No doubt Information Minister Nsaba Buturo is unhappy, but unless he can get Google’s CEO on the phone, at least one gay Ugandan is not going to be denied his right to free speech.

New blog Kampala.ver discusses city planning and architecture in Kampala:

In order to accommodate this population growth, one of the issues to be addressed in the near future is public transport. The highly inefficient Matatu system has to be replaced by public buses running on defined routes and schedules. Fortunately, this seems to be under way with KCC claiming to bring 200 buses into the country ’soon’.

Chris Blattman blogs bout how Gulu has changed:

You know it’s no longer a war zone when…. …when the American high school students show up in busloads.

Busloads and busloads. Ever since the violence subsided there has been a huge influx of foreign youth coming ot “help the children of the north” in a two week stay. This plus the never-ending stream of white NGO Land Rovers. Property prices and rent are now higher than in the capital.

This week alone there was a group of Tennessee revivalists. My favorite, though, were the crochet kids. I understand they came to help former child soldiers knit beanies, tried to form an NGO by forging letters to the government, and were chased out of town. Not sure if it’s true, but it sounds about right. Gulu is truly a circus these days.

Africa Unchained blogs about greed in Africa:

In many ways, Africa’s economic situation seems hopeless. While $625 billion in foreign aid has poured in since 1960, there has been no rise in the region’s per capita gross domestic product, notes William R. Easterly, economics professor at New York University. What’s more, from 1976 to 2000, Africa’s share of global trade dropped to 1%, from an already negligible 3%. The U.N.’s scale of human development, which considers health, education, and economic well-being, ranks 34 African nations among the world’s 40 lowest. Thus far, foreign aid hasn’t made a dent.
Greed, however, might.

See the essay here. Not gonna quote on this blog.

Uganda: Of Cons, Cars And Losing a Job Because Of a Blog

This week, Ugandan Insomniac poses an always pressing question that sets the tone for much discourse:

Why are millions of Ugandans still living in abject poverty when an increasing
number of people in the country can afford a brand new set of wheels and
personalized number plates every year?

Meanwhile, Daniel Kalinaki has a different opinion: that everyone’s trying to con everyone else, and especially him:

Why is it next-to-impossible to find honest contractors in Uganda? Of course
we know that government wastes a lot of our taxes on all sorts of schemes,
school children are thrown out of their schools, buildings are razed and the
ground is let to fallow, awaiting some hotelier to make up his mind. We know
that people displaced by war are given rotten seeds when they finally get to
return to their homes, complete with flexi-pangas to help them till the land and
start new lives. We know all that, and more.What irks me the most are the
smaller things; the micro-corruption, the cutting corners that we are subjected
to daily…

And Ivan is tired of other things Ugandan:

I’ve gotten tired of saying we are not ready for CHOGM. I can only go on and
about a topic for so long. What do you take me for? The Red Pepper? Harry
Sagara? I will say this, the visitors are obliged to say they are crazy about
our country no matter what. Sure we have people on the job, guys who started
planting trees last week. Not to worry, the Ugandan variety of tree is the quick
growing kind. We should see some sort of progress some time next year. While the
visitors are here, we shall be encouraged to refer to them as “baby trees”. It
will be politically incorrect to refer to them as “little”.

But the person who really has a right to complain is GayUgandan, who lost his job (almost) because of his blog:

As a good suspicious employee, I will suspect that something is happening.
I have worked too long for my dear employer to be summarily dismissed. But, that
can be done in increments. And I may decide to resign to prevent further
embarassment. Not being needed, but you hang on desperately.

Pathetic?Maybe, and maybe not. Ok, I was outed by the
Red rug. That was last month. I thought that I had done something to create
a soft landing for myself. I talked to my immediate boss. I talked to my
ultimate boss. And things seemed to be cool.A few days to the end of the month,
I get the ‘bad’ news. Lots of apologies, lots of sorries, but it all adds up to
me losing part of my income. And being left with this suspicious feeling that it
is because of my damned sexuality. Or the sudden suspicion of it that my
colleagues at work
have!

According to Human Rights Watch,

Previously, Pastor Martin Ssempa, a prominent campaigner against both condom
usage and homosexuality, had listed Ugandan LGBT rights activists by name on
a
website (http://kobsrugby.com/demo/),
posting pictures and contact information and calling them “homosexual
promoters.” Ssempa was the key organizer of an August 21 rally in Kampala,
at
which hundreds of demonstrators demanded government actions to punish
LGBT
people, calling homosexual conduct “a criminal act against the laws of
nature.”

