What have we learned today from the Rukungiri By-Election?

A historic day: Besigye could vote without being arrested afterwards!

There has been a contested Woman Member of Parliament Seat for the polls today in Rukungiri District. It has been like always in the recent years, massive sides of Military Police, Soldiers occuping the streets and also detaining plenty of Forum for Democratic Change leaders and activists. Because that is the Modus Operandi of Musevenism. The National Resistance Movement (NRM) lack of mission and tact comes to the forefront every time there is an election. Especially contested by elections like these.

That the FDC are under heavy weather is natural, as they are main opposition party and showing no remorse on the affect of that, as they have campaigned and camped in the district. Brought all the big-men and the ones that is significantly differs from the NRM. While the NRM has used over 10 billions and used loads of funds on SACCOs, NAADs and whatnot in the district. Not to talk about voter tourism and other ventures to gain popularity. The President also rallied behind their candidate. Therefore, the stakes are high, but is the payoff really worth all of this?

Is the assault on freedom, liberty and electioneering worth all of this for single Woman MP seat? Is that the message NRM is sending? They will come with an army like they were trying to both LRA and ADF-NALU, also coming with police whose job is to securing the polling stations, but instead arrests polling agents from FDC. Because what else could they be doing.

What is also significant about this election, is how there are little or no presence of media. The local media is clearly muffled with and silenced. NTV Uganda and NBS Television are sending other shows, that actually following the By-Election. Just think about that for minute… another minute and no someone ordered that. Just like they did on Age Limit. Silence and shut up. They are censoring themselves from being on the ground and pounding on the locals. To see what is really up.

We shouldn’t be surprised if the Electoral Commission and the rigging is in high gear. Since the Police and Military was there securing their efforts. They are afraid that the bribes and use of intimidation wasn’t enough to get the NRM Candidate into office. The NRM couldn’t win a fair fight, they have to rig to win. We have seen that since they had to use the state machinery and the handshakes to local community projects to ghosts.

All DR Forms have been delivered and the FDC has the copies. But the EC is awaiting to able to release the real numbers. Seemingly as they could be cooking. That is well-known, they have tried this before, even as the reasonable outcome would be slim victory of the FDC candidate. But the NRM doesn’t want to lose after bribing and usage of the army.

There also been reports of jamming of the phone-line and trouble with mobile data, meaning they are trying to make a black-out locally in Rukungiri District. That wouldn’t be new from the NRM, but the long delays of results and official numbers. Shows that the EC is cooking the books and trying to forge something, that with the media silence isn’t a strong suit. More weakness and intimidation.

All indications and the real numbers are swayed in for the FDC. But if the state rigs, than the NRM wins. They have used a fortune and put a lot into play. So it would be humiliating to lose. That means even the machinery isn’t enough to beat the supposed MP.

We have to wait for the official result. But be aware, they could be cooked. All provision results during the aftermath of the polls was in favor of the FDC candidate, so if it changes significantly, expect some ghosts and some polling stations now one knew existed before the election came into affect. Peace.

Opinion: Trump impose tariffs on Steel & Aluminum from the EU, another proof that the world cannot trust the US anymore!

The world doesn’t need enemies, it already have Trump, President Trump. He doesn’t care and shows no tact, no mercy and no sort of dialogue. That is proven again. Now that he has over night decided to impose tariffs on Aluminum and Steel from the European Union (EU). It is like Trump wants the US to be alone in the world. That is what he is getting closer to every single day.

When your not making sure the friends of United States gets to trade with reasonable tariffs, then who do you let do that? Why does the United States think they are so special that they can hit another continent like nothing. This is just like they pulled out of the Paris Agreement on the Climate, as the US don’t want to part of the global fight against climate change. We also seen the US has pulled out of the Iran agreement, making things worse in the Middle East. That is done while the US Embassy was moved to Jerusalem and weapons delivered to Saudi Arabia. This is all decisions that makes the world more fragile and hits the nerves of the regions.

