Paying taxes by sms, and other policies of a kind

As I did some quick research about Sweden before my journey to this Scandinavian country yesterday, I landed on this rather amusing information about the Swedish culture and government policies. Reading some of that information, presented unedited below, gave me the feeling this trip promises to be interesting - all three weeks of it.

Later, a report on the trip. For now, here is Sweden Unplugged: -

• From 2004, you can pay your Swedish taxes by sending an SMS message from your cell phone.
• The government sends you a completely filled out tax form and if it looks good you just go online and click okay to pay your taxes.
• Taxes are generally between 50 and 70 percent of your income. (Of course your employer already pays the full amount of your salary to the government in taxes before you even get anything.)
• Companies must lay off employees in first-in-last-out order when they are downsizing.
• You can take sick leave during your vacation if you are ill.
• Parents get a total of 13 months of paid maternity leave and the father is required to take at least 1 month of it. (There has been a discussion about changing this to 15 months and requiring the father and mother to each take 5 and then split the last 5 as they feel appropriate.)
• Parental leave can be used to take off time for parenting classes before your child is born.
• Parents can save up their maternity leave for more than 5 years (i.e., use it for doctor's appointments, school visit days, etc.).
• Daycare cost is based on your family income with a government imposed maximum. (Currently about 1/10th as much as in the U.S.!)
• If you have a new child, your other children get a month of free daycare so you can concentrate on the new one.
• All employees (including graduate students) get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.
• All employers (as of 2004) are required to provide free massage.
• Yearly car inspections include comprehensive safety checks as well as pollution controls.
• Car insurance is flat-rate depending on the deductibles (i.e., no "comprehensive" vs. "collision" vs. "uninsured" vs. "medical"), and liability insurance is not required.
• The transportation department of the Swedish government works actively to reduce the number of traffic deaths each year to zero. (Mainly by reducing the speed limits.)
• The government installs elk fences along the sides of large roads to prevent elk from wandering into traffic.
• There is no right turn on red.
• Multi-lane highways often merge in large roundabouts. (Although not as obnoxiously frequently as in England.)
• Any product you purchase is guaranteed for 1 year, and the retailer must exchange it if it fails in that time. (This includes things like clothes and shoes.)
• All non-military property that is not fenced in, or is not a farm or someone's personal garden is open to anyone for hiking through or camping for one night.
• Ice cream comes in blueberry and rhubarb flavors, and is never florescent. (Although the licorice ice cream can be coal black.)
• Roughly 20 percent of the country's police stations close during the summer since everyone is off on vacation.
• The sun rises at 3.30am in the summer.
• The sun sets at 3.30pm in the winter.
• Christmas is celebrated on the evening of the 24th. The father always goes out to buy a newspaper and while he is gone Santa arrives (in person) to deliver presents.
• Swedish university students are required to pay a membership fee in the student union, but no tuition.
• American textbooks are cheaper in Sweden than in the U.S..
• The government has made a political choice to shut down all nuclear power plants in the country for environmental reasons. This means Sweden is forced to import dirty coal-generated power from Poland to meet its needs.
• In Sweden IKEA is a cheap store, not a trendy store. (And they are only open until 8pm on special days.)
• Recycling is taken so seriously that one company (FTI) is trying to put up video cameras to make sure people sort their recyclables correctly. (June 2006)
• Privacy is taken so seriously that putting up video cameras in laundry rooms to catch vandals is illegal.
• Learning to speak Swedish is frustrating becaues everyone in Sweden already speaks better English than you will ever speak Swedish.
• On Easter children dress up as witches and go trick-or-treating.
• St. Lucia is a nationally celebrated saint (complete with baked goods and TV shows), and despite the fact that she is a saint because she tore out her own eyes to avoid being seduced by a man, little children dress up like her every winter.
• The largest ice cream restaurant in the country is located in the quaint little village of Söderköping, and sells creations that use dry ice to create bubbling smoking concoctions. No one is concerned about being sued if some foolish kid eats the dry ice.

An insult to the conscience of a nation (Cont’d)

After posting my last piece, I got thinking about some of the most callous things that some of our leaders do and get away with; the kind of things that would get them either impeached, sacked or – if they had some humility – to resign.

The most recent and most disturbing case was of Primary Education State Minister, Peter Lokeris, heartlessly telling parents whose children died in the Budo Junior inferno to go and produce more children since they were still young, rather than bothering the government to complete investigations and bring closure to the saga by producing a report on the real cause of the fire.

When a minister, who is supposed to ensure the safety of the children under his ministry, says something so senseless, one wonders whether we have a government committed to serving people or merely being in power and enjoying the privileges that come with it at the expense of the nation.

