Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - April Magazine - Blogger Nation - Index

Africa.
As a Kenyan living in New York and
the owner of a large safari outfitter operating
in East Africa, I received daily
news updates from the Kenya Tourism
Federation, as well as reports from our
staff on the ground during the recent
unrest. The striking discrepancies
between what I heard from my Nairobibased
staff and fellow Kenyan tourism
suppliers and what was portrayed by
news outlets were astounding. The situation
was neither as apocalyptic nor the
violence as pervasive as implied in the
news. Incidents were taking place
almost exclusively in the heavily populated
slums of major cities or in remote
country areas –not in the vast majority of
city neighborhoods and not on the typical
tourist tracts. According to the Kenya
Tourist Board, there were 40,000 tourists
in Kenya during the turbulent post-election
weeks, none of whom were harmed
or inconvenienced in any way.
Too often, Africa’s most pressing
problems have not received the attention
they deserve, and the African people
have suffered because of it. Newspapers
certainly have a responsibility to report
Kenya’s post-election
riots are known by many
newspaper readers, yet
few know that an African
child is orphaned by AIDS
every 14 seconds.
the news – but those reports should not
be limited to sensational, occasional
problems. If members of the media want
to highlight problems in Africa, then I
call upon them to report on the formidable
menaces that plague Africa every
day. As Nobel Peace Prize nominee
Bono writes in “The End of Poverty” by
Jeffrey D. Sachs, “Fifteen thousand
Africans die every day of preventable,
treatable diseases – AIDS, malaria, TB
– for lack of drugs that we take for granted...This
is Africa’s crisis.”
What can the average person do? Do
not give up on Kenya. Ever since
Kenya’s independence 40 years ago,
whenever the country has experienced
any sort of domestic incident, pundits
have predicted the demise of the country.
This, of course, has never been the case.
Kenya has prevailed as a model of stability
and democracy in the otherwise
volatile horn of Africa.
While a peaceful resolution to the disputed
election has now been reached, the
future remains bleak for those Africans
who fight daily battles with hunger,
poverty and disease.
In short, the real news story should be
how the world can help Kenya and all
African nations eradicate extreme poverty
and chronic hunger, and ensure universal
primary education and basic
health care for all. That is the true crisis
T
of Africa.
Dennis Pinto is the managing director of
Micato Safaris in New York and a
founder of Micato’s nonprofit arm,
AmericaShare
TRIBUNE MAGAZINE APRIL 2008
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