Today's Most Excellent Understatement
Did you know that nowhere on the website of the Parliament of Uganda does it mention who the current Speaker of Parliament is? Including on the page describing the role of Speaker... incredible. Actually, there is no official website that mentions who the speaker is except tangentally, as in "the Speaker of Parliament, the Hon. Edward Ssekandi, greeted the dignataries...". Again, incredible.
But what I really wanted to mention here is what may be the most ludicrous understatement I've come across in 2006. It's from the website of the Statehouse of Uganda, on a page called Your Government:
"Uganda has experienced a number of changes from the time when it was declared a British Protectorate in 1860. A number of developments have occurred in the areas of social, economic and political establishment."
A partial list:
the slave trade; a rinderpest epidemic that wiped out much of the cattle (and therefore many, many people) in the 1890s and has been described as the worst epidemic ever to strike humanity; a sleeping sickness epidemic that followed on its heels; several epic draughts; colonialism; independence; at least four coups and one foreign invasion; Idi Amin Dada; Obote (twice); Museveni's bush war and subsequent 20 (and counting) year rule; the rise of AIDS; 20 years of unheard of brutality in the North under Joseph Kony; electricity; running water; malaria medication; universal primary education; automobiles and roads; several new crops (staples like rice as well as coffee, sugarcane, and other cash crops)
But what I really wanted to mention here is what may be the most ludicrous understatement I've come across in 2006. It's from the website of the Statehouse of Uganda, on a page called Your Government:
"Uganda has experienced a number of changes from the time when it was declared a British Protectorate in 1860. A number of developments have occurred in the areas of social, economic and political establishment."
A partial list:
the slave trade; a rinderpest epidemic that wiped out much of the cattle (and therefore many, many people) in the 1890s and has been described as the worst epidemic ever to strike humanity; a sleeping sickness epidemic that followed on its heels; several epic draughts; colonialism; independence; at least four coups and one foreign invasion; Idi Amin Dada; Obote (twice); Museveni's bush war and subsequent 20 (and counting) year rule; the rise of AIDS; 20 years of unheard of brutality in the North under Joseph Kony; electricity; running water; malaria medication; universal primary education; automobiles and roads; several new crops (staples like rice as well as coffee, sugarcane, and other cash crops)
posted by Nate at 5:48 AM
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