The Sahel Situation

Here is something I hope you know about, but is not getting a lot of press in western media.

I do not have much commentary to add, only that there are at least two major intertwined stories one of hunger, and a second of a collapsing nation state. Other then that I'll let the news do the talking.

Location: Sahel (the orange strip)

More specifically: Mali, and surrounding area

April 13


May 5th


June 20



July 3rd
 

Now today, July 31, the first sharia killing took place. http://allafrica.com/stories/201207310128.html

Here at the UN the situation in the Sahel is very much on people's radar. NGOs are concerned with the worsening humanitarian crisis, both hunger and refugees/internally displaced persons. Nations are concerned about the development of a geographical location that will harbor "terrorists".  African nations are concerned about a further destabilization of the region.

So why talk about this? Information is the first step to action. Financial giving is directly correlated to how much media coverage a topic receives. If you feel compelled write to an MP. Let them know you are concerned, tell them people are watching the situation and their country's response.

Confirmation Bias

The discussion of biases, lenses and confirmation bias on Silas' post: Extremist Religion has inspired me. The confirmation bias: most notably displayed in a psychological experiment in which people deliberately check themselves into psych wards and acted normal but found everything they did was interpreted through the lens of illness by the attending physicians and anylysts. 


The problem of finding what one is looking for... 


 In this video Zizek says that the best things we find are the ones we weren't looking for - accidental discoveries; we were looking for one thing and found something else. Perhaps we went to Bible college to find certainty or a job and instead found uncertainty and a few friends... maybe that's better. Anyway, the inescapable personal bias leads me to this song: The Stand by Mother Mother. As usual if you are easily offended you probably shouldn't watch it. 

Extremist Religion

Norway attacks suspect admits responsibility - Europe - Al Jazeera English

This is so disconcerting I had to share it. Many who know me well know that I disdain right-wing fundamentalism, but usually the conversation leads to the south, addressing my American neighbors. Sometimes the topic is nearer to home where there is a growing right-wing extremism in Canada, especially in some of the evangelical churches that are drifting into fundamentalism. A year ago I was confronted by extremism on two fronts, both of which where while I was in East Africa. As many may remember Al-Shabab (Somali Islamic extremist group) bombed a world cup party in Uganda, which was rather "close to home" as I was in neighboring Tanzania at a very similar world cup party. There was also the grenade attacks in Nairobi while I was a few blocks away. That was a double sided attack. The rally was for what I would consider extremist right wing Christians, and soon after the grenades went off fingers were being pointed at extremist Islamic groups as well. The disconcerting part for me is not the dissimilarity between the two "religions" but the similarity that both choose to become highly intolerant. The similarity that both become driven in a right-wing direction. The similarities are endless, but they stop being religions and end up becoming radicalized groups with religious rhetoric. I find myself shocked today because the one place on earth I continued to hold as the Mecca for free and open discourse appears to be crumbling. I guess I had chosen to not read the signs, to blissfully ignore the trends of a growing extremism, to live in a fairy tale that the nations that stood for social discourse and tolerance were being infiltrated from the inside by right-wing extremism. The reason I find this nearly unimaginable is that I am forced to question my belief in whether or not there can be an apolitical state that allows for tolerance and civil discourse. It is moments like this where I have an incredible affinity to people such as Christopher Hitchens, who view religion as the problem and humanism as the solution...moments like this one make me ponder whether people such as this are correct.