Barking Dogs

Three main telecommunications companies have built 743 masts without the approval of the National Environment Management Authority

If you feel the need for a pair of shoes, visit Ministry of Ministry of Water and Environment

Today's New Vision newspaper carries another lovely description of Uganda.



A total of sh5.1m was spent on buying shoes for the Ministry of Water and Environment staff during last year’s Commonwealth summit

Civil servants to get personal laptops all the way from China

Today's Daily Monitor run this article:

Ultimate Media
KAMPALA
"THE Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has teamed up with Stanbic Bank, Hi tech Telecom and Tropix Technology to provide personal computers to civil servants in Uganda.

According to the agreement, civil servants will access loans from Stanbic Bank to purchase personal laptops.

The minister of State for Information and Communication Technology, Alintuma Nsambu said he is soon to travel to China to sign an agreement with Toshiba, the manufacturers of the laptops.
The first batch of 3,000 Tropix laptops is expected to be delivered in Uganda by end of the month.

The laptops are expected to ease computer based work for civil servants as well as enable them to personally handle their personal computer needs."

I do wonder if these personal computers shall be used for personal personal things or for personal government things and of course Alintuma needs to explain the difference. Other than that, what does that mean for the secretaries?

Looks like MoICT is more business minded than policy minded, or are they setting up "enabling environment"

Everything in Uganda is for sale

We will soon be on top of the world, we are exporting everything from Coffee to Monkeys, everything in Uganda is for sale! Today's New Vision rastoon made by morning when he caricatured on the article "The Uganda Wildlife Authority has licensed a wildlife dealer to export 300 Vervet monkeys to Russia"

Its pitch black at 6:00pm

Its amazing how different things are in 2 countries that are next to
each other. At 6:00pm in Rwanda it is usually pitch black the sun sets
at about 5:00pm and coming from Uganda, I feel like it is 8:00pm or
later when it is only 6:00pm, of course this messes up my sleep and
eating orientation as I think it is time for supper and bed much earlier
than I should. Then again in the morning it is bright and sunny at
6:00am, which makes me jump out of bed only to realize that it is only
6:30am. I think these guys should move to East African Standard Time or
may be join those guys who keep changing clocks now and then.

Hit by the rain

I forgot to check out the weather conditions in Kigali before leaving
Kampala and therefore I did not come prepared for the rainy season that
is currently going on. So on Tuesday after a long of meetings and work,
we were heading back to our hotel after a meal about a kilometre away
from our hotel when the heavens opened and the rain came down on us. By
the time we got to the hotel we were soaked to the bone and looked like
wet chickens, lucky for us, we got a cup of hot tea and a hot shower but
I can not forget this drenching since I have not received a drenching
like this in donkey years

what can I say about Rwanda

Rwanda is a country where the rule and procedure is enforced, it is such
a shock coming for the chaotic world of Kampala. on the plane, there was
a notice telling us that polythene carrier bags are not allowed in to
the country, being a Ugandan, I took this as one of those notices no one
adheres to so I was pleasantly surprised to find there was someone
waiting by the baggage carousel to take away all buvera he saw.

On the way to town, the roads were lit, and properly paved including
sidewalks. These guys are very ready for CHOGM! On top of all this the
grass is well maintained and there are flowers lining the dual carriage
ways. The city is clean, with no paper, kavera, banana peel in sight! I
think we need to hire their mayor to teach Ssebagala a trick or two.

after this visit, I am going to brush up on my French and Swahili,
everybody here speaks at least 2 languages, either English and
kinyrwanda, or French and kinyrwanda or Swahili in combination of either
French or kinyrwanda. I am embarrassed that I can have a communication
gap and yet I am from East African Community

Next generation credit cards

Now we do not have to remember all those PINS and passwords, we just need to know how to type, the only problem is, in Uganda we still do not have widespread use of these cards, not even the magnetic strip ones

Do you have your chicken certficate

With this new regulation, those keeping chicken at a commercial scale may spend all day registering their animals according to rastoon. Looks like all chicken need birth certificate. Just look at what rastoon has drawn

Identity thief busted by calling tech support for his stolen driver's license printer

If this guy was in Uganda, I bet he would have gotten away with it

How are we spending our CHOGM budget?

The New Vision cartoon shows how government prioritized expenditures for CHOGM

Photos from Rome

Now that I am back and I think settled in (as I managed to go for exercises today) here are a few photos that I took at the conference in Rome.

