Archive for November, 2009
More Poaching Evidence
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Poaching, Wildlife Management on November 30, 2009
European governments have joined Kenya to keep pressure on the Obama administration to end its silence on supporting continued protection of elephants during the upcoming CITES convention in March. Today, officials from Kenya’s police and army, led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), released photographs and other details of a huge inter-country sting operation against [...]
Baboon’s Thanksgiving
Posted by jimheck in Uncategorized on November 26, 2009
Baboon Thanksgiving Thank you, humans, for all your friendship. On this day of American Thanksgiving we are specially thankful for human Americans. Thank you for your heart-felt concern for our well-being, Thank you for your careful attention to our seeing That you’re coming to observe us conquering the wild jungle. Thank you for your massive [...]
Mara Muddle
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Mara on November 25, 2009
If the Mara conservancies don’t get their act together, visitors might be paying $400 in daily fees! One of the world’s most fabulous wild reserve is really a very small area that’s being cut apart into even smaller pieces that are squabbling with one another. In a worst case scenario that I just can’t imagine [...]
Mali Travel Warning
In a rare consensus between usually disparate advisories, most of the developed world issued warnings this week against traveling to Timbuktu and much of Mali. The announcement couldn’t have come at a worse time for Mali tourism. January is the month of the growingly popular Festival in the Desert, Africa’s largest annual rock concert. Officials [...]
Gibbs vs. Crater Lodge
Posted by jimheck in Advice, Safari Lodges on November 21, 2009
From Johanna@ Q. We are currently scheduled to stay at Gibb’s Farm but were wondering if &Beyond’s Crater Lodge or Tree Lodge would be nicer? What is your opinion? A. Some itineraries are designed for certain properties, and some itineraries are designed for game viewing, and all itineraries are constrained by budget and time. So [...]
New Airline Compensation if Delayed
Posted by jimheck in Air Travel on November 20, 2009
Passengers delayed by European airlines for 2 or more hours will now be compensated up to $850 per passenger! In an historic ruling by the European Court of Justice, yesterday, two Austrians and two Germans were awarded damages against Air France and Condor airlines for having been delayed. The justices then expanded the civil suit [...]
The Dark Squeeze
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Economy on November 19, 2009
Corruption gets worse in Africa, stays about the same in the U.S., and very few people really understand what it means. Yesterday Transparency International released its corruption list for 2009. All of Africa got worse when compared to 2008. In East Africa, Kenya is at the bottom of the pack at 146 of 180 countries [...]
Ivory Crisis Continues
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Poaching, Politics, Wildlife Management on November 18, 2009
Yesterday Tanzanian wildlife officials announced they would join a Zambian initiative to allow sales of elephant ivory by downgrading the elephant’s status as an endangered species. The move is part of the important politicking that is occurring before the March meeting of CITES, the international conference on the trade in endangered species. Kenya denounced the [...]
Misery in the Mau
Today a stream of now homeless farmers began leaving Kenya’s Mau Forest for fear they would be killed by security forces. The Mau Forest story is one of the most heart-wrenching in Africa. It has parallels to development stories throughout the world, including America’s Dust Bowl of 1930-39, and it is as somber and seemingly [...]
Pangy Pain
Posted by jimheck in Wildlife Management on November 16, 2009
The rain brings luck, and luck brings the pangolin, and the pangolin brings more fortune! Yesterday a fight nearly broke out between residents of Mangola town, about 10 miles west of Karatu towards Lake Eyasi, when conservation officials removed a pangolin that had been found by villagers. I’ve never seen a pangolin in the wild, [...]
Monkeying Around Works!
Posted by jimheck in Udzungwa, Wildlife Management on November 13, 2009
Duke researchers have once again made some amazing discoveries in East Africa, this time suggesting that interbreeding between quite different animals may provide survival advantages. The setting is Tanzania’s Udzungwa National Park, absolutely one of the most beautiful wildernesses I have ever visited. More than 120 endemic mammals and 13 primate species are found here [...]
Becoming Human Becoming Silly
Yesterday evening PBS’s NOVA series aired its second of three parts on “Becoming Human.” Entertaining, yes. Enlightening? … no. Those of us passionate about early man would stop all other work to review the newest Far Side cartoon, and not because we didn’t have good, steady work demanding our attention. It’s just … well, he [...]
Heifer Charities
Heifer may be one of the better charity-direct not-for-profits for Africa, and then again, it might not be. I am often asked for recommendations of charities serving Africa, and I am often asked specifically about Heifer. There are actually two “Heifers”, and here are my thoughts and some background. The Heifer Project International (“Heifer”) was [...]
Obama is losing Kenya
The tide of Obamian Mistrust is cresting in Kenya like the El-Nino floods. Just as at home in the U.S., the lust for change that swept Obama into office is coming to a head in Kenya. But in Kenya the ramifications are much more immediate than in the U.S. Last week the World Court at [...]
Where Terror was Born
As the situation in southern Sudan stabilizes, neighboring Congo-DRC grows more unstable than ever. There is a long and fragile road to travel before next year’s independent referendum in southern Sudan which is likely to create a new and more stable country, but for the time being it looks peaceful. And so it seems that [...]