November 2007

For those of you who have been following this blog, I just want you to know that I will be away from the "editorial desk" for a few days. And since this is a one-man show at the moment, that means that there will be little content this week. I hope to be back with something worth reading next week.  

The Commonwealth Heads of State Meeting of 2007 is being described as a success. During the three-day summit, the organisation suspended Pakistan from its ranks and produced a climate plan. These are both modest achievements with little international impact except to remind the world that when it comes to human rights and the environment, the Commonwealth can still be a relevant association.

CitizenUganda has made some great strides in a few short weeks. Following a successful upgrade to our publishing platform here, it is time to make some changes to how our content is produced and syndicated. A new contributor I am happy to announce a new monthly column on Web standards to be written by Silumesii Maboshe. Silumesii is an accomplished programmer and the principal at Pencilcase Studios, and I am honoured that he is willing to share the wisdom of his experience here on CitizenUganda (If you have a suggestion for Silumesii's column, or some questions you would like him to address, or if you are interested in starting your own column here, get in touch). I am always looking to add to the list of contributors. If you are interested, I am working on a list of contribution guidelines to be released soon.

The development of a blogging community usually has a couple of stages. In the first stage, bloggers discover the power of the medium, particularly its ability to help them distribute their ideas. The second stage is when the community begins to attach the same importance to presentation as it does to expression. Uganda's blogosphere is still in the first stage. The same Blogger and Wordpress templates litter the nexus, undermining the distinctiveness of each blog. This is not surprising really because most bloggers care more about what they say than how their site looks. And those who do care, often do not know how to do anything about it, which is why some web developers are able to make a living by designing templates and selling them to bloggers.

Are You Ready to Burn? Get on Fire for God!By Julie Ferwerda with Becky Tirabassi CBN.com – Want a bigger and better life than you ever dreamed? Are you ready to leave a lasting mark on the world? Becky Tirabassi, author of The Burning Heart Contract, is bringing a message to students nationwide who are ready for something BIG — something that will change their life, and could quite possibly change our country and even our world. By making a decision to sign The Burning Heart Contract (BHC), you too can begin the greatest adventure of your life—guaranteed! What is a Burning Heart Contract?II Chronicles 15:12 “They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.”BHC is a call to passion, purity, and great purpose. It is an agreement you make with God to spend an hour a day with Him for the rest of your life.

As per the post below, you get the drift of this one. I traveled upcountry to bury the old man. Even in the sadness, it's not hard to get a light side to funerals. Mine came as I was manning the refreshments at the VIP tent then later the food. The experience kind of reminded me of josh’s askari diaries.Serving refreshment to sky riding VIPs(Ministers and MPs) was nothing to write home about. I just kept staring at their bellies and thinking about tax payers money, my own hard earned kala. To imagine they flew in three coopers, you should have seen the awe on the faces of my poor villagers. Anyhow so I was saying the real story came later as I was manning the food table for the uptowners (read district execs, public servants,K’la residents, district middleclass).

For something that is supposed to come naturally, sometimes sleeping can be a difficult task. Imagine being wide awake at night while others purr and grunt in blissful oblivion. That can be frustrating, and only more so if you have a partner sleeping like a baby besides you. And snoring. Loudly. Most people might reach for the bottle of sleeping pills. For at least one person though, that frustration is being channeled into a blog. Lucky us. From what I can tell, Ugandan Insomniac has not been lying awake at night for very long. She introduced herself in May of this year as a "30-something quack psychoanalyst (un)successfully pondering the complexities of herself, her people, her country and her world". Since then she has averaged about five posts a week.

Masulum Musekera and Kaggwa Gyatemwa appeared on WBS last night, brandishing Victorian guns, dressed, and taut like World War generals. They pantomimed war; sung, dashed, ducked, crept through imaginary thickets and pursued imaginary foes.

KAMPALA - I had not walked along the streets in a long time, save for the ocassional forays from the office into the town to pick up my mail, get my hair cut or meet people close to the CBD. With the traffic jams in Kampala, you either walk or crawl along in the car, feeling stupid. Anyway, I am talking about walking home from town. When I was much younger, one of our favourite holiday pastimes was walking. Just leisurely taking in the five kilometres from home into the city centre to window shop and immerse ourselves (me and my big brother -- not he of the House) into the hustle and bustle of the city.

Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo have not always treated each other with a great deal of respect. But now that oil has been discovered in Lake Albert, that has only made things more complicated. Uganda and Congo: the background Uganda's recent tensions with Congo go back to the mid 90s. During the First Congo War (1996-1997) Uganda, Rwanda and Angola supported a coalition of Congolese dissidents and minority groups known as the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL). The ADLF was the movement that ousted Mobutu Sese Seko and brought Laurent Kabila to power.

I'll be 22 in exactly a month. I made a list of things to do before my 21st birthday,which carried on into this year because 21 came faster than I worked at them. Those things on the list are still pending. I'm learning to let them be. I made a wackier list for this year and now with a month to go I'm not sure where I stand. Because I cannot show you my list, I'm making you a special one. A list of how far I have come.December 17th 1985: Nairobi peace deal was being signed. Keeping with the theme, my parents chose 'peace' as a name. Thankfully not in English, because it sounds better in the language of the Kings. Jaz says I was the yellowest baby she ever saw. My name is still the same although I fight way too much and I'm much much darker now.

If you are into engines and/or the environment, you might have heard about a guy called Jonathan Goodwin. By experimenting with diesel technology and alternative fuels, Goodwin has figured out a way to cut emissions and double the horse power of practically any SUV. For this little miracle, FastCompany magazine called him the Motorhead Messiah and put him on the cover of their latest issue. Simple and efficient Goodwin's designs build on existing technologies, particularly diesel.

It seems I have been gone for quite awhile… and then again it feels as though I never went away at all. Well we’ll go with the former mostly cuz it’s even more evident really… the previous post has a tag-date somewhere about the first days of last month. Before I go on I’d like to do something totally out of my character: give an award. A virtual one. To the blog of the year, or at least my version of what different aspects of a blog qualify for its being voted best blog of the year. In my close to three years on blogger now, I consider this the most consistent, informative, edifying and welcoming blog that I’ve read at. It’s such a pity the blog author has quit active blogging now; but nonetheless the blog remains on the world wide web for all to pick and share from; and from this piece of work, God has continually been glorified, many have learned, others have taught, also many have had their true character revealed.

In case you missed it, the Daily Monitor revamped its website today. Gone is the familiar green (we shall not mourn) but little else has changed. With the exception of a new RSS feed, this new site is simply not up to scratch. I have a hard time distinguishing between content and ads, especially after the fold (first half of the site). It is especially difficult to determine what is important and what is not with all sorts of flash ads winking at me. Two columns of ads may seem like a great way to make money, but if they distract from the content, they are a bad design idea.

[Editor: this post has been edited for errors since it was published] Either the web hosting rates in Uganda are falling, or someone is undercutting the competition. Regardless, small businesses in Uganda may now have an affordable way to get on online. Node Six, an Elemental Edge company, is offering some compelling web hosting packages for personal and professional accounts that range from 5,000 to 20,000 shillings. That is a monthly rate of between $3 and $12. The low prices are in line with the company's mission to bring the Internet within the reach of most Ugandans—and by "most Ugandans" I mean those with a job that pays a living wage—both financially and technologically:

Facebook is all the rage right now. According to Alexa, it is one of the top 5 destinations on the web in the U.S., the U.K. and Canada. But if you keep up with what is going on on the websphere, then chances are you already know this. So what does it have to do with Uganda? Back on September 18, 2007, the World Bank released its Country Economic Memorandum on Uganda. The report took stock of the country's past growth (6.9% during most of the 1990s) and recommended that the country move to the next level of economic growth by bridging infrastructure gaps and addressing the energy crisis. (You can download the pdf if you would like to read it all.)

Jesus, you are everything to me.Coz you hear,Everything that I pray to you.And I am thankful,For the Love you gave me.And I will always,Cherish your name.Sometimes I feel I want to breakdown,When I do things the wrong way.But Jesus when I call out your name,You are always by my side!You are my daily sunshine,You take care of me.You show me the right path,You are my direction.I will always praise your name,You are my salvation.I will always follow your path,You are my redeemer.

