Valentine’s Day, also called Saint Valentine’s Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14, world over.

It’s not considered a public holiday here, but Uganda as a nation is however no exception to the celebrations.

Other groups, mostly the elderly, take it so lightly, sometimes it even passes without them even noticing.

And some Ugandans, mostly the youthful are so excited about the day and the fact that this year’s celebrations will coincide with the weekend (Sunday, February 14, 2021).

The significance of feast day of Saint Valentine is the celebration of love and affection.

Themed with the color red, Valentine’s Day is characterized with sending greetings cards and gifts, dating, church services among other activities that bring lovers together.

Politicians, known for being so vocal on public concerns, have very interesting and diverse opinions about the celebrations of the day.

For former leader of opposition in Parliament, Winnie Kizza, every day is Valentine’s Day.

Ageing government spokesperson, Ofwono Opondo however, thinks Valentine’s Day is overrated.

“Such excitement is for the young ones. Valentines Day is for wannabes, I don’t celebrate it,” Ofwono Opondo, who was speaking on NBS TV’s Frontline talk- show, said.

And on a very rare occasion, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda agrees on the same matter with Opondo.

He also feels Valentine’s Day is for the excited young ones not grown up people like him.

“I was introduced to Valentine’s Day at Makerere and I left it there,” said Ssemujju.

Senior Political reporter, Joseph Sabiti humorously narrated that he just learnt of the Valentine’s Day when he came to Kampala. “Where I grew up in Zombo, we didn’t have Valentine’s Day,” he said.

State Minister for Housing, Chris Baryomunsi, had  a more extensive view about the colour Red-themed celebrations of the day.

“I enjoy seeing the young people putting on red. I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day,” Dr Baryomunsi said.

On a rather sensitive note, Dr Baryomunsi is convinced that some mischievous people are now planning to take advantage of the sad situation of massive abduction reports.

“You find that a married man hides with another woman in the lodge, and comes back home after days claiming that he was abducted by security agencies,” Chris Baryomunsi said on the Capital Gang political radio talk-show earlier on today.

However, the Police have since warned all Ugandans and proprietors of bars planning to organize Valentine’s Day parties to desist from doing so because they will be arrested.

By Baron Kironde

Court of Appeal judge Justice Catherine Bamugemereire has tipped married couples on how to live together, grow together and build happy homes and families.

In her address during the virtuous woman virtual conference hosted by Christ’s heart ministries international, the chairperson of the commission of inquiry into land matters revealed that for the 27 years she has been married, her sweetheart George Bamugemereire, the deputy Inspector General of Government has never slapped her even though they disagree on several occasions.

Bamugemereire, a former family court judge noted that the current high divorce rate in Uganda scares her.

Below is Bamugemereire’s address. 

This is a very opportune time to be addressing marital issues because as I speak, we are living in an unprecedented period.

We are living in a period of a new pandemic in the world called COVID-19, and there could never be a more opportune time to speak to families that have been locked-down together, whether voluntarily or forcefully. Many people are struggling and suffering financially due to this economic and social lockdown. Many are struggling to make sense of the fear and uncertainty that has been caused by these desperate times.

My husband, George and I have been married for over 27 years.

… Speaking to you as a judge who has worked in the Family Court or what we call the Family Division, I would like to say that in Uganda, a marriage is one that is recognized in any other part of the world as such. If you come from China, and state that under Chinese law you were married, we recognize that as a marriage. If you came from England, Arabia, Australia or any other corner of the world, and your marriage was recognized in that part of the world, it will be recognized in Uganda as well.

Within the Ugandan context, there are 5 different forms of marriage recognised by law; Christian marriage, Mohammedan marriage, Customary marriage, Civil marriage and the Hindu marriage.

