Analysis
Land slides have killed hundreds of people in Eastern Uganda in the last couple of days. Recently thousands of people perished in an earth quake in Haiti. Pat Robertson interpreted this to be God's judgment on Haiti because of the sins that the Haitians committed by making a pact with the Devil. Pastor Martin Sempa emulating Pat Robertson interpreted this to be God’s judgment on the people of Haiti because of practicing Vooodo witchcraft. What a shame for Pastor Martin Sempa!! Will he also interpret the deaths in Uganda due to land slides as God’s judgments on the people of Eastern Uganda for Practicing voodoo?? These are mere signs of the time that Jesus talked about in Mathew 24. It is possible that even some the true saints of the Lord might have perished in these incidents.
Pat Robertson, Haiti, Poor Sinners, and Prophetic Presumption
http://www.yesumulungi.com/index.php/commentaries/402-pat-robertson-haiti-poor-sinners-and-prophetic-presumption-.html
WHEN CHRISTIANS BECOME A SOURCE OF RIDICULE??Its very possible for Christianity to sink into fascism(SEE FULL ARTICLE BELOW)
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/-/689366/856660/-/3xc0nez/-/index.html
10,000 to relocate
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/711965
Thursday, 4th March, 2010
By Francis Kagolo
THE Government is to evacuate and resettle over 10,000 people from several villages in six subcounties threatened with landslides in Bududa district.
David Wakikona, the state minister for northern Uganda, and the MP for Manjiya county in Bududa, said experts had identified more “dangerous” cracks in rocks in Bushiyi, Bukalasi, Bubita as well as in Bumayoka, Bududa and Bukigai sub-counties.
“We must get these people out of the danger areas and put them where we can feed them until the rainfall season stops,” the minister said.
Wakikona announced this at the Government briefing at the Media Centre in Kampala. He had just returned from the scene of disaster where he had been since the tragedy occurred on Monday.
He said the disaster preparedness ministry was working with agencies, like Red Cross, to secure funds to move out the people before another disaster occurs.
Milton Kamiti, the head of Bududa Bamasaaba Development Association, expressed concern over the reluctance of villagers to relocate. However, Wakikona said the Government was committed to saving Ugandans and would not accept any excuses. He hailed the Police, the army and all agencies trying to rescue the victims.
Wakikona also said seven football pitches had been identified in Bududa town council, Busuuta, Bubita and Bukalasi townships to house resettlement camps. The people are expected to live in the camps until May when rainfall is expected to cease, Wakikona said.
He requested for further assistance for food, water and medicine needed in the camps.
He said 92 bodies had been recovered by yesterday and about 90 survivors rescued, while close to 500 were still missing. Meteorologists say the current El Nino rains, which are partly blamed for the huge landslide, will last up to June.
Deus Bamanya, a senior meteorologist, said most of the country is expected to have above normal rains and warned of more landslides and flooding in that period.
Landslides hit Kisoro, Kabale
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/12/711966
Thursday, 4th March, 2010
By Anne Mugisa, Attractor Kamahoro and Darius Magara
Kisoro district suffered two landslides in the last few days, according to deputy resident district commissioner, Gideon Aheebwa.
Nyabisyenya and Murora sub-counties were hit on Wednesday, Aheebwa said. No one was killed but crops were destroyed, he added.
Kabale deputy RDC Shafiq Ssekandi also said landslides hit Rubaya and Butanda sub-counties. Some 15 houses were affected and the Rubaya-Katuna road was cut off.
The water and environment ministry said floods were likely to occur in central, eastern and western Uganda. State minister for environment Jennipher Namuyangu yesterday advised communities living in low-lying and flood-prone areas to shift to higher grounds.
“Those responsible for relief are advised to prepare for possible flooding in the high-risk regions,” Namuyangu said at a press briefing at the Media Centre.
The minister, who was flanked by weather experts, said scientists had predicted strong gusty winds, hailstorms and lightning as the El Nino rains continue to hammer the country.
