From A to T, dear readers.
"Youths riot in Algiers over high food costs" by Associated Press / January 7, 2011
ALGIERS — Riots over rising food prices and chronic unemployment spiraled out from Algeria’s capital yesterday, with youths torching government buildings and shouting, “Bring us sugar!’’
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Wednesday’s violence started after evening Muslim prayers. It came after price hikes for milk, sugar, and flour in recent days, and amid simmering frustration that Algeria’s abundant gas and oil resources have not translated into broader prosperity.
It's the same everywhere, isn't it?
Youths resumed their outbursts yesterday afternoon.
Those kids!
Violence erupted across town in the El Harrach neighborhood, where youths set tires on fire and threw stones at police. Some officers were seen rounding up suspected troublemakers.
In the suburb of Rouiba, youths set fire to tires and danced around them, chanting, “Bring us sugar!’’ Others tore down street signs and smashed street lights with iron bars. In the suburb of Bordj El Bahri east of Algiers, rioters set fire to a post office. In nearby Dergana, youths set a town hall alight.
The agenda-pushing and obfuscating media's use of the word youths makes me think it is everybody. But blame the kids!
The violence led to blocked roads and kept schoolchildren and workers from getting home. Parents were heard talking to their children on cellphones, urging them to seek safety.
Neighboring Tunisia has also seen violent protests in recent weeks over unemployment, leading to three deaths.
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Speak of the devils:
"Rioting in Tunisia claims more lives" by Associated Press / January 10, 2011
TUNIS, Tunisia — At least 11 people have died in clashes with security forces in new rioting in Tunisia, where unrest is in its fourth week, local union officials said yesterday....
Rioting to protest joblessness and other social ills has scarred numerous cities across this tiny country since Dec. 17, after a man with a university degree set himself on fire when police confiscated his fruits and vegetables for selling without a permit.
Mobs have since attacked public buildings and the local office of the party of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali....
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"Ivory Coast victor calls for leader’s forceful exit" by Rukmimi Callimachi, Associated Press / January 7, 2011
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast’s presidential election is asking for special forces to launch a commando operation to remove the country’s sitting president who has refused to cede power....
Related: Lathering Up the Ivory Coast For Invasion
While the West African states group has threatened military action against Gbagbo, African leaders in recent days have shied away from making a commitment, fearing mass casualties and a possible return to civil war in the nation that was divided by such bloodshed after a one-year conflict in 2003.
I'm always happy when military action is shied away from.
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"The court’s announcement yesterday appeared to send a signal that such electoral violations would not be tolerated and could incur broader international consequences....
Invasion on!
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"Lead poisoning plagues Nigerian villages" by Associated Press / January 8, 2011
LAGOS, Nigeria — A lead poisoning outbreak that has killed more than 400 children in the rural farmlands of northern Nigeria remains “a neglected, underfunded emergency,’’ the United Nations warned yesterday, saying many villages remain coated with the deadly metal....
The U.N. is a failure.
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: Soccer Matches
Sunday Soccer Preview
No goal for Nigeria.
The report released yesterday also said that one of the two villages already decontaminated now shows new traces of lead and mercury — a sign the desperately poor in the remote area have again begun mining and processing the gold ore with lead deposits that started the crisis.
With all that oil wealth?
“Zamfara state is seeing the health and well-being of its children put in grave danger by this acute and ongoing disaster,’’ the report warned. “More rapid and coordinated intervention is imperative. . . . Hundreds have been lost already, and thousands more are at risk.’’
And yet it is a one-day wonder in my newspaper -- on a Slow Saturday, no less.
The existence of gold deposits in this area along the border with Niger had been long known. But it wasn’t until gold prices soared in recent years that villagers began heading into the bush to search for it. Soon the herdsmen and farmers could sell gold for more than $23 a gram — a huge sum in a country where most people live on less than $2 a day.
However, the ore brought back to the villages in Zamfara early this year contained extremely high levels of lead. Fathers carried the precious rocks home to store inside their mud-walled compounds. Wives often broke the rocks and ground them, sending dust and flakes into the villages’ communal areas.
