2008 Woodie Awards
Uganda and Holy Grounds Cafe
Owen Riveros
Issue date: 5/7/08 Section: Op-Eds
For the powerful but few in number, war has been a means of accumulating more control. But for the masses it usually means a time of loss and strife.
The civil war in Uganda lasted for 21 years. Most of the people in Uganda have lived the war their entire lives. Many who have sought protection from the government have been placed into what Resolveuganda.org calls, "protected villages." These places of refuge are actually displacement camps.
Jesse Kroeze is the general manager at the Holy Grounds cafe in Allendale. According to Kroeze, 80 percent of the population in Uganda are below the age of 18. Jesse and his wife, Andrea, recently went on a mission trip to the Gulu region in Uganda. Gulu is home to many of the displaced. The Kroezes witnessed the poverty first-hand. Jesse has done missionary work in other countries, but for Jesse, the poverty situation in Uganda far exceeds others.
Kroze said that the media are not doing enough to inform Americans of the civil war in Uganda.
"It tells people what they want to hear," he said.
The media however are not solely to blame. Kroeze stated that the public bears the blame of ignorance as well. He pointed out that many are concerned with sensationalism more than what is important like war.
The civil war in Uganda has its roots embedded in the separation between the north and the south. When Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962, Resolveuganda.org says that it kept much its "divide and rule strategy" that the British empolyed to separate the two regions. President Yoweri Museveni took control of Uganda through his National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1962. Once Museveni took control, northerners feared that he would take actions against them. When Museveni took control over Kampala, he broke the December 1985 Nairobi Peace Accord signed with Gen. Tito Okello a northerner himself. Since then, four groups have tried to wrestle control from Museveni's hands, but to no avail. The only group that has lasted is the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
The civil war in Uganda lasted for 21 years. Most of the people in Uganda have lived the war their entire lives. Many who have sought protection from the government have been placed into what Resolveuganda.org calls, "protected villages." These places of refuge are actually displacement camps.
Jesse Kroeze is the general manager at the Holy Grounds cafe in Allendale. According to Kroeze, 80 percent of the population in Uganda are below the age of 18. Jesse and his wife, Andrea, recently went on a mission trip to the Gulu region in Uganda. Gulu is home to many of the displaced. The Kroezes witnessed the poverty first-hand. Jesse has done missionary work in other countries, but for Jesse, the poverty situation in Uganda far exceeds others.
Kroze said that the media are not doing enough to inform Americans of the civil war in Uganda.
"It tells people what they want to hear," he said.
The media however are not solely to blame. Kroeze stated that the public bears the blame of ignorance as well. He pointed out that many are concerned with sensationalism more than what is important like war.
The civil war in Uganda has its roots embedded in the separation between the north and the south. When Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962, Resolveuganda.org says that it kept much its "divide and rule strategy" that the British empolyed to separate the two regions. President Yoweri Museveni took control of Uganda through his National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1962. Once Museveni took control, northerners feared that he would take actions against them. When Museveni took control over Kampala, he broke the December 1985 Nairobi Peace Accord signed with Gen. Tito Okello a northerner himself. Since then, four groups have tried to wrestle control from Museveni's hands, but to no avail. The only group that has lasted is the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
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