Jim Moore on Uganda-CAN; Blake Lambert's Sub-Saharan African Blues

Jim 'Second Superpower' Moore's excellent post on the Uganda Conflict Action Network, or "Uganda-CAN", is a breath of fresh air at Passion of the Present. It's great to see Jim, my favourite blogger, who sad to say has not posted much this year, back on track reminding us about the great free tools that help us forge bonds and foster friendships and discussions through links and feeds that make the blogosphere.

Sorry I cannot link to Peter's response as the links in his sidebar at Uganda-CAN are not 'live' - can't access archive to find the post Peter wrote in response to Jim's post. If I recall correctly, Peter criticised Passion of the Present for not having comments switched on. I can vouch for the reason on that, as I was the instigator on getting them turned off.

Jim and I were posting at Passion of the Present but for my part it was taking too much time and effort monitoring comments which were pretty heavy at times. An eloquent attention seeking troll had something to say against most of the material on the site and posted hundreds of comments hijacking the site. The troll was argumentative and aggressive which stifled other commenters and intimidated newcomers. It was hard going and unpleasant especially since it was during the height of the genocide. Tracking the news, reading reports and posting on the death toll growing from 10,000 to 400,000 was gruelling and emotionally draining. Jim is a gentleman and went out of his way to write polite, considerate, well thought out replies to comments that always made interesting reading. But the troll was never satisfied - the type who if you give an inch, they take a mile. Jim's kind nature was taken advantage of and a complete waste of his time so I requested for comments to be closed. Peter's right, comments are part of connectivity. Perhaps now that the news on Sudan is not so controversial, they should be opened again.
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Blake Lambert's blog from Kampala, Uganda

The following item was part of a post at Uganda Watch on June 21, 2005. I am in the mood for giving it another airing at the top of this page:

Thanks to a reader here who left a comment pointing out Blake Lambert's blog Sub-Saharan African Blues.

Note, the commenter responded to a Reuters report by asking what kind of bs is this? Heh. I don't know. You tell me. I am not African and live in England. Many of us bloggers know that Reuters often gets things wrong. The reports get copied without giving them any thought and so rubbish gets churned around in the blogosphere, like man-made garbage floating around in outer space.



Photo from the profile of Blake Lambert in Kampala, Uganda who says of himself: "I'm not Lansana Conte, the 90-something president of Guinea. However, maybe when I grow up, I could be."

Good for him. His post Beware of good intentions was music to my ears. Here's hoping he heads up something in Africa - soon.

Tags: Uganda Sudan Congo DR Congo Blake Lambert Reuters Kampala Blake Lambert Africa