Arjen Westra's Africa Blog 2.0 » Observations

Goosebumps, tears and Machiavelli(2)

admin — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 09:06:40 +0000

Which moral do you choose?

This is a follow up on my post a fews days ago (Please find it here) about Kenya’s invitation to invite Sudan president al-Bashir on the promulgation of Kenya’s New Constitution. Many things have been said about it, I enjoy the Freedom to add. The things we don’t see are what politicians are reading. I am 100 percent sure that Machiavelli’s The Prince is on the desk of at least some of the Kenyan leaders. One of the things that Machiavelli talks about is moral. There the monopolised moral by the churche/religion in this world and there is the moral with the meaning of doing what is good for the masses. Apparently, Kenyan politicians’ moral seems to be the Machiavellian moral, in this case (or at least that is what they say). They invited al-Bashir for the greater good: peace in Southern Sudan. In Africa quite often, there seems to be a conflict between the religious moral and what I just called he Machiavellian moral. It seems that a lot of news media and word leaders use that against Africa. They choose the moral they want and start condemning who ever they want. But if there is a ‘real’ moral, and countries and organisations garding it, why do we still have Joseph Koni, al-Bashir and that type of leaders. We should talk about this with a glass of nice my friend. Have a moralistic and good day !

Slumhugging in hugslum Kibera

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 10:17:56 +0000

yo' ya.. giv' me a slumhug

Whatever happens in Kenya, we are not there yet…. But a lot of people are working on it. Today’s Newspaper (The Daily Nation), thought me that Nairobi’s informal settlements, Kibera has between the 6000 and 15.000 active NGO’s. According to the newspaper, there might an NGO for every 15 residents. I think that Kibera’s non-official hugslum-status, needs to be upgraded to an official one. They could start using it in the tourist-brochures, where Kibera would nicely fit next to the national hugtribe… Ah, sorry… Which tribe was that again?

Click here for Daily Nation article Kibera

Goosebumps and tears

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:20:09 +0000

Sudanese leader Omar Al-Bashir arriving at Uhuru Park, Kenya

Funny feelings about the historic promulgation of Kenya’s new constitution. I did hardly see any prominent ‘good’ leader at the signing ceremony. All of them at least had a disputable reputation. But my impression might be wrong. The number one among those of course is mister Omar al-Bashir, the democratically elected and International sought for leader of Sudan, not really known for his sympathy with the democratic policies and known for of several genocides he’s thought to have been guilty of. Interesting is that Kenya recently confirmed its support for the I.C.C. and said that they would fully cooperate with the I.C.C., in a meeting notably in Kampala. Kenya said that as an I.C.C.-memberstate they oblige themselves to arrest fugitives on their territories. Several sources said that al-Bashir was not on the invitee-list. But that is not an excuse. In Africa with politics and and a lot of other things, what you see is never the truth as it seems. Politics is a stage play. Most of the actors drink their whisky after the play in the lounge back stage and when they are not on stage, they play golf together or rehearsing the play for next week. Interesting is only a few that have a backstage pass for this ongoing theatre.

[View with PicLens]

Namibia / Gambling machines from Russia in Caprivi

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:38:19 +0000

Gambling Machines in Caprivi Strip

On my trip through Namibia’s Caprivi Strip, I stopped at a small coffee joint to satisfy my caffeine-needs. In the end, I am still a Dutch. It was not my first time that I visited this small place in one of the poorest areas of beautiful Namibia. The type of area where people die of malaria because they can’t find transport to the nearest hospital or can’t spend two dollar to safe their own baby’s life. On the outside, nothing had changed. Still the dark orange/brown red-earthy color. Inside still the slow service and the super friendly girl who looks like she doesn’t need anybody as a customer today. Yes: everything looked as usual: I was even happy with the absence of Take Away Coffees. The mugs are on the way, like two years ago, I was told. But I observed something new there in the far dark corner and it made me angry, actually: it made me mad. I saw two gambling machines. I asked who had put these things there, at first nobody could tell me. I noticed the Russian signs and buttons on these what must once have been flashy and bling-blinging Mokba-one-armed-bandits. I could almost smell the wodka. After asking around a bit, some guys told me that a white guy had put them there and someone from the Ministry of Finance was the owner. Now that is what I call development! I took my instant coffee. Outside I found these young guys begging, hiding their small glue bottles in their hands when you approached them and I imagined how the future for these guys would look like if the gambling machines would be connected soon. The locals seemed not very interested in the machines. Some of them told me that all in a lot of shebeens (local ‘drinking places’ ) these machines had been placed recently. I want to stop here and leave the cynical thinking up to the cynics. Hope to meet you on the road! Have a nice day! And keep exploring!

