In the field

Tracking climate change impacts generally starts in the field. James Balog, a photographer, has been to Alaska, USA, to record time-lapse ice cap melting. You can see the stunning results of his photography in this video:

If you don't have expensive cameras and spare-time to journey to Alaska, another approach would be to read the experiences of people on the frontline.

On the Frontline of the Climate Change is a project cataloging first-hand stories on the impacts of climate change, in indigenous communities, on small islands, and other vulnerable communities. The forums contains numerous recent contributions by email, mostly from South Asia and Africa. One contributor and consultant for African development, George Katunguka, writes from Uganda:

The impact of climate change has not received much prominence in my country Uganda but such changes and its effects are painfully being felt. In 2025, Uganda is likely to experience water stress according to recent report on water resources. People are dying of starvation and hunger like the recent case in Teso Region, Eastern Uganda; there are changes in water ecosystems like the dwindling levels of Lake Victoria; unpredictable seasons, loss of soil fertility and loss of agricultural output and hence increased household poverty and its implications. What are we doing to avert this looming catastrophe?

From outer space to Google Earth

Observation from the field can be double-checked from high ground. Space is the lookout from which to observe and analyze earth as a whole. It's difficult to get a seat on a spaceship, but fortunately, it's easy to find online satellite images from above.

Besides space agencies and companies offering their services to NGOs, scientists and common people, the United Nations Environment Programme created an online atlas indexing the changes occurring in different parts of the world through decades. All the satellite pictures can be viewed on Google Earth's virtual globe, as their official blog reports:

In collaboration with the Danish government and others, we are launching a series of Google Earth layers and tours to allow you to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet and the solutions for managing it.

Many more resources can be found on blogs and websites of international organisations. Readers, feel free to add your own sources in the comment section.

Science for decision makers

Observation is a core issue for decision makers. Governments initiate surveys to understand the phenomenon and how to mitigate the impacts.

The European Commission and European Space Agency initiated a space program in 1998, called the Global Monitoring Environmental Security (GMES), to sketch real-time changes from multi-source data. The project is due to report back in 2014, with an annexed security segment.

Developing countries impacted most directly by climate change, have taken a similar steps like the recent satellites launch by India to study climate change. Such information can help countries plan for new environmental and economic policies.

In South Africa, a new economy-oriented tool has been created for exactly this purpose. AllAfrica reports :

Now, an analytical tool based on a study, Mapping South African Farming Sector Vulnerability to Climate Change and Variability, has been developed to help policy-planners identify the communities most vulnerable to climate change and help them prepare for radically different farming conditions.

The multiple laws that I will be breaking as soon as the president signs this law. Well, our detractors had already said that we would be stiffed with a tougher law, but this goes way beyond that. If I attempt to commit the offense… (god, the number of times that I have made passes and they have been rejected!) Each of those times was worth 7 years in jail. Good heavens!!!! Before, we could be liable to life imprisonment. gug hereby declares that, when the President of the Republic signs this law, gug will be liable to the death penalty… because I and my lover are serial offenders, breaking this law.

The bill further prohibits adoption by gay couples; any person who aids, promotes counsels any acts of homosexuality in any way will face up to seven years imprisonment, or risk a fine of sh100m. It states the ill effects of homosexuality as:

Research indicates that the homosexuality has a variety of negative consequences including higher incidences of violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and use of drugs. The higher incidence of separation and break-up in homosexual relationships also creates a highly unstable environment for children raised by homosexuals through adoption or otherwise, and can have profound psychological consequences on those children. In addition, the promotion of homosexual behavior undermines our traditional family values.

Given Uganda’s historical, legal, cultural and religious values which maintain that the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman is the basic unit of society. This Bill aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family. These threats include: redefining human rights to elevate homosexual and transgender behavior as legally protected categories of people.
There is also need to protect our children and youths who are made vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviation as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technologies, parentless child developmental settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption, foster care, or otherwise.

Producers, publishers and distributors of material containing homosexuality especially if a business, an NGO will have its certificate or registration canceled and the director will face seven years in prison. That includes gay blogs in Uganda:

Poor sympathizers. You are not left to love us. No, all lovers of gays, and gays in Uganda will suffer, and be punished by this law. Any press conferences? Not by gay Ugandans. You see, we are a pariah people that will never be like all other Ugandans. Ha ha ha ha ha!
Oh, the gayuganda blog is one of the things which are illegal, as per that bill. I am furiously promoting homosexuality on this blog, complaining about a law like this. So, 5 years in prison, and my (non existent) bank balance will be set back by 100M Uganda shillings…! And the people who dare to give us condoms and lubricant for sex… Or, if you dare to have an HIV prevention program for homosexuals in Uganda… or even try to teach safer sex. Well, the penalties are stiff. Very stiff. Jail, and jail and other things.

