Safari Notes

Now, whenever people think of or mention civilization , the 'developed' world is what comes to mind; and yet just a few hundred years ago - people in most of these so called developed world, were living like semi-savages on the outskirts of the civilized world and they would have been pronounced obviously inferior; inferior to people of: Egypt, Ethiopia and Babylonia. Most history books on ancient history I read, imply that only one race has been responsible for civilization, culture, progress and all other good things. The one race is of course the white race, and particularly that branch of said race known as Nordic or Aryan. Note: the writers of most of these books are Aryan or Nordic. I still recall when growing up in East Africa, during my primary school education in particular - how this was stressed. Then, everything good and developed seem to have come outside of Africa; even the Egyptians, of whom very little was mentioned, were portrayed as people who were not African

I am not much of a soccer fan, but - the World Cup is some thing else! Like soccer or not - one feels it: the World Cup! Large screens have been placed in several public places around Mukalla; some one tells me, Germany provided the screens and projectors - I don't know if that is a fact. A few days ago, I decided to watch the second half of the Tunisia-Saudi Arabia match on one of the screens; as both teams are Arab, most viewers found it difficult to side with either. And it was sort of strange, watching most viewers simply cheering both sides. But, it is last nights matches that I have so far, found most interesting. Two African teams, were involved: Ivory Coast and Angola. I could not help thinking of the situation back in Africa where the teams came from; Angola, rich with oil and other minerals - has, still, most of its population living in poverty and disease, with most of Angola's 13 million people living on less than $2 a day and one child in four dying from a prevent

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Some times, it is a mistake watching the news! A few days ago, I was watching CNN; Jeff Koinange appeared with this very disturbing and harrowing report on the DRC (Congo)! I was so shaken and disturbed, that I haven't been my normal self ever since! The most disturbing part, was that about Olivier! Fifteen-year-old Olivier was sitting down to dinner with his family when the front door of their house was smashed in. Olivier's father was the first to be killed followed by his mother, right in front of the children. They then raped Olivier's three sisters, and when he tried to fight them they turned on him. One at a time, more than a dozen in all, he said. "I will never forget what happened to me," he said. "How does one forget something like this? Only revenge can make me forget what happened to me." I can not comprehend how any sane person can do this! I can not think of any other animal, however destructive it is, doing any thing close to this! Or Hadit

East African countries are leading the African continent in the growth of Internet connections, with Tanzania recording a 150 per cent rise in users in the past year, a new report says. In Kenya, this figure is 200 per cent with the number of Internet users having now hit the 1.5 million mark, up from 500,000 users just a year ago. Uganda's are well over 200,000. Tanzania's Internet connections now stand at 300,000. Across Africa, Internet penetration has now reached 4 per cent, up from just 2.6 per cent in 2005, says the report by Research and Markets, an international investment consultancy firm says. Kenya, together with Nigeria and Morocco, present some of the greatest opportunities for growth in the near future. The highest Internet penetration on the continent is found in Reunion and the Seychelles, where 20 per cent of the population has access to the worldwide web, followed by Mauritius and Morocco. This compares to penetrations of over 50 per cent in most developed cou

I have always associated places I live in or have lived in, or even - just visited, with scents! Natural scents! Trees, flowers, the earth, rivers, the sea - all have their own unique scents. Whenever I see frangipani flowers, Nairobi would immediately come in to mind; the scent of frangipani, reminds me of no where else - but Nairobi! And my daughters! It seems, wherever one is in Nairobi, there would always be frangipani flowers close by; and their sweet scent would be in the air! While the sea and its unique 'scent' would always remind me of Mukalla! Mukalla, with its pure, deep blue sea! And the sea and its 'scent' would remind me of my sons! How about dates? Date palms and dates would always remind me of times I spent in the deep valleys and deserts of Hadhramout! And my first daughter! Who is also my first born! Date palms would always bring wonderful memories, of time spent with her, when still very young: playing, running and chasing each other! Times, that I w

"Creation is all things and us. It is us in relationship with all things. All things, the ones we see and the ones we do not; the whirling galaxies and the wild suns, the black holes and the microorganisms, the trees and the stars, the fish and the whales - the molten lava and the towering snow-capped mountains, the children we give birth to and their children, and theirs, and theirs, and theirs." - Mathew Fox Every year thousands of precious animals are slaughtered in the name of so-called 'scientific research'. When it is only Man's greed that drives this! We have no justification what-so-ever in our continuous destruction of our fellow creatures, except greed and lack of fore-sight! The continuous, senseless and merciless killing of whales - those enormous, but very lovable creatures - is a part of this destruction! The International Whaling Commission convenes this week and pro-whaling nations intend to take control of the IWC! Add your voice by signing th