Independence day

In 1962, the Brittish empire left Uganda after having colonized the country and its neighbours Tanzania, Kenya for many years. Yesterday we celebrated the 46th Independence day in Uganda. The stange thing is that people here dont seem to care a whole lot about it. As I was greeting my friends and patients at the hospital and asked them it what way they are going to celebrate, they reply moderately happy, they are just staying at home studying or resting. So what is the reason to this fairly celebrated Independence day? It seems that in Uganda tribe belongence is still more important than nationality. Up here in Gulu in the north part og the counrty there is the Acholi and around Kampala the dominating tribe is Baganda. These tribes goes far longer back then the straight line borders made up during Colonial times. The picture shows that some people were celebrating by going out in the strrets wearing their finest dresses.

So 46 years of Independence from Great Britain. What has changed and how is the situation now? I can tell you some thing that the brittish did leave behind. In Uganda cars drive on the left side og the street, or at least they are suposed to du so. English is the main language and the dress code for mail medical doctors and students has not change a bit. I wear the following costume every day: Shirt and tie, nice pants(not jeans), nice shoes and over all of this I put on a white robe. Considering Uganda is seeted on the Equator, this is very warm. The female medical staff can wear what ever they want and I dont know the reason for this but maybe there was no female drs at the time of the brittish.

About the situation in todays Uganda I have found out the following facts. According to one investigation about the level of corruption and how well the people can and should trust their goverment and such, Uganda came in as nr 19 in Africa and as nr 4 out of 5 in East Africa. Somalia came in last follwed by the Democratic Republic of Congo and nr 1 was Mauritius. This is not a very satisfying result and their is a lot of corruption in this country. Another fact in the CMR (Child Martality Rate under the age of 5) wich is a good indicator of the health situation in the country. That nr is 136/1000 in Uganda (to be compared with Swedens 2-3/1000 or so). Out of these 136, 76 die in their first year of life and 40 % of these die in the first month. The majority of the once dying in the first month, die during the first week of life caused by birth asfyxia, sepsis, tetanus and premature complications. Here there is a lot to be done and this is where the aim should be to lower the nr of child death in the country. The Millenium Goal set up by the WHO is to reduce CMR with 2/3 by the year 2015.

My self, I was celebrating the Independence day by going to St Marys Hospital Lacor with dr Massimo Serventi who taught me a lot about paediatrics and in the evening I went to a club with some new friends in Gulu to have dinner and a cold beer. Today Im leaving Gulu and heading back to Kampala. Its a 5 hour bus ride in the afternoon sun. Im must shoose the shadow side to sit on. Now how is it, does the sun set in east or west? /J