Here are the objective of the bill.

3.1. The objectives of the Bill

The objectives of the Bill are:

(a) To protect marriage as that only between a man and a woman in Uganda;

(b) To prohibit homosexual behavior and related practices in Uganda as they constitute a threat to the traditional family;

(c) To safeguard the health of Ugandan citizens from the negative effects of homosexuality and related practices;

(d) To establish progressive legislation protective of the traditional family that can serve as a model for other countries;

(e) To prohibit ratification of any international treaties, conventions, protocols and declarations which are contrary or inconsistent with the provisions of this Act;

(f) To ensure that no international instruments to which Uganda is already a party can be interpreted or applied in Uganda in a way that was never intended at the time the document was created;

(e) To withdraw from any international agreements to which Uganda already is a party, or file reservations to them, which are re-interpreted to include protection for homosexual behavior, or that promote same-sex marriage, or that call for the promotion or teaching about homosexuality as being healthy, normal, or an acceptable lifestyle choice, or that seek to establish sexual behavior, sexual orientation, or gender identity, or sexual minorities as legally protected categories of people; and

(f) To prohibit Uganda from becoming a party to any new international instruments that expressly include protection for homosexual behavior; promote same-sex marriage; call for the promotion or teaching about homosexuality or homosexual relations as being healthy, normal, or an acceptable lifestyle choice; and/or seek to establish sexual behavior, sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual minorities as legally protected categories of people

Gay Ugandan is urging you to take this cause with him and asks you if he deserves to die because of this:

If you are outside the country, why, that is very good. Your congregation can be made aware of all the good things that some Christians in Uganda wish some sinners called gay Ugandans. I am sure your outrage will help. A letter, a protest match, questions to leaders of Uganda, religious and otherwise traveling outside the country. This is a moral question, how can they justify killing me because I am gay, living in a gay relationship with another gay man?

# Ok, what of gay people in other countries. You are our friends. Yes, we dare to ask our gay brothers and sisters for help, especially when our countrymates believe we should be patriotic enough to ‘die’ in the name of their moral uprightness, for god and country.
Tell your local gay group about it.
Organise protests, big and small. Educate any who doesnt know about it.
Write letters of protest. Be courteous, (the framer of the bill says that we homosexuals want to kill him. He says we have already written him ‘threatening’ letters.)

Afrogay another Ugandan blogger compares the Ugandan to the government to the Nazis, he says the time to flag down the bill is now:

Again, as I have argued here and elsewhere, we are best advised to keep our powder dry for the real battle if the bill is ever passed and signed into law. So, I for one don't plan on saying too much about the nuts and bolts of what is wrong with it. And the reason is simple: if we point out what is wrong with it now, our detractors will use what we say to clean up the bill. Best then to shout foul as loud as we can on the discriminatory elements of the bill without guiding them around the glaring technical, legal, constitutional and human rights minefield they are sleep-walking towards with this bill.

A Nigerian blogger Anengiyefa thinks the bill is flawed and the panel who made the bill are ignorant about homosexuality, He says homosexuality cannot be an offense, you cannot punish someone for having sexual feelings for another person:

Mr Bahati goes on to demand the death penalty for what he calls “aggravated homosexuality”. I read this and I wondered if the said Mr Bahati has ever had the opportunity to sit inside a classroom in his life, given that unless he is starkly illiterate, he ought to know that there are no law books in any Common Law jurisdiction, (including Uganda), that refer to an offense known as ‘homosexuality'. Homosexuality cannot be an offense! You cannot make it an offense and punish a person for having feelings of sexual and emotional attraction towards others of the same gender. You cannot prove ‘homosexuality' in a court of law to the standard of proof that is required in a criminal court.

