NPR Discovers Third-World Elections Inconveniently Shut Off Internet
As Ugandans 'vote' for aging President Museveni, NPR highlights the incumbent's bid to extend a four-decade rule amidst an internet shutdown and military deployment. One might wonder if this playbook feels familiar. In 2023, the US approved a $105 million military aid package to Uganda, a nation hardly known for its robust democratic processes. Oddly, Western media seldom connects these dots,
preferring narratives of isolated 'African problems' rather than systemic support for strongmen. (Perhaps because strongmen keep the oil flowing.) It’s almost as if 'free and fair elections' are a selectively applied standard, reserved for nations whose geopolitical alignment isn't already secured. When do we get to call it influence peddling when our own government funds leaders who suppress
their populations? How many internet blackouts before it stops being a 'tense election' and starts being what it actually is?