A long time ago, it took days, months or even years for information to reach its destination. Today, it is almost like lightening. While we enjoy the speed at which we can send and receive information, we are also inundated with the sheer volume of the information we share, especially what we get. In the April Edition, different articles will discuss information as to what it is, who uses it, when it is used, for what purpose and how it is used. Is it factual, neutral, apolitical, and objective as we are often led to believe?
By Sahotra Sarkar, Professor of Philosophy and Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts
The year 2022 marks the 100th birthday of Nobel Prize winning chemist Har Gobind Khorana–or so we think. The exact date of his birth is not known because Khorana was born in poverty in a British Indian class that rarely recorded such dates. As a child, he had to beg a neighbor for a glowing ember so his mother could light their daily cooking fire. He was 6 before he owned his first pencil. Khorana emerged from this background to receive a Nobel Prize in 1968 for deciphering the genetic code that translates DNA sequences into the protein molecules that carry out the functions of living cells.
By Jamil Mujuzi, Professor, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
In Uganda, there have been widespread allegations of arbitrary detention and torture of members of the opposition. As a human rights expert who has been monitoring the situation, it is imperative that I share my insights into domestic laws and what they say in relation to detention of civilians by security forces in Uganda.
By Ocaya p’Ocure, social commentator, Uppsala Sweden
Propaganda is a double-edged sword. With propaganda, there is a risk that you go on believing your own message. Though wishful thinking about the New World Order is on both sides of the ongoing war in Ukraine, one wonders if the western world media can wish away the Russians from the face of the earth? Let's start with the roughest example of all time: Adolf Hitler. Before the war against the Soviet Union in 1941, he promised: “We just need to kick in the door and the whole rotten building will collapse”.
By Dr. Aklog Birara, Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Tigray, War, USA
I had argued that US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s repeated reference and attribution to and use of the historically flawed geopolitical and regional boundary term “Western Tigray”. Such a narrative is a “de-facto” recognition of the contested claim of the right by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to incorporate forcibly annexed Amhara lands into Greater Tigray. Tragically for Ethiopia, this policy will reinforce violence and cause more bloodshed.
Jonathan Power, weekly columnist on foreign affairs
In 2017 the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) released a report which for the first time explicitly named US military forces in the field and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operatives in secret prisons as possible war crimes culprits for their alleged use of torture and rape. Because the American soldiers were based in Afghanistan, which is an ICC member, the ICC in theory has broad jurisdiction over crimes committed by combatants on Afghan soil.
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