Thursday, June 28, 2007

LINKING COMMUNITIES IN UGANDA WITH THE OUTSIDE WORLD

Linking Communities in Uganda with the outside world
E-mail
Links between Uganda and the UK are numerous.Can they be encouraged, developed and supported?

In the 1980s, different communities, towns and villages, schools, local authorities, churches, community-based organisations, commercial organisations and others in the UK began to explore the potential for developing partnerships with counterparts in the developing world or the South, as common discourse has it.

In response to this interest, UK One World Linking Association www.ukowla.org.uk was formed in 1984 as an umbrella support agency. Over the past 20 years, UKOWLA has provided a newsletter, conferences and workshops in UK, Africa and Europe and, in particular, the opportunity for partners in the South to dictate the terms of these relationships.

Southern partners are clear that these partnerships are about mutual support, reciprocal visits and learning for action at both ends of the relationship. We live in a global society and first hand knowledge of different cultures and faiths can help to bring about greater security both internationally and also within diverse societies in the countries involved.


The market town of Marlborough in rural Wiltshire, an all-white community of 7,000 people has had a 23 year partnership with the Muslim fishing community of Gunjur in The Gambia with a population of 12,500 people. The relationship has involved the exchange of 800 people between the two communities, living in each other’s homes, an integrated development programme (pre-school education, literacy for women, micro-credit, business education, water and sanitation, health education) and an education programme in rural England based on the knowledge of The Gambia that has been accumulated over the years.

Teachers from Wiltshire make study visits to Gunjur to learn about that community and bring that learning back into their schools. It’s a real partnership based on a written memorandum of understanding and clear strategy worked out between the two communities. But it has also enhanced relations between Christians and Muslims in Wiltshire and The Gambia as the knowledge of Islam and Christianity has increased amongst people in both communities.

Many schools in the UK have partnerships with Ugandan schools either through the Department for International Development’s Global School Partnerships (DGSP) programme led by the British Council www.britishcouncil.org/globalschools or through Link Community Development www.lcd.org.uk.

School partnerships are a vital means of introducing children to a wider world, to global issues, to different cultures and faiths. These schools partnerships can develop through the medium of the internet, through letters and exchange programmes. They provide a wonderful opportunity for the international dimension to be brought into all areas of the curriculum, whether through music, religious education, languages, science or mathematics.In November 2004, a conference was held at John Kyrle Secondary School in Ross-on-Wye, UK, linked to Kisiki College, Namatumba in Uganda. It was organised by UKOWLA.

It provided a wonderful opportunity for people from all over UK representing local authorities, schools towns, Church groups and in particular Ugandans living in UK, to get together to share experiences, to network, to discuss common issues and to move forward in the knowledge that there are so many others involved in these crucial partnerships for mutual benefit.
(Conference report available from UKOWLA at £5.00 including postage and packing).

UKOWLA is here to give advice and support. It is not a grant-giving organisation and cannot act as a “marriage brokering service” between communities that are thinking of linking. But it can point you in the direction of where to find schools and communities that might be interested in forming a link and it can also provide advice about underlying principles.

UKOWLA is particularly keen to hear from Ugandans living in the UK who have structured connections to their communities at home that could be built on and supported by others in UK.

Linking communities is an exciting and important adventure. Let’s all do it!!
Nick MauriceDirector, UKOWLA
.bl {background: url(http://www.thepromota.co.uk/components/com_magazine/layouts/images/bl.gif) 0 100% no-repeat #eeeeee; }
.br {background: url(http://www.thepromota.co.uk/components/com_magazine/layouts/images/br.gif) 100% 100% no-repeat}
.tl {background: url(http://www.thepromota.co.uk/components/com_magazine/layouts/images/tl.gif) 0 0 no-repeat}
.tr {background: url(http://www.thepromota.co.uk/components/com_magazine/layouts/images/tr.gif) 100% 0 no-repeat; padding:10px}
.clear {font-size: 1px; height: 1px}

Comments (1) >>

THE FORMER PRESIDENT AL-HAJI IDI AMIN DADA FOUNDATIONwritten by ALEMI AMONYE JUNIOR, June 29, 2007Re The Promota. thank thank you for for magazine front page. Emailed to me. great job you are doing to promote African cultures around the globe. keep the good work. check my blogs. http://alemiamonyeblogspot.com/ theres alot of stories about the late, our beloved father, Al-Haji Idi Amin Dada. go through and select what you would like to include to your magazines. like families group photos, also check this website. created by my young brother, Jaffar Remo s/o Idi Amin Dada. http://www.idiamindada.com/ my regards to all Mr.Alemi Amonye Junior & Family in Vancouver Western Canada. June. 28, 2007.
Write comment

