Darfur: The Land of Gold(s)

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Once upon a time there was a conflict that was based upon ethnic origins in Darfur. But the ethno-political struggle has long been passed into the back waters of the country over the past decade as there has been a growing realization that it’s now a question of money and it’s the wealth of the country that is becoming the object of all desires between the fighting factions. Isn’t it amazing that all political ideology and social belief as well as ethnic difference can be swept away as soon as the coins start to jingle and the kerchinging can be heard? Isn’t it astounding that the countries that are the most poverty-stricken have the most resources in the world and in fact are the wealthiest ones on the planet? If only they would realize. If they don’t, we will and probably already have in the West as we buy up their precious land in land-grab [13] stints. We might not have the money, but we have more than they do and they are ready to sell it on to us at a paltry price that would be worth the paper it’s written on. Darfur is the next target in our sites. There’s gold there and not just the yellow variety. There’s the black stuff too.

Black and Yellow

• Oil [15] reserves in Darfur are said to be in a position to rival those of Saudi Arabia.
• US corporations have shown great interest already in the exploitation of that oil and there have been lobbies in the US government to intervene in the country apparently to stop the genocide continuing between the ethnic groups.
• Darfur also possesses reserves of natural gas.
• Not only that, but it also has the 4th largest copper [16] deposits in the world.
• High-purity uranium deposits are said to be one of the three largest in the world.
• Hardly any surprise that the US government has been lobbied to step in there for a number of years now.
• The Sudanese government has remained distant from Washington for years now and it is China that has been providing the necessary technology to exploit the reserves.
• China buys most of Sudan’s oil today (two-thirds), probably much to the dismay of the USA.
• China invested $300 million in an expansion of a refinery back in 2004 and has enabled the doubling of output.
• The USA as supported sanctions to stop the sale of oil and to halt exports for years now.
• The USA, the UK and France each have an eye on Darfur and the oil possibilities there.
• But France is particularly worried due to the oil reserves it exploits in neighboring Chad.
• All three have used a policy of divide and conquer in order to try to take control of the oil there.
• When the country started moving towards Islamic fundamentalism after the withdrawal of the UK (1956), the US financed the south financially-speaking and in military terms as well as applying an embargo on the Sudanese government.
• In 1998, there was a military attack (without any proof that the country was producing chemical weapons).
• The US administration has wrongly reduced the conflict to one between what has been termed officially as ‘ethnic cleansing’ setting ‘Arabs against Blacks’.
• But, this is ridiculous since Darfur’s Arab’s are also Black! They are indigenous African Muslims.
• Two Zionist groups (American Jewish World Service and Jewish Council for Public Affairs) have strongly lobbied for the US’s intervention in Darfur.

More than 200, 000 people have died as a result of the conflict that today is centered around nothing more than the control of gold and oil in the country. The countries that are largely responsible for the situation are the USA, the UK and France.

• Southern Sudan lost a large part of its land in 2011 and that brought about a loss in revenue equal to $7 billion due to not being able to exploit the oil that was in that area.
• The economy collapsed (and GDP contracted by 10%).
• The people were encouraged to dig for gold to replace the loss in revenue for the government.
• Sudan has become the third largest gold producer now in the world since output was increased by 50% in 2012, reaching 50 tons.
• 60% of exports from Sudan are now gold and it brings in $2.2 billion on average per year.
• The Sudanese may well be rejoicing over the possibility of a price increase in gold and the continuing shutdown that is partly the cause of that in the USA.
• Otherwise at present gold prices they risked bringing in only $1.5 billion this year.
• Now that may be set to change.

Just about everything today revolves around both oil and gold. We are critically dependent and we are more than willing to wage war for them both.

The demand for oil is increasing by an average of 2% per year at the moment. There’s not enough for our greedy selves and there is even less (in the West’s opinion) for the even greedier neighbors on the other side of the world. That means that by 2030 consumption will have increased by 47%. Food crops are turned into energy as we transfer the land that was once destined for food to producing biofuels from rapeseed and maize. We are turning to extracting oil from tar sands and oil shales. But, we are looking for every nook and cranny where we can extract that black gold from the earth. If it’s in a war-stricken zone, let them kill themselves first, then we can move in and in the holy name of the almighty democratic revolution we can export constitutional democracy where it wasn’t even wanted (at least, that’s what we can tell the people). Just like the Inquisition arriving in the Americas and telling the people they needed to be saved from themselves. Despite himself the indigenous native must be converted and saved. If only we were honest enough to admit that our governments never invade a country for that reason. They only go in their guns blazing because of what Darfur is fighting for today.

They and our governments are no different. Ideology goes to the wind when there’s money involved. In Darfur there’s a whole load of that waiting to be bagged and used. It might be a good diversion for the US administration fiasco right now over the shutdown too.

Originally posted: Darfur: The Land of Gold(s) [18]

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