Now, the EU is imposed tariffs, which are done because of Trump’s imaginary vision of supremacy, instead he is losing end. As people knows with every day, they cannot trust the United States. Even Angela Merkel said that during April 2018. There is more and more proof, that the world cannot trust Trump and the US Government. It is erratic and unstable, it is a house of cards.

President Trump policies are short-sighted and without vision of consequences. The US will not salvage this industry, this will just make the products made with this more expensive before the industry get better sights and hired more educated people to work in the industry. You cannot just build steel mills over night and nether have the educated engineers like that too. This isn’t making copyrights on random products, this is actually producing and making them.

I don’t think that Trump knows this, he thinks of ancient ways and wants to be Cesar and rule everything without any consequences. But Trump should know that the EU will react to this, they will put reactionary tariffs on products and American goods valued the same as the industries they hit in the EU. So that the different partners are making sure the Americans get to feel it too.

The US should know, that all of this doesn’t make friends, but more people looking at them and mind boggling thinking. The US Government, we cannot trust or really count on. They are just using everyone and making sure the rest is hit. While the US wants to get away without any responsibility. But the reality will hit them, when the EU answers with imposing tariffs on US goods too. That would be a natural reaction. Hopefully hit a nerve with the President and his allies. Since that was what the EU planned in the past to answer it.

Let’s see how this goes. But it is not a good look. Only making things more hostile and letting the world know. The US cannot be trusted, they are misusing their position and will only make the global diplomacy harder. Peace.

Draft Communique of the 62nd Extra-Ordinary Session of IGAD Council of Ministers on the Situation in South Sudan (31.05.2018)

Uganda is still not ready for IMF’s PCI!

“The Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) is a non-financing tool open to all members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It enables them to signal commitment to reforms and catalyze financing from other sources. The establishment of the PCI is part of the Fund’s broader effort to strengthen the global financial safety net—a network of insurance and loan instruments that countries can draw on if confronted with a crisis.” (International Monetary Funds – ‘IMF Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) 26.07.2017).

This here is really spelling out the missing dots in the budget and monetary policy wise, as the IMF has concluded a visit, but told that certain aspects are missing. Even explaining that the Republic have to be careful about borrowing money. As the Republic tend to do these days for all sorts of projects and building infrastructure all around the country. However, the IMF isn’t praising Uganda, the IMF is telling what it needs, if they want to be part of the PCI. That is important, because being part of that, then the state will have systems and ways to gain outside sources of funding and also safety mechanisms in the needs of rainy days. Therefore, following this program would be healthy for the economy, but will the National Resistance Movement and President Museveni comply to this? Would they?

“The authorities have made progress in setting economic policy objectives for FY18/19 and the medium-term. Fiscal policy seeks to keep public debt at a sustainable level which requires raising tax collection and prioritizing spending needs, while protecting key infrastructure projects and social expenditures. Monetary policy targets core inflation of 5 percent. Bank of Uganda aims to maintain international reserves at 4 to 4½ months of imports. Structural reforms would focus on revenue mobilization, public financial and investment management, reducing domestic arrears, enhancing financial sector stability and development, and putting in place the remaining elements of the framework for managing future oil revenues. The mission reached agreement on many key elements of a possible 3-year program under the Policy Coordination Instrument, but further progress in some areas is still needed. Once the FY18/19 budget has been approved as agreed, the mission could resume discussions” (International Monetary Funds – ‘International Monetary Fund (IMF) Staff Concludes Visit to Uganda’ 31.05.2018).

It isn’t the first time the IMF and World Bank says there policies and monetary programs needs changes, needs to be amended and fixed, so it is safer. This is something that always comes back. The NRM are clearly not listening or interested in listening. They are pre-occupied with the handshakes of the State House and the insider trading that they like to do. Not have accountability and transparency, because then all the tools of the shed is in the open. President Museveni doesn’t want his ghosts, his fake projects and his forged paperwork to be in the open. That would hurt his pride and also humiliate him. That is the reality of it all.

