This seven par story is on page 23 of today’s Daily Monitor.
It’s pretty well written and has one of my favourite does-what-it-says-on-the
tin headlines.
Like in much of rural Uganda 90 per cent of the population of
Amuria work in farming, growing crops from sweet potato and cassava to oranges
and rice plus looking after animals.
So along come the Zhonghua Exploration and Mineral
Development Company and bingo we have ‘mineral exploration’ and 50,000 people
looking for a new home.
For local readers that’s more than the number of people who
live in Fort Portal and for those in the UK that’s the population of Morecambe
or half of Crawley, Eastbourne or Oldham.
Quite where they are going to go no-one knows. A local
official is quoted as saying “…nothing is mentioned on how homes within the
area will be helped.”
Mining has been big business in Uganda more or less since
the settlers arrived 150 years ago so I realise this isn’t a new story, but
that doesn’t mean we can’t come at again with an inquiring gaze.
And what is the track record of these mineral developers?
What will they leave behind? What does it mean for a district like Amuria to
have 50,000 displaced people?
While I’m here in Uganda I am having a go at some proper academic
research into the effectiveness – or otherwise – of a ‘Western’ model of
journalism in the developing world. This looks to me like a story worth
chasing, but already I can feel the newsroom shrugs of indifference…
And in other investigative journalism news….
A standalone picture on the same page has this caption: “Pokot
girls having lunch with their luggage at Kalas Girls primary School in Amudat
District last week. They refused to go home for holidays for fear of undergoing
Female Genital Mutilation”.
‘Nuff said.