It wasn’t until 160 children died and others went blind and deaf that authorities realized the region faced a lead poisoning outbreak. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the crisis “unprecedented.’’ An international team of doctors and hazardous waste experts arrived in Zamfara in mid-May to clean the region, but seasonal rains halted their work.
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"11 dead in latest violence in central Nigeria" by Ahmed Saka, Associated Press / January 8, 2011
JOS, Nigeria—Christian youths attacked a car full of Muslims returning from a wedding in central Nigeria, killing seven people inside the vehicle and sparking retaliatory violence that left one other person dead, an official said Saturday.
Another three people were killed and several others were wounded Saturday in Jos, when a meeting of a political party aligned with former military dictator Muhammadu Buhari collapsed into violence, witnesses said.
It was the latest unrest in a fertile region that saw more than 500 people killed last year in massacres pitting Christians against Muslims.
Yeah, and WHO WOULD WANT TO DO THAT, huh?
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Related: All Religion is Local in Nigeria
Yeah, turns out is ALL ABOUT LAND -- and doesn't that SOUND FAMILIAR, huh?
Also see: Court warns Ugandan media on outing gays
Africa’s gays facing more persecution
Maybe it is because of the vote:
"Sudan leader vows support for south; Bashir seeking cooperation in event of secession" by Maggie Fick, Associated Press / January 5, 2010
JUBA, Sudan — The need to maintain strong economic ties with the south if it becomes a new nation as expected may be why President Omar al-Bashir is playing nice....
I'm sick of media insults.
Analysts said his remarks reflected a growing realization that the Sudanese government, also battling insurgencies in the east and west, could not delay the weeklong referendum on independence in the south that starts Sunday. They also illustrate the economic co-dependence between the oil-rich south and the north, where oil pipelines run to the sea.
The mainly Christian south is widely expected to vote for secession from the mainly Muslim north. Southern Sudanese are still haunted by the war that left 2 million people dead. Northern tribes supported by the government launched slave raids into the south, and the military bombed villages built of grass and sticks....
“The writing is on the wall,’’ said Jon Temin, a Sudan specialist at the United States Institute of Peace. “The referendum is going to happen, and the international community is putting its support behind it. This is increasingly apparent to Khartoum and that does affect their behavior.’’
Activists have been warning that the unstable region, still populated by unpredictable militias, risks a return to violence. But Bashir’s remarks seemed designed to allay those fears and help ensure a continuous flow of southern oil through the pipelines of the north....
Sudan still faces rebellions in all of its other outlying regions, a consequence of government policies that concentrate wealth in the hands of a narrow Islamist elite while leaving most of the country impoverished.
As opposed to the narrow Zionist/Globalist elite of AmeriKa that have taken such good care of us.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, for alleged war crimes in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. UN officials say the war in Darfur has claimed at least 300,000 lives since it began in 2003 through violence, disease, and displacement. Bashir and two other men linked to his government have refused to appear before the court or recognize its jurisdiction.
When the U.N hauls Bush, Bliar, and the coterie of Israeli war criminals in fron of their bar then I will listen.
“Even if [Bashir] says he will support us from the south, we don’t need his support. If he is in a position to support us, then why did he not support us before, during these 21 years of war?’’ asked Steven Valentino, 23.
Southerners say the Khartoum-based government repeatedly sought to delay the vote, withholding funding and citing logistical difficulties and unresolved disputes. Khartoum obstructed a census held in 2008 by refusing to share data with the south and even launched several bombing raids in southern territory in early December.
But Bashir was all smiles as he walked on a red carpet after landing in Juba. A marching band played and an honor guard of troops stood at attention as Salva Kiir, a former rebel who is president of Southern Sudan, welcomed him. The two men held closed-door discussions on the status of the disputed region of Abyei and postreferendum relations.
Even if the south votes to secede, the two nations will remain locked in economic dependency. The south cannot export its oil resources without using a pipeline that runs through northern territory. And the pipeline is useless for the north unless it is fed with southern oil. Sudan is sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest oil producer....
At bottom of it all is oil.
