#flag of Uganda

[wallpapers4screen]

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[flagwars]

Flag Wars Bonus Round

[wally-b-feed]

[reasonsforhope]

Determined to use her skills to fight inequality, South African computer scientist Raesetje Sefala set to work to build algorithms flagging poverty hotspots - developing datasets she hopes will help target aid, new housing, or clinics.

From crop analysis to medical diagnostics, artificial intelligence (AI) is already used in essential tasks worldwide, but Sefala and a growing number of fellow African developers are pioneering it to tackle their continent's particular challenges.

Local knowledge is vital for designing AI-driven solutions that work, Sefala said.

"If you don't have people with diverse experiences doing the research, it's easy to interpret the data in ways that will marginalise others," the 26-year old said from her home in Johannesburg.

Africa is the world's youngest and fastest-growing continent, and tech experts say young, home-grown AI developers have a vital role to play in designing applications to address local problems.

"For Africa to get out of poverty, it will take innovation and this can be revolutionary, because it's Africans doing things for Africa on their own," said Cina Lawson, Togo's minister of digital economy and transformation.

"We need to use cutting-edge solutions to our problems, because you don't solve problems in 2022 using methods of 20 years ago," Lawson told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in a video interview from the West African country.

Digital rights groups warn about AI's use in surveillance and the risk of discrimination, but Sefala said it can also be used to "serve the people behind the data points". ...

'Delivering Health'

As COVID-19 spread around the world in early 2020, government officials in Togo realized urgent action was needed to support informal workers who account for about 80% of the country's workforce, Lawson said.

"If you decide that everybody stays home, it means that this particular person isn't going to eat that day, it's as simple as that," she said.

In 10 days, the government built a mobile payment platform - called Novissi - to distribute cash to the vulnerable.

The government paired up with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) think tank and the University of California, Berkeley, to build a poverty map of Togo using satellite imagery.

Using algorithms with the support of GiveDirectly, a nonprofit that uses AI to distribute cash transfers, the recipients earning less than $1.25 per day and living in the poorest districts were identified for a direct cash transfer.

"We texted them saying if you need financial help, please register," Lawson said, adding that beneficiaries' consent and data privacy had been prioritized.

The entire program reached 920,000 beneficiaries in need.

"Machine learning has the advantage of reaching so many people in a very short time and delivering help when people need it most," said Caroline Teti, a Kenya-based GiveDirectly director.

'Zero Representation'

Aiming to boost discussion about AI in Africa, computer scientists Benjamin Rosman and Ulrich Paquet co-founded the Deep Learning Indaba - a week-long gathering that started in South Africa - together with other colleagues in 2017.

"You used to get to the top AI conferences and there was zero representation from Africa, both in terms of papers and people, so we're all about finding cost effective ways to build a community," Paquet said in a video call.

In 2019, 27 smaller Indabas - called IndabaX - were rolled out across the continent, with some events hosting as many as 300 participants.

One of these offshoots was IndabaX Uganda, where founder Bruno Ssekiwere said participants shared information on using AI for social issues such as improving agriculture and treating malaria.

Another outcome from the South African Indaba was Masakhane - an organization that uses open-source, machine learning to translate African languages not typically found in online programs such as Google Translate.

On their site, the founders speak about the South African philosophy of "Ubuntu" - a term generally meaning "humanity" - as part of their organization's values.

"This philosophy calls for collaboration and participation and community," reads their site, a philosophy that Ssekiwere, Paquet, and Rosman said has now become the driving value for AI research in Africa.

Inclusion

Now that Sefala has built a dataset of South Africa's suburbs and townships, she plans to collaborate with domain experts and communities to refine it, deepen inequality research and improve the algorithms.

"Making datasets easily available opens the door for new mechanisms and techniques for policy-making around desegregation, housing, and access to economic opportunity," she said.

African AI leaders say building more complete datasets will also help tackle biases baked into algorithms.

"Imagine rolling out Novissi in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast ... then the algorithm will be trained with understanding poverty in West Africa," Lawson said.

"If there are ever ways to fight bias in tech, it's by increasing diverse datasets ... we need to contribute more," she said.

But contributing more will require increased funding for African projects and wider access to computer science education and technology in general, Sefala said.

Despite such obstacles, Lawson said "technology will be Africa's savior".