According to the US State Department, Ssempa’s Makerere Community
Church received US funding as a 2004 sub-partner of the President’s
Emergency
Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This $15 billion program, heavily
promoted by the
Bush administration, earmarks one-third of spending on
prevention of sexual
transmission of HIV for “abstinence and fidelity
programs,” some of which are
based on so-called abstinence-only curricula
developed in the United States. In
a March 2005 report, Human Rights Watch
documented how abstinence-only programs in Uganda suppress lifesaving
information about condoms and safer sex, and convey that LGBT people’s
sexualities are immoral and that there is no “safer”
way for them to have
sex (http://hrw.org/reports/2005/uganda0305/).

The US Congress Committee on International Relations, chaired at the time
by Congressman Henry
J. Hyde, brought Ssempa to testify in 2005 as an expert
in the fight against
HIV/AIDS in Africa, and as a Special Representative to
the First Lady of
Uganda’s Task Force on AIDS. Ssempa has also acted as
representative and adviser
of the office of First Lady Janet Museveni,
another PEPFAR grantee.

“US politicians and pocketbooks underwrite hatred in Uganda,” Long
said. “The US has no business lending an aura of respectability to policies that
undermine human
rights and public health.”

Addtionally, according to International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission,

The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC) has uncovered evidence that the U.S. government has funded groups in Uganda that actively promote discrimination against lesbians and gay men. In a letter to U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Mark Dybul, IGLHRC has criticized funding the groups and has asked for assurances that U.S. government funds are not being used to support homophobic organizations anywhere in the world.IGLHRC’s investigation followed a series of distressing events in Uganda. At an August 16 press conference, Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), a coalition of LGBT groups, launched Let us Live in Peace Campaign, calling for understanding and respect of sexual minorities. SMUG’s campaign was met with an increase in hate speech by religious groups. The primary instigator of the backlash was Pastor Martin Ssempa, leader of the Makerere University Community Church and spokesman for the Interfaith Family Culture Coalition Against Homosexuality in Uganda. Ssempa organized an August 21 rally in Kampala, the country’s largest city, at which more than one hundred demonstrators, including several government officials, demanded official action against LGBT people. Ssempa has called homosexual conduct, “a criminal act against the laws of nature,” and has said that, “there should be no rights granted to homosexuals in this country.” According to the U.S. Embassy in Uganda’s website, Makerere University Community Church received a grant under a program designed to provide funds for AIDS prevention, treatment and care programs in Africa. Mr. Ssempa and his coalition, which includes Roman Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Evangelicals, have threatened the safety of Ugandan LGBT rights activists by posting their names, photos and addresses on a website (http://kobsrugby.com/demo/). With support from conservative organizations such as Family Watch International in the United States, Ssempa has launched attacks not only on homosexuals but on Uganda’s women’s rights and HIV activists as well. “The U.S. government’s funding is meant to alleviate suffering and support effective AIDS initiatives in Africa, not to further blame and stigmatize already marginalized groups,” said IGLHRC Executive Director Paula Ettelbrick. IGLHRC provided Ambassador Dybul with evidence of grants made by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the Makerere University Community Church.Furthermore, IGLHRC found that the Uganda Muslim Tabliqh Women’s Desk has also received a grant under the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to implement HIV programs in Masaka District. Recently, Muslim Tabliqh youth announced a plan to form an ‘Anti-Gay Squad’ to fight homosexuality in Uganda. On 28 August 2007, Sheikh Multah Bukenya, a senior cleric in the Tabliqh Organization, was quoted during prayers at Noor Mosque in Kampala as saying that his followers are “ready to act swiftly and form this squad that will wipe out all abnormal practices like homosexuality in our society.” PEPFAR is a $15 billion Bush administration fund to fight AIDS in Africa. According to IGLHRC’s 2007 report, “Off the Map: How HIV/AIDS Programming is Failing Same-Sex Practicing People in Africa,” less than U.S. $1 million targets HIV programs for men who have sex with men in Africa, despite strong evidence that HIV has a disproportionate impact on LGBT communities throughout the continent. According to IGLHRC, the complicated PEPFAR sub-granting process lacks transparency and makes it difficult to track the funding. “What we do know, is that few PEPFAR dollars are being used to fight HIV among gay men in Africa,” said Cary Alan Johnson, IGLHRC Senior Specialist for Africa. “Not only have African men who have sex with men been largely ignored with regard to HIV prevention services, but avowedly homophobic organizations are receiving funding for programs that will only further stigmatize homosexuality. This has to stop.”IGLHRC has called for increased transparency in the distribution of U.S. government HIV/AIDS funding internationally and a commitment by U.S. administrators that organizations espousing hate speech will not be fundedHomosexuality is illegal in Uganda and is punishable by between 14 years and life imprisonment. Last year, the Ugandan Parliament passed a constitutional amendment making same-sex marriages illegal.

