Month: February 2016

OnSafari: Mara & Maasai

OnSafari: Mara & Maasai

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JimMaasaiOur three days of game viewing in the Maasai Mara proved this is the most exciting place to experience extraordinary drama in Kenya.

Hippo Feast
Hippo Feast

Many of the best wildernesses of East Africa are inextricably linked to the Maasai people. The three days of exciting game viewing in Kenya’s Maasai Mara impressed me especially for the simple fact that local Maasai have allowed this wild and wooly place to continue to exist.

Our nights at Governor’s Camp were not peaceful. Screaming baboon, howling hyaena, fighting elephant, roaring lion and grunting leopard even woke me, and some of my clients were actually concerned their first night or two.

As throughout all of northern Tanzania and very southern Kenya, there are too many elephant, and too many means more fights among them, day and night. We suffered two mock charges, one by a collared male that had been relocated after harassing residents of Nairobi.

The salient just outside Governor’s Camp is peppered with lion. We had the remarkable fortune to watch a three-day saga that began when a dead hippo “popped.”

Nothing kills or really wants to eat hippo. It’s too big, too fat and the hide, too thick. But a giant one of probably 3000 pounds or more died on the banks of the Mara River just outside Governor’s probably a few weeks before we arrived.

It ripens and then pops. It did so when we arrived, and we watched several giant crocs open “tunnels” into the fermenting beast.

Lynn & Bill Vogt
Lynn & Bill Vogt

They didn’t get much to eat before one of the local lion prides displaced them and began gorging on the meat deep below the hide and fat that was finally available.

That drew hyaena and the hyaena drew birds and for the next two days we watched an endless drama of dozens of lions feasting and fighting and fending off literally 30 hyaena, not to mention the 14-foot crocs at river’s edge.

When the lions could just not stuff down another morsel, most of them went away, but as lion prides are want to do, one remained behind stuffed to the trimmings to “guard” the kill. She managed this for almost a day before submitting to her own need to sleep off the gluttony.

The hyaena pounced on the remaining carcass screaming and laughing and seriously fighting with one another. Vultures grabbed bits of meat and fat out of the air that were being flung from this giant holiday meal from hyaena completely inside the carcass!

That, my friends, was only one of dozens of exciting experiences this amazing reserve afforded us all. Quite far from Governor’s at Double Crossing we watched three lions stage a hunt of warthog from start to finish, leaving their 4 four-month old cubs sitting in a line about 5 feet from our cars.

We saw the most amazing assemblage of animals: topi, hartebeest, wildebeest, giraffe, waterbuck, eland, Grant’s and Thomson’s gazelle and probably others I’ve forgotten, strung across the unbelievably beautiful rolling hills of the Mara.

We watched the giant martial eagle attack guinea fowl. We saw two male impala sadly stuck together at their horn after a vicious fight. We watched hundreds of buffalo stampede through the waving tan oat grass, white egrets flung about them like fluff exploding from a pillow. We saw a mammoth hippo start to attack a Landrover.

And we watched amazing bird events, including maybe a thousand Abdim storks take off for their return journey to Europe easily circling up six or seven thousand feet in all but a few seconds.

It’s breathtaking being in The Mara. Always has been and always will… if the Maasai say so. Because all around the Mara are Maasai farms and businesses. We saw them. We followed a wild black rhino out of the park onto their land.

Running a farm or a small shop or teaching in school with too many elephants outside and lions threatening your livestock isn’t easy. Tourism and its benefits manages a fragile balance with this tolerance.

Let’s hope it continues.

OnSafari: Resplendently!

OnSafari: Resplendently!

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GrevysRare and beautiful. That’s Samburu.

I’m finishing this blog atop a jutting mountain overlooking at least 500 square miles of the Great Northern Frontier. It would be easy to think I was overlooking a secret little national park in Utah or Arizona. But there are no airplane or car sounds, only the sounds of the crested francolin announcing the sunrise, and the very distant groans of lion returning from an evening’s hunt.
goldenbreasted.hume
Several times during our three days here I saw my favorite bird: the golden breasted starling. The bird field guide calls it “resplendent, wild, restless and unapproachable.” That’s Samburu. That’s where we are now.

