Marenlk’s Weblog

What does Valentine’s have to do with Kenya?

A lot, although if you can’t imagine it very well. Every Year, Valentine’s Day causes a real boom of the flower industry.  The German, for instance, spend about 3 billion euro on cut flowers per year, thereof 1 billion for roses. 

Kenya, with its big rose- and pink farms around the Naivasha Lake, supplies a quarter of the imported cut flowers on the European market.

At first glance, this doesn’t seem to be a problem but in respect to the aspect water, the whole thing has a flipside: Flowers consist two-thirds of the most important and valuable element water. To result from this, the amount of water an average flower exporter delivers to Europe per year could satisfy the needs of water of a city with 20000 (!) inhabitants! 

When draught dominates, the farms suck a determined quantity of water out of the lake. However, the sewage, polluted by phosphates and azotes, sets back and destroys the natural balance of the lake: Water hyacinths cover almost the whole water surface like carpets, whereupon the oxygen can’t reach the surface. In this way, the lake is killed slowly. 

Many different, partially forbidden, chemical substances which are used for fertilization or protection of the plants will burden the environment for years. Absolutely necessary in the flower industry: ecological and social sustainability !

(based on an article of the Süddeutsche Zeitung n. 38, 14-02-08)

Köhler in Africa

Merkel in Africa

Bush in Africa:

 –>

Remarkable statesmen:

Daniel arap Moi (*1924) :   

– was the President of Kenya between 1978 and 2002            

– to Kenyans known as “Nyaya” which means “footsteps” in Swahili        

– successor of the first Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta                                                                                                                                                                                                – he announced the Nyayo- philosophie: Peace, Love and Unity

– in the beginning of his presidency he was popular and got wide spread support, later many people were disappointed of him because he neglected his promises

-presidential style: tried to control everything from the centre

– he allegedly took 3 billion dollar out of the puplic purse for his own demand

Mwai Kibaki (*1931):   

– president President od Kenya (since 2002)

– previously Vice President (1978-1988), Minister for Finance (1978 – 1981), Minister for Home Affairs (1982 – 1988) and Minister for Health (1988 – 1991)

– is, like many most of the grand Kenyan politicians, a “Junker”

– presidential style different to Moi’s style: allows his Ministers to manage their departments and introduce much needed reforms

– but: alledgly, he didn’t want to give any public lead in the fight against corruption

development

Perennial, there are violent contentions with the Massai herdsman reclaiming the land of their ancestors and sometimes occupying it forcibly. But their demand has understable reasons, because every year, people starve in the outlying regions of Kenya.  The fight for the ressources intensifies because the desert is growing, likewise the population and the herds of cattle. Moreover, Many Kenyans have still the perception that the white man are in dept for the existing calamity.                                                                                                                                                   

Economical development: In the last decades, the GDP of Kenya had an above-average growth in comparison to other African states. Nevertheless, the living conditions didn’t improve relevantly, because the population growth was also above the average.

I made the decision quite fast concerning the question whether my topic should have to deal with “Africa” or “Globalization”. I chose “Africa” because I am very interested in the country’s landscape, its economy, politics and especially in its inhabitants and their culture.Well, globalization is an interesting and manifold topic, too but we handled it several times at school and although there are still many aspects you can follow up, I prefer approaching a topic which is, aside from general information, relatively unknown for me.  

Even though I determined that my Facharbeit shall, if it is possible, concentrate on a special person or a group of people from Africa, I started the brainstorming with a mind map concluding all aspects coming to my mind while thinking of the African continent.As usual, I firstly chose the main categories like for example politics, problems, people, and economy.   Then, I ranged in all the notions I had with regard to the topic Africa, which helped me to get a general idea of possible issues.  

Eventually, there were four points which I selected and marked as possible topics for my Facharbeit: Desmond Tutu, the Himba, medical care/medicines and corruption.Against my expectations, there were two points I was interested in, although they did not handle a special person/group.

 Nevertheless, I tend towards a Facharbeit dealing with Desmond Tutu, because he is a remarkable and also important person for the African continent or the topic “Himba”, because they are a fascinating tribe living apart from civilization.  

But in fact I am still very unsure concerning my choice. I hope this will change during the next weeks 😉