Archive for February, 2012
On Safari in The Cape
Posted by jimheck in Environment, OnSafari, South Africa on February 28, 2012
Cape Town is my second favorite city on earth, and in no small part because it’s so damn beautiful. The vegetation is lush, but also unique. Giant plants, myriads of bizarre flowers and vines, give an impression of a city in a jungle. Do you drink red bush tea? I arrived yesterday after several days [...]
No Coffee Blacks
Posted by jimheck in Economy, OnSafari, South Africa on February 27, 2012
My several days in Stellenbosch gave me new insights into the extraordinary difficulties South Africa is trying to confront. My optimism for the future of South Africa has diminished slightly. Nowhere in the world are the effects of ethnic segregation as easy to see and historically easy to study as in South Africa. And unlike [...]
Les Fisher on Safari
Today I’m on my way to Africa for seven weeks of exciting safaris and consulting, and this time it’s so very special because of a certain great person joining me. I’ll be guiding the Director Emeritus of Lincoln Park Zoo and some of his friends, in Cape Town and Botswana. Dr. Lester Fisher is 91 [...]
A Nicer Gentler Walmart?
Posted by jimheck in Economy, South Africa on February 23, 2012
Will South Africa make Walmart nicer? Stay tuned to how all of us should be treating this behemoth of capitalism. This week the local firm that will be acquired by Walmart when the South African government finally approves the takeover as expected, announced more or less, to hell with procedure, they were going to continue [...]
Somalia & Peace?
Peace may be coming to Somalia. If so, kindly note carefully that the country of Kenya is the first country in a half century to unilaterally establish peace with war. I seem to remember another country that tried: in Vietnam, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and oh, in Nicaragua. And her adversaries tried in Czechoslovakia, Poland, [...]
Presidents’ Day Holiday
Posted by jimheck in Arts and Culture, Politics on February 20, 2012
The Presidents’ Day Holiday in America, today, is perhaps the least celebrated of the year, and it shows how America like much of Africa is moving away from a powerful executive. The exceptions validate the rule, so the dozen or so African dictators still in power in places like Uganda, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Chad, among [...]
Biggest! Strongest! Smallest!
Posted by jimheck in BIrds, Evolution, Madagascar, Uncategorized, Wildlife Research on February 17, 2012
A ridiculously small, and a ridiculously large chamaeleon and a ridiculously strong little bird. Africa at its best! I have personally seen the northern wheatear breeding in Alaska and foraging in Africa, and we’ve not known until now where the Alaskan birds migrated. That’s because there are wheatears in eastern northern Canada and even Greenland [...]
Can’t Do It Here? Try Uganda.
The reemergence of the draconian Ugandan anti-gay legislation isn’t just a tedious clarion alarm. It shows that as the world’s economy improves, vital human rights concerns subside from the limelight. It also shows how lasting wrong-minded movements once elevated to celebrity status in Africa can survive, as compared, say, to America. Despite many of your [...]
Wudst Time Just Move On
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Culture, Egypt, Politics, South Africa on February 14, 2012
Yesterday I listened painfully to a brilliant African jurist try so hard not to be condescending to a rabid American academic who characterized himself as a “strict constitutionalist.” Some Americans are so stuck in the past. We just can’t see the world whipping past us leaving us in history’s dusts. So what does one do [...]
Highways or Hyrax
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Economy, Wildlife Management on February 13, 2012
One of the greatest icons of big game parks is about to fall: Nairobi National Park. To a highway. I’m not protesting; I’m not asking you to sign the petitions that successfully stopped the highway through the Serengeti, I’m just sick with nostalgia. This remarkable wilderness has survived with its ups and downs next to [...]
Why Do Zebras Have Stripes?
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Wildlife Research on February 10, 2012
Why do zebras have stripes? It’s complicated, but one thing’s for sure: it’s not because they’re incarcerated. Over my 40 years of guiding in Africa it became quite evident to me why zebras have stripes: Whenever I watched lions attacking a group of zebra, I couldn’t keep my binoculars well positioned. Something kept disrupting my [...]
Dictators Don’t Tweet
Posted by jimheck in "Modern" Africa, Arts and Culture, Twevolution on February 9, 2012
Twitter and African Hiphop websites are today the main source of news about Africa’s trouble spots. And they’re better than CNN! Like so much in Africa today where economies and cultures are developing faster than anyone could have imagined, traditional news reporting is dying and being replaced by faster information facilitated by today’s hi tech. [...]
Is It A New Dawn?
Posted by jimheck in African Awakening, Politics, War on February 7, 2012
The fighting in much of Africa is settling down into a complicated and unnerving politics. Some see this as a lull before a real storm. I see glimmers of peace. My rosy outlook depends on Europe. This is because everything in the world is economically linked, and the weakest chain right now is Europe. If [...]
An Incredible Production!
Posted by jimheck in Culture, Egypt, Politics, Twevolution on February 6, 2012
We’ve got another hit musical in the making: nuclear war over Tehran, American righties swinging from Egyptian guillotines, evil ladies wresting control of revolutions. Time to buy your season ticket. The pointers in north Africa are swinging towards war: Egypt’s predictable predicament with the West cocks Israel’s war machine. This isn’t good. Egypt’s prosecution of [...]
Which is Worse: Shooting or Listening?
Is shooting journalists better than tuning in Rush Limbaugh? Tanzania has a freer press than the U.S., according to this year’s report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Hmm. This year’s RSF report is the tenth year running that ranks all the countries in the world in terms of “press freedom”, although I think that’s far [...]