Rampant global wars are resurgence of neo-imperialism

 Neo-IMPERIALISM

Last week, the New York Times Newspaper published in its Global Business section an interesting report on the visit of Portuguese President, Mr António Cunha Vaz to Angola. In that article titled "Portugal turns to former colony for growth", it was reported that the Portuguese leader was bold enough to shop for foreign investors from Angola to invest in its receding economy. This story is of great essence to many of us who have had to empathize with Europe through this economic meltdown. The world is indeed facing serious economic crisis, but above all, Portugal's bold move to reach out to its former colony, as a trading partner, has challenged the destructive patterns of capitalism we are witnessing with the world's so-called major democracies – US, Britain and France.

The persistence of colonialism and imperialism seems to have returned to haunt mankind. The wars being fought in the world have had specific traits; targeting resources from these countries. First, it was Iraq, then Libya and we have witnessed destructive bombings of infrastructure in these countries in the pretext of freeing the people.

This article will argue that, most of the wars and upheavals that have pre-occupied most of the Arab world are not about freeing the people. It is neo-imperialism and neo-colonialism being executed with the greatest impunity for the sole purposes of galvanizing, reclaiming and exploiting resources in these countries under the guise of creating a false free world.

Iraq has gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and all his murderous sons, but Iraq is not a free country. Iraq has some of the world's largest number of destitutes and orphaned children, nearly five million head counted orphans, live in that country. Most of them become child households heads or have been reduced to street dwellers - Something unheard of in Iraq before.

Today, there are 1.5million widows living in Iraq and nearly 2 million people living with various forms of disabilities as direct consequences of the instability there. The story is not any further from the fragile Afghanistan. If the wars being launched by the big democracies were to expunged dictatorship and bad governance, how come these tragedies are a constant storyline in most of the so-called liberated countries?

The wars being fought anywhere, let it be in Asia or in Africa, are intended to promote neo-colonial interests. In Sub-Sahara Africa, they tried and succeeded, mostly through the forced liberalization policies imposed by IMF/WB financial institutions. Through the liberalization of the fragile economies, most of the countries that blindly bought into that mantra have actually regressed in its economic growth index. Most of them have resorted to high level corruption because the mechanisms for equitable resource distribution were destroyed. Private foreign investors took over government functions and rendered regimes and indigenous businesses useless.

The new lexicon of neo-imperialism is Peacebuilding. Through the wars and bombings, they demolish the economic, social and political structures of the targeted resource country. Once the war is over, they hand pick and impose a puppet or stooge into power. They then rapidly introduce neo-liberal ideologies of fast tracking democracy (elections), forcing that fragile market to open up for integration into the global market and taking full control of the country's resources through the deception of employing peacekeeping forces  and humanitarian aid in these countries. In resource limited countries, they never intervene until countries melt down into absolute chaos like in Somalia or Darfur.

No matter how much Libya has to pay for the numerous NATO bombs, the message that the big democracies have taught us is that without Africa and Asia, there is no natural wealth. They also know that they cannot live with a fully developed Africa because the struggle against raw materials will heighten. The spiralling oil price in the global market is an example because many more people in the so-called underdeveloped worlds are using more automobiles since China made access easier.

So, while President Cunha decided to humble himself and seek the support of its resource rich former colony as partner in trade, the so-called democracies have opted to sell bombs and promote destructive capitalism. This is the world's tragic moment that threatens the future of the free world.

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Renationalization of UMEME is inevitable

Power Outages in Uganda 

I was impressed by Gen Salim Saleh’s observation that Umeme should be renationalized  Umeme – the power generation company in Uganda (See DM Nov 9, 2011: Gen. Saleh wants Umeme renationalized). I do not understand Uganda’s economists but I know that the NRM ideology of transforming society has stalled. This dearth of ideas has manifested in failed infrastructure; perennial potholes, almost daily power outages and a gamut of other degenerative conditions in health and education sectors. The challenge of power outage is overwhelming, though. What Ugandans painfully do relate with and know quite well is power outage (Romaticisized, socialized and normalized as “load-shedding”). 

