Safari Notes

Africa's second most populous city has grown explosively, from 300,000 in 1950 to an expected 18 million by 2010, when it will be ranked as one of the world's ten largest cities. This happened so quickly that the city had no effective institutions, engineering, planning, or traditions to guide the hypergrowth. Nigeria's booming oil industry fueled it, and it will likely only accelerate, taking Lagos along and drawing even more immigrants from rural areas, as well as from neighboring countries. Overcrowding (averaging six people per room), poor sanitation, air and water pollution, clogged sewers, solid-waste contamination, and staggering traffic fester even as efforts are being made to improve the national and city infrastructures in a time of political turmoil. Residents survive all those conditions and have kept the food supply moving through the efforts of individual vendors who sell their wares in vast outdoor markets. National Geographic More on Lagos: City-Data , Daily...

Chimpanzees are our closest living relatives, sharing more than 98 percent of our genetic blueprint. Humans and chimps are also thought to share a common ancestor who lived some four to eight million years ago . In many ways we are very very much like chimpanzees. And yet, we and chimps have some huge differences. The biggest difference between us and chimps, is: Man is the most cruel and the most destructive not only to our own fellow humans, but to all living creatures on this Planet. Chimps never keep us humans in captivity; or keep us in zoos for entertainment; or cruelly use us for scientific research; or eat us. Due to our destructive actions, we have driven chimpanzees almost to extinction and they are now an endangered species. Why was 'Travis' the chimp kept in captivity for all these years, when he should have been in the wild? Which is more cruel: 'Travis' the chimp mauling a woman or the chimp having been kept away from the wild and from its kind for so lon...

While Mugabe's wife goes for expensive shopping sprees in foreign countries and has a string of properties across the country, taken after Mr Mugabe's loyalists began evicting white farmers in 2000 ; while Mr. Mugabe spends millions to have lavish birthday parties; while the Mugabe's own many high valued foreign properties - Zimbabwe continues to have the world's worse and highest inflation rate ever recorded; and Zimbabweans continue to starve, to mostly depend on food handouts and to live in want and misery. And now this : When President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace landed in Hong Kong last month on the final lap of a lengthy Asian holiday, she had more on her mind than her usual extravagant shopping for baubles and handbags. The first lady was focused on two investments designed to keep the Mugabes rich should they one day be forced into exile from Zimbabwe, where thousands are starving and ravaged by cholera and opponents are jailed, beaten and tortured. One in...

With the continuing deforestation and environmental destruction in many parts of Kenya; the Kenyan government is looking for new sources of funding to help it reverse environmental degradation in the newly identified hotspots, which are driving Kenya’s slump into desertification. Very hopefully: this new approach by the Kenyan government and authority will help in reversing the damage and destruction done by past mismanagement and misuse of the country's natural resources. More encouraging are President Kibaki's statements at the opening of UNEP's global environmental forum now being held in Nairobi and attended by more than 1,200 delegates from around the world: developing countries should take stock of the quality of their environment even as they seek to implement ambitious development programmes , he said; and pointed out that environment degradation continues to undermine the prospects of fighting poverty, and the realization of high economic growth and sustainable...

This from WWF : The Malaysian peninsula is home to some of world's most amazing wildlife including Sumatran rhinos, Malayan tigers and Asian elephants. But these, and many other species in the region, are under increasing threat due to poaching and the demand for their body parts in the illegal wildlife trade. Elephants and many other species in the region, are under increasing threat due to poaching and the demand for their body parts in the illegal wildlife trade. | © WWF-Malaysia / Shariff Mohamad Elephants and many other species in the region, are under increasing threat due to poaching and the demand for their body parts in the illegal wildlife trade. © WWF-Malaysia / Shariff Mohamad Wildlife in Malaysia is currently protected by the Protection of Wild Life Act 1972, a 37-year old law, which is severely outdated and riddled with loopholes. As a result many species continue to be poached and illegally traded at alarming rates, whilst wildlife offenders often escape arrest an...