Anengiyefa sees that Uganda has just seen hypocrisy of MPs who have unified and are ready to pass a law victimizing homosexuality in the name of morality: this beats the purpose why the system is so anxious to criminalize consensual sex amongst two adults of the same gender and omitting important issues like ethnic violence, tribalism, AIDS, child rape etc:

This outbreak of frenzied homophobia is the epitome of the hypocrisy that pervades political life in Africa. At a time when expensive legislative time should be judiciously expended on the issues that really matter to the people of the country; when Ugandan lawmakers and the Ugandan government should be concerned about the welfare of vulnerable Ugandans, (including those same-gender loving men and women in their society, who are susceptible to wanton physical abuse and discrimination); when the Ugandan authorities should be looking to protect those of the country's citizens whose welfare is their responsibility; when the challenges that face our continent in this 21st Century are enormous; what we hear of instead is an Anti-Homosexuality Bill being introduced to Parliament. This bill is deemed necessary according to the MP David Bahati who introduced it. He claims that the purpose of the bill is to protect children and the “traditional family”.

Blog Action Day 2009 was an online event organized by Change.org. It was a virtual gathering of voices discussing climate change. Bloggers from a sampling of countries in Sub Saharan Africa were among those who posted their thoughts, and in this post, we get to listen to their voices.

Kenya

The blogger at Theatre of Inconveniences reminds readers to also think about wildlife and the species threatened with extinction due to climate change. The blogger also looks at the extreme weather situation in Kenya, with a drought that has lasted many months and the expected heavy rains.

In Kenya recently, prolonged drought – and we can not rule out the effects of climate change as the cause – first killed livestock, then pushed the livestock into wildlife habitats, then killed the wildlife. Now Kenya is – ironically – waiting for El Nino rains to settle in so that it can save people, their livestock and wildlife. But the El Nino could be made more severe by the effects of climate change. So more people, livestock and wildlife will die. Iregi Mwenja, a Kenyan bushmeat researcher posted pictures of the onset of the El Nino rains in Voi today. One of the casualties of the big water was a masai goat that died in the floods.

The blog Sukuma Kenya took UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) to task on its use of gas guzzling SUV's that release more CO2 into the atmosphere than smaller cars. The blogger wonders whether for one day, the UNEP officials would heed their own advice to cut CO2 emissions.

The blogger on Katch up shares their experience climbing Mt.Kenya, one of the few snow capped mountains in Africa. The blogger mentions changes in the ice coverage as pointed out by the tour guide, and also notices other changes in the environment. A brief story from the blogger's mother illustrates just how fast the environment has changed.

I come from a cold place and my mother tells me how fast certain types of crops used to grow, rain was abundant, seasons were more than one and it was colder. Not anymore. Those days were definitely better and we have been losing.

South Africa

Rory of Carbon Smart writes about community empowerment and climate change. The effects of climate change on the majority of Africans will be severe, and any strategies at dealing with climate change should provide support to the communities.

In Africa particularly, stresses are already being felt - climate change is not something that relates only to the future. The most vulnerable communities are those who struggle the most, as they are living on the edge - quite literally on the periphery of economic activity, whether they are subsistence farmers or urban slum dwellers. In this position, they don't have ‘wiggle room', or the flexibility to adapt their lifestyles to the changes they are experiencing. As a result, strategies for climate change adaptation must ensure that communities do have the means and understanding and support structures to enable them to keep ahead of environmental changes. A key point to be made is that the answer lies not primarily in technology or aid, but crucially in building relationships - institutionally, socially and financially.

Poetry and Poesie shares a poem on global warming

The bergs look limp
to me nowaseasons,
I shouldn't read
National Geographic,
that once was a tree
now covered in blinding shots
of glaciers gliding all the more
readily
sweating in the gloaming -
a new word I coined
for global warming.

I don't need to read
journalistic twilight musings,
I can see when a bear
is panting to death,
I can see the whales flail
in the a-krillic blue sea,
I know the götterdämmerung
is going to be a hot event
Inuitively.

Uganda

Climate Change. Its not just Koalas.

Rebecca writes on Jack Fruity about her experience in the Global Change exchange program, that will be documenting the effects of climate change and partnering with established bloggers in the Global Voices community.

It can be easy to forget that climate change is about more than trees and cuddly animals and fish swimming around in some distant ocean — all of which I care about, don't get me wrong (especially the cuddly animals). But climate change also has real, physical effects on humans: it's altering weather patterns in unpredictable ways, causing crops to fail for lack of rain in some places while floods wash away entire fields in others.

Ghana

Jemila Abdulai writes on Circumspecte blog, she looks at the climate change deniers, and those who believe it to be a hoax, debunks their arguments and sets forth the lessons for Ghana and Africa. The lessons include Information, Education and Accountability.

Ghana and other African countries are relatively better-off (I think) when it comes to pollution. How can we reduce what pollution we have, and how can we prepare for the future?

