Café Scientifique – Uganda June 2010 Report.
Prepared by Betty Kituyi, Coordinator
General overview
June has been packed with many Café Sci activities, but what stood out was our students being able to carry scientific discussions with the adult science community at two events organised by the Uganda National Academy of Sciences (UNAS). Both events gave Café Sci good feasibility. The involvement of young people in science meetings is a new thing in Uganda and Café Scientifique extends thanks to UNAS for their partnership and support of café activities.
On 17th of June, UNAS organised a science seminar on tree planting at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. The students were very active, learned and had many questions concerning commercial tree planting. They worried whether the native tree species were not being ignored in favour of the pine trees.
The Parliamentary Scientifique Café Breakfast meeting
On June 22nd, six Café Sci students, accompanied by their teacher (Mr. Muhumuza Gerald), joined members of parliament, oil experts, scientists and the civil society in a café scientifique breakfast meeting at the Uganda Management Institute. The students performed a poem which set the tone of the café topic; The discovery of oil in Uganda and the implications on the environment. The last stanza of their poem, ‘Are we blessed or cursed?' became the riveting question for the breakfast meeting! The student’s poem went as follows:
Blessed or Cursed
Are we blessed or cursed
To have huge oil reserves
Of crude sweeter than honey
Of gas purer than gold
Of a population without technical expertise?
Are blessed or cursed
To have petroleum
In the poorest of regions
Amongst the most forgotten of peoples
In the wildest of places?
Are we blessed or cursed
To have companies rushing
To sign secret deals
To explore our resources
To employ foreign workers?
Are we blessed or cursed
To discover this black gold
When we are still largely peasants
When we are soon uniting with better placed neighbour
When we still lack national character?
Are we blessed or cursed
To be on the verge of production
Without sufficient planning
Without adequate sensitization
Without alternative solutions?
Are we blessed or cursed?
Are we blessed or cursed?
Are we blessed or cursed?
Networking
The Uganda National Commission for UNESCO invited the coordinator to attend their annual scientific conference on 11th June 2010 at Hotel Triangle in Kampala. The Café Scientifique coordinator requested the commission to involve Café Sci students in their activities and it was agreed that students will participate in the next conference in 2011!
Ciprian Bishop S.S
The Saturday of 17th June 2010 was an inspiring moment for café sci students. While discussing the topic: ‘The never ending sun’ led by Mr. Gidieon Mugenyi, it was easy to wonder how the young speaker had immersed so much knowledge about the solar system. The students listened with keen interest and admiration and could have had an aha moment, that could follow them all their lives. One question that came out was: Where do our words end up? Is it possible to ever recover all words one has spoken from childhood?