The Christian and Civil marriage have one thing in common, they recognize that one man is married to one woman, to the exclusion of all others, for life. What that really means is that under our laws, it is recognized that a biological male shall marry a biological female and there shall not be any third parties in-between, and that marriage is ideally for life. Obviously we know that this has been challenged by a lot of changes now, to the extent that its one man, and one woman, until divorce do they part.

We are seeing an increasing number of divorces in our system, and it is of great concern to us. I can tell you without fear of contradiction that when I first joined the Family Division around 2013, there were just a few cases. But by the time I left, I think they had tripled. As I speak now, the divorce cases are growing in number. We are seeing more Christians file for divorce. This is not a very good telling about the family situation in our country right now. Also, the statistics that show the causes of divorce are really pathetic.

In the olden days, there were only three grounds for divorce i.e adultery, cruelty or desertion. For a woman, you had to prove two grounds: that your husband cheated on you, and that he either deserted you for more than two years or that he was cruel to you. On the other hand, a man seeking divorce had to prove one ground, and that’s of the wife cheating on him. And because of the differences in grounds for divorce, women were not comfortable with this. Women lawyers took this law to the constitutional court saying, ‘it required more from women than it did from men, and therefore it was discriminatory and not inline with the Constitution.’ As a result, that law was struck-down.

As I speak today, the whole of section 4 of the divorce act, is not applicable to divorce in this country, which means that right now, you don’t have to prove any ground. If you want to divorce, you walk to court. It is very unfortunate because what this means is that right now, you can have any flimsy grounds as long as you prove that your marriage is irrevocably broken down.

The stability of a nation is most times guaranteed by the stability of marriages and family as a unit. In fact, it is said that Capitalists were so eager to ensure that the family unit remains tight, because once the family unit was stable, and once the wealth of a family was safe and well guarded, then that wealth could remain in that nation and it was not wasted through divorce or any other means.

You can see that there are economic advantages as to why people need to be married, and stay that way. Above all, Family is the best unit in which to bring up children. Children brought up in a stable marriage are children who will become more useful citizens. Statistics on children brought up in unstable marriages will show when you see them on the street, taking drugs and getting involved in several other kinds of things. These children are affected right from childhood, until they become adults. And the worst statistic is that children who come from divorced homes are likely to divorce themselves, and that adults who divorce the first time, are likely to divorce the second time. So, the statistics for divorce and instability, are quite dire.

Therefore, if we want a stable environment for bringing up children, and building our economy and wealth, a stable marriage is the least you could ask for, and its the most you should work at.

I hope this talk will help you realize that whereas we live in an extremely competitive environment, and that we have so many things competing with our marriages and spouses, it is important that this part of our lives remains stable.

I can say without fear of contradiction that if I had had an unstable marriage, I don’t think I could have achieved half, or even the little that I have done. I believe that coming out of a stable environment every morning to go to work is one of the reasons I have the energy to do anything I am able to do. The same applies to children and the things that they do. You need to cultivate an environment that allows them to excel outside of your home.

Many times, when women are growing up, they are told that if you are to go up, then marriage is going to become a hindrance. But I would like to testify and say that marriage, for me, is not a hindrance [to success.] And I know several other people, for whom it is not a hindrance. On the contrary, we have seen situations where the instability of people’s homes has been the hindrance they had to their jobs.

Young ladies, when you are going up the corporate ladders, there is so much competition, and one lie that people are told is that if you don’t give up your marriage, then you will not go up. It is a lie straight from the gates of hell. It is one of those that has destroyed a lot of our young people. Once you give up the values for which you stand, then, most times, people will not believe you have any values for which they should take you.

It is important you realize that marriage is an area of your life that you need to work on. Marriages are not something you enter into, and then assume that ‘you have arrived’, and then do nothing about. You have to work at your marriage the same way to tend a garden. You have got to work at your relationship every day.

Why are relationships breaking down? It is because people stopped working on them. They stopped communicating. They stopped showing love. They stopped showing the other that this is how I love you. They don’t have any love language. Many do not take time to build their relationship, and often times realize too late that the person they left actually loved them and and vice versa.

