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Thursday 03rd of August 2017 |
Morning Africa |
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Why the Great Migration Needs to Top Your Bucket List, in 15 Photos @luxury Africa |
Blue wildebeests, also known as white-bearded wildebeests, make up the bulk of the great migration that covers 1,200 miles of the Serengeti and Maasai Mara. The rumbling mass of 1.5 million hoofed beasts heads north from the Serengeti’s dry, depleted grasses to the Maasai Mara’s greener plains, with the first herds crossing the treacherous waters of the Mara River from mid- to late July. By January the beasts have made their way back to the southern Serengeti again where about half a million calves are born through March, before dry grasses prompt their departure in May again.
About 200,000 zebras add a touch of striped glamour to the muddy-gray mass of wildebeests. They’re usually first to arrive in the Maasai Mara reserve following the river crossing, and they stay put through October, when the first herds begin their journey south again along the eastern edge of the Serengeti in search of new grasses. Zebras’ bold markings have long puzzled biologists, given the number of predators on the prowl—theories include their stripes having a cooling effect (scientists have found the hotter the location the more stripes a zebra has), a way of repelling disease-causing insects, and an optical illusion when mixed with grassland to confuse predators.
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23 APR 12 :: "Hunting Elephants in East Africa'. @TheStarKenya Africa |
One of my greatest pleasures is watching and tracking elephants. I recall turning a corner in the Masai Mara and finding myself alone except for a herd of over 100 elephants. I have watched a documentary about the elephants of Kilimanjaro and I learnt that elephants mourn their dead just like we do. They actually caress the bones of the departed and apparently never forget.
“The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.” ― V.S. Naipaul, In a Free State
“After all, we make ourselves according to the ideas we have of our possibilities.” ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
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Good Morning World from A Bend in the @MaraFairmont River Africa |
“Going home at night! It wasn't often that I was on the river at night. I never liked it. I never felt in control. In the darkness of river and forest you could be sure only of what you could see — and even on a moonlight night you couldn't see much. When you made a noise — dipped a paddle in the water — you heard yourself as though you were another person. The river and the forest were like presences, and much more powerful than you. You felt unprotected, an intruder ... You felt the land taking you back to something that was familiar, something you had known at some time but had forgotten or ignored, but which was always there. You felt the land taking you back to what was there a hundred years ago, to what had been there always.” ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
“Anybody can be decisive during a panic; it takes a strong man to act during a boom.” ― V.S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River
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05-DEC-2016 :: "We have a deviate, Tomahawk." Law & Politics |
From feeding the hot-house conspiracy frenzy on line (‘’a constant state of destabilised perception’’), timely and judicious doses of Wikileaks leaks which drained Hillary’s bona fides and her turn-outand motivated Trump’s, what we have witnessed is something remarkable and noteworthy.
Putin has proven himself an information master, and his adversaries are his information victims.
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China has officially opened its first overseas military base in Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa Quartz Africa Law & Politics |
“The Djibouti base has nothing to do with an arms race or military expansion, and China has no intention of turning the logistics center into a military foothold,” the state-run news agency Xinhua said
Djibouti is located near the Suez Canal, through which as much as 10% of the world’s sea-borne oil trade passes through every year.(Djibouti already houses several foreign security forces, including the United States military at Camp Lemonnier, Britain, Japan, and France.) It’s also part of China’s One Belt One Road” project, a massive network of transport links that roughly follows the ancient Silk Road.
Satellite images obtained by Stratfor, the US-based geopolitical intelligence platform, in April and July reveal a heavily fortified base with three layers of defense, an underground space of 23,000 square meters, and at least eight hangars for aircraft. Curiously, according to Stratfor, no dock had been constructed yet, despite the base’s main mission to support Chinese naval operations. “It is clear that Beijing is laying down the infrastructure to provide long-term support to naval vessels and some aircraft on the Horn of Africa, near one of the world’s chokepoints for trade,” Stratfor wrote.
Conclusions
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There is no doubt the Venezuelan election was tampered with, the company that provided machines says BBG Law & Politics |
The company that has provided voting machines and software for Venezuela’s elections for more than a decade said that turnout figures for Sunday’s vote to elect delegates for a controversial constitutional assembly were manipulated and overstated.
“Based on the robustness of our system, we know, without any doubt, that the turnout of the recent election for a National Constituent Assembly was manipulated,” Smartmatic chief executive officer Antonio Mugica told reporters in London. “This would not have occurred if the auditors of all political parties had been present at the different stages of the election.”
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Trendy Coffee at $4 a Cup Revives African Industry Left Behind Commodities |
Julien Ochala can’t live without his morning cup of Joe.
But not just any coffee will do. For the past five years, the 37-year-old physiology lecturer at King’s College London has visited the same store every week to grab a pack of his beloved Kenyan brew. And he’s not put off by the cost: at 37 pounds a kilogram ($22 a pound), it’s more than double a similar supermarket product.
"I take Kenyan coffee every morning," said Ochala, who buys his beans from Monmouth Coffee Company in Borough Market. "I love it because of the relatively higher acidity level. It keeps me active in the afternoons."
