Along with partner in all things Pulitzer Center, Jina Moore, I’ve got a story up on the Foreign Policy website about the “copyrighted” law in Liberia. It’s just as crazy as it sounds:

[Philip] Banks [the former Minister of Justice and current head of Law Reform] led a team of lawyers, a group called the Liberia Law Experts, to codify the country’s newest laws. The project, which picked up where an earlier pro bono effort by late Cornell University professor Milton Konvitz had left off, won just over $400,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), according to e-mail exchanges between Banks and key legal players, obtained by Foreign Policy. Konvitz had codified laws up to 1978, just before Liberia plunged into 20 years of sporadic conflict. Those volumes list the copyright as belonging to the government of Liberia.

Defending himself in an interview with FP on Oct.27, Banks says he numbered, bound, and indexed the newer laws — intellectual work that he claims as his original property. Without his efforts, he claims, Liberia’s laws would exist only in loose-leaf pamphlets and would likely be lost. Banks says the DoJ funding wasn’t enough to cover his costs. So when DoJ declined to give him more, he asserted a claim of copyright on the work, according to an explanation of the issue he sent by e-mail to a justice sector consultant in 2006. It’s a claim he has appeared willing to relinquish several times for sums between $150,000 and $360,000, according to the e-mail exchanges, which were obtained by FP.

But Banks sees the copyright as an altogether different tool. “These are resources that you’ve had to expend in putting all of this together, and the question is, should you be compensated? I hold the view that you should,” he asserted in his interview with FP. “And for folks that have said, no you shouldn’t, I’ve said to them, go and get your loose-leaf.” DoJ, meanwhile, couldn’t find records of its agreement with Banks, but a spokesperson says it would be “highly unusual” for the department to have agreed to let Banks retain the copyright.

Read the whole thing here.

When I first started working as a journalist, I really hoped my stories would change something. After being disappointed again and again when things didn’t change, I simply stopped hoping for that as a result and instead focused on the importance of reporting – regardless of any kind of outcome.

And now I find myself, several years later, hoping that a story might change something. Fingers crossed that sometime next year, Liberian lawyers might actually argue, you know, law.

What just happened:
Someone from MTN just called me. He wanted to know if he could put my name on the media accreditation list to cover the upcoming MTN marathon for the Associated Press.

I told him I didn’t think the AP would be interested in this. Can I put your name on the list anyway? he asked. I replied, sure, if you want, but this isn’t quite international news.

It’s getting there, he assured me.
I said to call me back when it’s there.

What I think:

Transparency International said recently that Uganda is becoming more corrupt, not less corrupt.

1. My mom sent me a package via FedEx. They want to charge me taxes on it that would be 80 percent of the declared value of the package. Eighty percent! The officially published rates on package imports are about 40 percent, with certain items excluded from taxes. I asked them to get some paper work for me and verify this, and they haven’t. I asked them to call me back, and they haven’t.
2. We gave a guy who works in our compound some money to get plants and pots and put them on our balcony. The first time we did this, he got us nice plants and terra cotta pots. This time, when we gave him more money to bring big plants, he brought us plastic buckets with partially dead vines.
3. A local NGO that I did some work for, helping them with their media strategy and online presence, hasn’t paid me. I did the work months ago. Given that they don’t even bother replying to my emails, I’m guessing they don’t plan on paying me.
4. I bought a phone from MTN that was supposed to be enabled for web access so I could check my emails while out and about. It wasn’t. I took the phone back to the store and asked for a different kind, complaining that it didn’t do what the sales person had said it would. The manager told me “Do you expect all of our sales people to be familiar with all of our products?” I told him yes, yes in fact I did.

I could draw some big fancy conclusions here about corruption trickling down into every interaction, blah blah blah. But I won’t. This isn’t a news analysis – it’s just me venting.

I will say, however, that there are no repercussion or consequences for anyone on this list for their less than stellar conduct. The only consequences here are those felt by me and my pocketbook.

With 1,400 members and 645 wall posts, few things ring as true as some of the comments on the Facebook group You know you’ve been in Uganda for too long when…

-You argue with the police officer over the bribe whilst driving yourself to the station
-When Al’s Bar is a form of Speed Dating
-You start referring to people as “this one” and “that one”
-It’s 32 degrees Celsius and you still see people dressed in sweaters and winter parkas
-When you point with your lips and say yes with your eyebrows
-When going to Garden City is even more special because the escalator is on

You go through a period of adjustment at the beginning, where everything is new and different and exciting. Where it’s hilarious that someone’s wearing a sweater when it’s so warm! Where every what? Every sentence can make you what? Can make you laugh.

But really, you know you’ve been in Uganda too long when all those things aren’t even that funny anymore. After awhile, you won’t tell a boda to turn left because he will go up to the right because you didn’t tell him which way to “slope.” You don’t ask for your change, you ask for your “balance.” When bargaining takes less than a minute because you’re so accustomed to it.

