Safari Notes

"No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." That was the main and focal proclamation on December 10, 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . One hundred and forty one years before that, on 25th March, 1807, Britain had passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act . But the reality today, is far from that: slavery still, very much, exists. As I mentioned before: today, it is mainly poverty that drives people to be shackled and used - many times, in the most cruel and inhuman of ways. Millions of men, women and children around the world are forced to lead lives as slaves. Although this exploitation is often not called slavery, the conditions are the same. People are sold like objects, forced to work for little or no pay and are at the mercy of their 'employers' . And as the Ugandan New Vision states: " slavery is not dead, it has mutate...

While Zimbabwe is in turmoil and Angola is immensely rich in oil and other natural resources, and yet, still remains to be one of the poorest lands on earth - one African country continues to grow and give its people hope, even with the few resources that it has: Mauritius. Mauritius is a success story . The tiny Indian Ocean island in southern Africa continues to be in great contrast to most African states. What they say about the island state: "The island has maintained one of the developing world's most successful democracies and has enjoyed years of constitutional order." And it "has preserved its image as one of Africa's few social and economic success stories." BBC News "Its population is educated, hard working and governed democratically with sound economic policies. Mauritius has a free market economy with positive economic growth, almost full employment and a favourable balance of payments position." Mbendi "The Mauritian economy ha...

WWF has just released a report on the World's Top Rivers at Risk , ahead of World Water Day - which is tomorrow (22 March). The report 'lists the top ten rivers that are fast dying as a result of climate change, pollution and dams.' Five of the ten rivers listed in the report are in Asia: Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, Ganges and Indus. Europe's Danube, South Americas' La Plata, Africa's Nile-Lake Victoria and Australia's Murray-Darling also make the list. Activists in Uganda who are against the Bujagali Power Project could be right! Uganda needs more electricity and building the dam is the easiest way for providing that. But concerns are there: 'dam safety issues; indigenous peoples, cultural and spiritual issues, compensation, resettlement and consultations; and the terrestrial and aquatic fauna.' But, does Uganda have to build the dam on Bujagali? Can't other sites be considered? Sites that would cause least damage and destruction? It has always ...

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Mr. Robert Mugabe is a dictator. An autocrat. And has enormously messed up Zimbabwe, and taken it speedily backwards. But Mugabe is not alone. Zimbabwe is not the only African country being looted and plundered by its leaders. Angola and Equatorial Guinea, easily come to mind. Both the two have high oil production. Both the two are said to be among the 'fastest growing' economies in the world. Both the two have the vast majority of their populace living in poverty and misery; while their 'leadership' live in pomp and luxury. Both Angola's and Equatorial Guinea's leadership are known to be siphoning away their country's earnings and are known to be two of the most corrupt regimes in the world and have both, many times, been accused of human rights abuses; especially Equatorial Guinea. And yet, both the two are darlings to the West and are very rarely singled out for criticism and threats as Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Why? Why the double standards? The crit...

More new species of animals continue to be discovered. It's amazing. Most of the recent discoveries have been in remote jungles. The latest discovery, is that of the clouded leopard. Scientists have discovered that the clouded leopard found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is an entirely new species of cat. The secretive rainforest animal was originally thought to be the same species as the one found in mainland Southeast Asia. "Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopards of Borneo and Sumatra should be considered a separate species," said Dr Stephen O'Brien, Head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, U.S. National Cancer Institute. "DNA tests highlighted around 40 differences between the two species." "Who said a leopard can never change its spots? For over a hundred years we have been looking at this animal and never realized it was unique," said Adam Tomasek, head of WWF's Borneo and Sumatra program. "The f...

WWF has teamed up with Google Earth to show how destructive we , human beings, have been. From the Amazon to Cameroon to Indonesia , we have been immensely destructive and merciless to our world. WWF through, Google Earth, will show too - its global projects. I quote from WWF (12 Mar 2007): The global conservation organization announced that from today more than 150 of its projects will be added to Google Earth, the satellite imagery-basedmapping product. “People interested in conservation and the environment now will be able to visit WWF projects in some of the world’s most threatened and biologically diverse places from their home computers,” said WWF International’s Director General James Leape. With more than 45 years of on-the-ground experience, WWF is excited that people everywhere will have the opportunity to zoom in on a sample of our projects and gain a better understanding of just how big the conservation challenge is and some of the things we are doing to address it.”