Rachael's trip to Rome

People I have met so far at web2fordev

Its amazing how small the work world can be. Today, I met two people who
have been to Uganda, one from Ghana and another from Germany. I met Mark
in the lunch queue, he noticed that I was from Uganda and told me that
he had just been to Uganda 2 weeks ago and had done quite a bit of
mountain climbing of the Rwenzoris, he even still had the aches from the
climb down, something that one should not do just for fun, it is very
hard work! Mark works with busy internet in Ghana and tradenet a market
access information network for Ghana farmers and he is in the private
sector, a sector that is not well represented at this forum. The other
person from Germany I met in the lift as we got lost together trying to
find our way to the German room, so we got chatting and I realised that
6 weeks ago she was in Uganda and doing some work with WOUGNET. well I
can not wait to run into more people tomorrow, this conference looks
like a great networking opportunity for ICT4D people

Internet fiasco

Even worse that getting lost yesterday was the luck of internet access
at this great FAO building, for some reason, FAO technical team could
not let us get on their wireless network and this meant that I had no
email for 4 days! I almost feel like I am on holiday.

Sadly, this is Tuesday and my Internet saga continues

The FAO Building

When I saw the FAO building for the first time on Saturday, I thought to
myself that is one huge building. little did I know how true that was.
On Monday, I did get lost quite a number of times between the various
buildings. In my opinion, the directions set up were not good enough
for somebody who has not been here before and does not know the
geography of this vast building. So for once there I was lost in a
building wondering if I will ever find my way out and to the hotel.
Lucky for me after wandering around for 20 minutes, I did find my way out.

Price of the Internet in Rome

Everybody has been complaining about the high cost of connectivity in
the developing world, in Uganda, at an internet cafe I pay 0.40 Euro
cents for 30 minutes, even where the cost of the internet has been
bloated due to the establishment that is providing it, you can get 30
minutes of access at 2 euros, here in Rome the cost of the internet at
my hotel is 4 euros for 30 minutes, are my at the wrong hotel in the
wrong continent or did I miss something?

Food Challenges

I am not an big fan of Italian food except their pizza and it has been
quite difficult to get food, unfortunately the world food programme
(McDonald's) is not close by so I can not even get the big mac, The
pizza in Uganda has definetely been modified to suit the Ugandan palate,
here in Rome the pizza is so oily and full of odd cheeses (that I may
even have allergies to) that it has not been a nice experience. the food
at the hotel is quite expensive the quantities are so small even I can
complain that this is not enough. The night I had dinner in the
restaurant, I wondered why they had an appretiff, then appetizer, then
first course, then main meal and finally dessert, all that on top of the
breads and tomatoes they give you to snack on while you wait, well when
my main course (the only thing I ordered) came I knew why, the
quantities were so small, just in the middle of a big plate. SO the next
day I decided I will take the metro to termini and get my self a big
mac, no more Italian food for me.

What is Rome Like?

Rome is a very old city and in some places it really shows. I was really
impressed with how proud they are of their heritage and the extents to
which they have gone to preserve it. I was really surprised and
disappointed with the cleanliness of the city, somehow, I thought it was
much cleaner than it was. the metro, especially linea B is horrendously
filthy and the train is full of graffiti, which I found so much at odds
with the majestic history of the place. The Romans enjoy their cafe, and
cappuccino and the number of outdoor cafes is amazing, even at 8:00am in
the morning, there are people seated at a cafe having a cappuccino and a
smoke

Italian Embassy

Life has been quite hectic these last few weeks that I have hardly had time to write my thoughts down. On Tuesday I went out to the Italian Embassy to get a form for the Visa application I intend to make next week so that I can attend the web2.0fordevv conference in Rome next month and at the reception was an Italian receptionist / sentry.

I thought to myself, this was not necessary, why have a receptionist come all the way from Italy when we have plenty of people here that they can employ and for less unless of course he is a spy and is sizing us all out.

Well, I did not make any comments but I think having an expatriate receptionist is quite expensive

The weights starts to come off

It took a malaria bout for thre weight to start falling off, finally I am getting some comments of weight loss and I am getting excited about getting some new clothes but first I still need to do my stomach and hip exercises, I still can not fit into my jeans and this mainly due to the hip expansion. So far I have been going for my exercises quite religiously, let me hope, I can keep the motivation up especially now that I am hearing weight loss comments