So yes, I’m feeling a little too accustomed to Uganda right now. I never get lost in the city because I know where I’m going. I never have crazy phone call encounters where I try to explain who I am and what I’m doing because I already know how to do that in a way that makes sense to people.

I’m going on a vacation soon, thankfully, since it’s much needed. (Anyone been to Addis Ababa before? I have a few days of layover there en route to the final destination.)

Before then, and also for when I return, I’m going to try to get lost. Not literally – but to just walk to places I don’t know, talk to people I don’t need to speak to for a story or a photo or a purpose, and generally try and find new perspective.

Suggestions welcomed.

You know you’ve been in Uganda too long when…

-The pentecostal church in the compound next door keeping you awake until 4 in the morning is cause to spend time googling David Matsanga.


COPYRIGHT Glenna Gordon/AP

Ever wonder what Robert Mugabe and Joseph Kony have in common? Besides being generally unliked people in circles opposed to human rights violations, they both work with this man: David Matsanga.

Look no further for proof than Africa News Flash, a site whose headline is in blue with animated flames. There are even phone numbers to contact our friend Dave while he’s in Zimbabwe or the UK, where this member of the Acholi diaspora apparently makes his home.

The site includes headlines like, “The president will survive the media onslaught,” and “I have quit the casino politics of Uganda.”

Fun reading. Especially if it’s Saturday around 4 AM and the Penetcostal Church right next to your home is displaying unusual stamina and vigor…


Matsanga emerges from the bush, without Kony, at the failed Juba peace talks this April. COPYRIGHT Glenna Gordon/AP

Every now and then, mainly when I am procrastinating, I check that there’s nothing important in my spam folder.

I just found this email:

Hi,

My name is _______. I am presently working with (YOUTHS FOR PEACE ORGANISATION) Seattle, WA, USA. We are cordially inviting you to our twin combined conference which Will be held in Seattle, WA, USA from the 21st to 24th of July 2008 And Athens Greece from the 28th to 31st of July 2008. If you are Interested to participate and want to represent your country, you may Contact the secretariat of the organizing committee for details and Information.
You should also inform them that you were invited to participate by a Friend of yours (Elizabeth Bukala), who is a member of the American Youths For Peace, We care2 and a staff of (YOUTHS FOR PEACE ORGANIZATION). The benevolent donors of the Organizing Committee will provide round Trip Air tickets and accommodation for the period of participants Stay in The United States, to all registered participants.
You will only be responsible for your own hotel booking in Athens where The second phase of the conferences will be held. If you are a holder of an international passport that may require visa to enter the United States/Greece you may inform the conference secretariat at the time of registration, as the organizing committee is responsible for all visa arrangements and travel assistances.
Please contact the Conference secretariat with the address below for Detailed information.

Email: global_conference@eml.cc and copied to vassos_anthonis@eml.cc

By TEL: +1 206-333-0338
By FAX: +1 206-984-3466
You can also directly register here www.gyofhd.org

Contact them with your full names and address.

Sincerely,
_____

A big tip of is of course the “benevolent donors” line. I was curious, though, so I went to the website. (IE, more procrastination.)

The front page of the website site looks semi-official, if not that professional. But, then, I clicked on Participation Information:

We have made arrangements for subsidized hotel for all participants as follows.

A three/four star hotels is 80 euros daily for five days per participant totaling 400 euro including meals. Five star hotels is also subsidized for 120 euros daily for the 5 days totaling 600 euros including meals.

To guarantee your participation, do send the hotel accommodation fee because of the urgency to the informations below.

Through western union money transfer visit www.westernunion.com or money gram visit www.moneygram.com

First Name: Mrs Barbara,
Last Name: ILIC
Address: GYOFHD OLYMPIA 45, 11688 Athens, GREECE.

or By Bank Transfer to:
ACCOUNT NUMBER : 113/632619-64
ACCOUNT NAME : VASSOS ANTHONIS
IBAN NUMBER : GR0201101130000011363261964
BANK NAME : NATIONAL BANK OF GREECE
BANK SWIFT CODE (BIC): ETHNGRAA
BANK ADDRESS : PATISION ROAD 288. ATHENS – GREECE.

Once we receive evidence of payment by sending us the transfer documents, we will proceed to final registration and where necessary secure the visa authorization from America and Greece which guarantees you a visa for participation.We will also send you the relevant documents and travelling itinerery. All participants must pay for the hotel as arranged for security reasons.

Note: Completed application form should be returned to info@gyofhd.org with the hotel booking fee as advised latest by 30th June 2008 as admission is by first come first serve.

It is very nice of them to organize a hotel for you – just make a deposit in the bank account, information provided here!! And with amazing sponsors like these, how could you go wrong?

