Two weeks ago our “so-called” Asst. Secty. of State for Africa, Tibor Nagy, effectively gave a nod to executing the hotel manager of the Mille Collines who in 1994 saved more than 1200 people from the Rwandan genocide.
He did this because the Rwandan government wanted him to, Trump wanted no trouble, or he he’d forgotten where Rwanda is. Grab bag.
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What can cut through the parallel universes that currently divide us? The spirit. This very African notion can save us.
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Real surprise, yesterday. Here’s what happened.
Like so many Americans who spend a lot of their lives outside of the country, I’ve been forced to live otherwise because of the pandemic. For the first time in more than half a century since I was 20 years old, I’ve now been at home for an entire uninterrupted year.
I don’t like it. Read more
According to Kenya’s Star Newspaper, “Trump knows that if he loses the election he will spend the rest of his life in court, possibly even in jail. An October Surprise is practically guaranteed.”
The sentiment expressed this week in Nairobi is similar to what’s found throughout Africa. They hate Trump. They know his “bizarre behaviour – the endless, shameless lies, the narcissism, the suggestions that people should inject bleach, etc –“ is crazy and yet, there are still enough Americans who support him to make a reelection feasible.
The tension between opening up and mitigating the virus is worldwide. From large German street protests against wearing masks (and other restrictions) to South African restaurateurs arguing that shutting restaurants kills more people than the virus, it is an organic, confusing debate.
The debate reached the streets immediately outside where I live this morning. We had trouble walking the dog because so many cars were parked end-to-end with at least 30 people converging in a small garage for what in America we call a “garage sale.”
The first week of August is the most important week in my business. I’m usually home from safari, I settle down in front of tons of reports, access to my meticulous notes of more than twenty years, screens of internet and I survey the African political landscape.
Looking for upcoming elections. Once found I have to place a couple bets. Will they be violent or non-violent, and if non-violent will they still be disruptive or not? Then I place my bets and make the final touches on my winter safaris.
For my African friends. Well… all my friends, and especially for those who live near Galena, Illinois.
Currently I don’t have potable water. Why I don’t have potable water reflects America today, dysfunctional and imploding. It’s sad and infuriating but for those of us who have lived much of our lives in places like Africa, it’s also very telling.
An entire industry has now arisen to recover funds for travelers who have lost deposits because of the pandemic. Like timeshares, ambulance chasers, J.G. Wentworth and scores of others, the more well-off who are pissed as hell that some of their vacation money might be forfeited, are now themselves preyed on by dubious advocates.
To some of us it’s a delight to see capitalism eating itself to death.
Could a virus like Covid-19 be killing Botswana’s elephants?
The Botswana government just received the first test results from a sampling of more than 350 mysterious elephant deaths. More mysterious, it refuses to release the results. The government argues they shouldn’t be made public until they’re confirmed by an independent lab in South Africa, which could take a week.
Kenya began reopening today, and Kenya had one of the strictest lockdowns in Africa if not the world. Kenya’s lockdown made New York’s lockdown look frivolous.
“You MUST become your brother’s keeper,” the Kenyan president declared in his order, today before listing all the mandates still required and warning that he would “claw back” everything should the virus reemerge.
“Civic responsibility is not a demand that can be enforced. It is a duty you pay to your fellow country-men for coexisting with them.”
Is your cable bill paid up? Are you ready to confront the week of August 23 as the most surprising yet of America’s last four years? Then all you need is this little blog, a little prep on the story of how John Magufuli became the president of Tanzania, crushing the certain hopes and futures of millions.
Americans need to take off the blinders that they will get the vaccine, first. This notion is dangerous and woven inextricably into the November election. “It’s risky [to Americans]… and not ethically right,” WHO’s chief scientist told a Nigerian newspaper, yesterday.
Pediatrician Paul Offit who wrote the book about the kids who got polio from a bad initial vaccine warned Americans in Science Magazine that Trump’s “October Surprise” could be the announcement of a vaccine that won’t work.
Some tunnels of empathy lead to condescension. An event this week in South Africa triggered my epiphany that I’m among the guilty.
Planning totally unconventional. Nevertheless an MOP was established over the years that I used religiously.
Whenever the date for an African national election was announced, I pulled out a pile of yellow pads and started figuring out how to keep my clients from being there when it happened.
The carnage of African safari companies grows like a dry season wildfire. Distant Serengeti grasslands are lit with flames of desperation. The dead grasses fueling this destruction are the charities proffered to safari customers as a benefit of their bookings.
The charity these schemes achieved for years has stopped flat out: Anti-poaching units, schools, health dispensaries, food assistance and educational training are disappearing with a level of human suffering that the executives of the companies who concocted them ensured they would never experience themselves.