"Let's use what is cutting edge and apply it straight away or as a continent we will never get out of poverty," she said. "It's really as simple as that."

-via Good Good Good, February 16, 2022

[countriesgame]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size!

If you have any fun fact about Uganda, please tell us and I'll reblog it!

Be respectful in your comments. You can criticize a government without offending its people.

[rapeculturerealities]

South Africans protest Uganda law criminalising LGBTQ identity | Reuters

South Africans took to the streets of Pretoria and Cape Town on Friday to protest against a Ugandan law passed last week that makes it a criminal offence to be openly LGBTQ.

Singing and waving flags, demonstrators called on Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, not to sign it.

[redgriffun]

This graphic from Al-Jazeera coverage of the ICJ hearing against Israel, brought forward by South Africa, accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza, is incredibly useful. (As is their entire coverage)

Basic facts: South Africa's 84 page document argues that Israel violated 1948 Genocide convention established in the aftermath of the Holocaust, which mandates all countries prevent recurrence of such a crime"

Spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs has accused South Africa of functioning as the legal arm of Hamas.

Img: flowchart titled: South Africa's case against the ICJ. Subtitled: while South Africa's case against Israel might take years, an interim measure which aims to halt Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza could be taken within weeks.

Flowchart: Dec 29 2023: South Africa files a case against Israel at the ICJ alleging that Israel's military campaign in Gaza amounts to Genocide. Arrow to: January 11-12, 2024. The ICJ to hold its first hearing. For provisional measures the court has to decide whether it has jurisdiction and if the alleged acts could potentially fall under the Genocide treaty. Images of judges with their nations flags (see below). The court has 15 judges, who will be joined by one judge from Israel and South Africa each. Arrow to: box 1: A provisional ruling is expected within weeks: if the court decides to implement an interim measure this would put a legal obligation on Israel to end its onslaught. The courts rulings are final but it has no authority to enforce them. Box 2: Even if the court decides not to implement an interim measure, it could still decide it has jurisdiction and proceed with the case. No arrow to: A final ruling would probably take several years.

Bottom text:

Left corner: open source copyright icon. source: international court of justice, Jan 10 2024. Right corner: Al-Jazeera

*flags are: America, Russia, China, France, Australia, Brazil, Germany, India, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Morocco, Slovakia, Somalia, Uganda

Reports that South Africans are feeling pride. As an Australian, I'm used to feeling shame. Cringing that we of all fucking countries should be on the ICJ.

[african-flags-tournament]

AFRICAN FLAG-DESIGN TOURNAMENT: Round 1A - Match 8

Link to the tournament masterpost

[flagwars]

Flag Wars Bonus Round

[batboyblog]

As Iraqi "protesters" have recently burnt rainbow flags, its time we call for a boycott of Iraq, Iraqi products and the upcoming Muharrram commerations.

well 1. Muharram is new years in the Islamic calendar, so covers way more than just Iraq, it covers everyone who's a Muslim, was raised Muslim and any number of middle eastern groups who aren't Muslim but use its calendar (the Druze come to mind)

2. I don't really know how many Iraqi products make it onto the US market, national boycotts of that kind are rarely effective. Though in general people should make a shift away from oil and gas because its killing the planet and a lot of the countries that have lots of oil and gas, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Iraq are at best unstable at worse run by evil governments that hate gay people (and women, and minorities... and are just evil)

3. I do think the US (and other western countries) should do more to predicate aid and engagement on human rights. For example when Uganda past its "kill the gays" bill that should have been it for US-Uganda relations. Likewise I wish the US government might put together a nice civilian investment package for Ukraine as a sweetener for them to pass civil unions, there's a bill in the Ukrainian Parliament that would given rights to gay couples but its stalled out and I think the US or EU (or both) should be trying to push that along

4. finally I think the best thing any one can do is give Rainbow Railroad some money they help LGBT people leave countries like Iraq for safer places where they can be themselves

[is-the-primate-vid-cute]

Have you heard of Liberia Chimpanzee Project? What are your thoughts? It's on tv right now and making me feel weird

We've had a few people express concern over the Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection mostly due to the organization allowing chimps close contact with domestic dogs, people in the project having unprotected contact with the chimps, and the founders being a white American couple. It's great that people are learning and being skeptical!

