Arjen Westra’s African Weblog

It is the people against the people.
I don’t see the sons of daughters of politicians fighting.
It’s the poor against the poor…
A poor Luo who lives on a fews shilling a day, has more in common with his poor Kikuyu neighbour who is trying to make ends meet with a few shillings.
They have both nothing in common with their filthy rich leaders, Luo or Kikuyu, owning companies, appartments, shares. Everyhwhere in the wordl: in Europe (Swizerland), America (New York), Australia, South Africa (Johannesburg).
They stole a lot already, although Kenyans did not threaten them in anything. How could they? They were busy: trying to sell some tomatoes, making a few cents profit so they could buy some ugali for their kids or sending half of their monthly salary of 25 euro to the shop where they sell school uniforms, worrying about their security. I am not talking about the leaders’ kids: they study abroad and don’t have to worry.
I am getting convinced more and more: Some weeks ago, Kenyan leaders did the Robbery of the century: they stole hope from people whose only possession was hope. If they call themselves men, African men and not cowards, the least they could do is give back hope. Kenyans will survive anyway, but it would be a great dead of respect towards their own people.

Please listen to the roughly edited audio i recorded this afternoon. For pictures: see below.

Have a pleasant evening!

Just talked to some Kenyans in front of Parliament buildings. Please listen to this rough draft hardly edited basket of views and ideas.

Just back from a Human Rights Watch press conference. Please listen to the short talk I had with Tom Porteous who asks European Union and the United States to adress the violation of Human Rights in Somalia in their policies.

Interview and picture Made on Mobile Phone.

In Holland, princess Máxima is an ambassador for micro finance. Recently she visited Kenya as member of a United Nations advisory group on Inclusive Financial Sectors. At a press conference in a small room of Kenya’s Ministry of Finance she was adressing Kenyan and Dutch press. Acccording to the princess, a lot of work has still to be done in order to give ordinary people access to financial services like loans, insurance and mobile banking. She invited (Dutch) companies to invest in Kenya. According to the princes, investing in Kenya (Africa) could be good for Africa and for the people in the streets here. Please listen to the short audiofile from the press conference. More audio available upon request.

Because they are nomads, it was easy for them to accept the Camel Library in their life, according to Faraah Noor Farah. Head of the camel division of the Garissa Camel Library. The majority of the people in the outback around regional capital Garissa in Eastern Kenya are illiterate and/or don’t have the money to afford books. Four times a week Garissa regional library visits schools in the region, with camels loaded with books. Today, we visit a school on 2.5 hours walk (we took 200 books). Please enjoy the short report and also check out the pictures I took on the trip by clicking here

Enjoy!

Tanzania’s economy is growing with an impressive 7 percent a year. Almost 18 percent of the GDP is being earned by tourism. The expected growth in number of tourists is much bigger than the National Parcs will be able to handle in the future. The parcs, in terms of beds are full. So: developing tourism on other spots than the Serengeti and Lake Manyara, is becoming more important and the question how much money from the economic growth is reaching the people (like Maasai) is becoming more important. In order to start monitoring what is happening with the money, the Tourist Confederation of Tanzania came up with an initiative during a seminar organized by Karibu, one of the most important Tourism and Travel Fairs in East Africa. I had a short talk with Andrew Williams, coordinator of the Tanzania Natural Resource Forum (listen to the small interview below), one of the initiators (Interview Made on Mobile Phone). And… a growing number of people is getting my free email-updates. For those who did not subscribe: please leave your email-adress on the top right! You will get an update in your inbox everytime I updated this Blog. Thanks and have a nice day!

Testing some audio. In the middle of changing this Blog a bit more in a multimedia Blog, so you don’t fall asleep with all my writing ;-). Soon, you will find my Mobile Phone Made introduction video on my Contact-page (see above). In order to make posts more accessable I added some tags in the sidebar. Try and enjoy. Remember: it’s still under (re-) construction. Like seeing you coming back. At the moment I am in Arusha, Tanzania, working on a feature about ‘responsible’ tourism, human-wildlife conflict among others. Enjoy your day!

Finally after a while of to Uganda again. Usual mode of transport: the Yellow Glory of Kenya (at least that what is used to be): the Akamba bus. Started the 13 hour trip more than one day ago in Antonio’s Bar: 24 hours open. That’s where I took the picture and recorded some atmosphere (sorry partly in Dutch). Main goal: Arua, the hometown of Idi Amin.

The sound impression starts in the restaurant with the ongoing announcement well…. it must be something like… ehhh  a lot of destinations. Kampala is one of them… and I’m about to leave.

See you on the road!

Internet is multimedia. As you can see in the sidebar, i already have some audio on this site. From now on, I will make more audiopostings. Simply push the Play button below and you will be able to enjoy some audio straight from this beautiful continent. From a rainy Nairobi: enjoy your day!