Uganda has a lot of potential to industrialize and to claim international reputation as great tourist destination. Lack of steady flow of electricity has locked these enormous potentials. Industrialization cannot be achieved with charcoal stove and firewood. Electricity supply must be adequate, constant and reliable for us to realize this dream. Uganda is a backward country because of persisted poor service delivery. The potential of consumers are limited due to lack of electricity. Foods cannot be preserved, industries have to be confined within Kampala and Jinja; operation rooms have to rely on generators…on and on!! 

The whole essence of privatization was to enhance service delivery. Private investors were expected to compete in the open market so as to improve service delivery. The electricity and power industry has not been vibrant enough and as a consequence, it has reneged on all these expectations. Renationalization of Umeme therefore is inevitable. 

General Saleh was right. Privatization in Uganda was done in haste to satisfy the conditionalities imposed on us by WB and IMF in the 90s. Neo-liberal policies have let down many countries and in fact research has consistently shown that most of the countries that adopted Neo-Liberal policies of deregulations have not developed at all. Most of them have stagnated and others have regressed. Most Sub-Sahara African countries have not performed any better either with democracy and deregulated economies. 

Given the gloomy state of affairs surrounding Umeme; the perennial losses, constant and increasingly prolonged outages and internal corruption, the company has failed Ugandans. This is twenty first century and we still have Ugandans who have never seen electricity. There are so many children who have to rely on kerosene lamps for studies and others simply resort to local fires because Umeme is a no show in their villages, schools and homes. 

Steady supply of electricity is key determinant of health and that of economic growth. Imagine how many hours Ugandans could be working, if they had electricity 24hrs. Imagine how many small businesses could have cropped up to absorb the large number of unemployed youths if there was easy access to electricity. Imagine how much food and animal products have to go to waste everyday because we lack electricity to operate refrigeration or cooling plants in the countryside. 

The implications of Umeme’s failures grind so deep into our skins and psyche. I believe that, one of the solutions of reversing congestion in urban centers is to transmit electricity to the countryside. Further, I believe that with the invigoration of the youths that led to the development of Kira EV many youth and women groups could emerge out of poverty when given access to reliable power source. They could find variety of avenues to invest their micro –finance investments if government decides to re-nationalize Umeme and its sister companies. 

More Ugandans in villages and in the countryside are using cell phones and they require repair, servicing and charging. Ugandans have gone tech savvy. Technology is supported by electricity without which, we shall remain a poor and backward society. 

I challenge the government and President Museveni in particular to seriously heed to Gen Saleh’s advice. This is ideological issue and is the right thing to do. If we are to transform Ugandan society as Museveni envisioned, then the infrastructure to support such a transformation must be in place. Societal transformation from backwardness to modernity, world over has been powered by rich sources of energy to run industries, process agro-products, enable education, repair equipments and implements. Energy spurs creative learning and entrepreneurship. Umeme generates too much darkness!!

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Walk-to-Work protest has been justified by Occupy Wall Street

PEOPLE'S POWER

The current Occupy Wall Street (OWS) demonstrations in US cities and the demonstrations in Greece are two incidences that have justified and legitimized the Walk-to-Wok protest by members in the opposition to Uganda’s tyranny.

The W2W demonstrators have long pointed out the disparities in wealth distribution in Uganda between the regime’s cronies and the many wretched Ugandans who are living marginal and precarious lives.

Ugandans are enduring sky high food prices, a degraded environment characterized by catastrophe, a diminishing forest cover, lowered water levels, poor health care system, chronic power outages, high tariffs, chronically corrupt government and failed institution, sporadic incidences of insecurity to the person and to property, rampant land grabs by the powerful, nepotism and sectarianism in all branches of government. Further, the unease is made worse by increasing brutality exacted on the population by the largely sectarian and high handed military police.

All these trappings have pointed to the state’s abuse of its power, a sign that the current democracy in Uganda is a fragile arrangement that can no longer predicate equity in the utilization of public space for just distribution of public goods. In Uganda, the so-called rich are intricately connected to the power base that forms the Center/Core upon which they choreograph and execute the plundering of our country.

