Safari Notes

Sudan's Dinder National Park has beome a battle field in the fight between humans and wildlife for land.   Vast grasslands, lakes and woods are spread over more than 10,000 square kilometres, making it an important flyway for migratory birds. But the massive reserve is under threat. The population has exploded, putting pressure for new croplands on this area tucked away by the Ethiopian border. "It (birds) enjoys the richest wildlife in Sudan," said Albadri Alhassan, head of the park's development organisation. "But the growing human violations threaten to diminish the wilderness." When the park was first declared a protected reserve under Anglo-Egyptian rule in 1935, the area was sparsely inhabited. But in recent decades, the population has soared in the villages that dot the park and its surrounding buffer zone, creating huge pressure for new land to grow crops. And as cattle herders' traditional grazing lands have been ploughed up, they in turn have i...

#Muguka and #Miraa are known to be detrimental and destructive to families, health and wellbeing. In #Kenya most of those who consume the two are #Muslims; and look at what it has done to them - it has kept them low economically and educationally. Children from families who chew the two drugs, very rarely go far in education. It's Muslims who are mainly to be found in poor places like: Kalolenis, Majengos, Bondenis etc. If it wasn't for many Muslims working in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries (where many were being paid well) and if it wasn't for millions of #Somalis migrating and living in Western countries (sending remittances), Muslims would have been even much poorer.  Then look too, at countries that have many people chewing muguka/miraa - they are some of the poorest and most fragmented - #Somalia, #Yemen and #Djibouti. The millions of Muslims in #Ethiopia are poor and uneducated mainly due to their families being dominated by #qat.  How can the laws or constitu...

Democracy" - what's its definition? The West prefers it to be defined as suits them. Hence - they did all they could to subvert and overturn "democratic elections" in: Algeria, Palestine etc. And they support and prop dictators as long as these are what they consider beneficial to/for them. They invade and kill millions and try to impose on others, as in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Grenada etc. - in the name of "human rights" and "democracy", as defined by them.  Africa and many parts of the world have been scammed/duped by the so called "democracy". Millions are living in hunger, misery and abject poverty in these so called "democracies". While the rulers, leaders and the elite in these countries live in such affluence and luxury that - that, in itself are excellent catalyst and motivation for these revolutions sweeping Africa.  Very hopefully these revolutions will very uplift the lives of its people, give these people justice ...

Twenty years ago, one of the darkest and most horrific tragedies in human history was viciously and mercilessly executed in one of the most beautiful countries one can ever imagine: Rwanda. No other human tragedy is comparable to this in the last one-hundred years, except the horrific events of World War I and World War II.  In 100 days in 1994, about 6,000,000 Rwandans were displaced. An estimated 1,000,000 people, mostly Tutsis and some moderate Hutus, were mercilessly hunted and slaughtered: children, the old, the disabled, women - it made no difference to the Hutu extremists who had meticulously planned the exterminations. Neighbours killed neighbours and some husbands even killed their Tutsi wives, saying they would be killed if they refused. At the time, ID cards had people's ethnic group on them, so militias set up roadblocks where Tutsis were slaughtered, often with machetes which most Rwandans kept around the house. Thousands of Tutsi women were taken away and kept a...

Rows of human skulls sit in glass cases near the red brick Catholic church here. Some are cracked in half; holes are punched in others. Hundreds of arm and leg bones lie nearby. To the left is a table of tools: rusty shovels, hoes, pipes, and a machete — the weapons of genocide.

Many in the West, including leaders and politicians - are forcefully doing all that they can to promote the acceptance of homosexuality. Presently, in America , those campaigning have insultingly gone as far as to equate legal rights for homosexuals with the historic black struggle against racism; there is a specter haunting it. It is the movement to promote and legalize homosexual marriage. The movement has adopted a cunning political strategy to appeal to everyone from the suburban soccer mom to the urban white-male liberal: It has packaged its demand for the radical redefining of marriage in the rhetoric and imagery of the U.S. civil rights movement . For Africa and Africans, if the Western world condones and accepts homosexuality, is not a problem; America and other Western countries (which base their democracy and culture on ancient Greece which tolerated and allowed homosexuality ages ago) are free to decide for themselves what kind of a culture and a society they prefer. But,...