We should be doing our research and looking at all these models (failed or otherwise) to inform our own policy decisions. If we don't keep ourselves informed, we will have a situation similar to our current economic systems; we'll have policies, laws and structures that do not work for us. Already, many multi-lateral companies get away with polluting our countries without so much as a slap on the hand for this. That's where our concern should be: strengthening our legal structures to protect our environment and consequently, our population.

A great roundup of Ghanaian blog posts on Blog Action day is done by Mac-Jordan of Accra Conscious.

We end with the voice of ‘cuppatea' on the blog A colourful life of a Gay Kenyan:

So in summary, stop polluting, plant trees and be nature friendly! It will save mother nature and planet earth and you'll make nature fans like me globally happy! The future generation depends on nature. Positive action today, Better tomorrow for future generations.

Note: For previous Global Voices posts, kindly see these links.
- Reading the world on Blog Action Day
- Israel: Blog Action Day for the Environment

- Rising Voices summarizes blog posts from its grantees.

World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, which takes place today, seeks to change that by celebrating and supporting hospice and palliative care globally. While it's true that one day is not enough to create real change for the millions of people who rely on or need this type of care, it can help bring much-needed attention to the issue. Not only are these stories largely omitted from news headlines, one study finds that even online educational materials about the topic need to be revised to make them more understandable. Throughout much of the world there's a lack of understanding about this type of care, as well as a lack of access to these services.

The theme for this year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is “Discovering your voice,” so organizers asked people from around the world to make their voices heard and submit their stories online. In response, people from countries ranging from Portugal and India to Malaysia reflected on the issue. Beatriz Thompson, for example, of Belize shares this account:

“This is the story of a brave little boy. His name is Julian Wohler. At the age of one and a half year he was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. Julian fought this cancer for 4 1/2 years. He underwent 5 surgeries cycles of chemo and radiation in Merida Yucatan, Mexico. Julian had to travel 11 hours from Belize to go receive treatment every 2 weeks. When the tumor came back for the last time Julian told his parents he was not going back for anymore chemo or surgery. He wanted to stay home and enjoy himself.”

Hospice Casa Sperantei in Romania

“My disease began last year with partial paralysis. I did 10 sessions at the hospital and I felt like everything was changing for the good. Three days later, I was in the kitchen and I fell down. Since then no more stability and I am very weakened. Firstly it affected me in a psychological way, like I was being destroyed. I was on the verge of disappearing, I wanted anything to happen, just to escape, because it is torture, a very hard torture.”

Judi Chamberlin, blogging in the United States on Life as a Hospice Patient, also shares the ups and downs of having a life-limiting illness. She suffers from a chronic lung disease and lung infection, among other health problems. In this recent post, she talks about feeling discouraged and reflects on her father:

“I find myself saying so many of the things my Dad used to say in his final months–he used to talk about feeling weary, and now I know just what he meant. Everything, even the most mundane activity, like going to the bathroom, becomes a major production. When someone would point out some nice upcoming activity he would say “hallelujah” or “whoop-de-doo,” hating to be diverted with something that felt so minor in the grand scheme of things. And although he was eighty four when he died, and I'm not quite sixty five (my birthday is October 30th), I know just what he meant when he would say, “I've lived too long.” I always planned to live to a ripe old age, but that was only if it was an active, busy life–the life I used to lead, the life I loved.”

In addition to firsthand accounts of living with a disease, many palliative care-related blogs, videos and other new media also share the views of caregivers, health care professionals and family members of someone with a life-threatening disease. In Uganda, patratm, a doctor and hematologist, tweets about various palliative care issues. In South Africa, a video shares the story of Zodwa Sithole over images of hospice care. Sithole watched her sister die of cancer at a hospice and is now part of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of South Africa.

Risa Denenberg, blogging on risa's pieces in the United States, is a nurse who looks after patients with life-threatening illnesses. In her blog she reflects on her experiences as a palliative care provider. In this post, she talks about the pain of losing a patient:

“Pager bleats its rising and lowering notes (de-da-do-da-de). Familiar as my name, but as I am wading from sleep to wake…It's the nursing home, telling me he has died. It's 2:15 am…

…The hardness was that he didn't want to die, wasn't ready, much too young, much too much undone, had just started over, this thing caught him in the neck and strangled him without so much as a warning punch. And the pain. Was terrible. Even on the highest doses of opioids I have ever prescribed. Pain mixed with fear, anger, angst. I think I loved him for these few weeks, a helpless sort of love because I couldn't make it better. I thought.

