Archive for February, 2011
Is it Safe to Travel Now?
Posted by jimheck in Safety, Twevolution on February 25, 2011
Is it safe to travel to Africa, now? Here’s the answer, and it’s not what you really wanted to ask. I’m on my way to Africa, and just before I left I got besieged by emails and phone calls asking, “Is it safe for us to go to Africa, now?” It’s an inadequate question, because [...]
The New Weapon of Mass
Posted by jimheck in History, Twevolution on February 24, 2011
There was a time when power came as a chariot. There was time when power came as a nuclear device. In my life time it came as stealth bombers, napalm and drones. Could it be that in the generation now following me that power comes as … the internet? The twevolution sweeping Arabia which as [...]
Testament to the Twevolution!
Remember the joke about grandma asking JoJo how to use her remote? Well, get ready you old fogies. Here’s a cheat sheet for the software powering the current Twevolution, and take stock: it comes from Kenya! That’s right, the Twevolution of Tahrir Square, Pearl Square and likely now even Tiananmen Square is powered by open-source [...]
A Generation & Counting
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Uganda on February 21, 2011
The reason twevolution won’t come to Uganda is because Ugandans are tired of conflict. But apathy is a heavy curse: beware another Zimbabwe. Sunday Uganda’s official electoral commission declared Yoweri Museveni the presidential victor with more than 66% of the votes. Museveni starts his 6th 5-year term and while it’s clear there was enormous vote [...]
Salsa for the Torpedo?
Posted by jimheck in Economy, Foreign Aid, Politics on February 18, 2011
Guns — and guns not wanted by the military at that — instead of food. That’s America’s message to the world. Republican successes in The House over the last two days are ruinous for the developing world, especially Africa. That’s not to say it will ultimately become law, but it sure doesn’t look good with [...]
Twevolution coming to East Africa?!
Tomorrow’s presidential election in Uganda will either be the most unread news story in Africa, or the start of Twevolution in East Africa. The current autocrat is expected to win handily, despite election fraud, unfair international support and his highly undemocratic style of overlording that is often brutal. But if he doesn’t … win handily [...]
Twevolution in South Africa?
Posted by jimheck in Corruption, Culture, Politics, South Africa on February 15, 2011
Twevolution is sweeping Africa’s dictators away. But could it go further? Is there a chance that pretty boy South Africa is next in line? South Africa? you wonder out loud. Didn’t I say that South Africa started all this almost twenty years ago? [Yes] Haven’t I often hailed the new country’s constitution as nearly perfect? [...]
Peace is IN!
There were people hurt. There were people killed. But the victims were not the losers in a fight, because…they didn’t fight. They protested. Peacefully. Martin Luther King would have been proud. The successful Egyptian revolution was one of peaceful protest. I know you’ve seen pictures of bloodied faces and bodies being carried, and tear gas [...]
Revolution on TV
So what’s more important: water or security? Egypt is as critically important to East Africa as to America, but it is America that is consumed with watching real-time developments there. The infamous 1917 Balfour Declaration, which is arguably one of the diplomatic starting points for the current drama in Egypt, was not a singular British [...]
Anti-America Sentiment Grows
As Egypt’s struggles continue anti-American sentiment grows in places as far away and dear to me as Kenya. Some of this is envy of the powerful but some of it legitimately derides an unfair world order. Yesterday a widely read blogger in Nairobi associated with one of its main talk radios warned Kenyans of “the [...]
Government by the Smart Phone
African governments are toppling because of smart phones. So what happens next? Are taxes set by tweets? In the last several years significant revolutions happened in Kenya, the Sudan and Ivory Coast, and now Tunisia and Egypt. Africa is on the move; it’s changing faster than we understand. No surprise to me. Just how fast [...]
Feed the Beast to Sleep
What the fizzled Egyptian revolution tells us is that the power of the people rises not so much for freedom as for bread. And who am I but a fat and comfortable American to think there’s anything wrong with that? Today’s demonstrations are pitiful by last week’s standards. It’s also more rigidly organized, capable of [...]
Serengeti Highway Muddle
Posted by jimheck in Serengeti, Wildlife Management on February 7, 2011
The great Serengeti Watch organization announced over the weekend that they had an advance copy of the Tanzanian government’s environmental impact study necessary for proceeding with the highway, but they didn’t analyze it for us. This is a serious mistake. The 600-page report has not yet been officially released, but you can get to it [...]
Twevolution in Egypt!
As this blog goes to press millions are at Tahrir Square just ending prayers. This mostly and remarkably peaceful revolution is a new kind. No longer revolution, but Twevolution! Click here! This is a live twitter feed of the Revolution! Peaceful attempts to topple governments in my lifetime have been mostly failures. The one possible [...]
Egypt Picture Hard to Read
Because there are so many tourists in Egypt, and because there’s no legal requirement that tour companies honestly reveal the scope of their operations, it’s very difficult to get an accurate picture of tourists and tourism right now. But here’s my best try. Before the trouble last week, the U.S. State Department reported there were [...]