Africa

Several months ago I created this account on blogger in order to respond to the blog postings of a teacher in a different class. Knowing that I was highly unlikely to actually start posting my own blog entries, I gave it the name, "A blog about nothing". This is of course a tribute to my favorite television show of all time, "Seinfeld". If anyone out there doesn't know, Seinfeld was labeled a show about nothing, which it essentially was, but it turned out to be the funniest show in the history of television. 

http://www.bartamaha.com/?p=8276

Th blog entry talks about the current war in Somalia, and the difficulties it poses for the people of that nation.  I'd like to talk about Somalia but also address the entire continent of Africa and the problems that continent has had and continues to have today.  In the late 19th century European powers began to colonize nations all over the continent in a historical era known as the "scramble for Africa". Though most nations have now gained independence from the European countries, the continent as a whole suffers from instability, on- going civil wars, widespread disease such as HIV, famine and corruption.  I won't even begin to go through a history of the civil wars that have occurred on the continent in the last 100 years, but I will talk a little bit about the current major civil wars.  In Somalia, civil war has been constant more or less for the past 20 years. Today, there is no stable government, and the capital city of Mogadishu is an all out war-zone, unsafe for anyone to live in.  In the Democractic Repulic of Congo, the most recent civil war has claimed an estimated 5.4 million lives.  In Darfur, another civil war rages with massive civilian casualties and widespread human rights atrocities. There are a number of other conflicts going on at the moment, but I'll save that discussion for another time. With all of the war, disease, and poverty that occurs on this continent, our own economic meltdown doesn't seem all that bad.  I'll now share a story about an experience that had a big impact on my worldview. I used to work with a Libyan guy several years ago. The guy always had a smile on his face, and I cannot remember one time I saw him frown or heard him complain about something. When another friend from work explained a little bit about this man's past, it became very clear why he had such a sunny disposition. He used to serve in the Libyan army, until he was captured in the country of Chad and the Libyan government denied knowledge of his existence. He was held in a prisoner of war camp for two years and was forced to regularly march through an old mine field in order to detonate the remaining mines from some old, forgotten war.  When you've experienced something like that, every day you're alive and well is a great day. I try and always remind myself that whenever I think I'm having a bad day, I still have things very, very easy.