The emerging pattern is that the incumbent regime has found difficulties establishing its authority without brutality. Through repression, it has managed to establish legitimacy as the formal authority over the largely impoverished Ugandans. The fact of the matter is that those who are at the center have diminished in influence due to many years of abuse of power. They have cultivated a state that is opportunistic and agents who are rogued. In that essence, the power brokers are viewed as predators that form the bulk of the “Greedy” that OWS/W2W now targets.

To the contrary, because of the greed exhibited by the corrupted regime’s elite and the pseudo middle class borne out of political patronage, those at the periphery have increased in volume. There are more disparate and helpless Ugandans today than a decade ago. The number of people that have suffered from reversal of faith in the future under the NRM that the prospects of the 90s had ushered has almost tripled in the last decade alone. There are more poor Ugandans on the streets, some made homeless through the systematic policies of land grab. Many, so ill and burned out from treacheries of life that they prefer to perish in agony instead of confronting the dilapidated health care system. Noam Chomsky, a renowned American scholar described many of these hapless souls as precariats - those persisting precariously at the peripheries of society.

This is where W2W became a legitimate voice for, and a political response to the plight of those living precariously at the periphery of our society today. I hypothesize that the richest 2% adults owns and controls more than half the wealth in this country, and that, the so-called wealthy people are linked directly to the center through militaristic modes of patronage. This factor alone deprives the so-called middle class that feeds off the corrupt center, of any legitimacy.

Strange things happen in Uganda which reaffirms the pitiful level of our consciousness. The understanding of demonstration has been spewed out of tangent. When Taxi/Bus drivers; teachers or doctors and merchants/entrepreneurs demonstrate, they are treated with the same measure of awe that is exacted on the political agencies. Surprisingly, when the politicians demonstrate, the other groups abscond and vice versa and yet they are all seeking for same objective – fair conditions upon which national resources, including wealth and burdens of the state should be distributed.

The dilemma is, unlike in America, Uganda’s precariats are uninformed elites who are subdued by post-colonial forms of loyalties to the state.  This is the mindset that buttress patronage, rights violations and corruption. Corruption then becomes the means paired alongside brutality for ascertaining legitimacy of authority over those at the periphery.

I contend that all Ugandans should join W2W protest through which the greed of the center can be challenged peacefully by the precariats. These actions are legitimate and constitutional rights enumerated in Ch. 3(29)(1)(a)-(e) and others, in the Uganda 1998 amended Constitution.

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Opposition exists to contend for State Power

Our democracy seems to be sliding down under and if we don’t change our attitude towards politics, it will remain a game of death for many. It is apparent that unless the NRM regime changes its confrontational and none negotiation methods of doing things, the country will most likely slip back into state of anarchy and chaos.

When Police Chief, Kale Kayihura accuses the opposition of using “demonstrations” to cause regime change, he must be thinking strange outright. Freedom of association and other forms of liberties are well enumerated in Uganda’s Constitution. Everyone – except Kayihura -  knows that opposition political parties are there to compete for state power. FDC is not a trade union or bunch of merchants. FDC like DP and UPC are contenders for state management and they intend to cause regime change by means that are constitutional.

I just don’t seem to understand why the fuss about Dr. Besigye or other members of the Opposition who are barred from walking to work or going wherever they should be going. Over the years, the regime has overly harassed Dr. Besigye and members of the Opposition, including torturing them and confining them illegally in safehouses, prisons and in Police vehicles. These are barbaric behaviours that must not be condoned in 21 century.

The makers of the 1995 constitution must be wondering what is going on because they know that times have changed. The provisions for human liberty and freedoms that were proscribed in the Constitution are now being violated with impunity by the same people who wrote these down. How are we supposed to enjoy our rights and freedoms if we are barred from walking to work or charged with treason, for sensitizing the masses on fundamental issues that affect them?

Let’s give and take on the current political developments in Uganda. Museveni and NRM do not own Uganda or Ugandans but have succeeded in keeping us under bondage by brutal means. Uganda is a home to every one of us and we must be constructively engaged in shaping the future of that country. Further, now that Museveni has felt the need to change the law and bring in draconian legislation to ban demonstrations, one can only conclude that his time is up and he must consider retiring.

