Sometimes a news article can be well written and cover a real bit of news, tell no lies and yet still leave out the big issue.
The article I am referring to is titled “Refugee despair grows as peace deal breaks down”. I found it in The Washington Time, National Weekly, dated January 25, 2016, page 22. It looks at one of the world’s refugee sites. This one is the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The camp was designed for 125,000 and currently tries to care for 185,000. Things are tight and life is difficult. All that is informative and probably accurate. The article focuses on the 80,000 from South Sudan. In analyzing the reason they are refugees it gives some facts but leaves out the essential factor in the conflict that drives them south.
Sudan has been split by a civil war. In the article this is a war between the Nuer tribe and the Dinka tribe. There is violence and brutality, murder and rape. It is not a pretty picture. That is all true as far as it goes. What the article leaves out is that the entire motivating factor is not tribal loyalty but religion. The origin of the conflict in Sudan before it was split was religion. The Muslim north was attacking the Christian south. After years of warfare the south managed to break off. Why is the religious aspect not mentioned?
What about the other 105,000 people. It mentions that 30% come from Somalia, another Muslim country controlled by warlords and terrorists. Why do they switch to “30%” instead of pointing out that is 60,000 people? What is the religious makeup of the rest of the camp?
The problems of Africa are many. Tribal thinking, socialists, Muslim terrorists, power hungry ego-maniacs are all a problem. The major conflict that is often ignored is the place of religion. Islam is at war with the world. Africa is one of the places of violent confrontation. Don’t ignore that reality just to be politically correct.
Is that important? How does your chili taste when you leave out the chili powder? How about potato chips without salt? Is there a difference between Campbell’s Vegetable Beef and the store brand? Do you like your soda when the fizz is gone?
Read with care. Think and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Politicians and reporters will not do it for you.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.