Touted as a promising alternative energy source for decades, solar panels crown rooftops and roadside signs, and help keep spacecraft powered. But how do solar panels work? Simply put, a solar panel works by allowing photons, or particles of light, to knock electrons free from atoms, generating a flow of electricity. Solar panels actually comprise many, smaller units called photovoltaic cells. (Photovoltaic simply means they convert sunlight into electricity.) Many cells linked together make up a solar panel. Each photovoltaic cell is basically a sandwich made up of two slices of semi-conducting material, usually silicon — the same stuff used in microelectronics. To work, photovoltaic cells need to establish an electric field. Much like a magnetic field, which occurs due to opposite poles, an electric field occurs when opposite charges are separated. To get this field, manufacturers "dope" silicon with other materials, giving each slice of the sandwich a...

Rebel, Revolutionary, Freedom-fighter, Leader, Statesman, Legend, Icon, Saint - all these can be used to describe the One and Only: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela . He is comparable to no other leader in Africa or out of it. For a man to have spent 27 years incarcerated for no crime but because he dared speak out his mind; he dared struggle and fight for justice, equality and honor for his own majority citizens - for that man to be released from that prison and still be so humble, kind, forgiving, merciful and magnanimous to friends and foes, and those who hated and imprisoned him; and for that man to rule the country he set free for only four years and then had over power; for that man to treat all alike and equally, be they foes or friends or children or servants or heads of states; for that man, for most of his life until recently, to wake up each morning and still make his bed - these will go down in history as one of Mandela's greatest legacies and gifts to his Rainbow Nation an...

United For Wildlife Prince William, Duke of Cambridge has formed a new wildlife conservation foundation: United For Wildlife . The foundation will collaborate with seven of the world’s most influential conservation organizations: Conservation International, Fauna & Flora International, International Union for Conservation of Nature, The Nature Conservancy, Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF UK and the Zoological Society of London - in a new partnership to combat illegal wildlife trafficking. “The threats to our natural heritage are extensive, but I believe that this collaboration of the best minds in conservation will provide the impetus for a renewed commitment and action to protect endangered species and habitats for future generations,” said the Prince, who is the president of United for Wildlife. Through his Foundation, His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge has brought together an unprecedented collaboration between seven of the world's most influential conservati...

In a normal, just world - any one who commits a crime has to face justice; who ever that person is and whatever that person's position is - who ever commits a crime has to be punished. But, we don't live in a normal, just world. The words 'crime', 'justice' and 'punishment' are used selectively. Especially by the one court that's supposed to serve all the world's people: the International Criminal Court . The ICC decides, hunts, convicts and punishes selectively. The court, so far, has meted out its so called justice - only on Africa . Whatever one might think; however hard one tries to look at it, there is no doubt that the ICC is selectively, unfairly and biasedly focused only on Africa and Africans. Cases in point: leaders in Sudan and Kenya are indicted by the ICC and yet those in Sri Lanka, where similar or worst crimes happened, are not; Joseph Kony is wanted and hunted by the ICC and yet the Burmese Buddhist monk, Ashin Wirathu - wh...

The island nation of Mauritius has claimed Africa's top spot in the annual Global Competitiveness Report for 2013-14, which was released Wednesday by the World Economic Forum , or WEF. In a ranking system where market size carries weight, it may come as some surprise that such a tiny island could outperform every other economy on the continent. But Mauritius boasts one of Africa's most stable political systems and one of its most transparent business environments. It also stands out for its comparatively good infrastructure, low trade barriers and high levels of public education.

Elephants are incredible creatures. The largest land mammals on earth, they show a wide range of behavioral and emotional patterns in their up-to-60-year lifespans. They grieve over the bodies of dead herd members, and can even recognize their own reflections  in a mirror. And, of course, there's that old saying: "Elephants never forget." While it may be an exaggeration, there's more truth to the adage than you might realize.

Two events happened in the ’70s that turned scores of politically-connected Kenyans into instant millionaires and sharply increased the country’s foreign exchange reserves. They both involved coffee.