One of the problems with African leaders is that they never know when to quit or change policies once they become intoxicated with power. When you begin to see all sorts of roughness and cruelty being visited on the ordinary citizen, then you know that the leaders are now vegetating in power. Everything becomes a weapon to hold on to power, including old age!

Such a patronizing attitude is what truly buttresses the mindset that these dictators own the means of coercion and also own the state and anything must be controlled by use of brutal and sheer force. The vision and ideology of managing modern state is cast aside, cronyism and mafiaism becomes the new preferred tool.

What is even funny is that no matter how they harass Besigye, none of the cases have been sustained. One really wonders what kinds of lawyers are employed by Government or what kind of conscience they do have. What kind of a professional would accept to be used to perform unethical duties such as concocting charges against a fellow citizen and unleashing such amount of terror on a tax payer? We must take stock here, especially on those lawyers who are representing this shameful face of the regime. With a possible regime change, these lawyers should be made accountable for abuse of power.

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I think the game needs changing by introducing mutual respect in politics. This would allow ample time for contending ideas to get examined by the masses thoroughly. When we continue to adapt to the tradition of using guns and anti-riot police against opponents, then we suppress vital ideas that could add value in our politics.

 There is no way that NRM can continue to govern Uganda like a kraal. There must be a better and more civilized way to settle political disagreements. I feel that the more Besigye is harassed, the more he cements his image as a political Messiah, a Martyr and Hero to the locals.

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Occupy Wall Street: Neo-Liberalism has failed us

GLOBAL ECONOMICS

I am not a scholar of economics. I am, however, a recurrent recipient of bad global economic policies and one staunch opponent of neo-liberal ideologies which I think of as the greatest contradiction and blatant lies being sold to the poor peoples.

Until the insurrection of the masses in New York on September 17^th, 2011 with the now famed “Occupy Wall Street” led by Canadian activists, Adbusters, America, which has been economically robust, (so they made us to believe) has been portrayed as one of the victims of neo-liberal ideals.

America has been mortgaged to China, with Chinese debts ranging in multiple zero figures. According to the United States Department of the Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt (September 2011), the US foreign debt is $14.94 trillion with the bulk of it coming from China and Oil producing countries.

When the liberalization of the economy became a buzz word in the 90s, the US shamelessly benefitted from the stay of market protectionism and high tariffs for non-western products, most annoyingly, is the protection over Agricultural products that were restricted from accessing American domestic markets.

Because other countries opened up their markets, the allure of cheap labor exploits and good government incentives (lower taxes, state protection and other benefits) attracted a lot of American companies, most of which had benefitted enormously from the Bush era tax cuts, to developing countries. Most of these jobs left US for India, China, Vietnam and Latin America where the investors could procure cheap labour for maximization of their profits.

The problem is that, the countries where these jobs relocated were not benefitting either because the investors appropriated their profits and stashed the money away in foreign banks, in Switzerland or returned to real estate businesses back home. Americans at home lost their industrial job opportunities as jobs were being outsourced overseas or new and challenging opportunities were emmerging.

In essence, neo-liberalism has greatly altered global and regional wealth distribution. It was able to take away jobs from America, and this led to numerous foreclosures due to joblessness for home owners. Now, in America, you are either poor or not and this is because the middle class is shrinking and the super rich are making some frivolous annual profits unimaginable that they do not want to share through taxation.

The current Occupy Wall Street is a struggle I associate with as a form of social justice. Although the idea was wishy-washy initially, their message has now taken shape and proper form, in that it now represents the people’s resolution to demand for fair wealth sharing at a global scale.

The real enemy of the people are the Republicans in the US and ultra Conservative demagogues world-over. The American Republicans despise the poor and believe that the rich should not be taxed and that poor people should not be entitled to universal healthcare or education and should be taxed at any point of contact with government. They prefer to levy heavy taxes on the middle class and low income earners, and wish the destitute, homeless and vulnerable to vanish quick from the surface of the earth altogether.

