Julian Mwine's Blog

So, James Gandolfini is dead . Ordinarily an American actor's death would mean nothing more for me than a few minutes on the news and I'd be back to whatever I was doing. However, Gandolfini's passing triggered some personal memories. No, no, I didn't know "Tony Soprano" personally. However, 5 years ago I moved to Beijing where I was to live for almost a year and the first few weeks were quite lonely because I had just moved into a sparsely furnished apartment with no TV or anything I could pass time with and I had no friends. I bought a used laptop shortly after and one day as I was going home I came across a street vendor with all Six seasons of the Sopranos (which had just wrapped up a few months before). I cannot say I was a fan of the show having only watched a the first few episodes of season one on DSTV around 7 years earlier, but it was the only one he had in English and I was really not looking forward to another night in an empty flat with only...

These days its hard to open a newspaper, watch TV or traverse the information superhighway without coming across an article or blog post praising IT and what a positive impact it has on business the world over or how information technology is literally capable of solving most of the problems known to man. However, despite the undeniable importance of IT in today’s world, sometimes the role (and importance) of IT seems to be overstated for different reasons and in a number of ways. A graphical representation of the Digital Access Index.  See how poorly Africa is  doing (Source: International Telecommunications Union) The rapid growth of IT and ICT use has led to a digital divide between those who have and those who do not have access to IT facilities and services especially in the poorest parts of the world. While the importance of IT is being discussed, it is worthwhile to realise that in some situations only a small section of the population can access this IT and thus ...

Victoria University Kampala The controversial anti-homosexuality bill before the Ugandan parliament has claimed more collateral damage. The latest victims of this bill are the students of Victoria University in Kampala whose academic future is uncertain after the  University of Buckingham  in the UK has suspended its validation of Victoria University degrees because it is becoming  "increasingly concerned about the proposed legislation in Uganda on homosexuality and in particular the constraints on freedom of speech". The full University of Buckingham statement reads: Over the last few months, the University of Buckingham has been in discussions with our partners, Edulink, who own Victoria University in Kampala, Uganda, about our continued validation of some of Victoria University’s courses. We have both become increasingly concerned about the proposed legislation in Uganda on homosexuality and in particular the constraints on freedom of speech in this...

The Uganda Law Society  website has been hacked by  Anonymous , a Hacktivist group that has made a name for itself over the past few years, who claim they want to bring to the world's attention to the Uganda government's violations of human rights specifically in relation to some pending anti-gay legislation . "We have gone to the trouble of compromising the Ugandan Law Society's webserver to bring to your attention, and to the attention of the world, your government's gross breaches of human rights and justice"   The group had released a statement last year threatening some kind of action against Uganda government's network infrastructure and they have followed through by exploiting a vulnerability in the ULS website's security (which they cheekily pointed out). Ironically, the target chosen for the first attack happens to be one of those organisations at the forefront of fighting the anti-homosexuality bill that is before the parliament of...

I spent yesterday trying to write a post on my views on Invisible Children's   KONY 2012 video that has gone viral and garnered millions of views (38,430181 on YouTube as I write this). More specifically, I wanted to write about what I thought was wrong with both the approach of the film-makers and the way people without the slightest clue about the LRA (besides the misinformation gleaned from KONY 2012) were taking up the Stop Kony cause with such fervour. However, Twitter could not let me do that in peace because almost every 5  minutes I received links to articles and blog posts reacting to the Invisible Children campaign. Posts like this one by Michael Wilkerson guest posting at Foreign Policy , and this post by  Ugandan blogger Angelo Izama are just two of the many that are out there echoing my feelings.  There is also this video from Ugandan blogger Rosebell Kagumire As a result I feel what I had to say has ...

After the resignation of Minister for the Presidency, Kabakumba Matsiko, from cabinet over accusations of abuse of office and causing the government financial loss while she was Minister of Information, following the police's discovery that a radio station she owned (Kings FM in Masindi) was using a mast and transmitter that belonged to UBC, I thought that there would be no more stories on stolen masts and other misused UBC equipment. However, this week the media reported that 35 more cabinet ministers were to be probed for abuse of public resources (read using UBC equipment and services without paying) and it is starting to look like Kabakumba’s case might be the rule rather than the exception. Two thoughts came to my mind when I reflected on the media stories: The UBC must have acquiesced to its equipment being used for free (despite the official line saying those using UBC equipment without paying were doing so by colluding with some lowly employees) Are there any op...