Therefore, the state has a long walk ahead still, even with the new revenue sources, as they are not considering the implications yet on the public. Just more revenue for revenues sake, but not how hard the new taxes really will have. They will hurt the public and the poorest the most. Nevertheless, they are not a concern for the state; they are more bargain chips for needed donor funds anyway.

President Museveni will not be interested in opening the books and showing the reality. We know that, therefore the PCI will not introduced shortly, neither will the accountability or transparency change either. It is not in his interest to revolutionize that. Then he would humiliate himself, which he only does to Opposition leaders, not to himself. Peace.

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Uganda: The lowest paid civil servants would be hit by the Social Media Tax, up to about 20% of their total yearly salary!

You know that is wrong, when the state is issuing taxes that is insane. This is really banishing the poorest from certain aspects of life. By the time of November 2017, the lowest paid salaries for certain government employees are yearly about 250,000 shillings likes the U8 Local Government Workers. Others are the likes of U7 Primary School Teachers about 380,000 shillings. These are the lowest paid staff in and around in the Republic. Meaning this will be hit by the newly minted taxes that the state has imposed today in Parliament. This being the Excise Duty Amendment Bill 2018. These are on all different aspect of life and on needed services, products that people need, that will all become more expensive.

The reports said this about it!

“Parliament has passed the Excise Duty Amendment bill 20l8 by imposing one percent tax on every mobile money transaction and 200 shillings on social media. The tax measures approved by parliament are close to 1 trillion shillings and government argues that they will help in improving the tax base of the country” (Mbarara Sun, 2018).

“The approval implies that each person using platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Viber and Skype among others, will be subjected to a daily levy of 200 Shillings while each mobile money transaction will be subjected to a 1 percent excise duty. The government is projecting to collect 284 billion Shillings from the measures” (Open Gate FM, 30.05.2018).

There are also some that has calculated it be costing the citizen up to 70,000 shillings on a given year, as the person has to pay the 200 shillings for the use. That will happen from the 1^st January 2019. If that is so. Out of the lowest salary, if your paying the total on the Social Media Tax, you will go from 250k to 180k. That is 28% of the salary paying for being on social media alone. That is the poorest of the poor, the salaries which is usually not on time and they are even not getting by. They are the ones that is closed out of the new services and places for information like the Social Media. This is shutting out the poorest from the Social Media, this is only making sure the elite and wealthy can log-on, but the rest will not afford it.

Who wants to use 20% of their salary to go on Facebook, Twitter, Viber and WhatsApp? Who wants to do that? Will people use the VPN to not show their IP Addresses to still come into the Social Media Accounts without paying for the barrier that the Republic has put forward.

This is really making sure the society and space of voices sounding disconcern on social media and in general on the internet. This is closing the web for the poorest. Taking a bargain of about 20% of their check in big swoop. I just wonder how they will enforce this and how they will monitor all accounts, all the log-ins and the grand issue of technical framework to put in place within the spectrum of 6 months too.

It is not like the same state together with the Mobile Industry was able to roll-out the registered Sim-Cards and whatnot over the last two years. It has been hectic, a charade and a mess. It hasn’t been professional or sincere, there been backpedaling and all sort of fatigue within the system. You cannot say the Sim-Card saga was smooth. Then you look into all the government organizations and the orders, which went back- and forth.

Time will tell how the state will enforce this one, this is not just adding a tax, but also the software and the addition of systems on the Mobile Phones. If they all have to be updated and get agreements for payment walls on the Social Media Apps and such. Will that also be on the Computers and whatnot? What is the legal framework that puts this in? Other than the 200 shillings per day!

We should really get people to address the 70k shillings a year possibly, that is lot of money. For some about 20% of their salary. That is just too much for browsing on their phone and looking at what Maureen made for dinner and what Steve wrote about Mao. But that is just what the National Resistance Movement (NRM) are doing.

