There is no secret that VLK and I disagree on much pertaining to Sudan. But, I want to thank him for maintaining a positive and constructive tone in his disagreements with me.
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Originally Posted by Vubundada_Kandaba
[font=Verdana](1) The article mentioned that Dr. John Garang was trained in the US at Fort Bening Georgia at the US Infantry school which is true. But the article failed to mentioned that Dr. Garang was send to Fort Bening as a member of the Government of Sudan armed Forces and he was sent with several of his colleagues by the Sudanese Government. After going back to Sudan, Garang who was colonel by that time defected several years later to form the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army when he was sent by the Government of Sudan to crush a rebellion in the South by troops who were resisting orders to be transferred to the North of the Country. Rather than crush the rebellious troops as he was instructed, Garang decided to join the mutineers and went on to encourage more Army Garisons to rebel.
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The act of changing sides in a war can be contrued as treason. Where I come from, treason is usually punishable by death. However, in the case of traitor Garang, the current regime in Kharoum made him a vice president of the Republic. Maybe that was one of their biggest mistakes: rewarding rather than punishing triators.
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(2) Concerning the issue of the Nile Waters the Author who is an Arab Apologist at best assumes that Egypt should have a right to the Nile water to the detriment of the African Countries.
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Well, I think you are overstating your case somewhat. Egypt is a part of Africa. As Pan-Africanists, we must maintain the principle that every sguare inch of Africa must unite. Accordingly, we cannot exclude Egypt. Indeed, Egypt has historically played a central role in the unification process in Africa.
Egypt is about 90-95% arid, drylands, desert lands. And the waters of the Nile is currently its main source of water. Therefore, Egypt must maintain access to Nile waters in order to survive. By doing so does not necesssarily translate into a "detriment to African countries". Much of the waters of the Nile would otherwise simply run into the sea; thereby weakening Egypt and the whole of Africa because to weaken Egypt, one of Africa's major countries, is to weaken Africa.
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The Nile Water Agreement was an unfair Agreement signed in the early 1920s-30s between Egypt and Britain. At that time, not single African Country was independent, so Egypt proposed to give Britain full access to the Suez Canal and in exchange the British Would sign the rights to the Nile Waters over to Egypt on behalf of the Countries that Britain lorded and colonized. Today, the Egyptians are selling the Nile Water to Israel, while Nine (9) African Countries starve.
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At first, I opposed the peace with Israel. But, with a cooler, colder more calculating mind, I see that Egypt fought Israel harder than any other country. And, the peace treaty brought Egypt many benefits. True, it would have been preferrable had Egypt been strong enough to hold out for a comprehensive settlement. And, I certainly do not like the closed border between Egypt and Gaza; the fact still remains that Egypt is fairly well compensated. And the people of Egypt are still solidly behind the Palestinians. So, Gaza will always have access to Egyptian resources to the extent that Egypt can play it both ways.
But, to sell water to Israel in times of war is not easy to accept. Nevertheless, from a pragmatic standpoint, we as the new generation of African leaders cannot afford to develop a reputation of not respecting the treaties of previous regimes. By respecting the treaty, we offer hope that the overall conflict will be solved someday. Peace is always preferable to war. And, the Jews, like the Arabs, are descendants of Africans. Thus, Pan-Africanism requires us to consider making reasonable accomodations to Jews as they have been oppressed by Europeans and Christians for thousands of years.
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It is tragedy that 80% of the Nile Waters come from Ethiopia, while Ethiopians continue to starve to death in the millions.
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The new generation of Ethiopians seem to be prepared to learn from their mistakes. It was the stupid regime under Mengistu who did much of this damage. I seriously doubt that access to Nile waters is a major cause.
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The Nile water Agreement must be thrown into the trash can and each Country must use the Nile waters for its benefits of feeding the people. Southern Sudan has already made it clear that they intent to ignore these agreements and they will do with the Nile Water however and which ever way they wish to.
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I doubt that will work. No one country can do as it pleases. The world is inter-related and co-dependent. That would mean chaos.
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It will be upto to Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, Eritrea and Ethiopia to follow suit or sit back like they have done for all these years. A new brand of young Africans are taking over and we will change the nature and course of how things are done in Africa and at the same time meet anyone who stands in our way head first.
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Africa is moving towards Continetal Unity. (
http://www.africanfront.com/water_sheds.php)That makes much more sense.
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(3) The Problems in Sudan had been ungoing since 1957, way before Oil was discovered some 30 years after in the 1980s. To suggest that troubles of Sudan started because of oil is ignorant of the facts at best and distortion of Journalism.
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I never said the problems started because of oil. I said a sacarcity of resources, including water, was at the root of the problems. I strongly suspect that the big oil companies are fueling the conflicts in Western Sudan and Chad. This has occurred in recent years as the oil companies have shown an unwillingness to pay fair market prices for their oil. They want it below market prices while they make record profits. And, they pay a few thugs and traitors to avoid paying taxes to the central governments. Even Chad had a run in with them.
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(4). I have been saying many time that the problems of Sudan cannot entirely be blamed at Western Imperialism and the bogey man Zionism, but that will be a gross overlooking of the facts. 90% of the problems in Sudan are caused by the Sudanese Regimes in power, nothing less and nothing more. If we reform the Centers of power in Sudan, we will entirely eliminate all of the problems including Darfur. You don't treat a Cancer Patient by blaming the disease on other factors, rather the doctor goes in and tries to remove the harmful cell, so as not to destroy the whole body. The cancer here is the Central Government with its policies of Exclusion.
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The current regime in Sudan is one of the best in memory. I know some people do not like ash-Sharia. But, it would seem to be a better constitution than was inherirted from the British. Certainly, it has led to a reasonable accomodation of the Christian Community.
But, what is needed for us Africans, all of us all over the world, is new institutions. By this, I mean such things as a financing mechanism for desalinating seawater. The shortage of water is not a problem limited to the drylands of the North and the Horn. Every African country has this problem in one form or another.
I recently talked to a diplomat at the Zimbabwe Embassy. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that while their economy is in deep trouble, they have a demand for beef to the Eureopean Union that they are not able to meet. They cannot meet this demand because they cannot produce enough beef because they do not have sufficient water resources.
I say again, we must develop means of getting more water into Africa, all of Africa, not just Sudan, not just Egypt.