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 البحث عن الامل في يوغندا- نقلا عن ال BBC
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Andrew Harding
BBC correspondent in Uganda
A New Year brings new hope in many parts of Africa - of wars ending in Sudan, Congo and Burundi - the prospect of cheaper Aids drugs for some of the millions affected.
But that's all overshadowed by a growing disaster which has overtaken Uganda creating more than a million refugees.
The Lords Resistance Army uses torture to instil fear
I was planning to write something upbeat about Africa for a change, something full of Christmas cheer.
Unfortunately, I'm sitting in a hotel in a place called Lira in Northern Uganda, and there's nothing much to smile about here.
It's almost seven in the evening, and there's a spectacular rainstorm going on outside.
When I pulled back the curtains a minute ago, there were five small, soaking children walking past in the gloom.
They, and thousands more like them, come in every night from the villages outside Lira.
They come here to escape what may well be the purest form of terrorism on earth
They find any inch of shelter they can, usually in front of the shops on the main street and camp out for the night.
A carpet of damp, coughing children.
Fear
They come here to escape what may well be the purest form of terrorism on earth.
It's called the Lord's Resistance Army, a group of brainwashed killers who specialise in abducting children and butchering anyone else they run into.
Terror for terror's sake.
The LRA have been in business now for 17 years.
Their crazed ranting leader, Joseph Kony, doesn't seem to have any real political agenda.
Joseph Kony ironically proclaims Uganda should be ruled by the Ten Commandments
He's more like a biblical plague which has now forced almost a million and a half Ugandans to abandon their homes.
Right now, 25-year-old Esther is sitting on a veranda down the street, trying to keep her five children warm.
The family has been coming in every night for a month since the LRA hacked her husband to death and seized a dozen children from her village.
Esther's got a three-week-old baby. He was born on the street.
She hasn't got round to naming him yet, but he's coughing like everyone else.
He's got so fed up with the army's failure to beat the rebels that he's just signed up to a local vigilante group
I could go on and tell you about people like Rose, an 18-year-old I met this afternoon who was abducted by the LRA and forced to machete a man before she managed to escape.
Or Angelous Aweng, a tall earnest town councillor whose two daughters are missing.
He's got so fed up with the army's failure to beat the rebels that he's just signed up to a local vigilante group.
Progress
There is plenty of good news around, but in Africa the bad news is always so obscenely bad
But this wasn't supposed to be another African despair story.
I was planning to talk about all the things that have actually gone right on the continent this year.
The wars that seem to be ending in Sudan, Congo and Burundi.
The fact that Aids drugs are getting cheaper.
That there was no famine in Ethiopia and that Kenya has finally got round to sacking half its judges for being so outrageously corrupt.
There is plenty of good news around, but in Africa the bad news is always so obscenely bad that it's hard to keep a sense of proportion.
You can't play the glass "half full" or "half empty" game when you're sitting in a place like Lira.
Local hero
A few days ago back home in Nairobi, I went to a funeral.
It was for an 82-year-old Kenyan businessman, called Hasan Rotansi.
He's the sort of man you don't read about much in Africa.
He doesn't fit in to the usual Western media diet of disasters and emergency appeals.
For the past half century, Mr Rotansi has been quietly rescuing Kenyans from poverty by funding them through university.
The average Kenyan earns $350 a year according to a recent estimate
His educational trust has given bursaries and scholarships to thousands of needy students, making all the difference between a drop-out and a doctor.
And he's done all this without once inviting the cameras in to show him handing over a cheque or asking Western donors to buy him a 4x4 jeep.
In his newspaper obituary he was described as a selfless icon of virtue, a man Africa's famously corrupt elites would do well to emulate, and someone to bear in mind when you hear this continent written-off as a basket case, utterly dependent on outside help.
Well, the rainstorm seems to be getting worse here and it's pitch black outside now.
Here in my hotel, I can get satellite television, email and an international mobile phone network.
Outside, Esther and her children are probably trying to sleep.
Six small, damp shapes on the crowded veranda.