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"Southern Sudan sees dream of independence near reality; After decades of war, it’s eager for secession vote" by Jeffrey Gettleman, New York Times / January 9, 2011
JUBA, Sudan — The US government pushed the northern and southern Sudanese to sign a peace treaty in 2005 that set the vote in motion.
A few months ago, US officials voiced concern that Sudan could revert to civil war if the referendum was mishandled. But yesterday, Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, who is in Sudan to monitor the election, said those risks had been significantly reduced.
Still, the proud, new African country will step onto the world stage with shaky legs. As it stands now, southern Sudan is one of the poorest places on earth. Decades of civil war and marginalization have left the economy so crushed that just about everything is imported, down to eggs.
And weapons.
According to Oxfam, a teenage girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than finishing elementary school.
At least wars and banks are well taken care of in this world.
Tens of thousands have flocked back to take part in the referendum, and some analysts, possibly reinforcing stereotypes of Africa as always teetering on the edge, warn that south Sudan could be the next Somalia, awash in violence.
Kerry says no.
Two rebel groups clashed with the southern Sudan army late Friday and yesterday in an apparent effort to disrupt the vote, leaving at least nine dead, the Associated Press reported.
Already, aid agencies are sounding the alarm about a lack of food, water, health care, and sanitation. “We have an unfolding humanitarian crisis, layered on top of an existing and forsaken one,’’ said the International Rescue Committee, an American aid organization that works in Sudan.
But the POLITICS is the THING!
But this is a land of shared sacrifice, and that may be a cohesive force that helps hold southern Sudan together. After all the years of guerrilla warfare and hardship, oppression, and persecution at the hands of the Arabs who rule Sudan, people here are deeply invested in holding a peaceful referendum and building the world’s newest nation....
So WHEN does Kashmir get THEIR VOTE?!
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Oh, it was a New York Times piece. That explains the anti-Arab slant.
"Much of Kerry’s efforts in Sudan have centered on presenting the Obama administration’s offer of incentives to Arab leaders of the north, including removal from the state sponsors of terrorism list, to encourage them to accept the loss of a third of their territory and a significant portion of their oil. Yesterday, Kerry seemed optimistic that the possibility of renewed war had been averted.
I'm ALWAYS GLAD when WAR is AVERTED!
Kerry stopped to have dinner with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, on his way back to Washington.
Had to check in with his master.
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Related: Southern Sudan votes on split
Locally and globally, Sudanese vote on independence
Harvard team to analyze Sudan satellite images
Bombings in Sudan violated peace deal
Yeah, but they were our guys so no one is making a big deal.
Also see: Splitting Up Sudan
Looks like the globalists will have an official weapons smuggling base in the not-too-distant future.
No wonder Africa is a mess.
"Somali government braces for more attacks after two militant groups merge" by Associated Press / December 21, 2010
NAIROBI — Somalia’s weak, UN-backed government could face an increase in attacks from Islamist insurgents after the two largest groups dropped their running feud and merged, analysts and fighters said yesterday....
Translation: the western intelligence operations were consolidated.
Since its establishment in 2007, Al Shabab has sought to defeat any Islamist rival.
Related: "Al-CIA-Duh" School in Somalia
The group increased attacks on Hizbul Islam in recent months and overtook several towns its rival had once controlled, military momentum that apparently hastened the merger....
Then they "defeated" 'em, huh?
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"Expatriates return to lead Somalia; Many brave risks to boost fragile government" by Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post / December 25, 2010
MOGADISHU, Somalia — In recent months, a considerable number of Americans have joined or tried to join Somalia’s radical al-Shabab militia, raising concerns among US officials that they could one day pose a threat to the United States.
Who trained them again?
But Americans of Somali descent have also returned to their motherland to help prevent al-Shabab from gaining power. They are part of a large community of Somali expatriates who have arrived here from all over the world to join Somalia’s fragile transitional government despite immense risks....
Related: Skipping Through Somalia: The Mayor of Mogadishu
Somalia’s experience is similar to that of other violence-torn nations, from Afghanistan to Iraq to Liberia, where returning immigrants have entered politics and built businesses, providing linchpins amid war and instability. These immigrants remained intimately connected to their homelands via the Internet and satellite television.
