The Gang of Five
Beyond the Mysterious Beyond => The Fridge => Topic started by: The Chronicler on January 30, 2011, 08:45:19 PM
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I recently read this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110130/ap_on_...udan_referendum (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110130/ap_on_re_af/af_southern_sudan_referendum)
Basically, the results of a vote in southern Sudan for independence are almost unanimous for the separation of the country. However, this doesn't mean there's suddenly a new country in Africa right now. There's still a lot of things for them to deal with before the creation of South Sudan is made official on July 9 of this year.
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South Sudan will be slightly smaller thabn Texas, and Sudan will drop from being the 10th largest country in the world down to around the 17th or so, it will cover around 725000 sq miles once south Sudan breaks away. Algeria will be the biggest country in africa(covering 919000 sq miles) the Democratic Republic of Congo will be secong (905000 sq miles and Sudan will be the third biggest.
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Thank goodness. The Christian Africans are finally being freed from the tyrannical, genocidal Arab Muslims in the north, and they're taking most of Sudan's oil to boot! Hopefully, this will spell the end of the crazed regime in Khartoum, and with any luck, might lead to other Africans, such as those in Darfur, being freed as well.
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North Sudan and South Sudan will still have to cooperate in the foreseable future, however. The only pipeline that transports Sout Sudanese oil goes through the North. It will take years to construct a new pipeline through Kenya. If the North and South enter another war, both countries will starve.
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south sudan will face a number of challenges such as literacy-only 15% of the population can read and write- infrasucture- they have less than 100 miles of roads in a country that will cover close to a quarter million miles in area and other issues.darfur will likely not get its independence anytime soon
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Of all the events going on in several African countries these days the splitting of Sudan draws very little media attention over here. At the moment the main focus is on the protests in Egypt (triggered by the successful one in Tunesia), with some attention to other countries where there have been (Yemen) or may be similar protests. There is a degree of uncertainty about what the aim of the protesters are who are not perceived as a homogenous group other than that they are usually described as young men.
There is uncertainty if (as is hoped) the protests will lead to more individual freedom, tolerance, and democracy in these countries or (as is feared) religious fundamentalists might take over (as happened in Iran in the 1970s) :unsure:
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It is unlikely that Islamists will take over, given that this uprising represents all segments of society, but that is another topic.
As for Sudan, we are seeing the birth of a new, hopefully free, country. The sooner they build a new pipeline, the better, even if it takes years to do.
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the stepping down of mubarrak, is a good sign for Egypyt, and hopefully other authoritarian governments wil fall as well..
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I don't want to hijack this topic, but if the author agrees, maybe it should be renamed to "Turmoil in the Arab world"? All the countries mentioned are Arab states. I think the main reason for these protests is not a demand for more freedom, but dissatisfaction with poverty. All Arab states have huge numbers of unemployed young people (in another post I said that unemployment was the future of mankind) and all of them have problems with providing their populations with enough food and water. Remember, Sahara is expanding on North Africa, even though the Sahel (Sahara's southern border) is greening.
Regarding the future of Egypt, I think it will get a democratic government, but it will be a hodge-podge coalition of liberals and Islamists. If this new government fails to solve problems like unemployment and rising food prices (desertification!), which it most certainly will fail to solve, the democratic government will fall and an extremist one will take it's place. It won't solve the problems either, but the strict Sharia law (and the ruling class' interpretation of said law) will keep the population in line. The future of Egypt is gloomy.
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This topic is to discuss the creation of a new nation entirely, South Sudan. If you want to discuss the turmoil in the Arab world, I suggest you create a new topic for that.
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This is to discuss South Sudan. You could call it African turmoil.. I suppose
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As of midnight, local time (5:00 p.m. EST or 6:00 p.m. EDT), South Sudan is now officially the world's newest independent country.
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South Sudan is Africas 54th country and the first new one since Eritrea in 1993. Countries changing thier name doesn't count.
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That is great that this new country is being made for them. I'm happy for them.
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I wonder what the country will be like.
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I only hope South Sudan will achieve food independence from its neighbours. From satellite images I see it is a very green country, they should have a well fed population. They also harbour a lot of wildlife, like neighbouring Kenya and Tanzania.
After all, when you're hungry, you think only of bare survival, not of higher pursuits like culture and science.
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Don't expect to see South Sudan on any maps anytime soon. I read an article online earlier today that even Google Maps has yet to include the new country. There are a number of reasons, the biggest of which is the fact that the border between Sudan and South Sudan is not yet fully established, due to a disputed region and other things.
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It remains to be seen what will come of this. Creating a new country does of course not solve the problems the regions has had before. Even with the final borders not yet quite established (and here we have further fuel for Sudanese / South-Sudanese conflict) it is quite certain already that the south will get the lion's share of the countries oil fields on which the economy of both countries is largely based. The north however holds the only pipeline the south can use to sell its oil. With the high tensions between the people (partly based on religion) and the hatred pent up during the genocide in Darfur there is a likelihood that a major effect will be turning a civil war into a war between two countries :(
I hope that these gloomy predictions won't turn true.