[extropy-chat] Genocide: The Sudan

[Robert J. Bradbury]

On Sat, 29 May 2004, Jeff Davis wrote:

> >From the above article:
>
> "This is not a natural famine, but a deliberate effort
> to eliminate three African tribes in Darfur so Arabs
> can take their land."
>
> What the article does not say, not surprisingly (not
> to me at least) is that Sudan has substantial
> as-yet-unexploited oil reserves [snip]

I'm not so sure Jeff.  The Darfur provinces are in the
West close to Chad.  The major oil fields however seem
to be in the central south or Eastern parts of the country.

I also think I read another article that indicated that
the genocide was causing a decline in gum arabic production.
That has the executives of some of the major food manufacturing
companies (including Coke) quite upset because gum arabic is
an important (effectively 'essential') food ingredient.
The gum arabic from the Sudan is supposed to be some of the
best and can't easily be substituted.

So you may be correct about economics being involved but
it may not be oil economics.  But I'd be as inclined to
cite general inter-tribal differences (the Arab "tribe"
vs. the African tribes) that have plagued humanity for
ages.

Robert