NGO WORK
CIVIC Space Onslaught: Have Ugandan NGOs grown to be feared and discriminated by a 31 year old regime in power?
By Witnessradio.org Team
Ugandan NGOs are struggling to convince government that they are not opponents but rather partners who exist to bridge political, social and economic gaps in the country. Apparently, 25 NGOs have been listed and experienced direct threats from government ordering them to disclose their source of funding among other things. http://witnessradio.org/push-back-time-ngos-in-uganda-to-tackle-governments-direct-attack-on-their-work/
Following several successful campaigns including Blank Monday http://www.actionaid.org/uganda/black-monday-newsletters that exposed corruption in government agencies and ministries, the government is on tenterhooks since the controversial age limit constitutional amendment took off. Article 102 (b)1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda sets 75 years age limit for any president, which makes the current president Museveni who has been in power for the last 31 years a victim.
Three NGOs namely; http://www.actionaid.org/uganda, http://gliss.org/ and http://1.uhuruinstitute.org/ have been raided by police and security agencies, equipment and documents confiscated, staff interrogated and frozen accounts among others on grounds that these NGOs and others are financing opposition political activities and are engaged in money laundering.
In a joint statement issued on 24th/10/2017, NGOs are demanding that government stop forthwith its current intimidation and attack on civic organizations. “We call out the responsible institutions of the state which have participated and continue to participate in the constriction of civic and political space…we shall seek to hold them accountable for their actions” The statement reads in part.
The organizations also appealed to Ugandans to reclaim, defend, expand and create civic and political space through multiple avenues available.
In an exclusive interview with witnessradio.org, the executive director Action Aid Uganda Arthur Larok said that The narrowing of the civic space has been an incremental process that featured among others the enactment of repressive laws like the public order management Act, Anti pornography Act, Computer misuse Act, Anti money laundering Act, Anti homosexuality Act, NGO Act and the Anti sectarian law. He says such laws effectively criminalize dissent, rollback the constitutionally protected freedoms of assembly, association, expression, peaceful protest and establish a police state.
The organizations also underscored the fact that as citizen actors they make enormous contribution towards economic progress and social development as well as awaken citizen agency and consciousness.
Speaking during a joint press conference, the organizations appealed to the donor community and development partners to respect the legitimate initiatives that citizens have come up with and steer clear of stifling them merely because of the funding and support they extend to them.
“We publicly invite the attention of the donor community to the fact that Uganda is currently under a constitutional crisis whose solutions must come from the citizens and not elsewhere”
The organizations also distanced themselves from allegations of illicit financial transactions including money laundering, subversion and terrorism financing. They challenged the line ministries, of finance, internal affairs, justice and constitutional affairs and other subordinate institutions like police to publish the findings from their investigations into the said activities.
The joint statement has been confirmed with over 100 signatures from different activists across the country.
Click to NGOs’ Statement
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NGO WORK
The Great “Green” Heist: When Artificial Intelligence and Arms Dealers Seize the Minerals of the South
By Franck Zongwe Lukama, Congolese journalist and researcher, leads the independent media KilaloPress in DRC.
We were sold a simple equation: to save the planet, we must dig. Dig faster, deeper, extracting from the earth the cobalt, lithium, or copper needed for solar panels and electric vehicles. Yet, this climate rescue rhetoric conceals a staggering statistical deception. Today, 70% of global demand for critical minerals does absolutely nothing to support the energy transition. These resources end up in aerospace, communication technologies, and, above all, weaponry. Sectors that, ironically, exacerbate the global ecological crisis. The green revolution has become the perfect smokescreen, the moral veneer for a very different kind of war.
Far from the promises of sustainable development touted by the World Bank, the current scramble is driven by a strict logic of geopolitical power. A damning report from the California-based Oakland Institute exposes this global scheme. The report reveals an unprecedented and formidable convergence of interests between the American military-industrial complex and the giants of Silicon Valley. With the Pentagon openly pivoting toward a combat strategy focused on artificial intelligence (AI), securing supply chains is no longer a matter of ecology, but a question of survival in the face of Chinese influence. The United States is not seeking to reduce carbon emissions; it is seeking to guarantee its technological and military supremacy.
The real winners of this frantic race wear suits far removed from environmental activism. Trillions of dollars are flowing into new alliances that intertwine AI-driven mining companies, like KoBold Metals—backed by billionaires such as Bill Gates—and companies specializing in cutting-edge defense technologies, like Palantir and Anduril, not to mention the networks of influence close to the Trump family. For these players, the discourse of climate emergency acts as a powerful public relations tool. It justifies massive and accelerated extraction that would otherwise provoke international outrage.
Local communities and Indigenous populations find themselves on the frontlines, forced to resist an extraction machine that has the audacity to justify their suffering by claiming it is necessary to save the world.
And the price of this hypocrisy is being paid in full throughout the Global South. In the Rubaya hills, in the Kolwezi copper belt, as in the Indigenous territories of Latin America and Asia, the promise of “prosperity” translates into a terrifyingly familiar tragedy. Land grabbing, forced displacement, devastating groundwater pollution: the plundering of ecosystems and human lives is accelerating. Local communities and Indigenous populations find themselves on the frontlines, forced to resist an extraction machine that has the audacity to justify their suffering by claiming it is necessary to save the world. Today, opposing the destruction of one’s village by a multinational mining company risks being accused of hindering the fight against climate change. The rhetorical trap is devastatingly effective.
The long-term consequences of this diversion are alarming. The exponential surge in demand generated by future AI data centers, mass surveillance, and global rearmament will mathematically deplete available reserves. Every ton of copper, nickel, or cobalt consumed by combat drones or algorithmic data processing servers is a ton diverted from the production of renewable energy infrastructure. We are not equipping the energy transition; we are cannibalizing it to militarize our future.
We are not equipping the energy transition; we are cannibalizing it to militarize our future.
If no strict regulations are put in place to curb this rampant mining frenzy, hundreds of new mines will spring up in the coming years, causing irreversible damage on an unprecedented scale. The question facing citizens today, from Kinshasa to Washington, is no longer whether we will have enough minerals to save our atmosphere. It is why we are willing to sacrifice millions of lives and destroy our lands to fuel next-generation algorithms and weapons. In ten years, when the Global South is nothing more than a vast crater serving a militarized hyper-technology, it will be too late to realize that the planet was never the priority.
Photos: Artisanal Coltan – manganese – cobalt mining in Mudere mine under control of Nyatura militia, town of Rubaya, North Kivu region (Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa). Erberto Zani – stock.adobe.com
Source: oaklandinstitute.org/
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NGO WORK
No Heritage Without its People: Why Ngorongoro Cannot be a World Heritage Site and an Eviction Zone
The Tanzanian government, under the guise of “conservation,” restricts Maasai livelihoods and denies access to essential services forcing Indigenous residents away from their ancestral lands and turning their heritage into a playground for safari tourists.
As the 48th Session of the World Heritage Committee begins July 19, UNESCO continues to legitimize the continued forced displacement of the Maasai from Ngorongoro. If UNESCO cannot ensure that the World Heritage designation protects the rights of its Indigenous custodians, then the Committee must remove the Ngorongoro Conservation Area from the World Heritage List.
Increased international pressure is imperative to hold UNESCO accountable and protect the lives and rights of the Maasai!
Read our Open Letter to the World Heritage Committee.
Source: oaklandinstitute.org
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