{UAH} Talking points for our leaders holding the Parliamentary forum on The Great Lakes Region in Burundi:

Hon Ocan, as I ponder about the points of discussion in this joint session, I cannot help but write a few points of concern. We need to find ways of altering the current trend of loss of lives in the region; the Great Lakes Region continues to lead the World in having the highest mortality rates due to civil war, gun violence and indeed other factors! Once you begin to count millions dead, due to violence within the last 20 years - it becomes a human catastrophe that needs to be pointedly discussed and indeed solutions devised to end the violence before extinction! This is the time to address this issue jointly and to make it central in all discussions of peace and of binding ideals and aspiration threading us together in the region!
Commercially - we must find ways of deriving much needed revenue to build our infrastructure and to improve the quality of services provided by each government. Through fair marketing, processing and selling of our natural resources- we could generate much needed revenue - the more our resources go without being properly accounted for or on the cheap, the more we loose on fair market value and opportunity to get enough to improve our lot.
We need to start collecting metrics - such as the number of professionals needed, teachers, Engineers,industrialists and other thresholds that must be met to earnestly begin this journey into the first world!
Police brutality against visitors(businessmen) is rampant in some parts of the region and it must end; neighbourliness and safety ought to be on the discussion agenda; those seeking commercial opportunities need protection- business men should not always be at peril when they cross borders to do business. Let all states agree to provide them with protection in order for commerce to flourish and all our security organs need a memo on that - folks need to get home safely at the end of business day!
Let us also find ways of combating corruption; we need to rotate our civil servants as a way of reducing corruption - it will help us pick the best practices and share them across the region - adopting technologies to help in this fight isn't such a bad thing either - for the technologies are in existence now!
There are also some issues of professional governance that have dogged indigenous states - that can be addressed jointly - such as being glued to our constitutions as a way forward, separation of powers to help find justice and lasting peace ...
Lastly a joint Military Court to help reign in some of these rebel forces that have cost us many lives - we can use that court to bring matters of contention into arbitration and to the mainstream for consideration - all folks brought to such a court may not necessarily be criminals - but they may have a cause borne out of neglect and frustration from practices of current regimes !

Tendo Kaluma

Ugandan in Boston

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 "To ask a dictator to implement democratic measures after 30 years in power is an oxymoron"