With all the bad news associated with Africa, it is refreshing to read about the successes. Tanzania is a haven of co-existence between two peoples joined in unification in 1964, Tanzanian mainlanders, who are primarily Christian, and the Zanzibaris, who are 98 percent Muslim. Terry Mosher writes in the Montreal Gazette of the “lovely, helpful people” just south of the equator.
Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it got a boost yesterday from the United Arab Emirates who made a large donation out of concern for the country’s food shortages wrought by draught, the Tanzanian IPP Media reports.
While the people are suffering from poverty and hunger, the government does not lose sight of the future.
Realizing that the health of its ecosystem is critical to their fortunes as a country, Tanzania used financial assistance from the World Bank to transfer seventy-two Kihansi spray toads to US zoos in 2002 following fears that they were on their way to extinction.
After remarkable success in the well-managed American zoos, where the toads multiplied by 200 percent, the exiled amphibians are on their way home.
“While many species of flora and fauna may appear to have no consumptive value today for humanity, the same species may prove to be extremely useful in future.”