I do hope that despite the pressures of life, we will take time to build our marriages. How do you build your marriage? You communicate. There is no short cut to communication. You must be able to speak. There are marriages that have broken up, simply because communication broke down. People became too busy to talk to each other. They became too busy to have lunch or dinner together. They became too busy to be around their homes over the weekends. They became too withdrawn to talk to each other, and the marriage broke. So, communication is extremely important. Speak gently to one another. In this time of Covid-19, I would like to urge couples to be very understanding of one another, and be extremely patient of one another as a mode of communication.

… There is always something good about somebody, so when you are stuck together during Covid-19, when you cannot get out, may this season be a time for you to stop and think, ‘Lord, what are you saying to me about my [spouse]?’ It is time for you to sit and talk, and make new resolutions for the family. It is time to grow your family and relationships. It is time to get to know your children more.

Some men in this country are so busy that they don’t know which class their children are. They have no idea what homework their children do. The children are babysat by a TV. Covid-19 has made us sit together. Covid-19 is actually good for the family if we know what to do with the time, and not use it to achieve our selfish ends. Phones are a big problem to marriages these days.

We are aware that right now there are rising cases of domestic violence. Please fathers, brothers and sisters, do not be more concerned about what children eat; be more concerned that you have a relationship with your child. The problems you are going through are being experienced by people elsewhere around the world… Marriage issues are every where in the world, but also, Uganda is one of the best places to practice your marriage. We need to take advantage of this season where we are squashed together in time and space to work on our marriages.

There is nothing as wonderful as being forced into a space where two people are not talking to each other. Whether you like it or not, you have got to speak to each other. Don’t slap or beat each other… I have been married 27 years and have never been slapped by my husband, not to say that we haven’t disagreed before. We disagree a lot, but speak through our disagreements. We speak into them and move on, and we don’t keep the anger for too long. We sit together and are open to each other.

By Sengooba Alirabaki

Today, the Ministry of Health (MoH) has tested 302 Covid-19 samples and one has tested positive. The case is a 22-year-old Ugandan female, resident of Nkokonjeru, Wakiso District and wife to previously confirmed case who arrived from Dubai on 20th March 2020.

Dr. Henry Mwebesa, Director of General Health Services at the MoH says that a total of 1,026 individial are under followup in institutional quarantine and 962 contacts are under follow up. All the 44 confirmed Covid 19 cases are in a stable cindition at Mulago National Specialist Hospital, Entebbe Grade B Hospital, Adjumani and Houma hospitals.

However, around the world, more than 981,000 have been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus worldwide as the death toll exceeded 50,000 and about 204,000 recovered.

The coronavirus pandemic death toll in Spain passed 10,000 on Thursday, as the country reported its highest number of deaths in a single day since the outbreak began, with the total rising by 950 to 10,003 among 110,238 infections.

The US – the world’s hardest-hit country – recorded a total of 5,316 coronavirus deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University. It has confirmed more than 226,000 cases of the disease.

Are we getting closer to a vaccine or drug?

Coronavirus is spreading around the world, but there are still no drugs that can kill the virus or vaccines that can protect against it.

Sars-CoV-2 is the virus which causes the disease Covid-19. There are at least 20 vaccines in development around the world.

Scientists in Australia have begun testing two potential coronavirus vaccines in “milestone” lab trials.

The vaccines, made by Oxford University and US company Inovio Pharmaceutical, have been cleared for animal testing by the World Health Organization.

Prof Trevor Drew, director of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in Victoria, where the testing is being carried out described the other vaccine – from Inovio – as “rather different but nonetheless exciting”.

It is designed to encode certain proteins of the coronavirus to the immune system, prompting the body’s cells to generate those proteins before the immune system reacts to them.