With Minister Lokeris yet to show any remorse several weeks since he made that statement, one would have expected some reaction from the President or his Prime Minister, who is the leader of government business in Parliament. However, the fact that they do not seem to see anything wrong with such statements is perhaps an indicator of the collective conscience of the government.

After all President Museveni, who has himself lately mastered the art of rubbing Ugandans the wrong way with some of his statements, sometimes doesn’t even need to say anything to show his selfish, heartless side.

When a president, soon after getting a newly spruced multi-billion shilling State House, then asks for a new multi-billion shilling presidential jet, and, as if that is not enough, even wants to keep the entire Old Entebbe Airport for himself, then the citizens are in trouble – especially because all of these demands from the big man come at a time when people in some parts of the country like Karamoja are dying of famine.

With leaders like these, can the long-suffering Uganda really get a worse enemy?

An insult to the conscience of a nation

How times (or is it people?) change. A decade ago, or thereabouts, Gen. David Tinyefuza was fighting for his very relevance in Ugandan politics. The man had broken ranks with his comrade President Museveni and attempted to resign from the army, only to be told by the Courts that he could not do so.

In a country where people always have a soft spot for the underdog in any battle, Gen Tinyefuza’s lone battle against a system that seemed to be bent on keeping him in the army against his will, won him a lot of sympathy from the public – never mind whether it was he or the system in the wrong.

After a protracted court battle, Gen Tinyefuza eventually lost out to the system and, after undergoing ‘rehabilitation’, mended fences with Museveni and returned to the NRA/M fold.

Whatever that rehabilitation comprised, it certainly changed Gen Tinyefuza; he tucked in his tail and has since been singing a tune that must sound like music to his master's ears - starting with his ‘apology’ to Museveni at a marriage ceremony of one of his children, in which he ridiculously claimed to have been misled.

Today, Gen Tinyefuza is one of the foremost defenders of some of the worst the excesses orchestrated by Museveni’s government. Museveni could as well set Uganda on fire and, while the country burns, Gen Tinyefuza will scamper out of the inferno and proclaim that all is well. Iraq's comical Ali wouldn't do a better job.

But even by his recent standards, this week’s declaration – while commenting on the arrest of three Buganda officials by the government – that under certain circumstances “some laws can even be suspended” was a new low.

Uganda still doesn’t have sufficient systems in place to defend the freedoms of its citizens, largely thanks to the selfish scheming of people like Gen Tinyefuza, but saying “some laws can be suspended” should surely open the eyes of many Ugandans to the fact that they are governed by people who are only interested in keeping themselves in power at all costs; not enabling Ugandans to enjoy their freedom.

Had such a statement been made by somebody in the opposition, it would have been enough to send them to the cooler on treason charges. However, because Gen Tinyefuza is part of the system in power – never mind that he is still a serving soldier who should ordinarily have no business delving into politics – he makes such an inflammatory statement and is not apprehended for it.

But Gen Tinyefuza, more than anyone else should know that times and people can change. Ten years ago, he was on the other side of the fence but today he is making all the reckless statements he wants with the protection of the system. Who knows, tables can once again turn.

If Tinyefuza is really interested in ensuring that the values and institutions that they claimed to have fought to restore in Uganda are indeed inculcated in this country’s political processes, then he should spend his time building them instead of insulting the nation and its people.

A question of pride

By this time two weeks ago, when I penned (or is it typed?) my last post, the Uganda Cranes were gearing for their first match of the 2010 World Cup qualifiers with lots optimism, if not assurance.

By the end of the day, they were three points to the good courtesy of a solitary goal from team captain Ibrahim Ssekajja against Niger. Like is always the case when the Cranes score, we sang our hearts out at Namboole, danced and waved our flags like crazy.

But the display was not ewe-inspiring. Deep in our hearts, we knew that the Cranes needed to greatly pull up their socks if they were to mount a challenge against Angola (who played at the 2006 World Cup) and Benin (who gave a good account of themselves at the 2008 African Nations Cup).

By some uncanny twist of fate, the Cranes opened their campaign facing the team they had played against in the last match of the 2008 Nations Cup qualifiers. Then, the game ended 3 – 0 in Uganda’s favour; this time round, it was Ssekajja’s solitary goal. Had Niger improved or was it the Cranes who had lost some of their firepower?

Benin, who the Cranes faced only a week after Niger, duly gave Ugandans an answer with a 4 – 1 annihilation of their national side – despite the latter having taken the lead through striker Eugene Sssepuya.