Republicans believe that the rich should be given tax breaks so they can create jobs for the working class. The problem is, the profits made out of exploiting the working class is protected against any significant taxation. So when President Obama demanded that the rich be taxed more, the Republicans Paul Ryan, the chairman of budget committee and Sen. Mitch McConell, the Senate Republican leader, accused President Obama of initiating a class-war.

Diversionary as that is, Warren Buffet, a Billionaire businessman did attest to the fact that he pays peanuts and his fellow billionaires have paid peanuts in taxes in comparison to what the middle class guys pay. He even boldly asked that the taxe system be revised upward on the rich in the United States. This testimony is the bedrock of the current Occupy Wall Street that I am proudly associating myself with.

I believe that the global inequities in wealth distribution are a threat to the world’s population health. In 2012, the earth will host 7 billion people, majority live in developing countries where poverty is very prevalent. Unless the global wealth, which is accumulated in the Western Hemisphere, gets redistributed, the ecosystems will barely sustain this population. The poor will turn to exploiting the environment to eke for a living and the rich will continue to exploit the poor. The endgame is obvious - the conditions that have sustained depravity and vulnerability will thrive unabated.

Typical Republican argument would support the myth that the Earth’s ability to support a population is contingent upon those factors in society which facilitates “survival for the fittest”. This means that those who fail to adapt to the competitive world should quickly phase out to leave space for those who are better adapted.

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Uganda: The fight against Corruption is fight against NRM and Museveni Inc.

Corruption 

I contend that a genuine fight against corruption in Uganda is a fight against the NRM and President Museveni. This fight is complicated and is comparable to the global fight against international drug and human traffickers. Quite a complex feat interlaced, driven and sustained by high level political corruption within the party because the NRM Party has become synonymous with and prime agent of corruption.

Underneath the lucrative global trafficking are networks of cartels and war-loads; a network of pimps, johns and numerous trans-border traffickers, mafias, gangsters, politicians and conglomerates that operate through porous borders and corrupt migration policy enforcement to ship out and trade humans, drugs and weapons.

We can agree that most successful underground organizations involved in these illicit trades, have God-fathers. The God-father is the superimposing character – well protected and a nexus upon which the conditions and environment of their businesses are mediated. The Godfathers are usually obsolete figures that are at an arm’s length away from the scenes of transactions. They pull cords to control political power through bribery, coercion and indulges in procurement of allegiance from contending politicians and business people. The trading families who control large markets and many trafficking routes become the most powerful, fierce and equally respected. The family business becomes the costa nostra “our thing” and cousins marry fellow cousins to keep the wealth and power within the house.

The La Costa Nostra attitude that was prevalent among the Italian mafias and others in Latin America is what now subsumes the NRM regime under President Museveni. The structure that President Museveni has built in 25 years is strong but is not any different from those operated by rogue elements in illicit trades.

There is no need to explicate this situation any further, but Museveni has consolidated his stronghold on the means of coercion. His iron fisted rule is branded by militarized police brutality. His relatives have consolidated their positions and privileges at the helm of the regime structure and have control of vast amount of land and other economic advantages, including ownership of lands that have minerals, fresh waters and oil reserves.

In the words of Kevin Bales, the renowned anti-human trafficking author and researcher, Ugandans who are not obedient to the networks of first family, are “disposable people”. This is what became very apparent of former VP Gilbert Bukenya. Bukenya’s recent ordeal in jail over his part in CHOGM scandal spoke volumes to those who have the ears to listen and the eyes, not yet bloated by the proceeds of corruption.

Prof Bukenya is a typical example of an uncritical NRM outsider and a conduit. Despite his illustrated administrative competence, he was reduced to a disposable Catholic – Muganda. The moment Bukenya tried to form political shape; he was quickly disposed and presented as the prime agent of corruption. In reality, Bukenya is only (in)subordinate agent.

And let’s put aside the two-faces that we carry. I truly felt for Bukenya as he froze in the coolers. I could not fathom man in Bukenya so determined to remain in the kitchen sink – humiliated and humiliated again. I thought Prof Bukenya would have listened to the messages of the mafia when his son perished in car accident under mysterious circumstances that is only comparable to that of former speaker, Ayume. Bukenya should have known that he is treading a rough path.

