YOUR LETTERS: Gays can get an island of their own

Since Ndorwa West MP, David Bahati, introduced a private member’s bill calling for life-imprisonment or hanging of homosexuals, the dust continues to rise. The bill shook our globe to such an extent that even the powerful US President, Barack Obama, the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and all the major international media houses like the New York Times were jolted. 

I sympathise with the sexual disorder or disorientation of homosexuals and lesbians. But I don’t have kind words for its practice, promotion or justification. In my opinion it is a “human wrong” which must not qualify as one of the human rights to be guaranteed and practised.

Since homosexuality is an unnatural sexual orientation or behaviour (disorientation), it is a disorder. Like any other health related disorder, there are possible remedies to correct it.  For example, if I had poor eyesight, I would get correction glasses. Mental illness is a disorder; it is treatable in psychiatric hospitals.

However, although the mentally sick have a right to life, their freedom is constrained by law because they are dangerous to the general public. So do homosexuals. Homosexuality is dangerous as it threatens the existence of the human race because it is sterile. 

At some point the debate on the fate of homosexuals in Uganda must come to a conclusion. In my opinion, if the West and the so-called development partners are hell bent on protecting homosexuals’ “human wrong” as a right, I suggest the following:

1. Allow all homosexuals and whoever develops the symptoms of homosexual behaviour to migrate to the UK, US and Europe.

2. Let the government secure a vacant island for homosexuals. There, they will be safe from homo haters. Then we shall see how far they can go, because they will get extinct. That way, Ugandans don’t have to shed homosexuals’ blood and David Bahati won’t have to take the blame for their demise as proposed in his bill.

Raymond Otika,
rokisao@yahoo.com

No girl's food was burnt at Gayaza

As a concerned parent, I refer to a letter titled Burning kids’ food was cruel in your paper of January 7-10. First and foremost, no food was burnt, more so in full view of the girls. Considering the geography of the school, this could only be done in the Amphitheatre which was not the case. My fellow parent(s), from all the investigations I have made, this was not so.

I would like to inform my fellow parent who wrote the letter that because of the Swine Flu epidemic, we were given a special day to visit the girls; to that effect we were even given more time with them. For your information, the school administration was more liberal with the girls, allowing them to keep their eats (read grub) for an extra day.

Last but not least, all parents get a copy of the school rules, so if you find difficulty in obeying any of them, especially the one that bars you from bringing cooked food, please take a good walk! There are so many other schools in Uganda.

As parents of Gayaza Junior School, we should even be very proud to be associated with a school that was the first to take the initiative of protecting our environment by banning kaveera, where the government is still in dilemma, playing around with microns!

Edward Kisukye a.k.a Zizinga Omutambuze Parent of Gayaza, Mutundwe-Kampala.


Let Nasasira try his luck on city roads

Once again President Museveni was last week quoted as saying that the Ministry of Works and Transport should take over management of Kampala City’s potholed roads. And once again KCC hit back, accusing the Minister John Nasasira of not doing a better job while in charge of the roads around CHOGM time.

The government had earlier proposed taking over direct administration of the city but I don’t know where that idea ended. This would in itself put the roads at Nasasira’s desk, which I support entirely. The politicians can debate the merits and demerits, but as far as neutral road users are concerned, all we want are motorable roads and KCC has failed to provide that. So it’s time for Nasasira to try his luck.

Ambrose Kibalama,
Ntinda.


Museveni will win anti-corruption war

In his New Year message to the nation, the President reiterated his commitment to fighting corruption, which he had made during the Independence Day celebrations at Kololo Airstrip in October.

He called the fight against corruption a war and vowed that he had fought many wars and won them, promising to win this one also. As usual, cynics have lashed out at this promise calling it a joke, whereas others have called it a political gimmick.

What should be recalled, however, is that these pessimists dismissed the President’s promise when he talked of UPE in 1996!
The same happened when he promised to build more hydro power dams (e.g. Bujagali) and remove graduated tax.

With great strides taken on these promises, I don’t know what the cynics have to say. But for me and other Musevenists, it’s this great commitment to delivering as promised by the President that I am convinced that he will deliver on this promise too.

In the short time that the President has thrown his weight behind the fight against corruption, progress is visible to all and sundry.

The anti-drug theft campaign that has led to arrests of some health officials has seen sanity slowly returning to the chronic drug-dry health centres which they had turned into death traps. I have also heard from colleagues in the public sector who are breathing with relief, as the demand for the boss to put their directives in writing has approval of the President, in order to avoid junior officers becoming [scapegoats].

As if to underline that the corrupt in our society are in the wrong place, the media are awash with reports of grilling of public officials by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Local Governments accountability committee, or facing the heat in the anti-corruption court.

Then the parading of NAADS officials on presidential tours in the countryside, as well as the President’s directive to the Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, to establish quarterly assessment of ministries and departments and take action on errant officials.

This has come with Barazas (public accountability fora) where I have seen wananchi getting accountability from their leaders on the lower levels of government.With this trend of events, it’s critical for all the citizens to rally behind the fountain of honour to fight corruption tendencies in every form rather than sit back to see how he fails.

Agaba Ronald Bills,
Kampala.


Germany is the country to court

The recent reports that China had just overtaken Germany as the world’s leading exporter further confirmed to me just how strong a nation Germany is.

Europe’s richest nation only has 85 million people compared to China’s 1.45 billion, which loosely means that one German produces and exports more than 15 Chinese. No wonder Germany attempted to take on the world in 1914 and 1939. Defeating them required very strong multi-national alliances.

A country that offers free world class education even for foreigners is amazing.  Now, Uganda has for some time been looking for strategic development partners and to me Germany provides the most suitable option.

Some analysts claim that Uganda’s biggest comparative advantage lies in tourism. For the last five years Germany’s tourists have been the top spenders in the world. Why can’t our government court such people?

I have known for some time that our orientation towards the UK has cost this nation quite a lot. All this post-CHOGM hullaballo is just testimony that the entire CHOGM fracas was a waste because had we got any positive leverages we wouldn’t be subjected to all this noise about the Bukenyas of this world.

The so-called CHOGM always had nothing to offer Uganda, especially since the true economic powers of the world, like Germany, Japan, USA and even China weren’t present. In case Uganda considered making Germany a strategic development partner, the only bottleneck I see is the fact that Germany is too democratic to accept a partner like our government.

James Taylor Mwesigwa,
Kampala.

Odinga has proven to be just Kibaki B

Having come as a wolf in sheepskin, Raila Odinga has now officially joined the hyenas and is out to outshine President Kibaki on outrageous pay hikes. Odinga’s proposed KShs 1.67 million a month is the latest watertight evidence of a political fraudster fighting for his stomach rather than for the poor he claims to represent. His wife is to get a brand-new car of her choice and a monthly KShs 25,000 fuel allowance.

Other perks for the Odingas include the construction of a mansion complete with nursery cubicles, a babysitting centre, guest rooms and medical and entertainment facilities. That is besides a retinue of armed guards. The juvenile explanation given for this preposterous proposal to skyrocket Odinga’s remuneration package is that he ‘deserves’ to be on the same salary scale as the UK’s Gordon Brown, Canada’s Stephen Harper, Australia’s Kevin Rudd and other countries’ prime ministers!

We sub-Saharan folks have a terribly incurable problem governing ourselves.

Which kind of leader raises his salary and allowances and constructs a mansion for himself when 10 million of his people are starving? Odinga is nothing but Kibaki B. False change is worse than no change at all!

Bosire Mosi,
United States

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