Drew Ddembe (@ddembe) profile picture

I am a #Ugandan primarily interested in #social and #political issues relevant to Uganda. I have been providing #sociopolitical #commentary since 2004

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Joined July 2009
Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)Photo by Drew Ddembe (@ddembe)
Drew Ddembe retweeted
The American way of paying at a restaurant is absolute MADNESS 🇪🇺 In Europe: - You eat a burger. - You ask for the bill. - 20€. - You tap your phone on the card reader. - You leave. End. 🇺🇸 In the United States ↓↓
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
亲爱的德国人,你起码犯了两个常识错误。 一、中国没有40平米的房子。除了单身公寓这种数量极少的投资型物业,中国的房子通常在90平以上,大城市在80平以上。 二、奔驰、宝马、奥迪不再是中国人追逐的品牌。现在的中国人喜欢电动车,而德国品牌的电动车被称为杂牌电动车。 当你的基础认知就已经是错误的,你只能得出荒谬的结论。 中国商品之所以物美价廉,是因为中国有齐全且集中的供应链、高效的物流系统、自动化的生产车间,以及规模优势拉低了边际成本。 中国当然也可以为那些优秀的商品定一个昂贵的价格,以换取丰厚的利润。过去你们就是这么干的,现在以我们的产品竞争力,也有条件这么干。 但我们不这么干。 这是因为,提高利润的代价是销量降低。对于你们那个只有几千万人口的国家来说,你们无需追求销量,无需扩大能量,因为你们无需为社会提供那么多的就业岗位。 但我们是一个14亿人口的国家。对我们来说,与其只创造1000个岗位,让这1000人拿一份丰厚的薪水,不如创造10000个岗位,让10000人拿一份普通的薪水。 薄利多销,能够支撑起更大的产能,提供更多的就业岗位。对企业来说,还能获得规模优势,压缩单件商品成本,扩大市场份额,创造更大营收,然后还有了更多的资金投入研发,如此循环滚动。 另一方面,这也大大有利于消费端市场,让全世界的消费者得以享受到物美价廉的中国商品。 想想你们的盾构机。曾经你们以一台 3.5 亿元人民币的价格买给中国。你们自恃垄断了制造技术,宁愿维持一个极低的销量,宁愿让那些发展中国家用不起,也要追求丰厚利润。 中国实现盾构机国产化之后,我们将每台的价格降至3000 万元人民币以下,不到你们价格的1/10。 诚然,我们没有赚到你们那么多的利润,但我们为发展中国家提供了质优价廉的采购选择,促进了那些国家的建设与发展,同时我们扩大了市场份额,创造了更多的生产就业岗位。 我们在做着多方共赢、造福世界的事业,你们则喜欢用技术垄断剥削全世界。当中国打破你们的技术垄断,你们恨得咬牙切齿。因为你们不仅仅是丧失了利润,而且丧失市场份额,丧失了就业岗位。 你们在工业领域的失守,仍在加剧。以前,德国汽车只想要中国的工人和市场,但现在,他们不得不将研发重心也放到中国。 你们愚蠢地与俄罗斯开战,切断了俄罗斯的能源供应。你们几十年去工业化,导致理工科学生数量大幅下降,工程师人才极度缺失。 这样的营商环境,导致你们的企业纷纷关闭德国工厂,迁往中国和美国。 你们失业,你们抗议。但这一切都是你们自己的选择,你们并不无辜。
Liebe Chinesen, Ihr schuftet euer Leben lang, eure Kinder für ein paar Euro gleich mit – für 40 m² und vielleicht einen BYD. Während ihr von Mercedes, BMW und Audi träumt, kauft der Westen eure Arbeit billig. Bitter, oder? „Made in China“ steht hierzulande für billig Ware.
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Nah Elwelu deserves whatever comes his way, fair or unfair!
