Comment & analysis

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” Mahatma Gandhi once remarked.

I wish to reflect on some of my work during the past nine years at the National Commission on Human Rights under the theme: working on the things that matter.
It was the poet Emily Dickinson who said:

In its editorial of Thursday 29 November, The Nation newspaper expressed alarm at the revelation that Malawi’s education sector was performing worse than our neighbours.

Symbolism of the hero is dominant in Western, in particular American, culture. The rugged individual who overcomes all trials and tribulations to defeat a seemingly invincible foe is virtually the embodiment of an underlying sense of who Americans are.

An article by Chris Mbunwe in the Cameroon Post Line last November talked about the Chinese opening a car manufacturing plant in Bamenda. What a romantic notion! It is a notion shared by many a politician and others who have no clue as to what it takes to open an assembly plant.

In the early 1980’s Uganda had an extremely high rate of HIV and AIDS infection that was a serious social problem. President Yoweri Museveni, in power since 1986, has been applauded for his pro-active approach to HIV and AIDS and for being a leader in Africa on prevention methods.

“My Father is 70 years old. He has no interest in politics and suffers from a kidneys problem. But the Sudanese army and security forces arrested him two weeks ago in our village near Dillanj (Nuba Mountains), and we do not know his fate.

My initial reaction to the puppet Kenyan Justice Minister and Sabatia MP Eugene Wamalwa’s proclamation that the diaspora vote will be excluded from the ballot was muted disappointment, then reluctant acceptance of this edict.

As Uganda joins the world to mark the International Human Rights Day on 10 December, a key concern remains the rights of children in conflict and post conflict environment.

‘Clever people are not credited with their follies: what a deprivation of human rights!’ — Friedrich Nietzsche