October 29, 2008

NEWS: Darfur in 10 Minutes with a little bit of China

Ok, now Blgoger will let me type..

The conflict in Sudan and Darfur is not new news, but it is something that not everyone fully understands. I might be breaking one of the golden rules of news writing (news has to be new), but that's fine because for today I want to make sure people understand what is going on in Sudan.

This ten minute video clip does an amazing job explaining the complexity of the conflict, along with exposing one of the most unknown factors, China.



China is still considered a "developing nation." Their industry is growing exponentially, as is the need for oil. One of the larger untapped oil areas is Africa, which some countries are now exploiting due to Africa's general lack of infrastructure.

China trading with countries for oil is not necessarily evil; however, the political actions to ensure these ties with trading nations is a moral failure.

It has been proven that China sends modern weapons to Northern Sudan, which has been fuel for the fire. Because Northern Sudan controls the oil ports, China has given an unfair advantage to half the country with better weapons, thus putting more tools for murder in the hands of those committing genocide.

This is not the only example of China's moral lapse. The government also made close ties with Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe. They gave him money and power, both of which enabled him to steal food and lives from those who did not agree with him politically.

Why isn't anything being done?
The answer is simple-China. The UN can't possible do anything because China has a seat on the security council and will always exercise their veto power. The U.S. won't do anything because it will anger China, as it will be perceived as the U.S. encroaching on China's territory. And for now, no other leaders are stepping up to take genuine action.

In the end, many see no end. The common consensus to the current conflict is that it will take the goodwill of a nation, or many nations to realize the injustice occurring.

1 comment:

Aaron said...

sorry everyone, it wont let me into my editor to type/delete so ill make sure to finish this post...

until then ill leave a basic description:
in my pols 150 class today, we watched a video (this one to be exact) and i thought it did a good job of explaining the conflict in darfur and sudan. ill later make sure that i add my own opinion on china, which the video makes reference to.

once again, sorry but i'll fix it ASAP