Max Graham mixes up two Arusha Declarations

Max Graham, writing for The Independent, mixes up two Arusha Declarations; he erroneously cites the 1967 declaration instead of the 1961 declaration in his article.

The latter one was a political statement of intent; the earlier one - made at the eve of Tanganyika's independence - a declaration to protect and preserve the country's wildlife heritage for all humanity.

The Arusha Declaration is normally use to refer to the 1967 declaration, while the earlier one should have been referred to as the Arusha Declaration on Conservation.

A street in Arusha.

Both declarations are cited and mentioned regularly by those interested in conservation and politics. If you are not Tanzanian and have no interest in neither conservation nor politics you might have be excused for not having heard of Arusha. Wikipedia describes Arusha well.

Hard disk crash blues

I kept postponing backup of my data until it became too late. My hard disk crashed and I lost crucial data on my netbook.

The technician in Mwanza who replaced my disk was matter-of-fact when I asked him why disks crashed. He asked me how long I had used the laptop and I noted that he was calling it a laptop, instead of a what it is, a netbook. I assume "notebook" has not been readily accepted even by the experts.

I said: "three or four years." And he told me that is about the maximum life expectancy I should expect from my hard disc.

I plan to set up more regular data backups now.

The data loss includes a large selection of my digital photos and that means I cannot continue with posts on my 2013 in review series.