200 shillings is really nothing, but when you take the whole piece of the puzzle collectively, just imagine all the other taxes put in this bills too. Are they taking 9 slices of the bread and leaving one behind to the taxpayer. Is that what the state is trying to do? Since they are already just on the Social Media Tax alone on the poorest civil servants and the local government workers who cannot afford to go there, because they have to decide to pay rent, food or school payments. Because when this is becoming this much of the salaries. You know just know this hurts the people in general.

This isn’t funny. This is serious. This is theft of the opportunities for the poorest in society. Peace.

Reference:

Mbarara Sun – ‘Parliament Endorses Tax On Social Media, Mobile Money’ 30.05.2018 link: http://mbararasun.com/index.php/2018/05/30/parliament-endorses-tax-on-social-media-mobile-money/

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You don’t won’t it with Push!

“How could you ever right these wrongs/ When you don’t even write your songs?/ But let us all play along/ We all know what niggas for real been waitin’ on/ Push” – Pusha T on Infared (Daytona, 2018)

Man, this rap battle between Drake and Pusha T has shown more character and flair on wax, than in years. It is like revival of character and of disses. The down low and nice talk is over. Pusha T from the Clipse is showing class and higher altitude than the most. He is not afraid to go against Drake, the Cash Money, Young Money rapper, who’s been on top of the game for the last few years.

People and commentators was saying, waiting for a response after the Duppy Freestyle, that Pusha was over with and that Drake had won the thing. However, with the latest track, certainly Drake has to come with something really profound and deep. Not to be upset, but really angry. He has to show a vicious side he hasn’t shown before. And that is not him, Drake is a soft and mellow character, who bitch about woman who doesn’t text quickly enough. Drake isn’t a gangster or a hard-core persona. That isn’t him and he should live with that, just like Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino is doing. It is okay, but don’t try to front on someone like Pusha, he will call you out and he did on ‘The Story of Adidon’.

“I really shouldn’t have given you none of my time/’Cause you older than the nigga you runnin’ behind/Look, holla at me when you multi-million/I told you keep playin’ with my name and I’ma let it ring on you/Like Virginia Williams” – Drake on ‘Duppy Freestyle’ (2018)

That the ‘Duppy Freestyle’ was a positive response to the ‘Infrared’ from the Daytona LP. However, Drake has to come something more unique and show other tools to take down the recent track. As the revelations and the stories are so shoddy, that the meekest turns into their dark-side.

Pusha T has the upper-hand, he has shown even with waiting for three days, that he could answer Drake. It was seemingly like the battles between Nelly and KRS-One, that the one with the biggest machinery would win, in this instance Drake, as he has the Cash Money and the giant fan-base compared to Pusha T and Good Music. However, now it seems like a open playing field. As the exposure and the title is exposing a naked truth that Drake doesn’t want out or has tried to hide. That is really going all out, but that was in response of mocking Pusha T’s fiancé. Clearly, that backfired. Backfired with all cylinders.

Because now you see the significant difference between them, as Pusha goes directly at Drake, he is not attacking Birdman or Lil Wayne, which is still done in passing. As the knowledge of the messed up practices between the artists and the label is well documented at this point. That is why Birdman has to answer all the litigations and the label-mates leaving because of the practices done there.

“We talkin’ character, let me keep with the facts/You are hiding a child, let that boy come home/Deadbeat mothafucka, playin’ border patrol, ooh/Adonis is your son/And he deserves more than an Adidas press run, that’s real/Love that baby, respect that girl/Forget she’s a pornstar, let her be your world, yuugh!” – Pusha T on ‘Story of Adidon’ (2018).