Several explanations (excuses?) have since been given for that loss – from the lame to the bizarre. Three key players were not available for selection, said the coach Lazslo Csaba. The conditions in Benin were the worst the team had ever endured in a long time, argued the stand-in team captain Timothy Batabaire. I heard thunder in the stadium as Benin’s army of witchdoctors/fans did their thing, claimed goalkeeper Dennis Onyango.

The fact is that the Cranes were beaten. The reality is that the Cranes have many issues to overcome if they are to overcome the barren spell of 30 years that the country has endured without seeing its team at the African Nations Cup (never mind the World Cup). But with our passion for football and for our country, the fans will never desert the Cranes.

So, as I go to Namboole tomorrow to watch our beloved Cranes against Angola, I know there will be thousands of other like-minded fans. We will go hoping for a win. But even if we lose, we will at least be proud that we represented our country – by cheering our boys on from the stands.

When the odds are stacked against as is the case in these qualifiers , all we ask of our boys is to fight to the final whistle so that we live Namboole with our heads held high that they are setting a foundation for a tradition that makes Namboole a footballing fortress and the Cranes a hard nut to crack.

A nation waits, and expects

Uganda’s national team, the Cranes, will tomorrow, Saturday, kick off their campaign to earn a berth in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa at the Nelson Mandela national stadium.

The Cranes have not had much luck in recent campaigns, but the team at least has a loyal nation behind them. So the 40,000-seater Mandela national stadium (located at Namboole on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital Kampala by the way, not somewhere in Johannesburg) is once again expected to fill up to the brim.

The expectations, as has been the case each time the Cranes have started such a campaign, will be enormous. And with Uganda’s soccer governing body, FUFA, having summoned a record 16 professionals, the fans will expect nothing short of a victory.

Opening day victories have in any case been formalities each time the Cranes have started such campaigns. Where the Cranes have come short in the recent past is in their failure to win sufficient games (especially away from home,) to garner sufficient points to claim a qualification slot.

Over the years the Cranes have, in the words of one pundit, come second so many times that if there was a competition for coming second, the team would still take the second position.

The most painful was of course the qualification campaign for the 2008 Nations Cup campaign where the team failed to qualify by a single goal. A second experience of that nature would be too much to bear for a nation that has already endured so much heartache.

Part of the reason the team has performed poorly in the past was the federation’s inability to transport all the team’s professionals to feature in every game of a campaign. It was a problem that reared its head again in the last campaign – with the team captain, Ibrahim Ssekajja, failing to make it for two crucial games.

This time round, with at least four games to be played in June, and the local league – as well as most leagues across the world – having been completed, even the 16 players plying their trade in foreign leagues can be maintained in camp for the entire month.

The signs look good; it is now up to the players to go out there and discard that nearly men tag that has dogged Ugandan football for ages.

A nation waits, and expects.

Killing the messenger

In his previous life, veteran Ugandan politician Al Hajj Ali Kirunda Kivejinja of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party published a newspaper, The Weekly Topic, which he co-owned with Kintu Musoke and Jaberi Bidandi Ssali.

This newspaper, though apparently heavily censured, grew in influence and size to become a daily, before it folded up after some of its most senior journalists like Wafula Oguttu, Charles Onyango-Obbo and Ogen Kevin Aliro (RIP) jumped ship to launch The Monitor newspaper.

Today, Mr. Kivejinja is Uganda’s third deputy prime minister and minister of information and national guidance. Having swapped his media hat for a government one, the good minister is now at the centre of an alleged plot to muzzle media freedom.

Since President Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA) guerrillas shot their way to power in January 1986, Ugandan media has gained considerable wriggling room. That room was not gained on the cheap though as a number of journalists and media houses have paid heavy prices, but the reality is that Museveni’s government was continuously conceding ground.

When Mr. Kivejinja was put at the helm of the information and national guidance ministry after the 2006 general elections therefore, it seemed as if Museveni had finally appointed one of us. But Mr. Kivejinja has, since taking up his appointment, run his office like a man who knows which side of his bread is buttered.

Since President Museveni made his now famous outburst in Kololo in 2005, while mourning his employees who had died with South Sudan President Dr. John Garang that he would sort out the media, many functionaries in his government have been trying to outdo themselves in showing their boss that they doing his bidding.

Mr. Kivejinja seems to have done little to change his boss’ thinking. It is under his watch, after all, that nearly every independent print media house in Uganda has at least two journalists before the Ugandan courts battling cases brought against them by the state, and – in scenes reminiscent of the raid on The Monitor newspaper in October 2003 – another newspaper, the fledgling Independent, was raided by security operatives.

