Baseball curses

And so “The Curse of the Bambino” was put to rest.
Up next “The Curse of the Goat” …

|  Email This Post | Add comment Thursday, October 28th, 2004 at 11:59 AM

Vote for sex

Voter participation, American style!

|  Email This Post | Add comment Friday, October 22nd, 2004 at 1:36 AM

Bush relatives for Kerry

Oh boy! This is gonna get ugly!

|  Email This Post | Add comment Friday, October 22nd, 2004 at 1:27 AM

Kenyan Blogs: Nyakehu

Karibu Nyakehu the latest addition to Kenyan
Blogs. Have a look!

|  Email This Post | Add comment Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 11:02 PM

Kenyan Blogs: Kenyan Pundit

Karibu Kenyan Pundit to the Kenyan Blogs webring.
Want to join? Submit your site here.

|  Email This Post | Add comment Monday, October 18th, 2004 at 4:30 AM

Sarah Jones - Revolution

Poet Sarah Jones’ reflections on the music industry’s views on women was banned by the FCC for, ironically, “indecent language”. The poem is called, Your Revolution.

|  Email This Post | 3 comments Saturday, October 16th, 2004 at 3:17 PM

Surprise

This is a very pleasant surprise.
This on the other is a no flipping surprise.

|  Email This Post | Add comment Friday, October 15th, 2004 at 1:06 PM

CITES - Kenya

The 13th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) has closed in Bangkok. The battle lines between conservationists and those urging for “sustainable use” of natural resources were drawn again. The negotiations at Cites centre on the moving of a species from one appendix into another.
Appendix I: controls species whose existence is so threatened that trade is banned. It covers some 1,000 plants and animals, e.g. great apes.
Appendix II: Allows controlled trade, under a system of permits. Covers 4,100 animal species and 28,000 plants. Appendix III: Contains 290 species that are protected in at least one country.

Concerned with the decline of the African Lion [panthera leo] which Kenya feels is in danger of extinction by 2030, Kenya proposed moving the African Lion from Appendix II to Appendix I of the treaty [Pdf document: relevant pages 22 - 26]. Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, which all have significant lion populations of their own, spoke out against the proposed Kenyan amendment arguing, amongst other things, that some hunting and trade of African lions is necessary to reduce human-lion conflict.

The secretariat agreed with the five countries rejecting Kenya’s proposed amendment noting that the African Lion is currently not threatened with extinction and does not meet the biological criteria for inclusion in Appendix I. This is because wild populations are not small and the species is still widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa even if its range is increasingly fragmented. Kenya withdrew its proposal to transfer panthera leo from Appendix II to Appendix I due to lack of support.

Kenya also campaigned for a 20-year moratorium on the commercial ivory trade. In contrast Namibia spearheaded a proposal from Southern Africa to establish annual legal sales of up to 2,000 kilograms of ivory and to create a commercial trade in traditional ivory carvings [Namibian proposal - pdf document]. Tanzania said a moratorium would cause illegal trade to thrive and require financial resources for enforcement. Botswana, supported by Uganda, South Africa and Zambia, opposed the proposed moratorium and adopting punitive measures, and said the issues were already addressed in a previous action plan. While Mali, Liberia and Senegal supported Kenya’s proposal, Japan (which buys all this ivory) opposed. Cote D’Ivoire, Chad and others accepted the EU amendments, while Congo and Togo supported setting a specific timeframe, as originally proposed by Kenya. The withdrawal of 25 EU votes in support of the Kenya proposal saw it defeated, the same fate applied to the Namibian proposal which was rejected as “premature”. However Namibia gained approval for trade in worked ivory for “non commercial” purposes at the final plenary session on Thursday - a move many countries and conservationists consider a loophole for illegal trade.

Other developments from Cities saw the re- introduction of hunting of the black rhino in South Africa and Namibia. Each country is “only” allowed to hunt five a year each though. That is five more than should be allowed in my opinion. All for the “sustainable management” of the animal population. Swaziland may also open up controlled hunting of its population of white rhino and export live animals. In fairness I should mention that South Africa and Namibia have had good track records in conserving black rhinos in recent years - numbers are up 40% over the past decade. However Richard Leakey, the former head of the Kenya Wildlife Service, argues that even a limited version of the trade would damage wildlife, encourage poaching and would not relieve poverty. “Sustainable use” arguments, he says, sound reasonable but there is a big difference between ecological and economic sustainability. He believes that economic priorities will always take precedence.

I hate seeing and reading about some punk driving around Kenya in a massive 4X4 vehicle with guns strapped all over the side en route to a hunt. Or even a prince spearing a dik-dik. The animal population needs to be managed I agree, there are other ways though. Yes I know about Maasai initiation traditions which involve killing lions and yes I am not a vegetarian. So am I guilty of double standards? Perhaps. Still watching some cartoon with a massive gun who has paid mega bucks, each rhino will cost £30,000 a head apparently, to fly into Africa for the day to shoot a rhino for his “trophy cabinet” needs to be left alone in cage for 5 days without his AK for some mano-a-mano with a rhino. If he wins then he can take his “trophy” home with him.

|  Email This Post | 1 comment Friday, October 15th, 2004 at 11:32 AM

Kenyan Blogs: Uaridi

Welcome Uaridi to the Kenyan Weblogs webring.
Uaridi means rose in Kiswahili and the bright and lively colours on her page certainly live up to the name! Check it out.

|  Email This Post | 2 comments Friday, October 15th, 2004 at 10:16 AM

London Underground platform announcers

Must be the platform announcers on the London Underground.

|  Email This Post | Add comment Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 at 9:11 PM

Land in Kenya

The injustice in land distribution/land ownership in parts of Africa has been well documented and is commented upon continuously. We know that in Zimbabwe 0.3% of the population own 73% of the best land and employs 65% of the people. Similarly you can not help but notice that in South Africa 16 percent of the population owns 87 percent of all arable land. However you probably have not heard that in Kenya 10 percent of the population owns 73 percent of all arable land. Why this difference between in the coverage or lack of coverage given to Kenya compared to Zimbabwe and South Africa. Why is the “Africa for Africans” brigade quiet here?

One crucial difference is that while the land owning minorities quoted above in Zimbabwe and South Africa are white, in Kenya the land owning minority while having a significant white representation includes prominent black Kenyans and their families. For example The East African Standard reports that the extended Kenyatta family alone owns an estimated 500,000 acres - approximately the size of Nyanza Province - according to estimates by independent surveyors and Ministry of Lands officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. Half a MILLION acres.

All this while 13 per cent of the population is absolutely landless and another 67 per cent own less than an acre per person. There is Africanisation of Kenyan land for you.

|  Email This Post | 4 comments Tuesday, October 12th, 2004 at 9:31 AM

Thank you

A very big belated thank you for all the birthday messages.
For those of you who had no idea. It’s cool, I aint mad at ya!
But if you forget next year, its war.
Totally random useless facts:
Winnie Mandela in 1936, Serena Williams in 1981, George Gershwin in 1898 were all born on the same day as me. On that date in 1960 Fidel Castro gave the longest speech in UN history (4 and half hours).

|  Email This Post | 6 comments Monday, October 11th, 2004 at 5:43 PM

Congratulations Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Laureate 2004

Congratulations Wangari Maathai Nobel Peace Laureate 2004.

|  Email This Post | Add comment Monday, October 11th, 2004 at 5:04 PM