Pusha T answered it all and fired back. This will hard to come back from and answer too. As the reality is the exposure and stories told on Adidon is showing a character side of Drake, that isn’t the heartthrob, but a dead-beat-dad and in this day and age. That is not a good look. It has never been a good look, especially when your supposed to be as wealthy and successful as Drake. That he cannot spend his time with his kid and acknowledge his seed. That is really hurting the pride of Drake and his camp should feel it. But that is because he mocked Pusha for being engaged to someone, like that was a bad thing. By the way, I don’t get why that is bad.

After this sort of affair, what did really ‘Duppy’ have? Right? Not much, other than hype, just like if you would read the bar for bar fight between KRS and Nelly from the early 2000s. It would feel like repeat. What Drake should have known, that Pusha will go all out and not stop at anything. He is no Meek Mill, he is a pure lyricists and that has been known for a long-long time. Proven by the recent joints.

So if he fires back, he has to go deep into the tool shed and really light a fire, but will Drake have it? I don’t know, but to go as hard as this, then your really digging deep. Sort of like Jay Z on ‘Super Ugly’ where he did say:

“Me and the boy A.I. got more in common than just balling and rhyming/Get it? More in Carmen/I came in your Bentley backseat, skeeted in your Jeep/Left condoms on your baby seat” – Jay Z on ‘Super Ugly’ (December 2001).

That is the next level for Drake. However, will he go there and does he dare to go there? Because that is the next step, that is the upgrade from Duppy and to be able to counter Pusha at this point. Peace.

Opinion: Why does the NRM have the need to create a war-zone over a by-election?

You can wonder, what sort of lack of talent, integrity and trust in your own population, when you have enforce the crowds, when you have to hire and order the army, military police and the police to a district where a by-election is appearing. You just know that the ruling regime suck at electioneering and also coming with solutions, as their final nail in coffin is to send guns, ammunition and a doze of fear. Because that is the way to sway the public a day ahead of the polls.

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) have no legitimacy and not transparent activity, they only have the methods of fear and bribes, and there is no policy or no person who’s trustworthy enough to not use the military to intimidate. Because this party has to use guns and ammunition to prove a point. Not try to come with reason or common sense, now you come like an invader and ready for warfare.

You could wonder if there was an election or if the place was under siege, if the NRM and the government was awaiting unknown militias or ghosts of the LRA at Rukungiri. They have done similar things in other by-elections. So they are at it again.

This isn’t breaking news, it is not shocking, it is the only way these fellows and this party can handle affairs. They can only order and hire guns, not talk or do business in other ways. It is special that a by-elections for one MPs to a Parliament is that important, that you have to use all parts of the Security Organizations and beat the message of insecurity to these levels. That the By-Elections looks like Mogadishu, because that is favourite scenery of the President.

There is no common sense in this by-election, only that the NRM are trying to grab a whole of something by any means without any proper justification and reason. It is like they have to grab the people with fear, because they know by this point, they have no solid reason for their existence. There isn’t any progress, anything visible or viable approach for them. It is only empty suits and presidential handshakes.

That is not a good look, when your been running the republic for over three decades. That you have to send the military to install fear to sway voters. That is just sinister, but also show the lack of respect from the rulers, that they are instead of being tolerable and understanding, they are coming with the big-guns and expect submission.

By doing so, the NRM are showing they have already lost. The plot doesn’t’ thickens, it is just weak mediocre soup with very little or no meat, just boiled water on stones added some spices to funk the soup up. When everyone knows it is paper-thin and not really tasty. That is the reality in this mess. Every party knows this. However, they try to act differently.

It is not working, how weak is your message and faith in your programs, that your sending the army to get people into submission? How little policies and little benefits have you given the public over the years, which you have to send guns to get them over to your side.

It is insulting, but that is the M.O. of the NRM. They are insulting people’s intelligence and their goodwill, they are insulting the barriers of trust and accountability, they are just eating and hoping no-one cares, but apparently they do. If not, they wouldn’t need to invade the Rukungiri district ahead of the polls tomorrow. Peace.