But the worst is not yet over. Recent reports seem to indicate that the government is raising the stakes in their quest to clampdown on the media. On May 21, cabinet constituted a powerful special sub-committee to investigate radios and newspapers accused of giving bad publicity to the NRM government.

This seven-man committee, comprising two deputy prime ministers, the ministers of security and of internal affairs, as well as the Attorney General, sends strong signals that the NRM government is determined to swing the whip hard.

Mr. Kivejinja has argued that this move by cabinet is not aimed at clamping down on the media, but a well-meaning attempt by the government to guide the media to do “responsible reporting”.

“For now over 2 years I have been studying the performance of both our electronic and print media and the legal framework under which they have been functioning. As you all know, I have taken time off to talk to fellow practicing journalists either individually or collectively and even visited most of the major Media Houses with the intention of breaking barriers that might be created between the media and government,” Mr. Kivejinja said during a press conference he called on May 22.

“My main objective has been to look for best practices that would enable our media to play a vibrant role and be one of the pillars of governance in our society,” he added.

This would all have been fine, was it not for the fact that the NRM takes most criticism of its failings as a political effort to malign it before the electorate, treats many media houses that host members of the political opposition as enemies, and perceives any critical views of the way that the country is being run as negative publicity against the ruling NRM party.

With the Uganda government intent on “fixing the press”, one would have expected that a siege mentality, if nothing else, would galvanise the journalists. Sadly, the attack on the media is coming at a time when our own house is not in order.

Early this week, information came through that the Uganda Journalists Association (UJA) – which is affiliated to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) – was holding a General Assembly on May 24 in which a new executive was to be elected. This information had been sent by the outgoing President of UJA, Mr. Ahmed Kateregga.

On May 22, the outgoing Secretary General of UJA, Mr Stephen Ouma Bwire, sent out a communication of his own, calling the meeting that had been called and organised by Mr. Kateregga “illegal”. Mr. Ouma says UJA “has never convened anywhere and at any date to propose, discuss and resolve to hold its General Assembly on May 24, 2008”.

“The purported meeting with forged backdated list of Executive Committee participants, resolutions is being “cooked” up by outgoing President Ahmed Kateregga to present at his solely convened General Assembly this Saturday,” argued Mr. Ouma.

He added: “Ahmed Kateregga should produce minutes of the Executive Committee, where it convened, the agenda and resolutions before he thinks of convening a General Assembly of his own making. Kateregga must take note, if he has never read, understood and internalised the UJA Constitution.”

The UJA Constitution says that General Assembly shall be convened by the associations’ Secretary General by giving a notice of at least 14 days before the scheduled meeting. And that the notice shall include the date, venue and agenda for the Assembly. Mr. Ouma says he, as the Secretary General, has never circulated such a notice.

Mr. Ouma’s letter raises several other allegations (to which Mr. Kateregga was yet to reply by 12pm on May 23) that highlight the level of infighting and intrigue in an association that is supposed to unite Ugandan journalists. For instance, Mr. Ouma claims that his President is running UJA like a personal business and has organised an assembly at short notice so his team elect an executive loyal to him.

Besides exposing the fact that the journalists’ body is not being run professionally, this latest squabble brings to light a more fundamental issue. The rat race for readers seems to have divided the media to such a state that practitioners in the country see each other as adversaries more than as partners.

As a result, the associations that are supposed to unite Uganda scribes and fight for their cause have largely been left to journeymen journalists like Mr. Ouma and Mr. Kateregga whose main interest are the foreign trips and other such freebies that they occasionally receive from international organisations.

At a time like this when the media is under siege, one can’t help but feel that while the government is going all out to hang the media, it is the media industry – through its own internal shortcomings – that is actually providing the rope.

A re-awakening in Maputo

A first prize in the 2007 Akintola Fatoyinbo Africa Education Journalism Award presented me with the opportunity to get away from my hectic schedule in Kampala and earn a most longed for two-week rest in the beautiful Mozambican coastal capital, Maputo.

The 10 days in Maputo, and another four in Johannesburg, have not just enabled me to slow down; they are also affording me a number of fascinating and inspiring chance encounters.

On May 3, for instance, I was among the hundreds who gathered at the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre to witness the presentation of the 2008 UNESCO/Cano World Press Freedom Prize to Mexican Journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.

This particular ceremony was graced by several dignitaries, including Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, former President Joaquim Chissano and the UNESCO Director General, but it was Ms Cacho who – rightly – took centre stage.

When the 45-year old journalist stepped up to make her acceptance speech, it turned out to be so powerful that it earned her a standing ovation from nearly everyone in the hall.