There are five unique life forms in Samburu and today we found them all!

The reticulated giraffe, the blue-legged Somali ostrich, the gerenuk, the Grevy’s zebra and the oryx. The oryx and gerenuk can be found, rarely, in other southern parks, but the other three are wholly endemic to this area.

And by the way, we also had a wonderful experience with two leopards!

I can’t help but thinking that our enormous success game viewing here has to do with how few tourists there are. Not too many years ago we would have had 30 cars around the leopard. Today, we were two of five.

The rest of the special animal attractions we found all by ourselves, with none others to share even if we wanted to.

Kenyan tourism remains sorely depressed. Many lodges are at the brink of bankruptcy. Special unimaginable deals are now available for last-minute bookers.

At the same time this group has such a remarkably positive attitude and is untiringly persistent. We’d not found the ostrich or zebra after a long but wonderful six hour early morning game drive. So after our brunch set up in a grove of doum palms was over, the plan was to return to camp.

Not this group! On we went and within a half hour we’d found the ostrich and another half hour we’d found Samburu’s greatest prize of all, the very endangered Grevy’s zebra.

Samburu’s unique big game is because of its geographical isolation in the near desert environment of the Great Northern Frontier. Once this area was as lush and rainy as those not too far north, and when that changed thousands of years ago, the animals that were captured here by a changing geography speciated.

They need less water and they regulate heat much better than their distant cousins to the south. And for many of us, they’re more beautiful!

The reticulated giraffe’s distinct markers present a major contrast with its pure white background. The ostrich has deep blue, rather than red legs during breeding.

A quarter way through my marathon 40th Anniversary of Guiding Safaris-safari, we prepare now to leave this magical place for still another of my favorites, the Maasai Mara. Stay tuned!
SaruniLodge

OnSafari: Great Northern Frontier

OnSafari: Great Northern Frontier

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Villa 6 (right bottom) one thousand feet above Northern Frontier.
Villa 6 (right bottom) one thousand feet above Northern Frontier.
Jutting mountains, horizons to the end of the earth, really rare and beautiful game and lodging at one of the most luxurious, remote lodges on earth. That’s Samburu Saruni.

In two days we’ve seen reticulated giraffe, gerenuk, elephant, lion, a leopard kill (without the leopard, we were just minutes late) and are enjoying some of the most expansive vistas Africa can provide.
vulturine
After yesterday’s wonderful drive around Mt. Kenya (which hasn’t once seemed to disappear from the skyline) we pulled past Isiolo and even Archer’s Post and continued on the desolate desert road north.

But not for long. Within a half hour we’d turned into the private Kalama Conservancy, a community based reserve that adjoins Samburu National Park. Eight villas are built on a steep mountain about a thousand feet above the mojave like desert of this incredible Northern Frontier.

Our first game drive within the conservancy found elephant and the reticulated giraffe, found only in these northern areas. It’s a beautiful, more colorful giraffe than the common one found most everywhere else, with additional horns and darker, very articulated markings.

Caroline Barrett photographing elephant.
Caroline Barrett photographing elephant.

Gerenuk were everywhere. That’s the weird long-necked antelope with an ET-head and giant ears.

Last night we went to bed under a starlit sky with a full moon that laid on the enormous landscape like a silk veil. Hyaena swooned and nightjars piped all night long. In the morning genet cats joined us in our individual villas to share the chocolate cookies of early morning tea.

Then this morning we left at 6 a.m. in the dark but with the full moon still radiant above, Jupiter just below it, Mars and Venus also visible. We encountered many elephant and giraffe as we entered Samburu National Park.

We set up breakfast on the river shore and watched two lionesses on the opposite bank, obviously irritated with an unsuccessful night of hunting. Honey badger tracks were all over our sandy knoll.

Under the towering doum palms at riverside we increased our bird sightings to the highest level I’ve ever achieved on a safari of this length so far: just under 400 species. Today we added the palm nut vulture, rosy-patched shrike, magpie starling and white-headed mousebird among many others. We saw lots more of the remarkable vulturine guinea fowl.