(sorry for the spacing on this post… I’m at a internet cafe)

Uganda: Of Cons, Cars And Losing a Job Because Of a Blog

This week, Ugandan Insomniac poses an always pressing question that sets the tone for much discourse:

Why are millions of Ugandans still living in abject poverty when an increasing
number of people in the country can afford a brand new set of wheels and
personalized number plates every year?

Meanwhile, Daniel Kalinaki has a different opinion: that everyone’s trying to con everyone else, and especially him:

Why is it next-to-impossible to find honest contractors in Uganda? Of course
we know that government wastes a lot of our taxes on all sorts of schemes,
school children are thrown out of their schools, buildings are razed and the
ground is let to fallow, awaiting some hotelier to make up his mind. We know
that people displaced by war are given rotten seeds when they finally get to
return to their homes, complete with flexi-pangas to help them till the land and
start new lives. We know all that, and more.What irks me the most are the
smaller things; the micro-corruption, the cutting corners that we are subjected
to daily…

And Ivan is tired of other things Ugandan:

I’ve gotten tired of saying we are not ready for CHOGM. I can only go on and
about a topic for so long. What do you take me for? The Red Pepper? Harry
Sagara? I will say this, the visitors are obliged to say they are crazy about
our country no matter what. Sure we have people on the job, guys who started
planting trees last week. Not to worry, the Ugandan variety of tree is the quick
growing kind. We should see some sort of progress some time next year. While the
visitors are here, we shall be encouraged to refer to them as “baby trees”. It
will be politically incorrect to refer to them as “little”.

But the person who really has a right to complain is GayUgandan, who lost his job (almost) because of his blog:

As a good suspicious employee, I will suspect that something is happening.
I have worked too long for my dear employer to be summarily dismissed. But, that
can be done in increments. And I may decide to resign to prevent further
embarassment. Not being needed, but you hang on desperately.

Pathetic?Maybe, and maybe not. Ok, I was outed by the
Red rug. That was last month. I thought that I had done something to create
a soft landing for myself. I talked to my immediate boss. I talked to my
ultimate boss. And things seemed to be cool.A few days to the end of the month,
I get the ‘bad’ news. Lots of apologies, lots of sorries, but it all adds up to
me losing part of my income. And being left with this suspicious feeling that it
is because of my damned sexuality. Or the sudden suspicion of it that my
colleagues at work
have!

Most Logical comment goes to:

Kenyanchick said…

At issue here is freedom of the press, pure and simple. But, as 27th has so ably demonstrated, this has been conflated with the issues of race and nationality, and the fact that Katherine Roubos was singled out for vilification (and not her darker, sub-Saharan colleagues who covered the same press conference)shows that the demonstrators/rent-a-crowd were trying to make that tedious and tired connection between homosexuality and whiteness/foreignness.

Most illogical comment goes to:

The 27th Comrade said…

I wish we could export some foreign culture over to the West … something like suicide bombings and polygamy and women honour-killings. The Americans would protest against it, and we would stop giving them money when they do.

Most interesting accusation:

princess sylvia said…

By the way why are you supporting Roubos are you………….??????

Most likely to pray for the 27^th Comrade:

semakeddie said…

you are a sinner who is bound to face a holy God when you lose that breath not later than 100years from now….

all it takes is a whisper to him…even on that keyboard..simply admitting you ahave offended him

and thats the life we live …you can live it too.dont let pride stop you from that critical decision.feel free to call +256 7923020

am praying for you comrade

Blessings
in christ alone

Most like a conspiracy theory:

Iryn said…

I believe she is been sent to recruit homos and the sort in Uganda

Most interesting perspective:

Val Kalende said…

there is nothing western about homosexuality. Internet was invented by an American. So do not even use it coz its unAfrican!….

What is moral for you does not have to be moral for me.
If you hate homosexuals, dont even waste your time discussing them.

Most absolutely positively ridiculous comment:

Mwesigye Gumisiriza said…

American faggotess lost in the African wild

Most off topic comment:

Mwesigye Gumisiriza said…

To prove my point, when I responded to her Makerere story, I tricked her when I pointed out that her alma mater was not even among top universities in the US on webometrics ranking she had referred to. If she had checked, she would have found out that University of California Berkeley was actually at No. 4.