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

PRESIDENT IDI AMIN WAS A GREAT LEADER

As Uganda celebrates Heroe's Day today, let me tell you something. I've passionately read everything I've come across on former Ugandan leader Idi Amin Dada, and have perhaps watched every movie there is about him. And I've been repulsed and fascinated by all.In one of the films I watched as a young boy, I'll never forget that giant of a man feeding on raw human flesh. And in The Last King of Scotland, I grimace every time I think of Dr. Galligan's haunting screams as heavy metal hooks are pushed through his chest as Amin watches.These scenes paint a gruesome Amin as he has been presented over time. He's said to have employed barbaric means to hound his enemies. By the time he fled to exile in 1979, he allegedly had killed 3,000,000 people and fed their bodies to crocodiles. These figures have since been strongly disputed.But the worst accusation remains the 1977 assassination of the then Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Jonan Luwum. Apparently, he had refused to sign a document confessing the church's plot to dethrone the miltary leader. Amin himself, it is alleged, fired seven bullets into Luwum's hapless body using his American cowboy revolver.Tellingly, there are few works of literature that project Amin as an honest and hardworking man who defied the odds to become the "Lord of the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and conqueror of the British Empire in general and Uganda in particular".Few seem to want to emphasize that the Kakwa boy had little in formal education because he was born in poverty. That he was happy working in a sugarcane plantation until he was forced into the army and served in the Kings African Rifles, a British colonial regiment, where he rose to become Effendi, the highest possible rank for an African.For his outstanding performance and integrity, he was promoted to Army Chief of Staff by Milton Obote. And when he seized power, he encouraged Ugandans to work with determination. Uganda was praised for having more women managers than no other African country.He wanted Africa for Africans. His telegram to Kenyan founding President Jomo Kenyatta (1973) in which he acknowledged that "until the economic control of newly independent states is achieved by its rightful citizens, political independence can be rendered meaningless by neo-colonialist machinations", is testimony to this.Many army officers early in his career were Scottish. He performed in the Highlanders band in the 1950s and loved Scottish military music. This has something to do why he was called "The Last King of Scotland" (someone educate me).He called Richard Nixon "my dear brother" and wished him well during the Watergate scandal. He sent a telegram to Julius Nyerere that said, "I want to assure you that I love you very much, that if you were a woman I would have considered marrying you". Long after his death (2003), Uganda continues to reap big from his friendship with Libyan leader Muammad Gaddafi.Further, he gave full economic independence to the people of Uganda after expelling 80.000 Asians. His attempted Islamisation of the country was aimed at uniting a citizenry that are known to tear each other on religious grounds.Without doubt, Amin was larger than life. Uganda enjoyed sporting glory in his time. "Big Daddy", as he was fondly known, was himself an envied rally driver, swimmer, basketball player, wrestler and a boxer who advised national boxers to "do everything possible to win by a knockout" to avoid being cheated in the ring.The documentary, General Idi Amin: A Self Portrait (1974), shows him as a true revolutionary who wanted to unite Arabs and Asians and the world. His dream was to see African Americans ruling America because they wereforcefully taken there. He wanted Swahili, French and Arabic as the languages of the world.He was brutally honest: "Spy is a criminal. To be spy is very bad. And your case is death," he once told his cabinet. "Your duty is not to be very weak. If I see a minister is a coward I kick him out completely. This I must completely make clear. A minister is a person who can make decisions completely not to wait for Gen. Amin."Jolly, he was. He played his accordion and bopped to Kakwa traditional music like everybody. He loved his wives, children and nature. He used to visit Kabalega Falls National Park to have good times with crocodiles, elephants and hippos. Reflect: would Amin have thought of giving part of the national forest to investors to plant sugarcane?Although he has been put in the same league with Adolf Hilter as one of the most evil leaders of out time, I feel he possessed some very good attributes for which he must be remembered, on Heroes Day today.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

IDI AMIN DADA ALEMIs FOUNDATION

In Memory of our late Father, the former president of the republic of uganda. Alhaji Idi Amin Dada who ruled uganda since 1971 up to 1979. we your children created this website to remember you, and the good things you did for uganda. read more about our beloved father from another website also created by my young brother, Jaffar Remo for both our father, and our grand father Amin Nyabire. our father died in in August. 16-2003 at king faisal hospital, & buried Aug. 16-2003 in Jeddah Soudi Arabia. read more Info by clicking on the web. here. http://www.idiamindada.com/Al-Amin_Foundation.html http://ugandan-community.blogspot.com/ http://ugandan-communityinvancouverblogspo.blogspot.com/ http://ugandan-community.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html http://www.newspaperindex.com/ dady you will always remains in our hearts forever. we missed you. our prayers. May almighty allah rest your soul in eternal peace aamin. From Mr.and Mrs. Mariam Alemi Amonye Junior & Family, In Vancouver Western Canada. peace,love,unity is a road to success.