Thanks for reminding me of why African governments need to wean themselves from donor aid which does nothing but fuel official corruption and provides an effective tool for Western governments to use to manipulate and blackmail us.

On this we agree.

Of course, you and I differ on what it means to be independent. I think that you will discover as African nations move towards self-sufficiency this will also encourage attitudes that lean towards modernity, liberty, and individual freedom.

A prosperous Africa will eventually be an Africa that is less bound to the attitudes that you hold so dear.

So we both have reason to look forward to that day.

Timothy, with all sympathy and respect, don’t let yourself be baited by this divisiveness.

Maazi, for the record, America does not have any holocaust-denial laws (or any law of the kind) and is better for it. The AHB will not better Ugandans, by restricting them from speaking as they would.

Thanks for reminding me of why African governments need to wean themselves from donor aid which does nothing but fuel official corruption and provides an effective tool for Western governments to use to manipulate and blackmail us. Anyway sadly for you, chinese, indian, russian, south korean, brazilian and gulf arab investors are now investing in Africa. So the days of the West blackmailing Africans are coming to an end. No foreigner will exercise veto over the Ugandan parliament. If you think that you can sit in location thousands of miles away and direct issues on the ground in Kampala, then you are grossly mistaken.

BTW, please stop flogging tired propaganda— advocates of the bill have already explained that death penalty would be expunged. Freedom of speech is not an absolute. In Germany, Czech Republic and Austria exercising freedom of speech to deny holocaust is criminal offence. In Uganda, any attempt to preach about the “wonders of homosexuality” will be a criminal offence. Distributing pro-gay literature in schools as done by some misguided UNESCO staff in 2007 will also be a crime. Threats of Iranian-style isolation do not scare us. Please take your bullying tactics to the pro-American Gulf Arab states which have anti-gay penal codes worse than that of any African State. Why not compel the US government to ban Saudi Arabian crude oil from American markets until the Saudi rulers strike down their penal code which stipulates death by hanging for people that engage in sodomy?

There is no doubt (in my mind) that the bill has serious faults and more wisdom should have been taken in it’s writing. But to say it’s not needed would not be correct. Yes, it needs to be amended – but it is necessary. For it’s imperative for us to implement what we feel is best for Uganda concerning the issue of homosexuality.