I like that Merrill Lynch is listed twice.

These images aren’t copyright anything. They’re mine, and google image foragers, I leave them here for you.

About two weeks ago I was coming back from Gulu to Kampala, and at Karuma, where the Nile River meets the road from north to south Uganda, there are always baboons sitting around, waiting for you to give them mangoes.

We started taking photos of these cute guys munching away, and UPDF pulled us over, assuming that two white girls, an Acholi lady and a driver named Charles were trying to take pictures of the Karuma bridge, which they saw as a security risk.

A brief argument ensued, and though the UPDF wanted to take my camera, I made it abudnantly clear that wasn’t going to happen. I showed them the images on the LCD – of kids in Gulu, other Northern Uganda sites, and of course, baboons. They begrudgingly let us pass. The colleague with whom I had been traveling was terrified, but I assured her this was both common place and incidental, and indeed, nothing came of it.

I have no terrorist plans involving Karuma, or anything else for that matter. I just like monkeys. And I have a camera. And our driver Charles had purchased about 20 kilos of mangoes for Ush 4,000 ($2.50), so we used one for a photo opp.

Goes to show you what happens when you give a baboon a mango.

According to an M7 speech reported on my the New Vision.

According to this currency calculator,

276000000000 Uganda Shilling (UGS) = 159,445,407 US Dollar (USD)

They tore up the sidewalks and streets for Chogm to rebuild nicer ones. But since the repairs haven’t been finished, and the Queen and other diplomats and visitors have come and gone, they’ll stay half-finished forever. Chogm came and went without the world’s notice or most Ugandan’s participation. Most Ugandans didn’t see the Queen, air their grievances, or even learn to untangle the acronym.

But they will have to live with Chogm’s destruction indefinitely. Government spent money they didn’t have, and money earmarked for better things, on Chogm. The conference came and went without the sidewalks being repaired, and government certainly won’t have the funds or wherewithal to fix them after Chogm. Such projects are undertaken only with catalysts like Western visitors with Western wallets. Having broke the bank hoping those Western wallets would spill open, fixing sidewalks for her own people won’t be among broke Uganda’s priorities.

After all the visitors have left with the dollars firmly lodged in the pockets, Ugandans will remain, but without decent sidewalks.

Why did Uganda bother with such a conference? The answers are many, but none is as convincing as a news item buried on page 8 of Saturday Monitor, “Britain Gives Uganda Shillings 2 trillion to fight poverty.” The details of the deal were scant, as were the implications. But basically, the British have committed ₤70 million every year over the next ten years.

But how many Ugandans will see these pounds? They are supposed to help with poverty alleviation, but this wasn’t even on the agenda at Chogm. It seems like a side deal brokered by dignitaries who have more to gain than the Ugandans who probably missed the news item, buried on page 8.

While Ugandans were prohibited from coming to town, dignitaries commented that the streets seemed empty. Royals visited carefully screened and selected locations to show off Uganda’s “progress” and “need,” places that embraced both qualities at once.

Queen Elizabeth went to Kitante Primary School, for example, a school much better off than any in districts of Kampala outside of the city center or upcountry, but still one that would seem lacking to her British First-World Eyes. She saw children in old-ish uniforms, classrooms without adequate supplies. But little did she know that there are too many schools where the classrooms are overfilled, the uniforms more threadbare. Or worse, entire districts where kids don’t go to school because even with Universal Primary Education, school fees are still too expensive for indigent parents.

The carefully calculated media fiasco showed her exactly what she wanted to see: a Uganda that has improved, but is still in need.

But long after she’s gone, the children of Kitante and elsewhere will probably see none of the trillions of shillings to be pocketed by government officials.

And Ugandans will still be walking on broken sidewalks.



BBC ran this story on Mobutu’s money, entitled “Swiss to return Mobutu millions,” but then it was linked to by Meshedlinks with the headline “Switzerland to Return only 6% of Mobutu’s Stolen Wealth”.

Now who is corrupt?

According to this article from the good old World Bank, corruption worldwide adds up – a lot – to about $1 trillion paid in bribes annually.

How does Uganda fair?? Well, the World Bank doesn’t have a list of individual countries ranked according to corruption, but a quick google found this page and also this page, which both rank Uganda pretty close to the bottom of the barrel.

Page number one puts Uganda at 105, grouped with Bolivia, Malawi and others – less corrupt than Laos or Yemen but more corrupt than Tanzania or Malawi.

Page number two says Uganda is 124, smack between Libya (less corrupt) and the Philippines (more corrupt).

I wonder what Muhwezi would have to say about this.

In an interesting move, Finance Minister Ezra Suruma is banning the import of thin plastic bags and increasing the tax on thick ones by 120%. The ban will begin July 1 but traders have until September to get rid of their existing stock.

Enforcement? Hmm…. I’m curious how this one will happen…