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Re: البحث عن الامل في يوغندا- نقلا عن ال BBC (Re: Omer54)
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تلخيص
كان العام الجديد مشرا بالامل لعدد من الدول الافريقيه, الحرب انتهت في السودان و , الكنغو و بورندي. و الامل تجدد في ادويه اديز قليله التكلفه.
لكن كل هذا اندثر مع الكارثه المتفاقمه في يوغندا. عدد الاجئين المتاثرين بلغ عددهم المليون. كنت امني نفسي بكتابه موضوع يتلائم مع روح اعياد الميلاد, للاسف اني اجلس في فندق في مدينه ليرا في شمال يوغندا و سط بؤس فظيع.
الساعه الان السابعه مساء و السماء تمطر في الخارج, عندما سحبت الستائر فبل هنيه كان هناك خمس اطفال يسيرون. هم و الاف مثلهم ياتؤن كل مساء من القري المحيطه بليرا. انهم يبحثون عن اي ملجاء يجدونه , امام المتاجر في الشارع الرئيس يقضون فيه الليل.
انهم يهربون من افظع ارهاب في الارض. انها حركه لورد, قتله و سفاكي دماء مختصون في خطف الاطفال و قتل الاخرين. حركه لورد تمارس هذه الفظائع منذ 17 عاما . قائدهم جوزيف كوني لايحمل اي اهداف سياسيه. حركته اثمرت في تهجير حوالي 1.5 مليون يوغندي حتي الان.
استر ام عمرها 25 عاما تحاول تدفئه اطفالها الخمس و هي تجلس في الفرانده. هذه الاسره تحضر لهذا الموقع منذ شهر بعد ان قضت حركه لورد علي الاب و خطفت 12 طفلا من القريه. استر لها طفل يبلغ عمره 3 اسابيع ولد في الشارع و لم تفكر في تسميته و مع ذلك يكح كالاخرين. يمكنني ان احدثكم اكثر عن روسا ذات ال18 عاما و التي اخطفتها الحركه و اضطرت لذبح رجل لكي تهرب. او اتجيلوس اونق الذي خطفت بنتاه و فقد الامل في قدره الجيش علي استعادتهم مما ا ضطره الي الانضمام الي مليشيا محليه.
كنت ارتب للحديث عن الاشياء المفرحه . , توقف الحرب في السودان و الكنغو و بورندي و المجاعه في اثيوبيا و كينيا التي تخلصت من تصف عدد قضاتها لاسباب مكافحه الفساد. هناك قطعا عدد من الاخبار السعيده لكن في افريقيا التطرف يجبرك علي التحدث عنه. هنا لايمكن ممارسه لعيه نصف الكاس الغارغ ام نصف الكاس الملئ.
في نيروبي قبل عده ايام ذهبت اشيع احدهم , رجل اعمال كيني في ال 82 من عمره يدعي حسن روتانسي . هو من فئه الرجال الذين لن تقراء عنهم كثيرا هنا في افريقيا. كذلك قصته ليست من نوع الذي تستهويه الصحف الاوربيه من الكوارث و نداءت الاغاثه.
لنصف قرن كان حسن ينقذ الكينين من الفقر عن طريق تمويل دراستهم الجامعيه. كانت مؤسسته التعليميه تمنح المنح الدراسيه للالاف من المحتاجين منقذه اياهم من الضياع.
فعل كل ذلك من غير ان تظهر صورته في الصحف او التلفزيون ولم يطلب اي مساعده من الجهات الاوربيه المانحه. في نعيه في الصحف وصف علي انه نموذج التسامي و المساعده. رجل نموذج لكل النخب الافريقيه لكي تقتفي اثره. نوذج بقفز الي ذهنك عندما تسمع ان القاره ما عادت سله غذاء العالم بل تحولت بصوره كامله الي متسوله العالم.
الامطار تواصل الهطول و الظلام يزداد حلكه و انا في الفندق اتمتع بالفضائيات و الايميل و التلفون العالمي. في الخارج تقبع استر و اطفالها يحاولون النوم, بضع سته اجساد في الفرانده المزدحمه.
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