What other sort of progress is being made

Research is happening at breakneck speed, and there are more than 20 vaccines currently in development. Among those under way at the moment are:

The first human trial for a vaccine was announced last month by scientists at a lab in the US city of Seattle. They have taken the unusual step of skipping any animal research to test the vaccine’s safety or effectiveness.

Australian scientists have begun injecting ferrets with two potential vaccines. It is the first comprehensive pre-clinical trial to move to the animal testing stage, and the researchers say they hope to move to the human testing stage by the end of April.

Tests like these are taking place much quicker than would normally be the case, and some are using new approaches to vaccines. It follows that there are no guarantees everything will go smoothly.

But even if these – or any other tests – do prove successful, it’s not expected that manufacturers will be able to produce a mass-produced vaccine until the second half of 2021.

Remember, there are four coronaviruses that already circulate in human beings. They cause the common cold, and we don’t have vaccines for any of them.

Could existing drugs treat coronavirus?

Doctors are testing current anti-viral drugs to see if they work against coronavirus. This speeds up research as they are known to be safe to give to people.

Trials are taking place in England and Scotland on a small number of patients with an anti-viral called remdesivir. This was originally developed as an Ebola drug, but also appears effective against a wide variety of viruses.

Similar trials have already been carried out in China and the US, and results are expected in the next few weeks.

There was much hope that a pair of HIV drugs (lopinavir and ritonavir) would be effective, but the trial data is disappointing.

They did not improve recovery, reduce deaths or lower levels of the coronavirus in patients with serious Covid-19. However, as the trial was conducted with extremely sick patients (nearly a quarter died) it may have been too late in the infection for the drugs to work.

Studies are also taking place on an anti-malarial drug called chloroquine. Laboratory tests have shown it can kill the virus, and there is some anecdotal evidence from doctors that it appears to help. However, the World Health Organization says there is no definitive evidence of its effectiveness.

Would a vaccine protect people of all ages?

It will, almost inevitably, be less successful in older people. This is not because of the vaccine itself, but aged immune systems do not respond as well to immunisation. We see this every year with the flu jab.

Will there be side effects?

All medicines, even common pain-killers, have side effects. But without clinical trials it is impossible to know what the side effects of an experimental vaccine may be.

This is something on which regulators will want to keep a close eye.

Who would get a vaccine?

If a vaccine is developed then there will be a limited supply, at least in the early stages, so it will be important to prioritise.

Healthcare workers who come into contact with Covid-19 patients would be at the top of the list. The disease is most deadly in older people so they would be a priority if the vaccine was effective in this age group. However, it might be better to vaccinate those who live with or care for the elderly instead.

Until a vaccine or treatment is ready what can I do?

Vaccines prevent infections and the best way of doing that at the moment is good hygiene.

If you are infected by coronavirus, then for most people it would be mild and can be treated at home with bed-rest, paracetamol and plenty of fluids. Some patients may develop more severe disease and need hospital treatment.

How do you create a vaccine?

Vaccines harmlessly show viruses or bacteria (or even small parts of them) to the immune system. The body’s defences recognise them as an invader and learn how to fight them.

Then if the body is ever exposed for real, it already knows how to fight the infection.

The main method of vaccination for decades has been to use the original virus.

The measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine is made by using weakened versions of those viruses that cannot cause a full-blown infection. The seasonal flu jab is made by taking the main strains of flu doing the rounds and completely disabling them.

The work on a new coronavirus vaccine is using newer, and less tested, approaches called “plug and play” vaccines. Because we know the genetic code of the new coronavirus, Sars-CoV-2, we now have the complete blueprint for building that virus.

Some vaccine scientists are lifting small sections of the coronavirus’s genetic code and putting it into other, completely harmless, viruses.

Now you can “infect” someone with the harmless bug and in theory give some immunity against infection.

Other groups are using pieces of raw genetic code (either DNA or RNA depending on the approach) which, once injected into the body, should start producing bits of viral proteins which the immune system again can learn to fight.

Source: bbc & Aljazeera