2.28.07 Links

In Washington, the fabled Clinton State Department rock star on Africa John Prendergast writes 'Blowing the Horn' in the new Foreign Affairs, an important new piece connecting the dots on the conflicts in Uganda, Sudan, CAR, Chad, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.

In New Haven, Americans for Informed Democracy, the leading globalist student organization in the US, launches a great new Mobile (Phone) Action Network Opt-In.

In London, Madrid 11 is a sharp new sight that 'encourages global dialogue about how the threat from terrorism can be confronted through democratic means.'

In Kampala, our friend Ben Moses Ilakut at the East African Business Week covers the Global Youth Partnership for Africa Kimeeza II.

In a measure of self promotion, my writing was picked up this week by Africa-News, Africa Path, and Madrid11.

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2/28/2007 09:20:00 AM | Permalink

4 Comments:

  • Yes, but you're out saving the world thru your writing whereas I'm merely staving off afternoon boredom and ignoring the cats. :)
    And hey, I still have three weeks left of being 24!
    My boyfriend took a standard Wordpress template, and then we spent a hellacious week next to the computer. Me thinking up ideas, he coding, we nearly strangled each other and voila - pretty blog. I know nada about CSS, but if you really want, I'm sure he can tell you.
    What will you be doing in Cameroon?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:23 PM  

  • Thanks for the link to the John Pendergrast book. I'm going to order it right now - looks very interesting.

    By Blogger HASH, at 11:39 AM  

  • Was typing up the following response as I read your posts on Uganda in Somalia. Now I'm looking at the Pendergast article and thinking he might be making a similar point. Thanks for the link though - I'll give it a read and report back:

    I basically agree with you: at this point it's good for everyone if Uganda gets some troops on the ground there and the Ethiopians move out. Your friend is right though: this did not help US efforts in Juba. As you know, the US has had a similar policy of 'blind eyes' with Ethiopia for the last few years. So, I think it's helpful to put everything in context here: the US project in the horn has been in the works for a while. It is strategic and methodical (even subtle, by US gov. standards) and has been a long time coming. But in this case, the long-view actually fosters myopia - we're so focused on the goals of stability in Somalia, arms control (you're right, it's key here), and the hot spots for radical Islam that we're willing to let the rest (ironically, mostly Christian) go to shit (see Ethiopian Government, Eritrean Government (to a lesser degree), Northern Uganda, and the Great Lakes).

    Thanks to the US, the Ethiopians and Ugandans are definitely two of the top four military in Africa (if not 1-2) and they have basically become US henchmen in the region. There will definitely be regional blowback from this for these nations (probably not for the US). With that as a backdrop, I think we, as advocates for these countries, also have to put pressure on the US and the International community to clean up their own mess in Somalia to a larger degree. I'm not sure exactly what that means honestly, but a start would be investing in the AU forces and distributing some of the military training and funding across the continent.

    Again, I think you're right on with your analysis of the moment, but we risk coming off as apologists if we don't take a second to examine the long-view and be critical of the fact that Uganda - despite sharing some important interests - is being asked, in essence, to clean up someone else's mess.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:24 PM  

  • http://wholelifetimes.com/2007/03/deliciouspeace.html

    Have you heard about this story? I love how these three faiths came together there in Uganda. Impressive.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:33 AM  

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