“By honouring me tonight you are recognizing the talent of my teachers, of the hundreds of women, men and children who have trusted me with their personal histories, their tragedies and their triumphs. Somehow they knew I would honour their trust by doing my job as a journalist,” she said.

The inspiring thing about Ms Cacho’s story is that she has faced several hurdles in her career, but did not lose her resolve. In her 18 year journalism career, Ms Cacho has been the target of repeated death threats because of her work, especially when she reported about a peadophile ring that included powerful figures in Mexican politics. Her car was sabotaged and she was the victim of police harassment.

“When I was tortured and imprisoned for publishing the story of a network of organised crime in child pornography and sex tourism, I was confronted with the enduring question of the meaning of life. Should I keep going? Should I continue to practice journalism in a country controlled by 300 powerful rich men? Was there any point to demanding justice or freedom in a country where 9 out of every 10 crimes are never solved? Was it worth risking my life for my principles? Of course the answer was… yes,” said Ms Cacho.

But her works have also earned her international acclaim. Besides the $25,000 World Press Freedom Award, she was awarded the Francisco Ojeda Award for journalistic courage in 2006 and, in 2007, the Amnesty International Ginetta Sagan Award for Women and Children’s Rights.

In a moving speech, Ms Cacho told the reasons why she has persevered against the odds. She told of having been contented to keep the promise she had made to the little girls who were abused by pedophiles and child pornographers, and who asked her to tell their stories. She called on other journalists to uphold the virtues of their calling.

“As journalists we should never become messengers of the powers that be. Nor should we surrender to fear and self censorship,” she said.

Three days later, I stood at the very podium that Ms Cacho had used; it was my turn to deliver my acceptance speech for the Africa Education Journalism Award to the 600 delegates and more than 50 education ministers attending the 2008 Biennale on Education in Africa.

Ms Cacho had raised the bar so high with her speech; I did not try to emulate her. I only spoke about the need for politicians to always keep it in mind that the decisions they make can change or ruin the lives of their people. I asked them to ensure that even the ordinary persons in the most remote part of their country get a fair deal from their governments.

For my own speech, I did get a resounding handclap from all in the Joaquim Chissano International Conference Centre that evening. Whether the politicians took the words to heart is another matter. The task for me now, and several other journalists, is to continue to make sure that the politicians are accountable to the people who entrusted them with the duty of making the policies that guide the destiny of their country.

This is no easy task; but Ms Lydia Cacho Ribeiro has once again reminded us all that it can be done.

The death of democracy… and over 600 Kenyans

In the run up to the February 2006 presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda, renowned Pastor Robert Kayanja, the founder and head of Miracle Centre churches, told the nation that he had received a vision from God. He (the Pastor, not God) informed Ugandans that one of the five presidential candidates would die before the elections and, as if that wouldn’t be tragic enough, violence would erupt after results had been declared.

None of that had happened by the time President Yoweri Museveni was sworn-in to office in May, in the process arming Kampala’s cartoonists and humorists with enough ammunition to laugh off the Pastor’s prophesy for several months.

Two years since those visions were first revealed, Pastor Kayanja’s prophesies have apparently come true, at least according to one Ugandan. The catch is that each of the two prophesies have happened, not in Uganda, but in two countries that are oceans apart.

The first prophesy, according to this Ugandan, came true in the death of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was running for the same job in an election that was slated to take place early January. The second was fulfilled by the violence sparked off by the contested results showing that incumbent Mwai Kibaki had beaten his rival Raila Odinga, although Raila’s party had won the majority seats in parliament.

It is of course sad for someone to use the misfortunes of others to justify their own faulty predictions of what happens in times ahead. But, in all fairness to Pastor Kayanja, he was not the one who tried to justify his 2006 predictions with the events in Pakistan and Kenya.

What was equally sad was the sight of Mr Kibaki shamelessly taking the Bible in a hastily arranged swearing in ceremony and promising to uphold the rule of law in Kenya (when he had just broken some of those very laws to get his hand on that Bible) – and that was even before Kenyans had run riot in a series of protests that (at the last count) had claimed at least 600 lives.

The world over (except our very own President Museveni, who congratulated Mr Kibaki on his ‘victory’) has since acknowledged that there were a series of irregularities in that election – the kind of irregularities that are likely to drag Kenya’s democracy several years back, if not killed it altogether.

The elderly Kibaki meanwhile continues to further his own selfish interests at the expense of the very Kenyans who he claims to want to serve. How shameless can a man get when he can close his eyes and ears to the fact that his selfishness has not just led to the death of democracy, but more than half a million of his own people?