Daughter said to me: “He liked you. Really liked you. That's a big complement, you know. He sees right through shit, and you were real to him.”

shantanu.dutta, blogging on Mutiny in India, talks about a friend who died of cancer at a hospice. At the time, there seemed to be only one hospice in New Delhi, where space opened up when a patient passed away. He says he learned the value of hospice firsthand through that experience:

“The famous psycho-oncologist Buckman…said that “there was one missing chapter in Harrison's Textbook of Internal Medicine. The missing chapter was, ‘What do you do when all the treatment advised in all the other chapters fail?'

Palliative care is that missing chapter. It is missing in our planning, priorities and programs but is fast emerging from the shadows as an urgent necessity as we and our loved ones live longer and become more and more prone to debilitating and life threatening diseases that can not be perhaps be cured but with some a professional approach endured, and possibly endure well.”

Within 24 hours of the first riots, concerned Kampalans launched Uganda Witness, a crisis reporting site where Ugandans can share news of deaths, looting, presence of government forces and other related information. As of Friday afternoon (9pm GMT) the site had received multiple reports of rioting in downtown Kampala and several of the city's suburbs.

Screenshot from UgandaWitness.net showing where riots have been reported.

Ugandan blogger The 27th Comrade has spent the past few months developing a system for sending Twitter messages and posting Facebook status updates via Uganda Telecom cell phones. On Friday, in response to the riots, he rolled out the service early, posting directions on the Kampala-based communal blog The Kampalan, ensuring the privacy of users:

Now, the situation in Kampala has caused a premature announcement (of sorts) for this service. What to do, though? The men make plans, the gods decide.
…
In short, there is no censorship, no fear, and no favour. Post away. :o) The exchanges are not cached in the system in a way that would injure privacy at all, and indeed many things are made complex (signing up, messaging) precisely because your privacy is being respected.

A tweet from Kampala resident and brand new Twitter user dgel urging others to use Twitter to spread news of the riots has been making its rounds through the Ugandan Twitter community. He writes:

@dgel: “Anyone in Kampala, please teach at least one other person how to use twitter, and encourage them to keep us all updated. #kampala“

News from Kampala's mainstream has been increasingly hard to come by as the government has detained reporters and closed radio stations throughout the city. Joe at Uganda Talks explains:

Readers last night will have been aware that popular Luganda station CBS was taken off the air last night for allegedly inciting violence and mobilising the rioters. Today the Government also suspended the licenses of Suubi FM, Radio Sapientia and Radio Two Akaboozi Kubiri on the same grounds.

Fresh Apples, who has been posting updates since the riots began, reports that the government posted guards at the CBS radio masts on Buziga Hill in Kampala:

CBS Radio station is now off air -reportedly cut of by the Government
…
CBS off air- Millitary police now guarding Masts at Buziga

Multiple Twitter reports coming in from Ugandans in Kampala indicate that the government is targeting individual journalists as well:

@mugamuya: “VoA (local FM) reporter detained in Kayunga after kampala riots. maybe in npolice cell somewhere. NTV reporter arrested briefly”

@uginsomniac: Moses Kibuuka (NTV) & Yahaya Iga Muyingo (Voice of Africa) arrested in Kayunga today are out on bond. Their equip still in custody. #Kampala“

According to residents of Kampala, the television and radio stations that are still on air are broadcasting little or no information about the riots. Tumwijuke at Ugandan Insomniac writes:

What is radio for if not for immediate news immediately? Where was the citizen talk-back? Why no discussion of the hooliganism of many of the protesters? Where are the rolling interviews with the Buganda Kingdom, the police and government? Where were the call-ins from Masaka town, Nyendo, Kayunga and Mukono where the rioting was taking place? Why no debate on media freedom? Why no discussion on why the Broadcasting Council exists?

Any news I am receiving on the situation in Kampala I am getting from Twitter, Facebook and blogs.

Sarah of The Malan Family writes:

TV Uganda is playing music videos and NTV Uganda is showing “Thats so Raven” *rolls eyes*. BBC has a man on the ground reporting on it (….from freaking Nairobi) so I'm sure he has “up to the minute updates” for us!!!!!

Twitter users in Uganda were also noting the lack of news coverage on the riots:

@CamaraAfrica: “Wow…everyone hurry and turn to NBS for a riveting report on…wait for it…how to play golf. #kampala“

@solomonking: Come on!! UBC has shown an annoying NLP short programme by Ethan Mussolini like 5 times in two hours and nothing on the riots!! #kampala“

Jon Gos, founder of Uganda-based software company Appfrica and 2009 TED Fellow, was surprised by how quickly Ugandans turned to Twitter to spread news:

One of the things that surprised me was how a handful of Twitter users drove the coverage for a lot of people. As I and others like @camaraafrica, @mugumya, @solomonking heard the latest here in Uganda, we feverishly updated Twitter and Facebook, our only means of reaching the outside world.

