Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Africa, courtesy of AfricaPundit.
TOP TOPICS
- The mainstream media isn't paying much attention to the increasingly serious (and increasingly brutal) war in western Sudan, but the blogosphere is beginning to take notice. See below for more. (Via Instapundit.)
- South Africa scores a goooooooal! by winning its bid to host the 2010 World Cup--the first in Africa.
- Good news: Abiola discusses Uganda's progress in combatting AIDS.
Other Topics Today Include: More Sudan links; African Solidarity Watch; Sharia in Nigeria; Qaddafi's continuing tyranny; Zimbabwean oppostition in disarray; Mugabe's refusual of food aid; Comrade Bob retiring?; Annuak genocide watch.
Sudan
- Instapundit has more about the war in western Sudan here.
- Luckily, Sudan's genocidal tendencies have not prevented it from maintaining its seat on the UN Human Rights Commission...all thanks to African Solidarity.
- And AfricaBlog mentions that USAID has proposed a $34 million/5 year plan to improve water, sanitation and health care in southern Sudan.
Nigeria
- Zamfara state (in northern Nigeria) has passed a second installment of Sharia laws, allowing the government to shut down all "unauthorized" places of worship, i.e., churches. Abiola has more here
- The ensuing violence has left hundreds--Muslims and Christians--dead, but Abiola says to resist the temptation to use the "cycle of violence" cliche.
Libya
- Purported prodigal-returned-home Qaddafi thumbs his nose at the west by sentencing Bulgarian health care workers to death, supposedly for spreading AIDS.
- Meanwhile, Abiola notices that even the NY Times is being critical of Europe's rush to appease the tyrants of Tripoli.
Zimbabwe
- Bad news for Zimbabwean opposition: Brian Mangwende of the Financial Gazette sees the MDC "shooting itself in the foot" due to internal squabbles.
- Meanwhile, AfricaBlog notices that Robert Mugabe is planning to refuse international food aid--a necessity for Zimbabwe since the government-aided collapse of its commercial farming sector. The refusal of food aid should be an effective way to starve Zimbabweans, preferably opposition supporters.
- And daudi notes that Robert Mugabe now says he wants to retire. I'll believe it when I see it.
Finally
- Africa is a continent of undercovered stories. I try to mention as many as I can, but one that I've missed is Ethiopia's ongoing war against the Annuak people in western Sudan. Now there's a blog about it... so no more excuses for being uninformed.
Additional on the war in western Sudan in the current Economist, a good-sized feature story; online link at
http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2668200
hmmm.... what do all these places have in common?
Muslims attacking Christians, Anamists, and any religion that is not Islam. Another common thing is Slavery. But not just Slavery. Genocide is also happening to people that refuse to change their religion to [fill in the blank]. A group that is theocratic elitist are the ones committing these crimes against humanity. this has also been going on for years and nary a word from the useless UN. In my humble opinion in the near future we will have to open up another front in africa in our war on the Global Jihad.
You might want to read the Economist article.
"It is a little more complicated than that. Sudan, Africa's largest country, is the scene of two separate but related civil wars. One, between north and south, pits the Arab, Islamist government against rebels who are mostly black African and non-Muslim. This war has been raging intermittently for half a century, but has come tantalisingly close to resolution in the past year: partly because of foreign pressure, especially from America, and partly because both sides, exhausted, wish to stop fighting and share Sudan's new-found oil wealth.
The other war, between the government and two rebel groups in Darfur, pits Muslim against Muslim. The divide in Darfur is ethnic, between Arabs and black Africans. This war flared up only last year. It was seen at first as a mere sideshow, but is now too vast and vile to be ignored. " -- Ibid.
And as you'll see if you follow the Annuak link, AfricaPundit botched the reference:
"...countless eyewitnesses have reported that the Ethiopian military has committed mass murder and rape against unarmed civilians of the Anuak tribe in Western ETHIOPIA. Between 5,000 and 9,000 Anuak to have fled to refugee camps in Sudan..."
...which makes a lot more sense, since Ethiopian troops would have to march 600 miles across a hostile country, through two ongoing civil wars, in order to manhandle people in western Sudan.
The linked site lists no sectarian reason for this campaign on the part of the predominantly Christian Ethiopian government. There is no reference to the religious identification of the Anuak tribe. The character of this strife may be tribal/ethnic rather than religious or political.
Just to make this point clear: Religious, ethnic and racial bigotry, and violence sparked by such bigotries, knows no boundaries. Anyone can indulge in such behavior; at one time or another, most religious/ethnic/racial groups have done so.
Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.
You know, this thing about linking to mainstream media stories and then decrying the mainstream media's lack of coverage of said stories strikes me as an amazing exercise in self-delusion.
Well, yes, and the Economist did play up the story. Although, in a US media context, Darfur isn't getting much attention; the Economist is not "mainstream" in the sense that it doesn't get read on Main Street as much, say, as Newsweek. Or People.
OK, how about the NY Times?