But the most amazing bird sighting of all was our own North American Northern Wheatear, a small thrush like bird that makes the longest migration on earth, even greater than the arctic tern. Some of the birds migrate 30000 km per year, from North America via Asia to here in Samburu. Their migration is so long that they spend more time migrating than in either their breeding or wintering grounds.

There are many luxury lodges in Kenya, but few this remote. It’s an outstanding place with incredible rooms, outstanding food and drink and a remarkable staff.

I am singularly impressed, in fact, with the Samburu staff. Their knowledge of the area is unmatched, of course, but who would have suspected the guides would know the Latin names of birds?

I was astounded to learn that all of them had rarely left this place, and that their entire education was from government schools in the area. Frankly, I think several of them would be better managers than the white faces that owners feel compelled to provide as a welcome.

The current South African couple (actually a Californian who married a South African) is incredibly nice, but they don’t know the language or Kenya. They’ve been here for less than a month having come from a presumably successful stint running a dive resort in Malaysia.

So I hold nothing against this wonderful couple. But it’s time Kenyan lodge owners understand that Kenyans, not wazungu, should manage their properties.

Kakkie Cunningham, Brian Barrett, Steve Farrand, Caroline Barrett, Shirley Gangwere and Jim Pease toasting Samburu!
Kakkie Cunningham, Brian Barrett, Steve Farrand, Caroline Barrett, Shirley Gangwere and Jim Pease toasting Samburu!

OnSafari: Aberdare

OnSafari: Aberdare

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ClassicAberdareAbsolutely Kenya’s greatest attraction is how different one day can be from the other. In all my 40 years guiding, no place changes so radically. It’s magic:

After a week in hot, humid semi-arid bushveld bingo!: we’re in the frost of a precious highland rain forest! Astounding.

Cindy Pease, driver Musa, Jim Pease, driver James, Kakkie Cunningham, Steve Farrand & Shirley Gangwere under Chania Falls
Cindy Pease, driver Musa, Jim Pease, driver James, Kakkie Cunningham, Steve Farrand & Shirley Gangwere under Chania Falls.

Our last two days were in a spectacular jungle but a cold one among rare monkeys and dinosaur-like birds.

The drive from Nairobi was an eye-opener. Veterans to Kenya in the last ten years would not recognize how massive Nairobi has become or how modern its transportation system now is: Six lanes of super highway took us out of the city.Practically every kilometer along the way featured skyrocketing apartment buildings, malls and the still present ramshackle duka. It’s a scene of development hard to comprehend.

Our first day was at the Aberdare Country Club, sister hotel to The Ark tree hotel. I was sincerely impressed by them both. Despite the depressed tourism Kenya has suffered these last 6-8 years, the owners have refurbished both places with new, modern bathrooms and better furnishings.

The country club is situated on one of the most beautiful sites in Kenya, high in the mountains with grand views everywhere. Massive amounts of bougainvilleas and other flowering trees attract dozens of sunbirds and giant mountain birds like the turaco and silvery-cheeked hornbill.

The grounds are teaming with slightly tamed game. Warthog, bushbuck, eland, baboon and colobus monkey lounge on the gorgeous grounds or simply come walking down your pathway!

Jim Pease, Shirley Gangwere and Kakkie Cunningham went horseback riding, and this was no ordinary ride! They trotted among giraffe and zebra!

The second day we went deep into the park and enjoyed a picnic lunch beside Chania waterfalls at around 11,000′. There was a lot of huffing and puffing getting down and then up from the waterfalls at that altitude, but it was worth it! The scenery was fabulous and a variety of unusual plants filled the forest.

On the way back I saw a track I didn’t recognize, so … well, we took it. We passed several beautiful little salt pans, each one surrounded by buffalo. We saw elephant and bushbuck as well, and once again this wonderful birding group found some special species like the alpine chat and mountain iladopsis.

The Ark has been made much more comfortable than when I was last here 5 years ago. Rooms are bigger, bathrooms are modern and the beds new. But the waterhole hasn’t changed, and we watched giant forest hog fend off hyaena and elephant families fight one another for the precious salt.

The full moon shown over Mt. Kenya and reflected onto The Ark’s pool. It was idyllic beyond belief.

Now, on to Samburu!

