Good as Gold

Despite his country's position as a key western ally, and doubtless only coincidentally with his personal reputation for human rights abuses, British officials have given the rah-rah to Uganda's newly-appointed chief of defence. Uganda is seen by the forces of the journalistic passive voice as a vital champion of economic and political integration: a process which, despite its toxic effect on the democracy of the master race, is evidently good enough for east Africans. A dossier filed with the International Criminal Court last year claims that the Ugandan government has used torture and arbitrary arrest, and Britain has imposed sanctions on three individuals for corruption, though not for supporting electoral over-assertiveness or the death penalty for homosexuality and imprisonment for its "promotion"; possibly His Majesty's Government succumbed to nostalgia for the sainted Thatcher and her Clause 28. The new defence chief also happens to be the president's son, which demonstrates at least that they share the British establishment's devotion to family values.