mr brosnan

Mr Brosnan, I want to personally thank you for your support of the Serengeti World Heritage Site. As you may be aware there are tens of thousands of people working hard to stop this highway from bisecting the Wildebeest migration route. People from across the world have joined together in an online network cause site and through facebook to share information, gather e-signatures for petitions, and to continue pressuring the Tanzanian government to reconsider this illogical and damaging decision. While I note that the Ambassador cites the need for development in her response on Friday, it is important to cite the data about this development issue: there are very few people living along the route of the planned road, and the alternative southern route that is being proposed by 300 international scientists and 23,000+ individuals will serve 5x the number of people and save tourism economy and jobs for countless Tanzanians.

Your voice is important to continue to shine the spotlight on this travesty in the making, and I encourage you to consider lending your voice to this worldwide effort to save the Serengeti. To find out more about how you can help, you can email us at stopserengetih@gmail.com
You can also visit our website: http://www.savetheserengeti.org/
You can also join the 23,000 people working to save this precious resource on our facebook page, in the link provided in the subject line of this post.

Thank you again for bringing the world's attention to the plight of the Serengeti, and potential death of 1.2 million wildebeest should this road become a reality.

I've recently read an article on the "global water shortage" and while some of it was not news, the projections for water supplies to even the "developed world" is a cause for great concern. The outlook for African nations especially is very bleak indeed, as I am sure is of no suprise to anyone given the current of the continent in general.

So, while the call to the people of developing nations of Africa who's lives are directly affected by these events to take a lead is naturally the first line of defense, it is the people, organisations and governments of the "developed" world that must applaud and support (financially and otherwise) efforts at conserving our delicate and already decimated ecosystem.

Unfortunately, if history is anything to go by financial development will always take precedence over environmental conversation, and most if not all governments see conversation as a hinderance and an expenditure rather that the range of long term benefits that comes with it.

The people of Africa are an integral part of the world's Eco-system, delicately balanced on the edge of extinction. Nature, animals and the people are seldom put together in the planning of their mutual future. We have exported technology and our problems into a culture that still needs the basics. They have a deep thirst for knowledge and education. Yet, without the necessary clean water and seed production to increase their basic nutrition, as well as education to handle the technology, they lack the skills to determine their own future.

When people’s well being, education, natural resources, conservation management become part of the psyche of international and local corporations and African governments, when the people in government begin to use those words and observe the value and success of sustainable transparent development; when the IMF and the World Bank insist on transparency and accountability; when African governments provide representation with affordable taxation to the people; when African companies and jobs include accountability and transparency; when people elect representatives that truly serve them and not corruption, then and only then will African Leaders develop governments that support the infrastructure and education that will grow their countries and its people to be independent, self-sustaining, successful entrepreneurs. Then others will invest wisely in Africa and its future.