OnSafari: Elephant Endangerment

OnSafari: Elephant Endangerment

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sheldrick.blogWe were among about 400 people at the Sheldrick elephant orphanage yesterday, and I carefully scanned the group noting only five non-white visitors.

The day before we visited the Giraffe Centre and I’d roughly estimate that 50% of the visitors there were non-white.

I presume that most of the non-white were Kenyans or Africans. It demonstrates in clear contrast how the local population views elephant conservation versus some other animal conservation, and the reason is the escalating conflict between elephants and people in developing Africa.

The Sheldrick orphanage and the Giraffe Centre are both top Nairobi attractions. It was Sunday, the only day of the week that there is fast-moving traffic on the city’s many highways and thoroughfares, and it was beautiful dry weather.

Tourists came in droves. Kenyans didn’t come.

I believe that under this quiet de facto protest is a growing and serious animus Kenyans feel against conservation driven by outsiders. Kenyans probably are more conservation oriented than many would presume. Several local organizations have saved Nairobi’s forests and its national park. The legendary Wangari Maathai is among the few conservationists to receive a Nobel Prize.

So the animus towards elephant conservation does not imply a general anti-conservation attitude by any means. But elephants have drawn by far and away the most international attention, and it has been exclusively concern expressed for the elephants … rather than for the “ecosystem” or the “national parks” or anything that might include the people, too.

It’s a terrible failing of western animal conservation organizations to have directed their appeals so exclusively outside the areas for which the appeals have been made. True, the possibility of getting donations from mostly emerging and poor countries is very limited, but it would have conveyed a sense of inclusion. Instead, policies have contributed to exclusion for years.

The most common presumption about the value of big game here in Kenya is that it is a commodity that attracts rich foreigners. Particularly as now when the European and Asian economies are declining, and therefore the bulk of tourists decline, there are fewer positive returns from the endeavor.

What is always behind the scenes moves onto center stage: elephants are big, destructive and enormously expensive to conserve. Only the decadent wealthy foreigner insensitive to the desperate need for all sorts of human conservation has a desire to protect them.

The more fulsome arguments regarding ecosystems and biodiversity have no chance, because no serious groundwork has been laid for these more complicated justifications.

So many of Africa’s problems can be laid squarely on the failure of the developed world to treat Africa as an equal part of the human community, and the current acceleration of elephant poaching is no different.

Until western conservationists recognize the sovereignty of Africa in all things African, including its elephants, there will be no change.

Steve Farrand and Caroline & Brian Barrett at Kazuri Beads.
Steve Farrand and Caroline & Brian Barrett at Kazuri Beads.

OnSafari: Price is the Driver

OnSafari: Price is the Driver

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uberprotestnairobiIn Nairobi and New York consumers were mad, local government knew what it had to do but claimed not to have the money to do it, so private investors stepped in: Uber Alles.

Today the head of the Nairobi taxi association gave the government one week to “do away with” Uber or they will “grind the city to halt.”

That won’t be hard to do, since the city is more or less ground to a halt already. The 10-12 mile ride from the airport into the city normally takes two hours because of unbelievable traffic.

The government seems to be siding with Uber.

Tension is seriously building. Uber has been here for just over a year, and rates Nairobi as one of its biggest successes. In the beginning it was mostly expats (non Kenyans) who used the service, but very soon thereafter the idea swept the city.

Uber, in fact, was so impressed with the Nairobi response that it reversed the previously strict policy not to accept cash payments for a ride.

Here’s how it boils down in this city of too many cars and truly unimaginable traffic:

A ride from the airport into the city by a registered taxi is pegged at around $50. Few consumers pay that. Bargaining prevails and even the most inexperienced consumer can get $15 off right away. I normally get them down to $25. Uber’s formulaic calculations will render anything from $12-$18, and usually the higher because of traffic congestion.

Uber’s policy excludes tipping, but believe me, Nairobi Uber drivers let you know a tip is most welcome and I expect many users tip here.

Nairobi’s monopolistic taxi service is so similar to taxi services around the globe, and that’s one of the reasons Uber is seamlessly entering every corner of the globe. Traditional taxi service is supposed to be insured and licensed by the government. In Kenya the effective tax is about 3% (60 Ksh per available car seat per day of operation). Union “dues” take another 3%. And the union is in full control of car placement and driver hiring and eligibility.