In another post on the Appfrica blog, Jon writes:

The mainstream news has picked up on what’s going on but local press has been shut down. Either due to too much traffic (web) or otherwise. So many of us, expats or not are relying on Twitter for information.

Photo courtesy of Sarah of The Malan Family. She writes: “We came to the conclusion that this was either tear gas or a smoke bomb because we saw people running in all different directions immediately after it went off.”

Last week, Mutebi announced that he was planning an official visit to Kayunga, a district about 45km (28 miles) northeast of Kampala. The district is part of the Kingdom of Buganda, but it is also home to many members of the Banyala ethnic group, many of whom would prefer to establish their own independent kingdom.

Banyala leaders announced they would protest the visit and warned Mutebi not to come. The central government responded by warning Mutebi to stay out of the district and arresting several Baganda people in the area who were erecting exhibition stalls and tents in preparation for his arrival.

Kampala on fire. Photo courtesy of Rhino via Solomon King.

The news of the arrests angered many members of the Baganda tribe. In Kampala on Wednesday, Flourescent wrote:

I was seated in a taxi this morning when CBS broadcast its morning news. Of course the Kayunga thing was among the top stories. There was a man in front of me who was so infuriated and this is what he said: “Ye lwaki bajooga Kabaka waffe bwebatyo? …hmmm? …Tebamanyi nagwebazannya naye. Tujakubookya! Nze singa naliyo eyo ekayunga tewali munyala yandivuddewo mulamu!” (Why are they undermining our Kabaka? …They don’t even know who they are playing with …We will BURN them! Me if I had been in Kayunga no Munyala [Note: a Munyala is a member of the Banyala tribe] would have been left alive!”)

Despite rising tensions, Mutebi continued preparations to visit Kayunga, sending his premier to the district on Thursday to make the necessary arrangements. However, the government blocked the premier from entering the district, citing security concerns. In Kampala, people who supported the visit protested the government's actions. Police retaliated, and the situation quickly escalated into full-fledged rioting.

Fresh Apples witnessed the riots, which took place throughout the day on Thursday. He reports:

Police are firing live AK rounds & tear gas at demonstrators who set ablaze a Police station in the Old [taxi] park.

I can hear the numerous gun shots. Taxis are being diverted back to city suburbs. The police is even hitting vehicles trying to pass through the city. Breaking windows.

GayUganda, who also lives in Kampala, describes the riots:

A real, bonafide people’s revolt.

Fire in the streets. Empty streets. The main roads are closed. And chaos reigns supreme. And the anthem of the uprising, the Buganda anthem. God, how many people knew it before now?

Ugandans in the capital were also using Twitter and Facebook to report what was happening:

@solomonking (20 hours ago): “Standing near our taxi stage, it's 8pm and people are crossing over with their hands up. Fire in the middle of the road.”

@solomonking (20 hours ago): “Okay. We're like running for our lives.”

Other Ugandans (with privacy-protected Twitter accounts) reported “Kampala on fire” and “trapped in the middle of a city that's on fire… police is shooting tear gas and live rounds! God save us!”

@appfrica (4 hours ago): “Going out and buying [cell phone] airtime to transfer to people who can't leave their homes. #kampala #ugandawitness”

Araalingua, an American living in Kampala, collected a number of Facebook status updates from friends in the city:

• Riots in Kampala?!! Police stations burned and people dead in the streets… What do the Baganda want to achieve-they're own sovereign state???
• is caught up in fighting that he has no role in. Bullets, roadblocks, bonfires, traffic n army soldiers everywhere. I miss home right now.
• the sound of gunfire outside my window kinda bothers me… hope u guyz r safe.

Tumwi at Ugandan Insomniac wonders about the government's role in the riots:

The number of innocents who died during the fracas has broken my heart. The destruction was uncalled for. But was it preventable…of course. Surely President Yoweri Museveni and his government should have discovered, after 20-some years, that you cannot suppress dissent by force. It didn’t work for them in the 1980s and by jove, it won’t happen now.

*Note: In many of the languages spoken in Uganda, prefixes are used to distinguish people and places. For example, the King of the Baganda tribe rules over the Kingdom of Buganda. [Return to paragraph.]