But let’s contend that the real problem of corruption in Uganda is neatly weaved and inextricable with the circumstances of President Museveni’s continued tenure of office that has been translated as “our power” by the people close to him.

Let’s be realistic and honest to ourselves before we claim patriotism here. We are chasing our shadows in pretext of tackling corruption. The organism called NRM has mutated to have many corrupt heads. We must identify all the heads and tentacles for it to get capitulated.

I believe that a genuine process of removing corruption from Uganda can only start with regime change. As long as Museveni is still President of Uganda, corruption will move with him for, corruption is the NRM itself!

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Uganda is still Primitive State 25 Years under NRM

 POLITICS

This article is an attempt at auditing the NRM on its agenda of modernization Uganda through industrialization. Museveni once diagnosed Uganda as a backward state that needed to industrialize so that the primitive modes of production are replaced subsequently with advanced means of production. Museveni did not articulate how the consumerism pattern would transform to sustain the industrialization.

Museveni’s infatuation with foreign investment is rooted in neo-liberal ideology that was part of the neo- imperial package imposed on developing countries through liberalization of their economies. These economic ideologies advanced the interests of capitalists, to enable them compete, overtake and dominate the poor who form the bulk of consumers.

In 1986 when the NRM took over power, Jinja was a buzzing industrial hub of Uganda. Today it is a ghost town. Then, Museveni sold off all the industries to his regime cronies and all the industries collapsed. That was a lesson that Ugandan entrepreneurs where not competent in shaping the private sector through industrialization. Today, the private sector is customer service oriented – merchandise vending, not manufacturing.

By adapting neo-liberal ideas, Museveni opened up Uganda as a “free market” to foreign investments and not indigenous investors. Museveni prematurely infatuated with the idea that government should withdraw from providing essential services to its population. It was hoped that the private sector innovations could provide these services as demands arose in the open market. But Uganda is not a middle class society, so issues of affordability led to consumer isolation. Majority of Ugandans consume cheap goods or second hand stuff. That’s what they can afford.

Given the time of liberalization of the economy, Ugandans did not have sufficient skills and capacity to operate the private sector. This means that while the government discourteously reduced the size of public servants, it did not enact reciprocal policies that would permit a transition from government employment to sustainable public sector players. The education system was equally not adjusted to prepare Ugandans for this new challenge. In short, the state estranged Ugandans from the economy and reduced the base of income earners.

The recent strikes by Uganda’s teachers and then by small traders in central Kampala revealed a rather bitter reality for Museveni’s bubble economic growth. The inequity in income distribution among public servants has compromised service delivery. Further, that there are no prospects of robust industrialization or modernization as such. The same group of workers that government dealt with in 1986 is the same ones who still dominate the economy – civil servants and petty traders.

I have seen workers Unions in UK and Canada call for strikes. These are industrialized countries from where we emulate all our policies. For instance, the protagonists of the no-term limit in Uganda fervently argued that after all Britain has no term limits, not even a constitution, so why should Uganda have one?

When workers in countries with vibrant public sector go behind the picket, you begin to hear groups such as coal workers, truck drivers, bricklayers, mortuary attendants, Graveyard attendants; car importers, Public Health or Hospital workers, public transportation workers etc conjure up under their Unions to go picketing.

In Uganda, the only people who went on strike were teachers. Even the other public service groups, such as nurses, physicians, researchers, police and prisons did not join the strike. The fact of the matter is that no player from the private sector joined the strike to demand for fair wages or better working conditions.

Now, one can assume that the private sector is a better employer, such that the employees do not feel exploited; that there are so few disgruntled employees in government because government job is so well paying; or that Ugandans generally do not mind the pillages of taxpayers’ money by government through corruption. We could also assume that Ugandans do not mind about the wealth inequities that exist between the various branches of government and the frontline workers.

But the strikes revealed that Uganda is still uncritical and a primitive state, and the production mode remains traditional and primitive twenty-five years after Museveni’s diagnosis, economically speaking!

END.