Of course, it doesn’t work like that. Taxes are rarely paid or massively miscalculated. A driver often splits his fare with others in his neighborhood and even more so, with touts that round up customers from the streets. This is gross speculation: but I imagine when all is said and done the driver takes home about 50% of the fare paid.

With Uber he takes home 80%, but the fare is a quarter to a third less. Bottom line: it’s a scratch for the cabbie.

But the consumer wins big. The technology of near instant service and easy payment – something the cities should have done long ago – is value itself, but the fare is less.

Here’s the problem: it’s a capitalistic race to the bottom.

Before the consumer even discovers that Uber cars are usually as good if not better than taxis, that they are more prompt, that tipping is no longer necessary, they are drawn by the lower price. Particularly in a developing country like Kenya with all the problems this city has, taxi users here would probably complain if the ride were free.

Price is the driver, the raison d’etre for Uber’s success and Uber geniuses have found a way to scrape the little bit of earnings that don’t actually pay for getting from here to there into their own pockets…

… out of the hands of the tout, the politician and who knows who else. Those folks are cut out by Uber to the benefit of the consumer AND …

… the benefit of Uber. Uber takes 20%.

Uber made about a quarter billion dollars last year and is valued around $65 billion, making it larger than America’s largest car companies.

The portion of Uber earnings that came from Kenya has impoverished many, contributed to more crime and now threatens to bust one of the few unions left in the country.

There’s a solution here. Government has to get its act together. Uber claims it would welcome regulation, so let’s regulate. Let Uber take over the taxi business, but let the unions represent all the workers, including Uber drivers. How’s that for a start?

Totally unexpected.

OnSafari: Nairobi

OnSafari: Nairobi

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NairobiNightWhat strikes me about Nairobi – like the slashing ice pellets I just left at home – is that it’s safe here. The bitter reality is that Nairobi is a fortress.

Every shop of any size, every office building, even some petrol stations, are iron or steel fenced boxes. Guards with rather large weapons stand in control of massive gates. As for the hotels, there’s not a diplomat alive who could sneak his wallet or phone in without it being scanned.

Tourists are coming back to Kenya. New hotels planned for Nairobi include a Hilton Garden Inn, Four Points by Sheraton, Radisson Blu and several Best Westerns. These are all designed for the modest businessman or more importantly, the transiting tourist.

Nairobi’s problem is now not so much its security, as its new image.

Talking yesterday with several old friends who reside here I can’t help but share their optimism and excitement. High tech especially, but even a number of global service industry providers are swarming over themselves searching for the best talent to develop business in Nairobi.

The main obstacle? Believe it or not, traffic. Yes, there’s still a rare power outage, digital services are impeded by overuse (an opportunity of its own) and corruption remains serious. Yet as Lagos dwindles with the price of oil, many board rooms are shifting their plans for growth to Nairobi.

Except between 9-11 a.m. or on Sunday, though, it’s … well, hard to move. Yesterday at 7 a.m. it took me two hours to drive the 11½ miles from the airport to the Norfolk Hotel in the city. With a grand chuckle I just referenced Google Maps: the journey is pegged at 24 minutes (“without traffic”) and with traffic? 37, says the very far away Google.

I’m forced to radically rearrange my scheduled guiding of Nairobi attractions. Although the national museum (by Google Maps) is only 1¼ miles by road from The Norfolk, yesterday at 2:15p it took me 40 minutes by cab.

Hardly a decade ago I squeezed in 4 or 5 Nairobi attractions plus a leisurely lunch into a nice day. Now, it’s one attraction …at most.

All the planned new tourist hotels will be near the airport, but even the closest will seem like an arduous journey when there’s nothing else in the area except highways.

This is definitely a problem for tourists. Here are the current workarounds:

1) Arrive Nairobi Saturday night. Suffer a bit of congestion getting into the city or stay out by the airport, and then tour the city on Sunday. Leave your hotel Monday morning by 7:30a for a road journey or transfer to Wilson airport for a local flight somewhere.

