Arjen Westra's African Weblog

Namibia / Gambling machines from Russia in Caprivi

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

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!

Netherlands / Time for some Kenya promotion

arjenwestra — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:11:36 +0000

I think it’s time for some Kenya promotion. I will prepare a gallery for you with nice pictures from this beautiful country with its beautiful people. Keep an eye on this weblog for the coming days please. And… enjoy your evening!

Netherlands / Experimenting with Twitter on my Blog

arjenwestra — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:49:10 +0000

Just experimenting with Twitter on my Blog.

Kenya / Promptly Establish Special Tribunal

arjenwestra — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:33:59 +0000

Human Rights Watch: Government, Donors Should Support Commission’s Findings on Election Violence

(New York, October 15, 2008) – The Kenyan government and international partners should strongly support the call by the Waki commission investigating post-election violence to create a special tribunal to end Kenya’s cycle of impunity, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Waki commission has done an admirable job describing the causes of the violence and assembling evidence,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. “Now the politicians need to set up the special tribunal it recommends. Justice is crucial for Kenya’s stability.”

The report of the Commission of Inquiry into Post-Election Violence, headed by Justice Philip Waki, was published on October 15, 2008. The commission concluded that politicians on all sides had organized and funded attacks on supporters of their opponents. The inquiry also found that security forces responded inappropriately, using excessive force against civilians, intervening to have allies released from custody and failing to investigate individuals responsible for the violence. Human Rights Watch said that a complete overhaul of Kenya’s corrupt and abusive police force, as recommended by the Waki commission, is long overdue….

Tanzania / Picture of the Day!

arjenwestra — 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: more audio and pictures

arjenwestra — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:44:15 +0000

Been a kind of offline (moving in and out almost every country between Kenya and South Africa)in the past months, collecting stories from Africans telling about their lives, their frustrations and most of all: their dreams. I met fishermen on the Cape who are not allowed to fish and had to flee into crime and drugs, I met beachboys in Mombasa who in order to be more succesfull with a muzungu lady, are planning to visit a witch doctor ‘before the season starts’ to get a black magic battery in their wallet, and i talked to Tanzanians being frustrated about the fact that the country’s mining profits are disappearing abroad, other Tanzanians who believe that they can make a difference by starting a business and treating their employees in a human way by paying them a normal salary and treating them as human beings (soemthing you could not always say about so called decent companies in Africa., On the road i talked to Zambians that use chili to keep away the elephants from their village, to Kenians that keep hope for a better future although the new Grand Coalition Government cannot take away the impression that they are as clean as they pretent to be and to Namibians that are happy that there is no solution in Zimabwe ‘The money used to go to Zimbabwe but now the countries around (Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia) get some investment too… Look: none of the neighbouring countries are doing bad, in fact they are very fine.’ Stories will be available for my appreciated customers in Netherlands and Belgium.

Shortly you will find more grassroot audio and pictures online. Owners of an iPod: since a few months you can subscribe to the Official Africareporter.net Audiopodcast. Please subscribe by clicking this link iTunes users can go to the Itunes StorePodcast directory. Search for “Africareporter” and subscribe. Alernatively, you could visit this website: Podcast Directory But the best option for anybody is this link: Africareporter.net Podcast Enjoy. Comments and request are welcome! See you on the road!
Ok, enjoy your day, full of nice audio and pictures!

Ah, oh and before i forget for all you Social Networkers out there:

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Zambia / Mister Seaman from Zimbabwe, you made my morning

arjenwestra — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:14:49 +0000

Thank you mister Seaman from Zimbabwe, you started a small coffee stand on Lusaka International Airport. You know what a traveller needs at the beginning of the day: good coffee. But… what i don’t get: why do Zambians need a Zimbabwian on their International Airport to start a coffee shop all those years nobody noticed?

Kenya / Robbery of the century!

arjenwestra — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:18:15 +0000

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.

Kenya / Audio: pockets of rioting youth

arjenwestra — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:52:35 +0000

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

Have a pleasant evening!

Kenya / Coming up: pockets of rioting youth

arjenwestra — 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.