Having spent a significant portion of my life living in Sierra Leone I find it sickening how the rebel war there, as well as so many other conflicts in Africa, are basically ignored by the rest of the world. I would blame it on the media but they only get part of the blame. They are a business after all and if we as ordinary people cared about these conflicts the media would probably cover them.
It is not just about coverage either. Along with that coverage goes time and money. So governments, institutions, and influential people spend tons of time and money on the most popular contests while the conflicts that have impacted the most people receive hardly any attention.
Some would say that while those smaller conflicts may not have the same number of deaths they still impact far more people. I believe that is true. But why is that? There is something wrong about the way we value people.
Here's some stats I pulled from the Stealth Conflicts website. They have a lot of interesting information there. I like the maps and charts they produce to graphically illustrate the issue. I can't vouch for the accuracy of these numbers but that's kind of the point. We just don't know what we really should know.
Conflict /Death Toll
Democratic Republic of Congo /5,400,000
Southern Sudan /1,200,000
Angola /800,000
Rwanda /800,000
Afghanistan /500,000
Somalia /400,000
Iraq /400,000
Burundi /300,000
Darfur /300,000
Zaire /300,000
Liberia /200,000
Algeria /150,000
Ethiopia-Eritrea /100,000
Chechnya /100,000
Uganda /100,000
Sierra Leone /50,000
Kashmir /50,000
Colombia /50,000
Sri Lanka /50,000
Bosnia-Herzegovina /50,000
Philippines /20,000
Turkey /20,000
Nigeria /20,000
Gulf War /20,000
Azerbaijan /20,000
Bougainville /20,000
Cote d’Ivoire /10,000
Congo, Republic of /10,000
Peru /10,000
Aceh /10,000
Myanmar /10,000
Nepal /10,000
Croatia /10,000
Kosovo /10,000
Kurdish Iraq /10,000
Southern Iraq /10,000
Senegal /< 10,000
Guinea /< 10,000
Chad /< 10,000
Mali /< 10,000
Niger /< 10,000
Central African Republic /< 10,000
Haiti /< 10,000
Mexico /< 10,000
Israel-Palestine /< 10,000
Israel-Lebanon /< 10,000
Yemen /< 10,000
Andrha Pradesh /< 10,000
Gujurat /< 10,000
Northeast India /< 10,000
East Timor /< 10,000
Irian Jaya /< 10,000
Kalimantan /< 10,000
Molucca Islands /< 10,000
Sulawesi /< 10,000
Georgia /< 10,000
Moldova /< 10,000
Northern Ireland /< 10,000
Forsaken
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7:49 AM
Indeed.
It seems to go something like this:
If the people speak English as a native language, add 5.
If the people speak another western European language as a native language, add 3.
If the people are Christian, add 2.
If the people are brown, subtract 1.
If the people are yellow, subtract 2.
If the people are black, subtract 5.
Subtract 1 for every 2,000 miles distance.
If the GDP per capita is above the world average, add 3.
If the GDP per capita is below the world average, subtract 1.
If the GDP per capita is below the 25th percentile, subtract 3.
If the country is subjected to the same type of crisis every 10 years or less, subtract 2.
If the country is in Africa, subtract 10.
At least, that seems how it plays out to me. So most of those conflicts are in Africa, and most of the world just doesn't give a rat's. I have lots of theories why, but mostly I think it comes down to a combination of racism, post-colonial feelings of guilt, racism, pernicious problems that don't go away, racism, corrupt governments being part of the problem to their own people, racism, western economies raping the natural resources at low, low prices, and, oh yeah - racism.
9:25 AM
One of the big problems for African countries post-colonial was the cold war. Money and support were thrown around by both East and West to whoever could deliver the UN vote. It didn't really matter how corrupt or dictatorial the person was. Now the same thing is happening with the West, China, Arab nations, and new socialists like Chavez.
The world wide economic problems will hurt Africa too. They are the next cheap labor force for global industry but the current economic climate will delay that for a few more decades.
1:33 PM
As for being the next cheap labor force, I don't even know if it's a "few" more decades. Lack of education, lack of nutrition, corrupt governments, ongoing tribalism that just never seems to get any better and AIDS are going to keep the continent down for a long time to come.
Pessimistic, I know, but some friends and I have been talking about Africa for two decades now, and it just doesn't seem to get any better (and in fact, adding AIDS to the mix has made it much, much worse). Basically they get to be the continent where everyone else on the planet can say, "Well, it may be bad here, but at least we're not in Africa!"
Post a Comment