Apple's iPhone launched in the UK this week with the same sort of fanfare that was seen when it was unveiled in the U.S. earlier this year. All this got me thinking about whether Apple is ready for a real move into the Ugandan market. Would the iPhone work in Uganda The iPhone has which means it could work on any of the major networks in Uganda (MTN, Mango, Celtel), so this is not really an issue.  

The web is full of great little apps that demonstrate innovative information architectures and designs. I was having a conversation with Silumesii from Pencilcase Studios about web designs and he showed me this neat little web app by the folks at marumushi.com in Tokyo. They developed a flash newsmap that presents the changing contents of the Google News news aggregator in something that looks like a tag cloud. Each headline is tagged with a category and contained in a color-coded container. The color of the container denotes the subject category: red for world, purple for health, green for technology, etc.

Guide books are great for what they are, but when you are looking for something that is off the beaten path, it might be better to put that book down and reach for the keyboard. The Kampalan is a blog about Kampala, obviously. What is extrodinary is that it is a collaborative blog put together by a group of bloggers (I counted nine) in the city who seem to be known to each other. And this group is a real mix too, with the bazungu making up a decent percentage. A mashup blog for a mashup city. Any member can post to the blog. The mandate is simple: "Everything you need to know to have fun in Kampala, put together by people who know how to have fun."

I am having a love affair with design. It was supposed to be a fling, you know, something exciting to pass the time. But you know how these things go. All of a sudden I became possessive and started neglecting my work and my friends to spend more time on my latest design projects. And all this without actually knowing if i am, you know, any good at it. But the more i think about it, the more it makes sense that i am really getting into design, or at least web design. I love creating brands and identities. Don't call it advertising. It's not always about the money or the marketing. I just enjoy coming up with a clean articulate design that communicates the essence of the brand. [image is missing] But all to often, i fail to get there. This site for instance is still lacking a brand. Here is a sample of the latest addition to my reject pile.

Recall the man who loved the grits? I mean the food not the musical duo. Anyway as I was reading it came to my attention that kings of old had a notorious habit of saying things only God should have been saying. For instance King Nebby; “Is this not this Great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honour of my majesty?” Daniel 4:30. I would like to think that before God made His judgement upon this man, He first laughed. I mean imagining a poem telling itself “Look what great rhyme and rhythm I have made for myself?” Wouldn’t I laugh! My, My! Why this obsession we have with Me, myself and I? Kings are singing happy songs of I have built myself a kingdom for my honour and my majesty. Everyday we give off Nebby-like tendencies thinking that we have done it on our own, by our selves and go boasting while God judges us amidst laughter!

I met with my supervisor today and she made me feel that I can actually do this whole research thingy. I'm optimistic. I'm going to get right on it. watch me my watchers... I also spent longer than five minutes in that reading place at the faculty. I'm always in and out, begging people to borrow text books for me. I have a deep fear of borrowing books. don't ask! I was in there because I have this whole pile of work to hand in this week...I'm a deadline person. there are some interesting books in there. I know this because everytime I go in there to do my reading I end up reading books that are interesting but have no relevance to what I should be doing. they make me like PR and advertising more though. Almost borrowed one today, then I slammed it down and hightailed it out of there like I was possessed. only started breathing after I was halfway home. don't ask!

you are having lunch; you must be famished... now why you banging the plate, each time you scoop some food... you an efiing judge? It is not a GAVEL!! I can not be accountable for my balled up fist right now- it is conditioned to swinging at any slurping sounds followed by resonating thuds on the table as you place your glass down- you aint an effing judge brah!! Now frigging Adam (it is his real name) you only seem to have one comment to make each and every time I bump into you "you putting on weight girl..." I can think of reasons why you say this1. your roundedness develops a virtual waist line of sorts2. you figure I will be motivated to do those extra reps in the gym3. I will like you more for your blatant honestyoh Adam, you ar brilliant! ... so you actually figure an SMS qualifies for a bootycall - night cap?as I jog around your vastness in an attempt to locate your ear "mother fucker!"