Safari Notes

America's financial turmoil and economic mess is now spreading wide and fast across the Globe. The good side in all this is: as the US is the biggest consumer and wastes more, per capita, than any other country - less money in American hands and less spending by Americans, will affect not only America's production, but Western Europe's, Japan's, Korea's, India's and more importantly - China's. That would in turn mean - less trees and forests disappearing; less gas and oil used and hence less autos on the roads and less engines running - meaning less environmental damage; and it would mean that the World's resources will be a little less consumed. It also means that: while all along the US has been lecturing other countries on fiscal policies and disicipline, especially African countries, America, in the last few years, has had the least disicpline and very little financial ethics, in turn leading to its worse economic mess since the Great Depression. It ...

Uganda's oil wealth might later help in solving the country's serious energy shortage; the country is one of the least powered African Nations - with 95% of Ugandans having no access to electricity from the national grid. For now, if Uganda is to continue growing and attracting investors, it needs to very much increase its power supply to satisfy its electricity demands which is estimated to be growing at the rate of 7–8% per annum; and with affordable and regular power supply, that growth will jump up even more : Our population is about 30 million so if you divide one figure by the other, you will discover that as a Ugandan you are entitled to 10 Watts of installed capacity in terms of electric power. Is it little or a lot? Gentlemen, it is far too little! An Egyptian has got 250 Watts, a South African 1,100 Watts and a Swede 15,000 Watts. The Monitor The problem is: how does Uganda increase that power? Solar power , which is excellent, is too expensive for most Ugandans. ...

Very few people in sub-saharan Africa know of or have ever tasted the pomegranate. But, for ages it has  been used by Arabs, Persians and Indians. Around the Mediterranean region, it is one of the most common fruit and plant. Its juice is excellent and refreshing. Facts about the amazing pomegranate: it is one of the oldest fruits in existence, it can live for more than one hundred years, it is a rich source of a strong anti-oxidant known as punicalagins, which are thought to be responsible for the major health benefits of its juice which can keep platelets from clumping together to form dangerous blood clots; not to mention its cancer preventative effects. More on the pomegranate: crfg.org ,   National Geographic , Health Central , hort.purdue.edu , Health Castle , pomegranates.org , pomegranate-juice , CBS News , pomegranatehealth , Wikipedia , Knol Image: Treehugger

Virunga National Park contains within 790,000 hectares the greatest diversity of habitats of any park in Africa: from steppes, savannas and lava plains, swamps, lowland and montane forests to volcanoes and the unique giant herbs and snowfields of Rwenzori over 5,000m high. It is. Thousands of hippopotamuses lived in its rivers, its mountains are a critical area for the survival of mountain and lowland gorillas, and birds from Siberia overwinter there. UNEP More on Virunga: UNESCO , EoEarth , Wikipedia , WWF , NationalGeographic , AWF , 7Wonders , Books , YouTube Photo: NationalGeographic

Poor in natural resources, prone to drought and with little arable land, the Cape Verde islands are heavily dependent on food imports, sometimes in the form of aid. The former Portuguese colony comprises 10 islands and five islets, all but three of which are mountainous. Read more from the BBC's Country Profile More on Cape Verde: Wikipedia , FCO , unmassd.edu , stanford.edu , Frontier , Lonelyplanet , Infoplease , Worldtravelguide , Worldatlas , Books

As Uganda continues to make huge gains in its march to be one of the few countries in Africa to be 'blessed' with Oil, the focus now is on how Uganda can both benefit from oil and at the same time take care of its magical, natural wonders. The problem: most of the oil so far discovered in Uganda are in the very environmentally sensitive, Lake Albert region. View Larger Map Norway, one of the World's leading oil producers, is already warning Uganda on the dangers of not taking care of the environment. Uganda, can learn from Norway and take advice from it - not only on how Norway's oil has greatly benefited that country's people and made Norway one of the richest and best country to live in, on this Planet - but Uganda too, can learn from the Scandinavian country on how to produce oil, and yet be caring and gentle to the environment. How wonderful and beneficial it would be, if Uganda can emulate Norway and lead the way in Africa, and be exemplary, on how to both pro...

Retired American sprinter - Carl Lewis, one of the greatest athletes ever, is questioning Usain Bolt's incredible Beijing Olympics achievement: "..... for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don't question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you're a fool. Period." It has been a Jamaican love-in since Usain Bolt bestrode the Olympic Games and won a hat-trick of gold medals, but a voice from the past urged caution as the new sprint sensation was heralded as the king of Kingston. With Bolt in the throes of a national party after his homecoming this week, Carl Lewis said that his achievements are questionable. Times on Line Carl Lewis could be wrong; I very much hope so. But then, it's the same Carl Lewis who questioned Ben Johnson's wins way back in the late 1980s; but, as then - 1980s - Carl Lewis was losing to Ben Johnson, very few people could believe him. Carl Lewis was right. Then. Could he be right this time to...