Commentary

The last four months were pregnant with hope for an end to the Coronavirus pandemic. Several COVID-19 vaccines became available. Millions of people, mainly in the developed world, were vaccinated. Herd immunity was on the horizon, granted still far in an unpredictable future. 

The March 2021 issue is devoted to the significance of paying attention to evidence. Though the selected articles cover different areas of human endeavors, they do complement each other to illustrate the point regardless of whether it concerns diseases, social relationship or physical matter.

Writing in 1751 Voltaire described Europe as “a kind of great republic, divided into several states, some monarchical, the others mixed but all corresponding with one another. They all have the same religious foundation, even if divided into several confessions. They all have the same principles of public law and politics unknown in other parts of the world.”

First, we hope our readers survived 2020 in as good a shape as possible despite the COVID-19 pandemic. We wish to express our most sincere condolences to those who lost loved ones and empathy to those who suffered from COVID-19 symptoms or other problems associated with the pandemic. We hope that 2021 will be a better year than 2020.

Nancy Kalembe is one of 10 candidates running for the Ugandan presidency against the incumbent, Yoweri Museveni. The election is scheduled for January 14, 2021. The question often asked is whether Nancy Kalembe or any of her co-contestants have a prayer to dethrone the incumbent. It is an intriguing question since in its 58 years of independence, no Ugandan president has ever lost an election.

This has been a trying year, but somehow, we are making it to the end. Hopefully 2021 will be better since we now have vaccines which will most likely bring COVID-19 pandemic to an end as soon as possible.

In the October issue of Nile Journal, I stuck my neck out and predicted that President Trump would not be re-elected. My unstated expectation was that Trump would lose decisively. Unfortunately, that was not the case; it was a nail biter. 

If you were to ask people if they have values, the answer will without hesitation be in the affirmative. They have national, cultural, traditional, religious, moral values, on and on ad nauseum. The September issue of Nile Journal is devoted to discussions of different aspects of social values. People are always forced to choose between which values to respect and which ones to violate, when, why and how.