“Appropriate action should be taken to avoid loss of life and destruction of infrastructure,” Namuyangu advised.
The minister said water-borne diseases like cholera and typhoid may also occur. She asked the health ministry to equip hospitals and health centres with drugs.
She also warned motorists to take extra care where flooding occurs.
Despite this gloomy outlook, Namuyangu said El-Nino rains will bring some benefits such as increased agricultural output as the soil moisture will be higher.
“The regions that are expecting normal to above normal rainfall should use this chance to improve agricultural activities. The farmers are advised to make use of this season by planting enough food that will also cater for drought-stricken areas,” she said.
She said the rains will also enhance the potential for hydro-electricity generation because of the increased water volumes.
Its very possible for Christianity to sink into fascism
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/-/689366/856660/-/3xc0nez/-/index.html
By Alan Tacca
Posted Sunday, February 7 2010 at 00:00
Several days after the earthquake that devastated Haiti, the BBC (Africa Service) sounded out different people on the kind of help they thought was appropriate. Western media organisations (including the BBC) are often accused of seeking out stories and expressions of opinions that portray Africa in a negative light.
More likely, an inferiority complex makes a lot of Africans touchy in the face of criticism. Yet, as if deaf to the accusations, the BBC sought out Pastor Martin Sempa, who runs a born again Christian outfit at Makerere University. How did the pastor think the Christian community in Uganda could help the Haitian people?
The problem with Pastor Sempa, of course, is that he thinks like Pastor Martin Sempa.
The tragedy is that he does not even contemplate the possibility that he may be very shallow. Shooting from the mouth as always, Sempa promptly castigated the Haitians for their voodoo and witchcraft, implying that he believed the earthquake was a divine punishment they deserved.
As for any help, Sempa dismissed the idea out of hand, noting that his outfit collected only Shs300,000 (about $160) every Sunday, so there was nothing to give to the Haitians, except prayers.
Presumably, he meant prayers for Haitians to see things Sempa’s way; because it would be hypocritical to pray that other people help Haiti.
You could not consider yourself a fairly normal person without being appalled. Uganda has a raft of spiritual leaders whose voices would reflect the compassion so many Africans felt for the hapless Haitians.
There were also the ordinary people who, with much less than Sempa’s Shs300,000 per week operation, would have wanted to know how they could help. But the BBC left out all these people and broadcast one of those voices through which the Christian experience is degenerating into a monstrosity.
The likes of Pastor Sempa or the American radical, Pat Robertson, have probably not paused to reflect that the huge rocky plates that are creeping and grating and colliding in the belly of the earth have been going about their ways – in total indifference to the fate of humans – for billions of years. So indeed is the rest of the incredibly vast universe.
We have no evidence of God except as part of human thought. If the suffering of humans can be given a divine interpretation, the indifference of the universe can also be said to reflect God’s desire.
And the scale of the universe is so much greater than man’s spiritual quest and his little moral operations. Man dare not beyond the tiny perimeter where exploration will take his inquisitive heart.
The fury, the cold, the heat and the distances out there will never be for his encounter. And when man becomes extinct – as he surely will when his luck runs out – the universe will go about its ways, in total indifference to the record left by his brief existence.
The geological event of the Haiti earthquake is in the context of that greater universe. The suffering of the victims is in the context of the human experience.
If we link the geological event to a moral (human) cause – namely, the “wickedness” of the Haitians – then we have surrendered to an arbitrary and indiscriminate justice instead of trying to understand how the greater universe works.
In the process, we achieve the opposite of what we want; we block the flow of empathy with (and the extension of kindness to) our fellow humans.
The racial and ideological fascists who meted out so much pain and death in the 20th century also thought they were divinely inspired.
Pastor Sempa and his ilk may not have the bombs to exterminate those whose spiritual experiences and moral preferences are different, but the fantasy that there is a God out there doing this grim work for them has the colour of that fascism.
Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator and artist
altacca@yahoo.com
