MISCELLANY

NEW VOLUNTEERS
A further group of 27 British VSO volunteers arrived in Tanzania in August bringing the total number to 100 in the country. They included teachers, agricultural specialists, social workers, pharmacists, technicians, accountants and educators.

THE WORLD’S SHORTEST WAR
The Daily News reported on August 27 about a photographic exhibition being put on by the Zanzibar Department of Archaeology to mark the British bombardment of Zanzibar in what was described as ‘the world’s shortest war’ – two and a half hours – a century ago. The war involved the bombardment of Sultan Khalid’s Palace (now known as the House of Wonders) to force him to hand over his powers to a Sultan of Britain’s choice. Museums Curator Professor Abdul Shariff said that from the date of the protectorate in 1890 the British were the actual rulers of Zanzibar and that the Arab Sultans were mere figureheads – Daily News

“AT THE TOP OF OUR LIST”
A year after the UN’s fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, Susan Kindervatter of the non-profit ‘Inter Action Coalition’ said on August 22 that Tanzania was clearly in the running for a gold medal as far as implementation of the resolutions of the conference was concerned. Tanzania had presented one of the most comprehensive lists of commitments and was already taking action to increase the number of women in governmental decision-making positions to a minimum of 30% by the year 2,000 she said. The other front runners were the Philippines and Uganda – The Express, Dar es salaam.

THE END OF THE LITTLE THEATRE
The celebrated Dar es Salaam ‘Little Theatre’ which has seen many fine performances over several decades, will shortly be converted into an apartment hotel with 48 flats, swimming pool, bar and restaurant and conference facilities. Investors include players and actors of the theatre – Business Times.

WHICH ARE THE HISTORIC BUILDINGS?
In the last issue of TA there was an article headed ‘The Demolition of Dar’. On September 15 a Mr Mchume wrote to the Daily News on the same subject. He deplored the planned transformation of Dar es Salaam into a concrete jungle and listed the buildings he thought should be preserved. These included the Cosy Cafe, The White Fathers building, St. Joseph’s Cathedral, the Arab Mosque, the British Council Library, Ocean Road Hospital, the Forodhani Hotel, the Lutheran Church and the Botanic Gardens. There were many others he said.

A TERRIBLE YEAR

Anne Outwater writing in the Daily News (October 19) reported that for the chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream National Park 1996 had been a terrible year. Following cold and rainy weather in March many chimps had come down with serious respiratory infections and one third of the population of about 30 were reported either dead or missing. The regional veterinarian had recommended daily antibiotic treatment but getting the chimps to take the pills proved difficult. So each pill was divided into six or seven bananas and “luckily, chimps never get tired of bananas”.

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