2) Arrive any night and go to the suburb of Karen. Decent hotels here are limited and expensive, but you’ll then be able to enjoy a number of famous “Nairobi” attractions in the area virtually on any day of the week. Nairobi city itself would still be restricted to a Sunday schedule.

3) You can still enjoy Kenya’s unique wildlife attractions without starting in Nairobi. You can connect immediately out of Nairobi on one-hour flights to three other cities well positioned for safari travel: Mombasa, Kisumu or Kilimanjaro (in Tanzania).

Mombasa is the most efficient. The city is only 2-3 hours by road south of several excellent wildlife destinations including Tsavo. You can hit the road running after exiting your plane from Nairobi.

Thousands and thousands of mostly European tourists travel to Mombasa for its beaches and never intend to look for wild animals. But unlike my positive feelings about Nairobi’s security, I’d remain cautious about actually staying in Mombasa.

Kisumu might be too novel an idea, yet, because its hotels are just emerging and it’s at least 4 hours by road from the first good wildlife destination. But it has some alluring positives: it’s on Lake Victoria and the hotels are cheap.

Finally, everyone knows about Kilimanjaro, a quick and easy 50-minute flight from Nairobi’s international airport. This is, in fact, the way most East African tourism has run recently so what’s the drawback?

Simple. Once you get to Tanzania, why go to Kenya? There are many good answers to that, but for a first-timer, especially, they’re hard to put forward. Adding a whole new country to your itinerary in Africa, anywhere, is added expense and time, costs and vacation often better used just staying in that one country.

I’d disagree. But then, too, it’s going to be hard for me to realize that my clients won’t enjoy the Norfolk Hotel in downtown Nairobi as much as I do. Nostalgia is a powerful force!

(By the way, the beautiful photo above and below is part of a photo project by Nairobi’s innovative Jambi Forums. Click here to view a stunning range of photos from a great variety of new promising Kenyan artists!)

Nairobi

OnSafari: Jim in Africa

OnSafari: Jim in Africa

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Jim&Cheetah.626.sheilabritz.serengeti.mar13Jim is headed to Africa! For the next two months you can follow his journey here at africaanswerman.com. He’ll be traveling and working in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana and Zambia.

NAIROBI
Feb 10-14
Kenya’s capital has transformed itself in just the last few years. It’s rapidly becoming one of Africa’s most important centers for technology and finance.

SOUTHERN KENYA
Feb 15-20
Kenya’s famous southern bush was the original safari venue for almost everyone! It was where Teddy Roosevelt went hunting, where the greatest population of elephant were first found. Jim will be guiding safaris in Amboseli, Tsavo West and Tsavo East national parks.

NORTHERN KENYA
Feb 21-29
Kenya’s north is completely unlike its south. Highland jungles, deserts with rivers and Kenya’s finest game reserve, the Mara. Jim will be guiding in the Aberdare Mountains, Samburu and the Mara.

NORTHERN TANZANIA
Mar 1-11
At this time of the year this is the place for the greatest wildlife spectacle on earth, the Great Migration! Jim will be guiding in Tarangire, Manyara, Ngorongoro and the Serengeti, his favorite wilderness on earth.

JOHANNESBURG
Mar 12-14
South Africa’s grand megalopolis has clawed itself out of the mess that the end of apartheid left it in. Vibrant, modern and exciting. Jim will be visiting its main sites before boarding one of the world’s finest trains, the Blue Train, for Cape Town.

CAPE TOWN
Mar 14-21
Jim’s second favorite city in the world (after Paris). Cape Town is beautiful, comfortable, welcoming and filled with attractions and deep history. Jim will be guiding people to its important museums, gardens and of course into Cape Point and including the nearby wine country.

BOTSWANA
Mar 22-29
Jim considers Botswana the best game viewing in southern Africa, and he’ll be taking people into the Makgadikgadi Pans, Okavango Delta, Moremi and Chobe national parks.

VICTORIA FALLS
Mar 30-31
Always an outstanding way to end an African safari, Jim will be here with his last safari before returning home.

One For All

One For All

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richandpoorHave you noticed? Income inequality is a hot issue. Ok, try this one. How many billionaires’ net worth equals half the rest of the world?