Finally, I will end with another Mwesigye quote since he seems to be my best friend these days…

“Let me remind you that the Internet is a free space and totally democratic. That is why the blog has a section for comments/opinions from the readers. Then, why should you moderate it just because the views expressed are not in tandem with yours.”

Yes, the Internet is a free and democratic space. There’s plenty of it. But a BLOG is a PERSONAL space, not a space thatto be completely democratic. This is my blog, and I get to do what I’d like with it. That’s the beauty of a blog. If you want a completely free speech blog dedicated to hate speech against homosexuals, please use all of that free and democratic space on the internet to start one, MG.

I’ve decided not to switch to moderated comments, not because of you, Mwesigye, but because it would slow down the conversation on my blog just because I don’t always check my email as often as people comment. However, if I get technologically adept enough to block one person’s comments, believe you me, Mwesigye Gumisiriza will NOT be commenting on my blog anymore.

And can we please stop calling them homos??

Here’s what Cheri had to say:

I think we should give these homos the freedom they so need.

Unfortunately, like many Ugandans, she fears that all the “homos” are going to try to convert her:

They will form pressure groups and try to “convert” us the right sided fellows. They shall form umbrella organisations uniting all gay groups. They already have 1 or 2 bars so chances are that we shall see more gay bars and clubs pop out of the wood work. And then soon after that, they will take over the world and we straighties will become the persecuted one advocating for freedom to do who we want to do. Don’t u see?

She (sort of) redeems herself when she says:

I think they are humans, just like u and I. They have a right to live and not to be stoned by Sempa and Buturo. They have every right to demonstrate. They have a right to life and to a particular way of life. Only if it doesn’t physically of mental harm others. And they don’t harm me in anyway, so they are not entirely a waste of human space. They just like one thng and we like the other. Like moslems don’t eat pork and Christians eat it. It’s okay. I think they should be left alone.

But then the redeeming stops when she follows up this comment with:

They should also keep those masks on so we can identify them easily and run for dear life when we see them. And they should be quarantined….or taken to Kampiringisa…or somewhere far away from our children!

Obviously, I’m anti homosexuality. But I’m not anti homosexuals.

Big difference. That’s why I can be in the same room with one.

Why quarantine them if they can be in the same room as you? Homosexuality is not contagious! The number of misconceptions about homosexuality here do not fail to amaze me. I wish there could be some kind of rap session where Ugandans could be paired with gay people so they could realize they aren’t all that scary. They don’t eat children or cause outbreaks of marburg virus, nor will they cause the end of the human race’s ability to reproduce.

Take Cheri’s advice and try being in the same room with one. It’s not that bad.

Chances are, in fact, you’ve ALREADY been in the same room with one and you just don’t know.

Since my blog hasn’t had enough controversy lately, let me speak out in defense of Katherine Roubos, whose story is all over the net, here on Forbes.com, here on the Gaurdian, here on MSNBC, and about million other places if you google it.

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) – Hundreds of people held an anti-gay protest in Uganda’s capital Tuesday, denouncing what they called an “immoral” lifestyle and demanding the deportation of an American journalist writing about gay rights in the deeply conservative country.
…
The protesters gathered at a Kampala sports ground holding banners with anti-gay messages and posters demanding the deportation of 22-year-old Katherine Roubos.

Roubos, from Minnetonka, Minn., was assigned to cover gay issues in Uganda as part of a three-month internship with the Daily Monitor newspaper, which is owned by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of 20 million Ismaili Muslims. The Ismailis are a part of the Shiite community.

I wonder what will come of all this. A lot of hot air? Perhaps nothing? Perhaps serious consequences? We’ll see. (I keep telling her that if she actually gets deported than she’ll get a book deal out of it, easy.)

But the bigger question here is whether she was catalyzing something already in the air or casing something to start that wasn’t there. My guess is that she wasn’t starting from nothing, so it had to be there already. LGBTI people want to talk about what they’re experiencing, want to speak out, and they were just waiting for someone to speak to.

Uganda: Homos Want to Kill Me

The Monitor (Kampala)

29 June 2007
Posted to the web 28 June 2007

Joseph Miti
Kampala

A government minister has said that gay people from around the world send him hate mail everyday because of his stand against homosexuality.

“I receive at least 20 abusive and threatening mails on my life daily,” Ethics and Integrity Minister James Nsaba Buturo told reporters yesterday. “As I speak now, I have seen about 11 mails on my email address waiting for me to read.”

Can you believe this shit? The article itself isn’t that homophobic, but the headline says it all…