Yesterday the Tanzania government rejected an appeal by the German Parliament to consider alternatives to the giant Stiegler’s Dam project.
In a very unusual Bundestag debate of so narrow an issue a wide coalition of German parties emphasized the growing evidence that the dam will destroy The Selous, one of Africa’s most pristine wildernesses.
Many Africans view 2018 positively, a time when autocratic leaders solidified power and stability increased. For many African conservatives it was a good year.
It was not a good year for African liberals, human rights activists, members of the LGBT community, women or those who champion democracy. Rightists celebrated; leftists wept.
Tanzania’s “bulldozer” dictator plowed into the agricultural arena yesterday slaying down corrupt officials and increasing and strengthening his partnership with China.
John Magufuli’s dictatorial actions should immediately benefit most Tanzanians: Agricultural production should rise, prices for commodities should rise and additional supply should keep consumer prices steady. There’s no way all this “good news” could have been created in such a short time democratically, and there is also no certainty that in the mid- or long-term it’s the right thing to do.
It really is all about the economy. Serious safari cancellations noted last week – including that of Queen Máxima of the Netherlands – because of Tanzania’s announced crackdown on gays has caused a firestorm in East Africa. It’s still burning:
Over the weekend the government jailed a local overtly sexual popstar, the European Union recalled its principal Tanzanian diplomat, the Tanzanian government claimed that “the campaign… is a personal stance and not the State’s”, and the U.S. Embassy in Tanzania released a “security alert.” How should we read all this?
Tourism to Tanzania may be headed into a nosedive as major media organizations around the world widely report the national crackdown started this week against the LGBT community.
EWT received multiple “special offers” and “discounts” from various Tanzanian safari companies just this week. One can only assume the publicity on the LGBT crackdown is having an immediate effect.
Tanzania’s crash to the right has been phenomenal. Why do so many Tanzanians support it? That question goes a long way to explaining a lot of the world, not just Tanzania.
Tanzanians who had been roughed over by police, bureaucrats and corrupt politicians now see some relief under President John Magufuli. He couldn’t do this through the democracy that existed in Tanzania, because it was corrupt. Magufuli has become what we used to call a “benevolent dictator,” and it’s what the whole wide world craves today.
Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance eclipsed an historical moment over the weekend in Tanzania: Tanzania now has as many high profile kidnappings as Nigeria.
Four days ago two purportedly “white” kidnappers allegedly staked out a high profile gym in the main city of Dar-es-Salaam before sunrise. When Africa’s youngest billionaire arrived for his morning workout, they stiffed him into a car, shot widely into the air and sped loudly and defiantly away.
At the end of six days in two different big game reserves in South Africa each of my two separate groups was beaming. They’d seen leopards, lions, wild dogs, black and white rhino, elephant, honey badger, multiple kinds of antelope … it was a dream come true! They’d seen everything in the wild!
Or had they? Read more
The Obama family just took a “secret safari” in Tanzania in a private reserve owned by an anti-conservationist American billionaire who was fined $2 million by Fish & Wildlife for changing the tidewaters of Chesapeake Bay, who has been charged by Tanzanian groups for illegal draining of the Grumeti River and for supporting the Road-Through-The-Serengeti, and who currently is knee-deep in a controversy regarding Harvey Weinstein.
See a lot of lions on your safari, Barak? #MeToo on my last safari.
An attempt today by Tanzania to provide long awaited statistics about its tourism fell flat on its face, as the agency reporting the statistics reported widely different numbers on different websites.
Why is Tanzania attempting this extremely poor PR lie? I think I know why.
Imagine driving through a parched landscape and seeing little except a few abandoned huts. Continue a few more kilometers and suddenly there’s a blur in the still sky. It’s dust. Drive a few more kilometers and you see the flat land is actually starting to roll.
Into deep pits. Fourteen to be precise. Wooden scaffolding goes deep, far below the noon day sun over the hole, raising the temperature in the dark to the mid nineties. Only men are working, some very young.
Within the last few days Tanzania has restricted free speech and Kenya has loosened it. It’s one of several ongoing political trends separating the once inseparable neighbors showcasing Kenya as the more attractive destination for foreign visitors and investors.
Will it continue? If it does Tanzania will certainly become the poor, impoverished cousin.
Travelers and investors alike are going to have shift the way big game safaris are enjoyed and operated as a result of indisputable climate change over the equator. And this, of course, is actually incidental to the disruption caused millions of equatorial African residents.
I’ve seen first hand the melting of the glaciers in Alaska, and now I’ve seen first hand where some of that water falls: onto the equator and it’s unbelievable.
She usually gave a warning before charging. This time she didn’t.
There are too many elephants in northern Tanzania. I worry each time I guide here. The normal dozen people crushed to death annually surged a few years ago to two dozen. Fortunately, my car squeaked out of a dangerous situation.
We left the main road at around 9 a.m. We returned to the main road around 3 p.m. How many cars did we see? Zero. How many roads did we follow? Zero, Zilch.
How many people? About 6 nomadic Maasai. How many wildebeest, zebra, eland, gazelle, ostrich, hyaena and jackal? I can’t be sure. Maybe a million. Maybe a million and a half.