14000? Maybe be bold and guess 765?

How about… 62.

Kenyan commentator Rasna Warah called this yesterday “a new extreme.”

It’s tough enough when a Kenyan realizes that his country’s entire GDP isn’t even as great as Chicago’s, but inequality like this converts disbelief into abject anger.

It’s no longer a matter of understandable time, time for development, time for industrialization. The collection of wealth among a few individuals has occurred with lightning speed.

In 2010 it was 388 individuals. Five years later, it’s 62, despite the fact that the world’s overall economy has grown substantially in those five years.

The collection of wealth in so few hands is terrifying.

“In a world where one in nine people go to bed hungry every night, we cannot afford to carry on giving the richest an ever bigger slice of the cake,” Oxfam’s chief executive told the Guardian newspaper.

It is the respectable organization Oxfam that published the report several weeks ago.

I find it equally terrifying that I wasn’t able to learn about this from my own media. This strikes me as absolutely astounding: A commentator in Kenya that brought it to my attention.

It’s impossible to presume any logical fairness created this division. It’s just not statistically possible. Even 62 Big Blues would not be able to corner the market or coral capitalism to this level of advantage.

Oxfam, and I, believe it is structural within capitalism, and this is the reason that capitalism needs regulation. We’ve gone through a period of hyper deregulation, and this is the result.

More than $7.6 trillion of wealthy individuals’ net worth is held in off-shore tax havens.

On the one hand you can’t begrudge a wealthy person making herself wealthier. But the loopholes that allow this to occur, allow it to be freed of taxation, is often the result of the wealthy directing politics.

“These elites and über-rich individuals — and often their corporations — exploit the system for personal benefit in a way not possible for the rest of us,” one South African publication claims.

The ability of the wealthy to now direct history is mind-blowing.

Thanks to some Kenyans for letting me know. Clearly it’s not something the 62 want announced just yet.

But when is the horrible question.

Where Has All the Power Gone?

Where Has All the Power Gone?

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UgandaPresidentialElectionAre you tired of political debates? Join presidential front-runners Donald Trump and self-appointed president-for-life in Uganda, Yoweri Museveni.

Trump and Museveni have a lot in common: similar policies (e.g., none) and style (dismissive, offensive, threatening).

And … they’re both way ahead in the polls.

Museveni’s spokesman told reporters yesterday that he can’t make the last debate (he’s not made any of them) because of a “tight campaign schedule” and because “people he hasn’t addressed are yearning to hear from him and he can’t disappoint them.”

The spokesman added that “most of the questions have [already] been asked” and that answering the same questions “would be a repetition.”

In two weeks Museveni will win another “election” and become Africa’s longest serving dictator after Robert Mugabe.

He has some very Trump-like brownshirt strategies this time around:

(1) Over the last year his government funded 30,000 “volunteers” from around the country that local police have trained in “crime prevention, ideology and patriotism.” I’m not sure if they give out their names, but there might be a Cliven Bundy or two among them.

(2) In past elections Museveni simply sent thugs beat to a pulp his perennial rival, Kizza Besigye, but this year by sanctioning more candidates than he’s ever allowed before, the other candidates are doing the beating!

(3) Museveni is leading in the polls. According to pollsters the overwhelming reason is that the electorate fears Museveni will kill them if they don’t vote for him.

Last night in America we had our first valid presidential debate. Front-runners duked it out while masterfully remaining polite despite media taunts, defining clear differences that could result in meaningful voting.

That was one of how many? A dozen debates so far?

Even in America, like Uganda, like Zimbabwe, like for numerous school board elections or union chapters or government cells in China or Greenland, democracy is horribly corrupted.

Power has shifted from each individual citizen’s one-man vote that reflected her own studied self-interest to manipulators and tricksters. Power today rests solely with collectives of elite.

In some places like China they may, indeed, be intellectuals. In America, it’s corporations. In Uganda it’s a single man: If the guy’s good, things will be OK. If the guy’s bad, tough story. Hard to say whether flipping the coin on a personality or choosing a complex social collective is better. Talk about lesser of the evils…

Is democracy dead?