By all reliable accounts, Mr. Robert Mugabe won the recent presidential Zimbabwean elections free and fair. The 15-nation Southern African Development Community and African Union (AU) mission - both  dismiss the complaints of fraud; they say the election was fair and free. But some Western powers, for their own selfish, ulterior reasons and motives do not want to accept the results. They keep on insisting otherwise. They are not doing this because they care much for Zimbabweans; those against Mugabe, are more interested in Zimbabwe's natural resources than how elections take place there. In fact, its natural resources are the prime interest and not Zimbabweans at all.

Kenya’s elephants could be wiped out by poaching in 10 years, unless urgent measures are taken to end the crisis, International wildlife conservationists warned here this week. A demand for ivory and rhino horns in the lucrative Asian black market has attracted cartels to Africa that are presently carrying-out cold blood killings of the animals, the conservationists say. In Kenya, the situation is at its worst now, according to Richard Leakey, an internationally famed paleontologist and founder of WildlifeDirect, a conservation charity. “There has never been such a level of killing as we are experiencing today. Unless we do something now elephants will be gone from the wild within the next decade,” says Dr. Leakey, speaking at a presentation in the Kenyan capital.

Transparency International has ranked Rwanda the least corrupt country on the African continent. According to a report dubbed ‘The Global Corruption Barometer’ (TI GCB 2013), countries  were put in clusters depending on the prevalence of corruption. Rwanda is in the group whose  corruption incidence ranges between 10 and 14.9 per cent. The report was released yesterday. Rwanda’s bribery rate was put at 13 per cent. No other African country appeared in this category. Sudan and Tunisia follow as the second least corrupt countries (between 15-19.9 per cent), while Madagascar is in the next category (20-29 per cent).

In the seven years since the release of An Inconvenient Truth , Box says that Earth’s melting polar ice has been speaking loudly and clearly to scientists—and the message is terrifying : “If we’ve learned anything, it’s that we’re under-predicting the sensitivity of the cryosphere,” he says. “The ice is telling us that abrupt climate change is well underway. You’ll hear people say we’re going into uncharted territory, but that’s not correct. We are already in uncharted territory.” Simply put, we’re melting the world’s ice-covered regions. And this extreme thaw is a problem for two big reasons. One, the excess water will cause sea levels to rise, thereby threatening countless coastal communities. And two, increasing amounts of water vapor in the atmosphere will effectively prime the pump for more and more extreme weather events. In 2012,  the Arctic ice cap shrank  to a record low, with only 24 percent of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice, a 50 percent drop from 1...

We believe our future can, and should, be powered by nature. The energy systems in place across the planet within the next four years will define the world’s climate change path for generations. All countries have a right to develop, yet we need to invest money now in clean and renewable energy – to limit dangerous climate change, to reduce the risk to human health from fossil fuels, to fast-track access to energy, and to safeguard our collective future. We call on financial institutions and governments worldwide to act immediately to invest more in sustainable energy powered by wind, water and the sun. They must phase out investments in coal, oil and gas and enable a just transition from the dirty and unsustainable energy of today. The world needs investment in nature, and there are good reasons to do so now more than ever. We stand for a future in which people live in harmony with nature. Investing in fossil fuels threatens the natural world and the stability of communitie...

Spectacular Selous Game Reserve As a child, I and my family spent some years in Iringa, Tanzania and areas around it - Iringa is a town with beautiful surroundings and an excellent climate. Not far - South East of Iringa, is one of the most breathtaking, wonderful and pristine wilderness and game reserves in the world: the Selous Game Reserve. Selous ( pronounced Seloo , is named after Englishman, Frederick Courtney Selous - conservationist, hunter, explorer and author)   is the largest g ame reserve in Tanzania and due to its uniqueness, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The reserve is approximately 55,000 square kilometers - about 21,236 square miles (that is four times the size of the Serengeti, more than three times the size of Swaziland and more than twice the size of Rwanda; almost five times the size of Qatar; larger than Costa Rica or Netherlands or Denmark or  Bhutan or Switzerland; and more than twice the sizes of  Massachusetts or Vermont or New Hamps...

The Snow Leopard. They scale the great, steep slopes of mountains in Central Asia with ease, blending into the landscape. They are known for their beautiful, thick fur, with white, yellowish or soft gray coat and ringed spots of black on brown - which help camouflage them from prey. Here are some basic facts about these beautiful cats :