The Toxic Highway Experience

All this doom and gloom gets me down. Close your eyes and pretend you’re in Stockholm:

In case you’re wondering, that is Thomas Bangalter’s (of Daft Punk) remix of the Freeloaders’ “So Much Love to Give.”

Church leaders in Zimbabwe are now airing fears that the current unrest may devolve into outright genocide.  This is going from bad to worse to worse-than-worse-than-worse.  Unfortunately, the country is a ticking time bomb.

PS: there are still conflicting reports out there regarding the destination of the Chinese arms shipment (Angola or Beijing).

The Enough Project released a report today detailing how the genocide and humanitarian disaster inside Sudan’s Darfur region has spilled over onto neighboring Chad and has fueled a proxy-war between the two countries.

What we need to understand, however, is that the border war and tension between Khartoum and N’Djamena are not byproducts of the Darfur situation, they are partly to blame!  The Darfur conflict is a tribal and political, genetic (Arab v. black, clan v. clan), life-style (farmers v. nomads), land-rights and environmental nightmare which has roots tracing back generations of Sub-Saharan men and women.

But, forget all that.  Because the real crisis here is that innocent Darfuris are dying daily at the hands of the Sudanese Army and Sudanese backed militias.

Men are killed, women and girls are raped, boys are kidnapped and forced into slavery, crops are destroyed, livestock is stolen, clean drinking water contaminated and villages burned to the ground.  This is happening right now as I type this sentence.

And it isn’t going to stop unless the UN or the African Union or the EU or the US or all of the above step in and take action NOW.

The Darfur Genocide has been raging on for five years and shows no sign of ceasing.  At this moment: up to (some report more than) 500,000 people have been murdered and 2.5 million people displaced and remain in camps without adequate shelter, food, security or medical supplies.

Start emailing and cold-calling your elected officials and demand that the world put an end to this atrocity once and for all!

Well, nothing shocking here: If you put money in McCain’s pocket he will help you push through questionable real estate transactions. Just a little old-fashioned politics from an old-fashioned guy.

But, hey: you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. That’s okay, right?

WRONG! Not in public office it’s not!

When are Americans going to start demanding a little more fair and balanced approach to governance?

Been there.

This is great news for the citizens of Zimbabwe on whom the Chinese-made weapons would most assuredly have been turned. As (not so) widely reported in the media, the Chinese ship ladened with machine guns and rocket launchers was destined for tyrant-dictator Robert Mugabe’s Ministry of Defense. But, South Africa refused to unload the “death ship”, and it looks like Mozambique has refused as well. Now China is saying that the weapons may be headed home to China. Hopefully this means that none of those bullets will be piercing Zimbabwean skin.

CORRECTION:  AFP is reporting that the Chinese ship is headed for Angola.  Stay tuned.