I saw my first gorilla in 1977. It was an eastern lowland gorilla in Kahuzi-Biega national park in The Congo, a species of gorilla (graueri) that’s still going extinct. I watched several Italians throw tomatoes at them. There were no guides then. You just climbed into mountain jungles and threw things at fur. It was an improvement over shooting.
In November the most celebrated of the four gorilla species, the mountain gorilla (berengei), was moved OFF the critically endangered to just the endangered list. I was exhausted and exhilarated learning this. And nobody partied. No ticker tape parades. The world’s just too damned complicated at the moment.
You were fooled by Trump. Don’t be fooled by China and Africa.
Populism is not some lonesome social condition. Populism controls democracy, and populism brings down and sets up autocratic regimes. It’s not conservative or progressive, capitalist or communist. It’s not necessarily based on truth. It’s knee-jerk support for – or against – individuals wielding power. Why? How is it harnessed?
Sometimes good acts prevail even after evil-doers reverse them:
I’m on my way home after a series of great safaris in Kenya and Tanzania, and one of the unexpected bonuses was how few other tourists were on the circuit.
A 19-year old who beheads an older man, then 
The saddest thing to watch as the world’s political systems deteriorate is the barbaric resurgence of child labor in Africa.
Yesterday the Tanzania 
More than two decades into China’s super-investments in Africa, a less than practical policy is becoming clear. As with Sri Lanka, China apparently expects a number of African governments to default on their loan agreements, followed by Chinese assumption of major parastatals like the electricity grid, ports and airports.
Truth is like the massive granite boulders of the Serengeti that have laid on earth for two billion years. They don’t move. Lies have no purchase on earth. They blow away.
Sudan 
Last week Rwanda, one of the smallest countries in the world, 
Another major war begins soon in Africa. It will begin shortly after the democratic mockery scheduled for December 23, when the powers in Kinshasa are “re-elected” and the heavily armed militias particularly in Kivu in the east try to secede.
A gigantic difference between places like the U.S. and Africa — between developed and developing counties — is the speed at which things are changing. Progress doesn’t always come with change, but the truth is that progress can’t occur without change.