Customers willing to pay a premium for African brews, known for their floral, fruity flavors, are driving purchases of coffee from the continent where the drink is said to have originated. One legend has it that Ethiopian goat herders discovered the plant more than a thousand years ago. Today, a cup of Kenyan coffee at Monmouth costs roughly $4, compared with about $3 for a standard Americano from Starbucks Corp. in London.
The renewed interest may be a blessing for farmers in Africa, where output is about three-quarters of what it was four decades ago. Growers of robusta, the cheaper variety favored for instant drinks, have found it hard to compete as major producer Vietnam boosted output at much lower cost. Brazil also provided more competition for medium-quality arabica beans.
“Ethiopian beans have been known in the West for a long time, but now we are seeing more Rwandan, Kenyan and even beans coming from Burundi, Uganda and Congo,” said Karl Weyrauch, the founder of Seattle-based Coffee Rwanda, a supplier of Rwandan beans to the American market. “African beans may also seem exotic to some coffee drinkers and that piques their curiosity.”
But output isn’t what it once was. In 1975, four African nations were among the world’s 10 biggest producers. Now, only Ethiopia and Uganda make the list.
“African production is under threat,” said Keith Flury, head of coffee research at Volcafe Ltd., one of the world’s top coffee traders. "In countries like Kenya, Nairobi is urbanizing fast and expanding into areas that were previously used for coffee. In other countries such as Rwanda and Burundi, coffee is being replaced with subsistence crops as population grows."
Younger Africans are shunning coffee farming for more profitable careers, according to the International Coffee Organization. It pegs the average age of an African coffee grower at 60. Political conflicts have also made farming difficult. Nestle SA’s Nespresso brand last year halted operations in South Sudan due to the civil war.
In Nairobi, farmers can make more money selling their land for property development than working the coffee trees, said Martin Maraka, program manager at the African Fine Coffees Association. Population growth and urbanization show little signs of slowing - the continent will account for more than half of the world’s population growth by 2050, adding 1.3 billion people, according to the United Nations.
While demand is rising, Africa’s coffee exports have mostly been flat since the early 2000s. In comparison, global shipments jumped about 37 percent in the period as world consumption grew by a similar amount.
Demand for African beans used in blends -- the regular products sold in supermarkets that are a mix of supplies from anywhere in the world -- has largely been steady, and the prospects for growth lie in so-called single-origin coffees that only use beans from one specific place.
That potential for niche brews is attracting trading houses to African markets, where margins are much wider than in Brazil or Vietnam. Singapore’s Olam International Ltd., one of the largest food merchants, last year paid $7.5 million for East African coffee specialist Schluter S.A., which had been family-owned since the 19th century. Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, Volcafe, Louis Dreyfus Co. and Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. are present in Africa.
Higher demand from western consumers for some African products is evident to Lars Pilengrim, who buys coffee for Swedish roaster Johan & Nystrom.
“The African taste profiles are very popular in and around Scandinavia,” Pilengrim said. “We are seeing growing interests for coffee from Africa and not only the classic origins such as Ethiopia and Kenya. We are increasing our presence and buying in and from Burundi.”
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Zimbabwe asks court to enforce seizure of Zimplats mining ground Africa |
Zimbabwe has filed a court application to enforce a previous notice to seize more than half of platinum producer Zimplats' mining land, the company said on Wednesday.
Zimplats, which is majority controlled by Impala Platinum in January said President Robert Mugabe's government had made a fresh bid to compulsorily acquire 27,948 hectares of its mining ground, which the company opposed.
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Tanzania's New Natural Resources Legislation: What Will Change? @NRGInstitute Africa |
Minerals royalty. The Amendments Act increases the royalty on diamonds and gemstones from 5 percent to 6 percent, and raises the royalty on metallic minerals from 4 percent to 5 percent of gross value.14 Under the Mining Act, the royalty base was previously de ned as the “market value of minerals at the point of re ning or sale or ... at the point of delivery within Tanzania.” The Amendments Act has now speci ed that “market value” shall be based on a valuation procedure requiring the presence of a mines resident officer and an officer from the Tanzania Revenue Authority.15 Under the new procedure, the government may reject the valuation of exported or raw minerals that are rated “low” because of “deep negative volatility.” Where the government rejects a valuation, it is entitled to purchase the minerals at the low price.16 The concept of “deep negative volatility” is undefined, and no standards are provided for determining whether a price is “low.” Regulations will be needed to establish clear parameters for rejecting valuations on this basis.
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Kenya opposition leader says ruling party can win only by rigging vote Kenyan Economy |
Kenya's ruling party cannot win next week's national elections without rigging the result, opposition leader Raila Odinga said on Wednesday, adopting a hard-line stance likely to stoke public fears of violence.
"There is no other way that Jubilee can win elections other than through rigging and they know it - that is why they are making all the efforts," he told Reuters as he left an election rally in the town of Suswa near the capital.
"I'm very confident that we are going to get a very, very decisive victory," he said.
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