Tanzania / Picture of the Day!

admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:33:45 +0000

Posted from the Cape (RSA)… But I took it in Tanzania, some days ago. I decided to make it the picture of the Day! It’s available in high quality on special request. Comments are welcome.

Kenya / Coming up: pockets of rioting youth

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 13:46:41 +0000

The morning was quiet in Nairobi. This afternoon i visited the informal settlements Mathare and Kibera. Police was around and Mathare seemed realtively quiet. Downtown Nairobi though there were pockets of rioting youth. They were dispersed by special police forces that used teargas. Less than an hour later, I witnessed singing youth who were challenging the police in the informal settlement Kibera. Police went in (that is the moment you hear on the audiofile). Minutes later, it seemed back to ‘normal’, as far as i can use that word in this extraordinary days for Kenya. Observation: more journalists around than common people. The riots will be in the media much bigger than they were.

[mygal=nairobiriots]

Kenya / Nairobi: Just outside Parliament now

admin — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 08:45:13 +0000

Just outside Kenyan Parlement now. It’s still quiet, riot police are around and an old lady is removing dust from the streets in front of the Parliament buildings, thus giving them a final touch. She laughs at me, I greet her and I wonder what she thinks…

Namibia / The Himba Millionaires

admin — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:31:28 +0000

That is the name I gave to this small community of Himba people in Namibia’s Northwest where is just passed some days ago. Probabely the only Himba-community with a white female Minister of Finance. Himba’s are to Namibia what the Maasai are to Kenya and Tanzania and Bushmen to Southern Africa. The difference in Namibia is that white ‘native’ people talk about their fellow nationals the San and the Himba in a very strange way: just as if the white nationals are superior to the natives. AIt seems to be a trend among whites in Southern Africa to do something good. And that is also how a lot of these white well-do’ers behave: We are doing something GOOD. Look how GOOD I am. And i have to believe how GOOD they are of course. I ran into a white lady who ‘adopted’ this small community of Himba people, when according to the lady they came to her with the question if they could stay on her land. The lady said yes, you are welcome. Her motive, how could i even think it would not be, was very noble: helping these poor Himba-people who are, in fact and according to the lady ‘very normal people’. It took the lady a lot of effort to ‘help this Himba’s stop drinking’ and she almost cried, I had the impression. I almost felt like offering a tissue, when she was talking about HER Himba’s and the pain SHE had gone through to make them adjust their behaviour (to what?). Now every day in the tourist high season, the small community gets ‘more than five trucks with guests a day’. Every tourist pays 100 Rand to visit (approximately 10 euro’s). That is an average turnover of 750 euro a day, or more than 5000 euro a week. When I asked the lady what’s in it for the Himba’s, she told me: ‘…everything is for them and I am the one buying food for them, I know exactly what they need, and exactly how much they need of it. The rest of the money goes in an account. I am their Minister of Finance and decide what happens with the money.’ I fully understood, of course. Who wouldn’t? On a yearly basis, that is more than 240.000 euro, for this 20 head community of mais-eating Himba’s. Interesting he? This has been going on for years, that’s why I would call these people The Himba Millionaires. I did not find a nick name for the lady, who truly is a VERY NORMAL lady of the white tribe of WEDO’s (Well do’ers). Any suggestions are welcome! Pictures are clickable! Much better! [mygal=himba]

Tanzania / Mobile internet has the future!

admin — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:58:33 +0000

Yes. A lot of people would be surprised to hear that nowadays in a lot of African countries we have mobile internet. I posted this text live from the streets of Dar es Salaam. Mobile internet brings Africa to the world! At the same moment it seems that I am walking through a world that has two speeds. On my left hand side, here and now, there is a hospital where tonight a lot of people will have died of diseases, like malaria, that could have been treated cheaply. But because of the fact that they could not afford the medicine or say health insurance, they will die. Others cant make a choice because they cant afford to use a condom. Death is always around the corner on this continent. And still: i see people surviving, the streets in Dar are busy from early morning until late. Why? There is no choice. Lets not talk about some airtime to go on the internet.

Kenya / Mohammeds birthday and the Kenyan coffee industry (2)

admin — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 06:15:23 +0000

Finally some pictures from Lamu.

[mygal=lamu]

Have a nice day!