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Outrage in East Africa Over Renewed Travel Advisories
Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Outrage in East Africa Over Renewed Travel Advisories
There is anger and growing outrage about a new US travel advisory, reportedly valid until March 2004, putting East Africa again on the 'don't go' list. Kenya finds itself on a list of 27 countries with the likes of Iraq, Liberia, Somalia, for which East Africans have no understanding at all. This comes hot on the heels of US prosecutors doing legal somersaults over the Moussaoui Sept. 11 case before a US court, and word coming from the Uganda government that no troops be deployed in Iraq. Speculation is rife in the local media over what exactly prompted the renewed advisory and if again the element of retaliation is coming into play, after East Africa joined forces with the developing countries in the recent Cancun World Trade talks and stood up to US interests over excessive farm subsidies, which push African farmers out of business. For certain this renewed negative and prohibitive advisory is again a slap in our faces and not considered an act of friendship from the self-professed 'friends' in the US Administration. An estimated 90.000 jobs may be shed in East Africa as a result of prohibitive travel advisories and flight bans and the net result will be that there will be yet more dependence on aid rather than building economies by free trade and travel. One contributor to a Kenyan newspaper column referred to this impact as 'collateral damage' - a callous term for innocent victims of super power grandstanding.
From: eTurbo News (www.eturbonews.com) September 29, 2003
