I’m writing this from Johannesburg where I’m in the middle of a combination fun safari and nature/carbon research trip (with a stop-off in Dubai on the way home). Btw, I won’t be writing next week as a result.
I've been in sub-Saharan Africa twice before: six weeks in Nairobi in 1981 as the legal advisor to the US delegation to an international telecommunications regulatory conference. It was a great professional experience and we had some time to visit several stunning natural areas in Kenya. Then, in 2010, Gina and I went with friends to Namibia and South Africa, including some time in Cape Town. Also spectacular and all for fun.
This time, I've got five stops scheduled.
During my “jet lag day,” I managed one outing in town and went to the Constitution Hill section of Johannesburg, home of the Constitutional Court as well as several historical sites and museums about the struggle for democracy in South Africa. Having taught courses on the history of democracy several times (including several which featured the Mandela/South Africa story of the late 20C), this has long been of interest to me.
I’ve just finished meeting with the team at African Parks, an impressive organization that manages 22 national parks in 12 countries across the continent, covering more than 50 million acres. They secure long-term contracts with governments to stabilize and upgrade the management of these parks, including financial, operational, and environmental capabilities to enhance and preserve these amazing landscapes/environments. They also are managing a special project to re-wildÓ 2000 white rhinos (about 10% of the total global rhino population) by “seeding” them in groups to restore their original spread across Africa. Their staging area is outside Johannesburg and I got to visit with their team there as well as their HQ group in town.
Tomorrow, I’m off to Botswana with my friends Barry and Barbara, to visit two of the most important and dramatic natural areas in the world: the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari Desert. WeÕre doing the luxury tented-camp thing for the next week, which should be great fun as well as jaw-dropping in terms of scenery and animals. (Good thing I don’t mind (very) small planes!)
Then, its back to Joburg to change planes and hop up to Malawi, where I’ll be visiting African Parks operations in Majete National Park in the south of that country. Majete is the test-bed for a project to measure carbon sequestration and natural preservation across large swaths of territory with an eye to monetizing those “natural capital” benefits and securing funding from charitable donors and governments interested in off-setting climate change. Not surprisingly, donors want some assurance that their funds are being effectively used and AP is trying to provide a framework to do so. It’s a key piece of the organizational/conceptual infrastructure if we're to marshal the financial resources necessary to address this existential threat. I hope to see how this works in practice so I'm not just sitting 10,000 miles away writing checks in a vacuum.
From Malawi, I return to Joburg for another plane change leading to a couple of days in Dubai. I'll be linking up with my brother and his wife who are en route to India. Dubai is a bit of a mystery. The hype is a souped-up Las Vegas in Arabia, complete with the worldÕs tallest building, indoor skiing, deserts, and the remnants of old Arabian culture amid lots of flash and bling. WeÕll tour around Dubai and Abu Dhabi and check things out. Should be amusing in a hyper-modern 21C way, and a far cry from the groundedness of Africa.
Thence, home via a long flight from Dubai back to the Pacific Time Zone. Whew!
I’ll be bringing the perspective of a historian who has studied the European imperial impacts on the continent and taught students about how democracy returned to South Africa thirty years ago. I'll also be bringing with me a commitment to understanding the tensions of development, environmental protection, radically different cultures, and the peoples’ relationships with the land. Whether as a historian, environmentalist, tourist, traveler, or just plain human, I will bear in mind that I’m there to learn and get outside of my usual routine and perspectives. It’s not just physical baggage that I’m carrying.
When I taught a course on the history of globalization a few years ago, I started the story in Africa. Indeed, we all started our story in Africa, even if most of us here in the US descended from those who left Africa more than 50,000 years ago. In my experience, I can feel the resonance of home at a genetic level. Beneath the fun and the learning, it is good to be back.
I've been in sub-Saharan Africa twice before: six weeks in Nairobi in 1981 as the legal advisor to the US delegation to an international telecommunications regulatory conference. It was a great professional experience and we had some time to visit several stunning natural areas in Kenya. Then, in 2010, Gina and I went with friends to Namibia and South Africa, including some time in Cape Town. Also spectacular and all for fun.
This time, I've got five stops scheduled.
During my “jet lag day,” I managed one outing in town and went to the Constitution Hill section of Johannesburg, home of the Constitutional Court as well as several historical sites and museums about the struggle for democracy in South Africa. Having taught courses on the history of democracy several times (including several which featured the Mandela/South Africa story of the late 20C), this has long been of interest to me.
I’ve just finished meeting with the team at African Parks, an impressive organization that manages 22 national parks in 12 countries across the continent, covering more than 50 million acres. They secure long-term contracts with governments to stabilize and upgrade the management of these parks, including financial, operational, and environmental capabilities to enhance and preserve these amazing landscapes/environments. They also are managing a special project to re-wildÓ 2000 white rhinos (about 10% of the total global rhino population) by “seeding” them in groups to restore their original spread across Africa. Their staging area is outside Johannesburg and I got to visit with their team there as well as their HQ group in town.
Tomorrow, I’m off to Botswana with my friends Barry and Barbara, to visit two of the most important and dramatic natural areas in the world: the Okavango Delta and the Kalahari Desert. WeÕre doing the luxury tented-camp thing for the next week, which should be great fun as well as jaw-dropping in terms of scenery and animals. (Good thing I don’t mind (very) small planes!)
Then, its back to Joburg to change planes and hop up to Malawi, where I’ll be visiting African Parks operations in Majete National Park in the south of that country. Majete is the test-bed for a project to measure carbon sequestration and natural preservation across large swaths of territory with an eye to monetizing those “natural capital” benefits and securing funding from charitable donors and governments interested in off-setting climate change. Not surprisingly, donors want some assurance that their funds are being effectively used and AP is trying to provide a framework to do so. It’s a key piece of the organizational/conceptual infrastructure if we're to marshal the financial resources necessary to address this existential threat. I hope to see how this works in practice so I'm not just sitting 10,000 miles away writing checks in a vacuum.
From Malawi, I return to Joburg for another plane change leading to a couple of days in Dubai. I'll be linking up with my brother and his wife who are en route to India. Dubai is a bit of a mystery. The hype is a souped-up Las Vegas in Arabia, complete with the worldÕs tallest building, indoor skiing, deserts, and the remnants of old Arabian culture amid lots of flash and bling. WeÕll tour around Dubai and Abu Dhabi and check things out. Should be amusing in a hyper-modern 21C way, and a far cry from the groundedness of Africa.
Thence, home via a long flight from Dubai back to the Pacific Time Zone. Whew!
I’ll be bringing the perspective of a historian who has studied the European imperial impacts on the continent and taught students about how democracy returned to South Africa thirty years ago. I'll also be bringing with me a commitment to understanding the tensions of development, environmental protection, radically different cultures, and the peoples’ relationships with the land. Whether as a historian, environmentalist, tourist, traveler, or just plain human, I will bear in mind that I’m there to learn and get outside of my usual routine and perspectives. It’s not just physical baggage that I’m carrying.
When I taught a course on the history of globalization a few years ago, I started the story in Africa. Indeed, we all started our story in Africa, even if most of us here in the US descended from those who left Africa more than 50,000 years ago. In my experience, I can feel the resonance of home at a genetic level. Beneath the fun and the learning, it is good to be back.
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