Roger Porter
April 1, 2011
I suppose if I were a more positive person I would think it's a good thing that the civil unrest in the Ivory Coast dueto president Laurent Gbagbo's refusal to cede power looks to be nearing an end, but of course I'm not that kind of guy. I think it's pretty rediculous that so many people (some put the figure at over 1,000 since November) have been allowed to die without international intervention because of the stubborness of one mortal man.
Could you imagine how much global concern and vitriolic rhetoric something like this would have stirred up had it happened in Isreal or Palestine? Oh and let's not forget the recent confirmation of that the United States government has been secretly supporting the Libyan rebels as they attempt to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi for at least 3 weeks now. And the media gave us all the footage they possibly could concerning the uprisings in Egypt a few months ago, just as they do the current situation in Libya.
So one may ask what makes America and all the other Western powers get involved in Kosovo but not Rwanda? What makes them so concerned about the latest skirmish on the gaza strip but not about mass murder in Darfur? Why is NATO carrying out strategic military strikes in Libya but only sending letters of stern disapproval to the power drunk Laurent Gbagbo? Well, as I alluded to in a previous blog, maybe because the Ivory Coast exports mass amounts of cocoa and not oil (And although we have been characterized as a rather obese nation, we're not quite willing to justify a war over chocolate). Or perhaps, and I may be going out on a limb here, it's because the people of the Ivory Coast--just like the people of Rwanda and the Sudan--are undeniably and unquestionably black. And America has an over 500 year history of appathy toward the human rights of those who of the darkest hue. I won't go much deeper into it right now, I mean I'd hate to turn this blog into a real essay, but I will end with the lyrics of a blues song that may be older than America itself; "If you white, then you alright/ If you brown, well stick around/ But if YOU black, If YOU black, If YOU black get back, get back, get back!"
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