Today is a very auspicious day, my son Aaron is eight years old. He has not been to Africa and I would like him to visit me perhaps towards the end of the year. Lots more to write.
1::::Let me preface my remarks by saying that you have liberated from being a slave to ones discipline. ::::: I am a Geographer but in 1966 I gave up my Green card status and a Teaching Assistantship at UCLA and returned to Tanzania as a Special Lecturer. A few days after my return I taught my first class at the University of Dar es Salaam, which was then linked to University of London. I started by telling them about the composition of the human body. The ten or twelve students who were from the Science Faculty, found it strange but had no difficulty coping with it . Indeed one of them not only became the Advisor to the Namabian President and the Government. He returned to Dar es Salaam as the Vice Chancellor of a Private Hospital. The lady qualified as a Medical Doctor sacked by the President of Tz and a week later appointed by World Health Organization as the representative for Africa. Poetic justice. *::::2 ::: I Learnt Quite a Good Bit::::* I learnt quite a bit. For instance I was not aware of . In your words <<<<These missing dead shells would have performed yet another important function. Built of calcium carbonate, the alkali slowly leeches into the water, neutralising the acid levels in the estuary. This is extremely important as acids in the water can dissolve the shells of crustaceans and mollusks (snails, clams and oysters) exposing them to the elements and making them vulnerable to predators.>>>>>> ###2B #### Who would have imagined the removal of oyster shells could be linked to a decline in oyster production world over? /#### My reaction …local action can have global reaction. ::::*3A*:::To make transport easy, these collectors gather entire rocks, complete with mother shells and all, which they then fill into empty cement bags, transporting them back to their respective villages, often in the hinterland with no access to a creek or backwater.::: <<<<<Yes. But perhaps one solution is to make no-local people take the oysters in a container with lots of ice>>>>> :::::*4 Mangroves::::* I am very conscious about the power of the mangrove to clean and protect and conserve breeding fish. The Rufiji Delta in Tanzania has been exploited for generations …Some of the Mangrove are about 18 inches in diameters and for a very long time were exported to Shiraz in the Persian Gulf. Unfortunately the agriculture and the fishing (especially prawns } will be destroyed >>>>>Perhaps you could incorporate a lot more about about the mangroves in subsequent piece. I have good reason for suggesting this idea. My maternal parents have their house built on basaltic rock , but there is a small fishing village and it is still there, nestled between the hill side and the small tributaries of the river >>>>>> *:::: 5 Development::::* <<<Human development is not about high rise buildings, real estate development::: I am happy to see that you have the renouned Professor Guy Standing, previously from ILO. I respect the stand of ILO, knew Prof. Ghai when I was working in Geneve. It is all about being Human and respecting the rights of others…be it land, resources etc>>>>> <<<< All the Major Revolutions and Uprising against the Establishment or Monarchies have been the unequal distribution of wealth.>>>>> *::::6 Local Knowledge & Disasters::::* As a former Regional Director of IUCN for the whole of the unliberated part of Southern Africa there is a great deal I learnt. I am even more conscious now nearly 4 decades later that resources and environment cannot be left to bureaucrats and politicians alone …people must participate alone <<<<<<<However , all this assumes that there is no CORRUPTION and the leadership can bear the truth. >>>>, ::::But CONGRATULATIONS AARON LOBO Adolfo Mascarenhas In Quepem PS Mervyn: you know a lot about fishing ...In 1944 we used to walk for picnics near Salender Bridge, near Oyster Bay. My Pinto used to Fish ...there was a one variety called lady fish. I have not seen them at all for the last 30 or 40 years .