I've been paying a lot of attention to the international and local news agencies reporting on East Africa. The situation in Sudan is puzzling and would be laughable if it wasn't so unavoidably tragic. Sudan has been wracked with civil war for decades, mostly between the north (where the national government is) and the south. They've got a peace agreement that calls for a vote on southern secession and that vote is scheduled for Jan 9th, 2011. Not even Vegas bookmakers are taking bets against the vote going in favor of secession. The south has all the oil. The north has all the guns. The south is a combination of animist religions and Christianity. The north is predominantly Muslim. The south is ready to secede even if there's no vote. The north is dragging its feet in preparing for the vote.
This is not going to end well. It's a train wreck that everyone can see coming down the track.
Throw into this mix a province that straddles the north-south line having its own vote over which side to join, the Darfur region of west Sudan where genocide has become so regular its practically written on everyone's daily 'to do' list, and that Sudan's ruling head of state has been indicted by the ICC for crimes against humanity or some such. Folks, this recipe for disaster is coming out of the oven whether we're ready for it or not and its not going to be a pretty mixed metaphor. Sure would be nice if someone could, I don't know, do something about it.
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