COUNCILS PRAISE FOR HIGHWAY ATTRACTS PROMPT ‘INDUCEMENT’ ALLEGATIONS
No sooner had several councils enroute the controversial Serengeti highway made their support for Tanzanian president Kikwete known, did allegations enter the fray that they were given inducements and promises of ‘other goodies and big jobs’ were made, if only they’d come out loudly in support of the project. Opposed by all serious conservation organizations, top environmental experts, UNESCO, WWF, AWF and many similar global bodies, this has seemingly not deterred Kikwete’s government to go flat out in their attempt to ‘kill the Serengeti’, in the process overturning the verdicts and commitments made by Tanzania’s founding father Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. Even senior staff at TANAPA and SENAPA are quietly opposed to the highway across the crucial annual migration paths but it is understood that anyone of them openly opposing the plans or being quoted publicly, especially in international media or publications in this regard, may be subject to immediate disciplinary measures, possible dismissal and even trumped up criminal charges.
Said a regular source in Arusha in response to questions raised: ‘the present generation of politicians is the greediest we ever had. Nyerere’s generation made many mistakes and their Ujamaa policy crippled us economically, but at least he had the guts to stand up and say sorry and that he was wrong. But today’s politicians are only interested in eating, maintaining power and clobbering the opposition including killing them, as we recently saw here in Arusha when police became executioners for the regime. This highway is a mistake, and only when the big herds are decimated, the tourists stay away and we are a pariah of conservation will people start to listen. Even then I expect the Kikwetes of today will blame others for their own mistakes and failures’.
Damning words from a senior stakeholder in the tourism sector who spent his entire adult life in the sector and has a sizeable investment to worry about, should indeed game numbers – as widely predicted – drop and tourists listen to the de-campaigning promised to the Tanzanian government, the moment he bulldozers start rolling.
Watch this space and don’t shoot the messenger who only reports on such issues and has no hand in them otherwise.
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The driving force is Gold, Mineral wealth and mining rights that can be exploited. One only needs to check the records in Dodoma at the Ministry of Mines to discover where they think the riches of Sheeba are. When will you see chinese trucks, buldozers and coolies moving into the planned region of impact? Probably a lot sooner than you think.
and now the 16 new lodges in serengeti, 50 beds each, completely in disregard for the management plan, already allocated to ‘big men’ and no sign of any transparent process. your source in Arusha sounds right.
HUMANITY SAVES THE AFRICAN WILDEBEEST MIGRATION WONDER OF THE WORLD OF SERENGETI NATIONAL PARK AND SAFARI MASAIMARA
The welcoming news of conservation and halting of the African rich wild animals species along the mount Kilimanjaro, Serengeti and Masai Mara National Parks has saved a great biodiversity of events that would have altered African Safari and tour loving people just like the flow of ice in the northern hemisphere which has brought challenges to our general survival level. As a matter of fact this unpredictable and spontaneous natural event has saved the wildebeest migration and made African safaris to be appreciated even more. We human beings of superior brain advancement do have all what it takes to have alternatives without disturbing the flora and fauna. Its not only the wildebeest which were saved but the African crocodiles, the ape family and the great Big Five as a whole. We only need to blend with nature as nature has its own ways of healing and sustaining itself as it has always done for thousands of years. For all those who mentally physically, financially, emotionally and spiritually contributed made this gigantic move to save animals of Africa, endangered species and the African wild beast migration wonder of the world to these African animas have their own undisturbed natural habitat. GRATITUDE IS ALL WHAT YOU DESERVE.
HAVE A NICE DAY AND A BETTER NIGHT