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ON AIR: Katrina one year on and peace in Uganda

Kevin Anderson | 18:01 UK time, Tuesday, 29 August 2006

Tonight, we're returning to the subject of the aftermath of . It wreaked havoc over an area the size of England, and the region is still working to recover. As Richard is just saying on air, the storm also wreaked response on President Bush's political profile. We'll hear more stories and talk about the political fall out.

And we're also going to talk a new peace deal in Uganda after 20 years of conflict. Will it hold?

John lives in Dallas, but he was born and raised there. "I was dragged kicking and screaming from there when I married a Texan," he said.

He loves the city but he also said that it has had problems since even long before the US was a nation. Crime, flooding and more hurt the city long before the storm, and John said that one man cannot be held responsible for what happened in New Orleans.

Darryl in New Orleans said that George Bush was billed as the CEO president who would delegate to able subordinates, but while he was on vacation in Texas, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency mishandled the recovery.

James in Wisconsin says that he isn't interested in attributing blame. "You can't simply wave a wand and make everything better," he said. But his father can't move back to the area because there just isn't the services.

Laura in Washington DC said that President Bush can visit the region as many time as he wants, but she wanted to know what was being done to prevent this from happening again.

Darryl agreed with a comment from James that there are parts of New Orleans that should not be resettled. But he also wondered why the US was spending so much money on "adventures in the Middle East and Central Asia" and not spend money to preserve the birthplace of the only truly American art form: Jazz.

John said that past administrations had asked for the money to improve the levees, but it either didn't come or the money was siphoned off or stolen by corrupt state and local governments.

James, an American in London, said:

If George Bush walked on water, someone would criticise him for not being able to swim

He laid the blame on Mayor Ray Nagin and other state and local politicians who didn't respond effectively. And James said that the area evacuated was actually larger than the UK and how difficult it would be to evacuate an area that large. And he said that Republican administrations in states neighbouring Lousiana have done better in rebuilding.

Greg in Florida said that President Bush must take some responsibility because he was on vacation.

Tracy in Englewood Colorado says that President Bush's visit really didn't mean much. It had to be done she said to remember the bad day in the history of the US. In terms of his initial response, everyone from the mayor, the governors and the president, "there is more than enough blame to go around".

Dave lived seven houses from the Gulf in Ocean Springs Mississippi at the time of the storm. They were hit more severely by the storm than New Orleans. He said that FEMA's response was good in his area. The flooding and destruction stopped just short of his home.

Eunice in Sierra Leone sent us this text message:

Bush has done the bare minimum with regard to the New Orleans. Does it hav anything to do with racism, ideal of moralism or what? B4 trying to solve probs of the world i guess first u hav to sort ur domestic probs.

And Kwadwo Nyamekye in Kuwait sent us this text:

Hello Am not American but al most the world was down hearted what we saw on our Tv sets My word is what hap pened was natural so I think no body should be blame but rather hands should be joined together and build the city

Peace in Uganda?

After 20 years, the Lord's Resistance Army and the Ugandan Government have .

Charles in New York said that he was happy about the peace agreement, however, he thinks that this is just an initial step.

Edward said that the peace plan only came after pressure from South Africa.

And we talked about whether Joseph Kony and the fighters of the LRA should be granted amnesty?

The people in northern Uganda have been wanting peace, George said, but he wondered whether justice could come with peace.

A flood of text messages on this subject. We always get so many text messages from Africa. It's great.

Musa Bell from Nigeria sent us this text:

What is happening in sudan is just a wish of U.N if not it would have been resolved already.

Edmond in Sierra Leone sent us this text:

Let the govt and th LRA embrace this oportunity, an bring this conflict 2 an end. It is the masses who suffers from d war.

M Akpan in Nigeria

Peace for the ugandan people is more important than the so call justice. Afterall their president was a rebel

Jimoh Afolabi in Accra sent us this text:

I only pray it works so that innocent souls could be saved.

Issa Sanu from Sierra Leone

The L R A rebels do not dersve amnesty but justice most be done.

Calvin Abel in Kampala:

Let there be high profile indepth, realistic and result oriented negotiations btwn the LRA en the Gov't and not mere fabrications that fuelup hostility

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