Caring about Africa
- Primula Baggins
- Living in hope
- Posts: 40005
- Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2005 1:43 am
- Location: Sailing the luminiferous aether
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I'm glad that the election turned out well in Guinea. I hope the situation can remain stable there.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
- Túrin Turambar
- Posts: 6207
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
- Túrin Turambar
- Posts: 6207
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
To no-one's great surprise, South Sudan has apparently voted for independence. What will the new nation be called? How will it make use of its oil reserves? Will it turn out O.K., or end up as another failed state?
The situation isn't that promising, I have to say. Less than 10% of South Sudanese have access to running water, less than 5% finish primary school, and some 1 in 10 die in infancy. But we'll see.
The situation isn't that promising, I have to say. Less than 10% of South Sudanese have access to running water, less than 5% finish primary school, and some 1 in 10 die in infancy. But we'll see.
- BrianIsSmilingAtYou
- Posts: 1233
- Joined: Wed Dec 14, 2005 6:01 am
- Location: Philadelphia
These things are true whether it is a separate state or the part of a larger state.Lord_Morningstar wrote:The situation isn't that promising, I have to say. Less than 10% of South Sudanese have access to running water, less than 5% finish primary school, and some 1 in 10 die in infancy. But we'll see.
If becoming a separate state eliminates some of the political problems that have existed, then they may be able to focus on these other more fundamental issues.
BrianIs AtYou
All of my nieces and nephews at my godson/nephew Nicholas's Medical School graduation. Now a neurosurgical resident at University of Arizona, Tucson.
- Túrin Turambar
- Posts: 6207
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Two news items:
1) The Ivory Coast has been overshadowed by the Middle East of late, and the news from the country is pretty depressing anyway. Government forces loyal to President Gbagbo have started shooting pro-Ouattara demonstrators.
2) Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is expected to be re-elected. He has been in power twenty-five years, most of which has been dominated by a bloody civil war in the north of the country. He remains deeply unpopular there, where he is widely-accused of having not done enough to protect the civilian population from abuses by rebel forces, but nonetheless seems popular in the rest of Uganda.
1) The Ivory Coast has been overshadowed by the Middle East of late, and the news from the country is pretty depressing anyway. Government forces loyal to President Gbagbo have started shooting pro-Ouattara demonstrators.
2) Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is expected to be re-elected. He has been in power twenty-five years, most of which has been dominated by a bloody civil war in the north of the country. He remains deeply unpopular there, where he is widely-accused of having not done enough to protect the civilian population from abuses by rebel forces, but nonetheless seems popular in the rest of Uganda.
- Túrin Turambar
- Posts: 6207
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
For those who haven't been following the Ivory Coast situation, it looks like endgame for Laurent Gbagbo. Forces loyal to Alisan Outtara now control most of the country, and yesterday French and U.N. forces intervened in favour of the Outtara side. Obviously there's no way that they can fail to be accused of supporting the side the U.N. considers legitimate only when it looked like they were going to win anyway, but the practical difficulties with intervention were always very high. At any rate, Sarkozy seems to have been flexing his muscles in Africa a lot lately.
Ref Sarkozy
standard game of failing right wing politicians to distract attention is to get involved in armed conflict = he thinks it will bring the country behind him.
standard game of failing right wing politicians to distract attention is to get involved in armed conflict = he thinks it will bring the country behind him.
Since 1410 most Welsh people most of the time have abandoned any idea of independence as unthinkable. But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been "out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs." For the Welsh mind is still haunted by it's lightning-flash vision of a people that was free.
Gwyn A. Williams,
Gwyn A. Williams,
- Túrin Turambar
- Posts: 6207
- Joined: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:37 am
- Location: Melbourne, Victoria
Laurent Gbagbo has been captured and is now under U.N. guard. It remains to be seen whether this is the end of the whole affair.
- Voronwë the Faithful
- At the intersection of here and now
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It's likely to be the end in terms of Gbagbo leaving power. But, just like in Guinea (though fortunately there the change went more peacefully), it is just the beginning in terms of the country recovering from years of corruption and economic stagnation.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."