Yeah, sometime the Internet is a good thing.
Abdi Rashid Sheik Farah, 45, fled Somalia in 1991, following the collapse of the Siad Barre regime. He ended up in McLean, Va., and attended Catholic University. Farah, a lawyer and father of four, became a leader in Washington’s Somali community.
When Ethiopia invaded Somalia in December 2006, he felt compelled to return home.
And where was the U.N. and U.S. bellyaching at the time?
Oh, right, they did it after U.S. requests so they could overthrow the Islamist government that brought a few months of peace.
“I wanted to stand up to the Ethiopians who invaded our lands,’’ said Farah, who joined the transitional government and is now a member of Parliament....
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Related: In Somalia, a brazen woman tends to sick
And way out in the desert as we make our way back:
"A generation later, many Saharan refugees return to divided land" by Alison Lake, Washington Post / December 19, 2010
DAKHLA, Morocco — Several generations of Saharan refugees of Moroccan, Algerian, and Mauritanian origin remain trapped in an old desert conflict. As a sand wall divides families and tribes in Western Sahara, an impasse over the territory’s status perpetuates discontent.
Some 90,000 Sahrawis, or native Saharans, have lived in desolate tent camps in Algeria since the late 1970s, where they fled to escape warfare between Morocco and the Algerian-backed Polisario Front. Now they are fleeing back to the Moroccan side of the Sahara in increasing numbers, according to reports from the Moroccan government and the United Nations.
Most escape to reunite with their families and settle in growing Sahrawi communities; some peacefully promote independent statehood for Western Sahara, while others have planned attacks on Moroccan security forces.
For more than three decades, Morocco and the Polisario have vied for control over the Western Sahara, a non-sovereign territory the size of Colorado. Since 1975, Algeria has provided diplomatic and political support to the Polisario’s campaign for independence. Morocco, which controls the majority of the territory, would prefer to oversee a semiautonomous Western Sahara.
On Nov. 8, outside the Moroccan-administered town of Laayoune, pro-Polisario militants attacked police with rocks, machetes, and knives, killing 11 and wounding 70. A demonstration against Moroccan favoritism toward those who have moved back from the Algerian camps had turned violent; “Moroccan police had been ordered to peacefully dismantle a protest camp after militants took control,’’ said Aziz Mekouar, Morocco’s ambassador to the United States.
Saharan discontent dates back generations. During the exodus east to Algeria in the 1970s, some refugees were Polisario supporters and were absorbed into its leadership. The Polisario kidnapped others and forced them to settle in the camps, said hundreds of refugees who escaped or left the camps, and some who spoke recently in Dakhla, a bustling Western Sahara town on the Atlantic.
The United Nations and human rights organizations have accused all the conflict’s major players, Morocco, Algeria, and the Polisario, of human rights abuses. UN-led talks among the three last month failed to reach a compromise on the area’s status.
People living in the Polisario camps in southwestern Algeria cannot seek citizenship, work permits, or refugee status. Escapees tell of abuse, lack of basic services, and infiltration by traffickers. Even as they settle in new Moroccan-built housing and receive Moroccan citizenship, they fear for relatives left behind.
Polisario spokesman Emhamed Khadad said by phone from the camps that the Polisario is a peaceful, pro-independence movement. Yet more than 1,500 people have left the camps this year and traveled to the Moroccan side of Western Sahara, say Moroccan officials.
For many escapees, life is good in Dakhla, which, like Laayoune, is administered by Moroccan civil government and security forces. “Dakhla is an oasis, the safest place in Western Sahara,’’ said Abdeslam Azelhad, assistant to Western Sahara’s regional governor.
Following the day’s extreme heat, Sahrawis emerge in the early evening as the sun dips, strolling through the markets in the ocean breeze. Women and children can safely walk the streets of Dakhla at night, and stores are open late. “I can go anywhere I want,’’ said Mahjouba, who runs a day-care center and women’s leadership program.
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Everything is going to be all right now.
