The Horn of Africa
I am reading some news today at the Internet…. Same old, same old news. The news that caught my attention was the war on the “horn of Africa” (now where is that? It’s on the east side of the black continent bellow the Red Sea and Saudi Arabia. If you don’t know it study geography dimwit!). The very poor nation of Ethiopia and Somalia is in a war. When I say poor they are more poorer than us, imagine that….. poorer than us. What seems to be the reason for this? Ethiopia’s sudden occupation of Somalia was a reaction to the domination of Islamic fundamentalist groups (some says that are being backed by Al Queda), which in Ethiopia’s opinion can be a major factor on the region’s political stability. Specially concerning Ethiopia is a Christian Nation landlocked in a Muslim region.
If you are not familiar with the picture of the Somalian situation all you have to do is go back to the Ridley Scott’s film “Black Hawk Down” (now to the kids there who are “illiterate” to what matter most, there is a reality on that film). The movie tackled the dominance of the warlords on the governance of Somalia led by Osman Hassan Ali Atto, if you remember he was the one captured by the US troops in the early part of the movie. Now, not shown at the movie was what happened after. After the United Nation troops led by the United States vacated Somalia it was then ruled by Islamic fundamentalist troops. When you talk of Islamic fundamentalist states you don’t talk about Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, or Saudi Arabia. You talked about Iran (but by fundamentalist standards they are moderate), Afghanistan-taliban, Saddam’s Iraq (they are still now, even with the US backed government), Pakistan (they wont admit it but they act like one). Imagine Mindanao govern by the Abu-Sayaf. That’s is their current picture. And with this threat the Christian Nation of Ethiopia has no resort but to back a Somalian government in opposed to the Islamic fundamentalists.
Now, what would be the affect of this matter to us? How would this thing affect our economy? To the least, our holiday? The answer is, it won’t…. specially to the uninformed people who don’t bother watch or surf the news. If you would be familiar with the black continent’s status to the developed nations especially with dubya’s current US government they are not even in the list. The dominance of poverty, corruption, and dictators are so dominant in the African continent. But we don’t hear any US armies invading this countries to the cause of freedom and democracy as they had in Iraq or Afghanistan. Why? Well when you look back at the reason why they invade Iraq its all about oil. Afghanistan is about sentimentality to 9-11. But why not Africa? They do need a good shaping up in the name of democracy also right? Well the US of A wont for some very obvious reason…. They don’t have oil or resources the US needed, unless they reestablish slavery (yeah they have sources of oil though not yet fully developed, they are in the region near the mid-east), and supporting either Somalia or Ethiopia is not really very profitable. Supporting either the 2 of this country would be a charity case for American war business, and charity is one thing they don’t have. Somalia gets its arm on the black market and Ethiopia’s army would make the Philippine army very good-looking and well equipped. In my opinion on why the UN cares about this 2 African nation is for the reason that Koffi Annan is African. Put Michael Bolton (US ambassador to the UN) or Donald Rumsfeld at the helm of the UN I doubt there would be any priority for the continent.
Some years ago I was able to watch some news documentary about Somalia. People on the refugees are forced to eat grass (my reaction then was “they look like cows or ghiraffes while eating”) and believe it or not the soil itself. All of this was because the warlords blocked and confiscated (it’s a diplomatic term) the UN food supply that is supposed to be for the refugees. I remember back at the time of the Pinatubo eruptions my mom as a social worker handle an evacuation center. I remember she told us that she people there would shout and be angry to her for serving rice and “mongo”. This tells a lot how privilege we are to them. To many to us here this side of the equator the situation in Ethiopia and Somalia is just some moving pictures on the news on the TV, another web news topic. But in reality, many miles away on where you are sitting and reading my blog, there are real people that is bound to suffer another of war’s aftermath.
If you are not familiar with the picture of the Somalian situation all you have to do is go back to the Ridley Scott’s film “Black Hawk Down” (now to the kids there who are “illiterate” to what matter most, there is a reality on that film). The movie tackled the dominance of the warlords on the governance of Somalia led by Osman Hassan Ali Atto, if you remember he was the one captured by the US troops in the early part of the movie. Now, not shown at the movie was what happened after. After the United Nation troops led by the United States vacated Somalia it was then ruled by Islamic fundamentalist troops. When you talk of Islamic fundamentalist states you don’t talk about Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, or Saudi Arabia. You talked about Iran (but by fundamentalist standards they are moderate), Afghanistan-taliban, Saddam’s Iraq (they are still now, even with the US backed government), Pakistan (they wont admit it but they act like one). Imagine Mindanao govern by the Abu-Sayaf. That’s is their current picture. And with this threat the Christian Nation of Ethiopia has no resort but to back a Somalian government in opposed to the Islamic fundamentalists.
Now, what would be the affect of this matter to us? How would this thing affect our economy? To the least, our holiday? The answer is, it won’t…. specially to the uninformed people who don’t bother watch or surf the news. If you would be familiar with the black continent’s status to the developed nations especially with dubya’s current US government they are not even in the list. The dominance of poverty, corruption, and dictators are so dominant in the African continent. But we don’t hear any US armies invading this countries to the cause of freedom and democracy as they had in Iraq or Afghanistan. Why? Well when you look back at the reason why they invade Iraq its all about oil. Afghanistan is about sentimentality to 9-11. But why not Africa? They do need a good shaping up in the name of democracy also right? Well the US of A wont for some very obvious reason…. They don’t have oil or resources the US needed, unless they reestablish slavery (yeah they have sources of oil though not yet fully developed, they are in the region near the mid-east), and supporting either Somalia or Ethiopia is not really very profitable. Supporting either the 2 of this country would be a charity case for American war business, and charity is one thing they don’t have. Somalia gets its arm on the black market and Ethiopia’s army would make the Philippine army very good-looking and well equipped. In my opinion on why the UN cares about this 2 African nation is for the reason that Koffi Annan is African. Put Michael Bolton (US ambassador to the UN) or Donald Rumsfeld at the helm of the UN I doubt there would be any priority for the continent.
Some years ago I was able to watch some news documentary about Somalia. People on the refugees are forced to eat grass (my reaction then was “they look like cows or ghiraffes while eating”) and believe it or not the soil itself. All of this was because the warlords blocked and confiscated (it’s a diplomatic term) the UN food supply that is supposed to be for the refugees. I remember back at the time of the Pinatubo eruptions my mom as a social worker handle an evacuation center. I remember she told us that she people there would shout and be angry to her for serving rice and “mongo”. This tells a lot how privilege we are to them. To many to us here this side of the equator the situation in Ethiopia and Somalia is just some moving pictures on the news on the TV, another web news topic. But in reality, many miles away on where you are sitting and reading my blog, there are real people that is bound to suffer another of war’s aftermath.
posted by Eric | 11:11 AM
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