The kind of karma that governs Uganda is something to be feared. Retired Lt. Gen. Peter Elwelu, now pursued by Chief of Defence Forces Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba over allegations of rebel activity – charges he denies - has gone into hiding, "fearing for his life". In November 2016, Elwelu, then a brigadier, commanded the military assault on the Rwenzururu Kingdom palace in Kasese, allegedly for its support of eastern DR Congo-based Ugandan rebels. The operation left over 150 people dead, with estimates placing the toll around 153, including royal guards, civilians, women, and children. On May 19, 2021, Elwelu provoked widespread outrage during a press conference by declaring that the Kasese victims "deserved death." Defending the brutality of the raid, he insisted, "Uganda is peaceful because of my actions in Kasese." When challenged on local backlash and the US visa sanctions slapped on Ugandan officials over human rights abuses, he brushed off international concern: "To hell with them." He had previously branded the Kasese victims "witches" shortly after the 2016 massacre. If Elwelu is cowering in fear today, he might pause to reflect on the sheer terror felt by those defenceless women and children in Kasese. Perhaps he now wishes he possessed the powers of a Harry Potter wizard to vanish into thin air before Muhoozi tracks him down. We must still wish Elwelu fair treatment and due process under the law. Yet there is no escaping the poetic justice of a man who once handed down merciless destruction now finding himself hunted, learning the hard way that the wheel of retribution too often turns full circle. monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/na…
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
Was recently told (though I don’t necessarily agree) that; “Ugandans are hyperventilating about who President Yoweri Museveni, in power for nearly 41 years, prefers as his successor. A surer path is to focus on HOW Museveni thinks about his successor. He prefers someone who he’s confident will be worse than him. That way people will miss him, which is how he sees his legacy. Ugandans must not underestimate the size of Museveni’s narcissism.”
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
Time has come back to haunt HE. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni. Ozanyissa obudde! Katonda yakola obudde, omuzungu na yiya esawa.
OPINION: Why doctors should pocket more often when ministers visit "The medical profession is one reserved for the cream of society; the cerebral. A politician who has the chutzpah to shame and punish a doctor is confronting royalty," @nsengoba writes. monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/co…
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
Why Trump Is The Worst US President Ever - Jeffrey Sachs
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This is a scam
Dei BioPharma needs another tax payers money injection of $430m ( UGX 1.89 trillion) to expand. Despite now getting $164m (UGX 723bn) of tax payers money, GOU still has no shares in it. If it gets the $430m boost, it would have got 2.86% of Uganda's 2025 $66bn nominal GDP.
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Perhaps Hon. @JoelSsenyonyi was surprised that Hon. Ofwono Opondo would be the one to stand with him against the trend of abduction and disappearance of people. However, the truth is many people in NRM are disgusted too - only that they lack the courage to speak out. I randomly meet many of them, but I haven’t talked to a single that privately supports the abductions and torture. It takes a certain degree of inner deadness and lack of foresight to support that cruelty.
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
The report explicitly acknowledges that hatred toward Jews is NOT on the rise, and that only anti-Israel sentiments are increasing. And yet they STILL published a review claiming “antisemitism” is a major problem in British schools, because "antisemitism" means "opposing Israel".
Buried on page 30 of 'Sir' David Bellend's report into antisemitism in schools in the UK it explicitly says there hasn't been a rise in antisemitism, only in anti-Israel sentiment. Astonishingly fraudulent crisis/debate, all to shield a genocidal state
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
The US empire only has two tools left to force the world into line: financial sanctions and dropping bombs. For 30 years, this worked. You either obeyed Washington's "rules-based order," or you got sanctioned, overthrown, or bombed. But China, Russia and Iran are seems to not playing those rules. They aren't just breaking them; they are building entirely new lines. Look at the material reality of this shift: - The US weaponized the banking system and stole sovereign reserves. The result? The Global South is building parallel financial networks. Trade in local currencies is exploding. Ao, you cannot sanction a transaction if you do not control the ledger. - The US empire runs on financialization, debt, and printing money. The emerging multipolar bloc runs on physical reality: energy, minerals, manufacturing, and infrastructure. You cannot bomb your way out of a supply chain deficit. - Every time Washington imposes a new sanction to "punish" defiance, it just forces more countries to join the alternative system. The empire’s favorite weapon has become the exact catalyst for its own decline. So, where is this going? We are watching the transition from a unipolar financial system to a multipolar physical world. The transition will be violent. A dying hegemon will use bombs, blockades, and proxy wars to try and stop the tide. But the historical direction is set. The old order was based on who could print the most dollars and drop the most bombs. The new order is being built by those who mine the lithium, refine the oil, and build the factories. The US empire cannot sanction a new world into submission. It can only sanction itself out of it.
