From Sunday Vision. I think it's good to understand that this is an international viewpoint...
THE debate about genetically modified crops (GMOs) continues, but if Dr. Charles Mugoya’s article “Uganda is ready for genetically modified foods” is to be believed, then we have already lost the battle.
This is corroborated by a recent press report citing Monsanto among ‘partners’ to boost agricultural productivity in East Africa. Just like the debate on mosquitoes and DDT, I still find it strange that a scientific fact is subjected to ‘social’ debate.
The intentions of Monsanto are known. Yet we seem to have our priorities elsewhere. If the rumour mill of the ‘campaign billions’ is a measure to go by, then we do truly have our priorities upside down.
Time, energy, money, brains are spent on sentimental issues like the seniority, ‘juniority’ or mediocrity of a cultural leader, while our enslavers are slowly incapacitating the only form of independence we had left: a peasant’s capacity to feed himself. And the next day we globe-trot with a begging bowl in hand!
Like MPs and others, our scientists live in our times: with families and children that need to go with the times. They, therefore, have to lean where the buttered side of the bread is stacked. This explains Mugoya’s shameless arguments. It is not his inner persona nor his scientific knowledge talking. It is is his stomach: very human!
If Parliament can be recalled from recess, public hearings organised to debate who is or is not a cultural leader is, WHY NOT DO THE SAME TO DEBATE THIS THREATENING MONSTER MONSANTO? (mark the pun!). Or is Parliament itself already compromised?
Remember ‘The Confessions of an Economic Hitman’? It is such that make those who argue for the actual takeover of the real powers more relevant than our pretensions to sovereignty!
Amon Mbekiza
Kampala
Published on: Saturday, 15th January, 2011
SEE THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
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