We want people to recognize red flags but it is important to note that our blog has a largely Western focus and that while some practices are always unethical, many are context dependant.

The founders of LCRP are Jenny and Jimmy Desmond, and while they are white Americans, their work in Africa started years before they founded LCRP. They began in 1999 by visiting an orangutan sanctuary, and spent the next few years volunteering at multiple sites in Africa and Asia to both help wildlife and learn how wildlife rescue organizations operate successfully. They helped rehabilitate an orphaned chimp for the first time in 2000 with the Uganda Wildlife Education Center and the success of helping Matooke the chimp solidified their ambition. They returned to the United States and Jimmy entered vet school while Jenny worked in non-profit marketting and fundraising.

It wasn't until 2010 that they began working directly with chimpanzees in Africa again in various countries, and they did so in conjunction with reputable orgs such as The Jane Goodall Institute, Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, EcoHealth Alliance, Smithsonian Institute, and the Uganda Wildlife Education Center. The Desmonds moved to Liberia at the request of the Humane Society of the United States in 2015 to care for a group of 66 chimpanzees that had been retired from medical research and since abandonned. This was the true start of the LCRP that we know today as word spread that the Desmonds could care for chimps and orphans were brought to them.

While pictures of the founders and their dog snuggling with baby chimps may look alarming to those atuned to the red flags we talk about on this blog, the sanctuary itself operates with the aim of prioritizing the type of lives chimps have in the wild. Orphans are taken care of by the Desmonds' as infants and integrated into family groups when they are independant enough, and they have had great success with this.

Additionally, LCRP is a driving force in partnering and working with local and international orgs to create better policy and practices for protecting wildlife. A major component of this is the creation of an anti-wildlife trafficking task force that confiscates wildlife that has been poached to be rehabilitated and returned to their natural habitat. The list of the LCRP's acheivments is a mile long and the work they do on the scale of individual chimps, working with local people and organizations, to international policy and protocol is nothing short of incredible. The Desmonds' are experts who have dedicated their lives to a cause, and it shows.

As professionals in this industry, they should absolutely do better to post content that does not misconstrue their mission or indirectly contribute to the desire for pet chimps. We hope they do better on this front, but their work in whole is strong!

So when you see photos or videos from LCRP, these aren't random chimp snugglers who are posing as a sanctuary to get photos of apes posing with their dog, these are people who have been working since the 90s to secure a future for chimps in Liberia. You can learn more and donate on their website!

Liberia Chimpanzee Rescue & Protection is super amazing!

[ring-a-ling-a-lune]

I wish those fuckers who do videos asking random US citizens about world geography would approach me. I would smoke them. “Name three countries that start with the letter H” ok Haiti Honduras Hungary. “Name three countries that start with U” Uganda Uruguay Uzbekistan “Where is Tunisia” that’s in Northern Africa. “What’s the capitol of Libya” Tripoli bitchhhhhh

Like cmon. Tell me to point to Austria on a map. Ask me what flag belongs to who. Oh my god it’s SO AGGRAVATING how ignorant my fellow countrymen are. Those videos are embarrassing.

[wally-b-feed]

Anthony Fineran (B 1981), Flag Uganda Kreid, 2023

[eccentrickleptomaniac]

Do you have any Uganda head cannons?

Just a question, you don't have to answer this is you don't want to.

i have ballsdex in several servers im apart of on discord and without fail every single fucking time uganda spawns i automatically go UGANDA BE KIDDING ME. its habit at this point help

anyways, uganda! she's a very outgoing and kind young lady, the type to help someone cross the street even if they don't need it. she comes off as pushy because of this, but she means no harm! generally she stays out of others business as long as they don't try to push their way into hers.

her father is buganda. she might have a second parent (rare i know) in bunyoro? however i'm not sure. long story short she got taken away from both of her parents at a young age and became a british protectorate. as with most british protectorates, it wasn't great for her, like, at all. but hey, she kept living i s'pose.

anyways, eventually she got out of the rut that left her in, and reunited with her parent(s)! obviously it wasnt all sunshine and rainbows but i do not know enough about uganda to make good judgements.

she enjoys sewing, all her clothes is handmade. she does in fact have wings like other countries with birds on their flags, but unlike them she prefers gliding over flying most of the time. chicken wings are not made like birds of prey's. her "govt assigned" username is undergroundGreenery.

hope this suffices! :-)