Bankrupt. Impoverished. A 90% unemployment rate. Cholera stricken. That's the Zimbabwe that Morgan Tsvangirai faces as he is sworn in as Zimbabwe's prime minister. And still continuing, as he has for the last twenty-nine years, as head of state, president and the most powerful person in the once food rich Zimbabwe - is Tsvangirai's long time rival, foe and tormentor: Robert Mugabe. Can and will this 'unity' government work? It has to. For the sake of the millions of impoverished and demoralized Zimbabweans, it has to. For the sake of the many hungry and malnourished children; the weak and sick elderly; the struggling and hopeless mothers; and the millions of their exhausted and yet very patient countrymen - Tsvangirai and Mugabe have to get their country together, united and moving. Moving forward. And fast. Move forward, to give and provide Zimbabweans back their dignity and some decency in their lives. Tsvangirai and Mugabe have to overlook and forget their past a...

Does the stunningly beautiful Seychelles really need man made islands? Regarded by many as the most beautiful and most exotic group of islands in the world, Seychelles has one more island. Now. An artificial one called Eden. And several other developments, catering mostly for the super rich, are being undertaken - to attract more cash to the Islands: The Seychelles is one of those tropical paradise destinations that attracts wealthy holidaymakers and ultrahoneymooners. Located in the Indian Ocean, 1,000 miles off Africa’s east coast, this otherworldly archipelago of 115 islands – some made of low-lying coral and reef atolls, others of ancient granite – offers textbook ­white powder sand, aqua waters and a balmy climate with temperatures rarely lower than 24ºC nor higher than 32ºC. It is more remote and rugged than Mauritius or the Maldives, yet it has regular flight connections direct to the capital of Mahé from Dubai (four hours away) and the UK (10 hours). It also sits in a time zo...

It saddens. It shocks. The fires that have been mercilessly sweeping across South Eastern Australia have been described as the country's worst peace time disaster. What is even most shocking is that, arsonists are now said to be the cause of some or many of the fires. What kind of human being; what kind of people - would be so evil so as to do some thing as destructive and horrible as that? Only a deranged and truly evil minded being would ever attempt that. Only sick people would do that. Not only have many died or been badly injured, but thousands have lost their homes and livelihoods; many of these people will never recover from this tragedy. And there's the unseen, unmentioned tragic side of the fires: the many animals and plants, both domesticated and wild, that have perished or been maimed in the flames. View Larger Map View the extent of the fires above on Google Maps and on NASA Earth Observatory What a world we live in? Not only have we damaged our environment and clim...

This sad and shocking report from The New York Times , shows how tragic the African Great Lakes Region is, and how super powers - right from the time the Soviet Union supported Congo's Patrice Lumumba, the US supported and funded Mobutu and continued to prop up his regime through out his dictatorship; and Britain, initially, strongly supporting Idi Amin - how all this meddling by foreign powers, has, many times, only caused tremendous suffering and blood in Africa. On the failed operation, I quote: "The American military helped plan and pay for a recent attack on a notorious Ugandan rebel group, but the offensive went awry, scattering fighters who carried out a wave of massacres as they fled, killing as many as 900 civilians............" "The Lord’s Resistance Army killed tens of thousands of people in northern Uganda, slicing off lips and terrorizing children, before the Ugandan Army drove it out about five years ago. Mr. Kony then marched his prepubescent death sq...

Of all of President Obama's five hundred plus promises that he made during his campaigning, I find two - the most important and would very much like him to keep: that of reducing suffering and poverty, not only in America, but beyond its borders too; and his pledge to "engage vigorously" on Climate Change. In his inauguration address, he repeated his commitment to both: And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it. Both of these promises if kept and brought to effect, would be most beneficial to Africa; and would certainly be Mr. Obama's greatest gift for the Continent. Africa is the poorest continent and by America doing all it can in reducing poverty and suffering beyond its borders too - Africans, very hopefully, will benefit. To reduce poverty an...