generalspeaking

Africa

 

What a tangled web of dysfunction and societal failure the continent of Africa represents.  From Sudan to Somalia, Zimbabwe to South Africa, Rwanda to Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt to Ethiopia, and reaching out from every direction within that great piece of real estate.  Tribal and clan violence, and nations at war with one another, all seeking to empower themselves to expand their territorial advantage through violent aggression.

Add the grossly inflammatory effect of a religion that exhorts its followers to jihad with mullahs glorifying martyrdom as an exalted honour pleasing Allah mightily and the formula for continual conflict has been joined.  Vast sums of treasury have been poured in to Africa from economically and technologocally advanced countries of the world, many of them former colonists of what was then called the Dark Continent, and little to show for it.

Humanitarian organizations associated with national governments along with NGOs have established themselves in perpetuity on that huge geography straining to bring aid and comfort, advanced medicines and knowledge to the suffering to lift them out of the chaos of slavery and child abduction, female bondage, disease and poverty, saving the lives of countless unfortunates through their efforts.

Humanity's industry to provide salvation for the unsalvagable, left to fend for themselves against unfortunate odds of survival have made immense strides.  The United Nations' statistics celebrate fewer children and their mothers dying before their time, and a gross alleviation of hunger and disease.  Despite those bitter, ongoing intra- and inter-nation conflicts.

The latest country to rise then fall again into the collapse of its hard-won gains is Mali where Libyan-serving mercenaries whose services were no longer needed brought advanced weaponry to rabid Islamists intent on claiming their own geographies for radical Islam and society-devastating Sharia.
Its military-appointed prime minister, anointed to the post because of international pressure, an astrophysicist by profession, unseated by yet another military coup.

Canada alone has provided the country with hundreds of millions of dollars in aid over the past four decades, and helped train Malian government soldiers. But not for the purpose of mounting coups to replace government.  The gains in bringing the country into the orbit of civilized and civil states have been eroded in one fell swoop; the north of the country claimed by Islamists and its capital held to military rule.

Across north Africa, the Sahel from Sudan in the east to Senegal in the west, Islamic extremism is growing in influence and malign presence.

Labels: Africa, Catastrophe, Chaos, Conflict, Corruption

posted by Pieface @ Friday, December 14, 2012