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Hmm! Who cares?
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
El-Sayed: "We had a little debate. Or I had a debate and he just pointed at me and said, 'He's Muslim.'"
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
AIPAC is why 74,469 Palestinians are dead (Al Jazeera, Oct 17, 2026). AIPAC is why 1,511 were killed after the ceasefire. AIPAC is why 351 children were killed under a "ceasefire" (UNICEF, Oct 22, 2026). AIPAC is why 60,000 children lost one or both parents (UNICEF). AIPAC is why Hind Rajab, age 6, called for rescue from a car full of her dead relatives, and no one reached her in time. AIPAC is why 112 people were killed around the flour convoy on Feb 29, 2024. AIPAC is why a Rafah tent camp burned on May 26, 2024. AIPAC is why seven World Central Kitchen workers were killed in a convoy on April 1, 2024, including Americans and a Canadian-American. AIPAC is why the IPC declared famine in Gaza City in August 2025. IPC is the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) formally declared it Famine (IPC Phase 5) AIPAC is why children died of malnutrition during the aid blockade of spring 2025. AIPAC is why people were shot queuing for food near distribution sites. AIPAC is why more than 1,400 health workers were killed (WHO). AIPAC is why Nasser Hospital was hit twice in minutes in Aug 2025, killing journalists and rescuers. AIPAC is why Gaza became one of the deadliest places ever recorded for journalists (CPJ). AIPAC is why poet and professor Refaat Alareer was killed. AIPAC is why Save the Children counted about 10 children a day losing a limb. AIPAC is why surgeries (Children, men and women) happen without anesthesia. AIPAC is why entire schools and universities exist only as rubble. AIPAC is why a generation of Gaza kids knows the sound of a drone before the sound of a school bell.
AIPAC is why your fantasy football team stinks. AIPAC is why the weather is bad. AIPAC is why you need an app to park. Say NO to Bernie’s obsessive scapegoating. YES to an America that works with our ally to create U.S. jobs, keep America safe, and promote democratic values.
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China is making electric cars affordable for everyday people, with EVs starting at around $10,000. Meanwhile, Americans are paying tens of thousands more. Instead of treating China as an enemy and shutting out affordable EVs with massive tariffs, why not cooperate? China and the U.S. could work together to create good jobs, make electric vehicles more affordable, and tackle the climate crisis. So who really benefits from keeping Chinese EVs out? American consumers and the planet, or corporate profits?
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Drew Ddembe retweeted
Germany's Foreign Minister @AussenMinDE accuses Iran of holding global trade hostage. He has no word for the war of aggression that created this crisis. Iran did not close a strait in peacetime. It was attacked, in the middle of negotiations, in plain breach of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter. Since then, the President of the United States has threatened to destroy Iran's bridges and power plants, civilian objects whose deliberate targeting is a war crime. Washington and Tel Aviv have openly courted the collapse of the Iranian state. On all of this, Berlin is silent. A government whose chancellor called Israel's bombing of Iran "dirty work" done "for all of us" cannot lecture anyone on the rule of law. Germany has no shame. It condemns the fire and applauds the arsonist. International law is not a weapon reserved for the enemies of one's allies. Germany has forfeited the right to invoke it.
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The U.S. has over the past three years spent $11 BILLION in taxpayer money on missile defense for Israel. It has fired more interceptors defending Israel than Israel has. That is not a symbiotic relationship. It is a parasitic one.
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This whole thing is a scam!
But also, WTAH??!! You haven’t got the Matugga project going AT ALL and you’re asking taxpayers to fork out more cash while saying your Kamuli project is 70% complete? It’s no wonder this dude can’t seem to pay his bankers. You can’t be opening new branches for a business that hasn’t worked at all!!!
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Her: Daddy, in Literature there was a question about relevance of the novels we read. On the point of corruption, almost all the class says they gave the example of Anita Among. Me: And you? Her: Me I gave examples from other countries. What if the one marking is her relative? Even on the point of oppression and brutality many students said they used the example of Muhoozi and Basement. For me I went to colonial oppression. Me: Eh, are you such a coward? Her: Haha, no. I read the room.
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