A sad story from the Aug 8 2001 International Herald Tribune. Three years after a terrorist bomb in the US embassy killed 219 people, a memorial park has been opened adjacent to the site of the demolished embassy buildings. Everyone applauds the idea, but some local people have protested at the decision of the park trustees to charge admission fees to pay for park upkeep. The fee is only 25 cents but the residents are complaining. "Nearby Uhuru park is free. Why should we pay for this one?"

The answer should be obvious. When the author worked in Kenya in the early 1980s Uhuru Park was neglected and littered. No sane person entered it after dusk. Since then it has become even more dangerous, and aside from a few dusty shrubs is an environmental desert.

Here’s an iGreen prediction. So long as the fees are retained, a couple of years from now, the memorial park will be safer, cleaner and have much more wildlife than Uhuru. We’ll be keeping an eye on developments and reporting back.