Intro and the
sad state of “democracy”
Time passes
too quickly, while I don’t get much done. I’ve got into the habit of
complaining about delayed blog posts, but this is worse than ever, much worse. On
25th–27th January this already by then horrible year 2025, a German delegation headed
by Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic
Cooperation and Development (BMZ) visited Loliondo, as always conjoined with
Frankfurt Zoological Society and Tanzania National Park Authority. Sadly, it
seems like due to disorganization and soft-mindedness, the delegation may not
have received the kind of pushback that’s needed. I stopped writing on the “How
Not to Write about Loliondo”-blog post that should have been published long ago
and instead started writing on a regular post about this German visit, but I’ve
been frustrated and discouraged by a strange silence, reminiscing of the
horrible 2020 that like this year 2025 was an election year, and the weeks, and
months, almost a year, keep passing, and issues – important issues - to write
about accumulate while information remain incomplete. In 2020, at least the 1,502
km had not been stolen, but how can local leaders, several of whom in 2022 spent
over five months abducted, and now with the illegal beacons standing there
screaming out the crime - while in NCA strangulation to force relocation intensified
with President Samia - again play the CCM charade in this sham election?
Then, in
early October I saw that Frankfurt Zoological Society had employed the human
rights criminal and former director of wildlife, Maurus Msuha, as their country
director, at the same time as intensifying their denials of involvement in the
crime that they have at times openly and shamelessly participated in.
In NCA
rangers keep demolishing houses and there’s hardly any reporting! They have
blocked watering of livestock in Ndutu and seized livestock in other places,
claiming some kind of unknown protected area. There’s a fear that the government
is moving forward with zoning, but such horror will be stopped!
Surprisingly,
the sitting MP, Emmanuel Oleshangai was axed from the CCM list of candidates,
even when he’s still popular. Shangai has several times spoken up boldly in
parliament, before he in late 2023 became quite useless, constantly praising
the president (still it didn’t help him …) Both Shangai’s critics and fans seem
convinced that speaking up is what got him axed. Strangely, the
candidate chosen by the CCM delegates – and approved by the party centrally – Yannick
Ndoinyo, is a known land rights activist, even an NGO person (the Tanzanian
government has always been paranoid about such people), and as councillor for
Ololosokwan 2010-2020 was among the most outspoken and serious (but not so much
since 2018 …) This seems (or seemed …) too good to be true, and I had some
worries since the candidate has been silent for some time, even actively
avoiding me. Now with this “election” his social media is not a pretty sight
(I’m too sad to go into details about this). And on 3rd October in a
speech in Karatu in front of the blood-soaked president he didn’t touch the
land issues with one word. Terrible memories linger of how the two MPs before
Oleshangai turned into traitors in shocking ways, and the same happened to a
couple of local leaders that I had to some extent trusted. Two of them have
passed away at a far too young age. Let’s hope (and work) for the best …
 |
| Yannick with the blood-dripping, anti-pastoralist dictator. |
In
mid-February the government attempted to issue village certificates by force, based
on the German-funded and facilitated draft Ngorongoro District Land Use
Framework Plan 2023-2043 to legitimize the brutal and massive land theft of
1,502 km2 for a “Pololeti Game Reserve” of 2022 – a plan that has
twice been rejected by the councillors at Ngorongoro District Council.
On 4th
March the most full-blown traitor in Loliondo, who has kept a low profile for
some years, made a re-appearance. There were then several other blasts from the
past, some very painful.
While
Tanzanians since the massive land theft and human rights violations of 2022
have a somewhat better understanding and certainly more concern about
the crimes committed against the Maasai of the old Loliondo Game Controlled
Area (and Ngorongoro District as a whole, albeit constantly mixing up the issues)
it’s not easy to make them understand that the Germans are as vile and even
more dangerous than the hunters from Dubai, organized by OBC. People in
Loliondo, however, know this very well indeed, even if some leaders are
currently choosing to pretend that they don’t.
The
“commissions” resulting (a disappointing result) from the almost unreal mass
protests in NCA in August 2024 toured irrelevant people and Loliondo that was
to be included, then not included, was finally indeed included. Details have
not been shared. As the general bogus “elections” near, no resulting reports of
the commissions have been made public. On 2nd September, the new Arusha RC Makalla on a
visit to Ngorongoro said that the results of the president's commissions will
be presented after the general elections. Though the president has made
statements as if her same old evil plans for Ngorongoro are on (see below).
It’s been a year since the Maasai of Ngorongoro Division, in tens of thousands,
covered entire hills in red and blue, blocked tourist vehicles, and indeed managed
to rattle the government. In Ndutu rangers are blocking livestock from accessing
water, trying to establish a no-go zone, and in several places they have demolished
people’s houses! How could so little come out of this?
Violence and abductions of Tanzanian opposition politicians and activists continue and accelerating
– many are still forcedly disappeared, at unknown location, dead or alive. The
opposition leader, the steadfast friend of the Maasai, Tundu Lissu, is
detained, charged with demented “treason” accusations that carry capital
punishment, and even solidarity trial observers from Kenya and Uganda have been
sexually tortured before dumped at their respective borders. The hearings, in
the well-known malicious way, kept getting postponed for months, and the
judiciary is anything but independent. Tanzania's main opposition party CHADEMA has been disqualified from competing in the election and the presidential candidate of the second biggest party has been disqualified as well.
Besides
sadness and discouragement, my uselessness may have medical reasons. Hypothyroidism
could be causing it but is under treatment. I hope to soon be back to more
frequent blogging. The discouragement is never caused by nasty comments from
anti-Maasai elements (instead those motivate me), but by the silence by those
who should be speaking up and those who should be telling me what’s going on. Then
it’s hard to concentrate when the world watches on – and many countries, even
mine, are aiding and abetting – when Israel is committing genocide against the
Palestinians.
Now it’s
almost five years since Salula Ngorisiolo was killed when NCAA rangers and
police opened fire at unarmed voters who protested election fraud at Oloirobi
polling station, election day 2020.
In this blog
post:
Intro
and the sad state of “democracy”
Shomo
sere, Raila – remembering 2017
The now very
old German visit
Attempt at
forced German-funded village land use plans
Loliondo
removed from the presidential commissions, and then again included
Necessary
grazing on land that’s been stolen
Most
unpleasant blasts from the past
In court
Briefly about
the horrible Germans and the land
FZS recruits
human rights criminal as country director
In the Shadow
of the Serengeti film
A year after
epic protests in Ngorongoro division and what’s the result?
-President’s
continued threats
-NCAA
attempts at establishing a no-go zone in Ndutu
-UNESCO
-Leading to
the protests
-Almost no
fulfilment of promises
Carbon
credits NOT in Ngorongoro
-Game reserve
threat
-Best of “community-based”
-Blue Carbon
from Dubai disappeared?
