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Reeves, Eric. "The Failure of the African Union in Darfur: Much too Little, Much too Late." Sudan Tribune (07 Sept 2005).

A global failure to protect civilian populations facing genocide

The rapidly deteriorating security situation in Darfur, particularly West Darfur and South Darfur states, yet again highlights what has been conspicuously obvious to any honest observer for months: the African Union force in Darfur is radically inadequate to the task of protecting civilians and humanitarian operations. Nor can the AU begin to provide the security that will allow for a resumption of meaningful agricultural production in Darfur, leaving millions entirely dependent upon international food aid. The pretense that the AU---without a mandate for civilian protection, and without adequate manpower, material resources, transport, logistics, or administrative capacity---is capable of providing security in Darfur represents an increasingly deadly complicity in ongoing genocidal destruction.

"One of the classic themes followed in this complex novel, translated from the Arabic, is cultural dissonance between East and West, particularly the experience of a returned native. The narrator returns from his studies in England to his remote little village in Sudan, to begin his career as an educator. There he encounters Mustafa, a fascinating man of mystery, who also has studied at Oxford. As their relationship builds on this commonality, Mustafa reveals his past. A series of compulsive liaisons with English women who were similarly infatuated with the "Black Englishman," as he was nicknamed, have ended in disaster. Charged with the passion killing of his last paramour, Mustafa was acquitted by the English courts. As he unravels his complicated, gory and erotic story, Mustafa charges the listener with the custody of his present life. When Mustafa disappears, apparently drowned in the Nile and perhaps a suicide, another door in his secretive life opens to include his wife and children. Emerging from a constantly evolving narrative, in a trance-like telling, is the clash between an assumed worldly sophistication and enduring, dark, elemental forces. An arresting work by a major Arab novelist who mines the rich lode of African experience with the Western world."

Snow, Tony. "The Empire Pays Back." Channel 4 (Aug 2005)

Introduction

The Transatlantic Slave Trade began in 1440 when Portugal started to trade slaves with West Africa. Britain, Denmark, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain all profited from the slave trade. During the Triangular Trade 20 million African people would be kidnapped, taken across the Atlantic in chains and sold as chattel. However even 300 years after slavery started, no church condemned slave ownership or slave trading. The Quakers however organized opposition to slavery in the late 1750's. In 1833 Parliament passed the Slavery Abolition Act which gave all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.

Slave-owner compensation

The British government however, provided £20 million in compensation to the slave-owners who had lost their 'property.' Each plantation owner received compensation of £12 14s 4¾d (£1270) in today's terms for each emancipated slave. Meanwhile, the ex-slaves received nothing but hollow promises. In 1865 the US Congress established the Freedmen's Bureau. Its purpose was to distribute 850,000 abandoned and confiscated acres of land to former slaves. But the distribution never happened and former Confederates were allowed to reclaim the property.

Drayton, Richard. "The wealth of the west was built on Africa's exploitation - Britain has never faced up to the dark side of its imperial history." The Guardian (20 Aug 2005).

Britain was the principal slaving nation of the modern world. In The Empire
Pays Back, a documentary broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday, Robert Beckford
called on the British to take stock of this past. Why, he asked, had
Britain made no apology for African slavery, as it had done for the Irish
potato famine? Why was there no substantial public monument of national
contrition equivalent to Berlin's Holocaust Museum? Why, most crucially,
was there no recognition of how wealth extracted from Africa and Africans
made possible the vigour and prosperity of modern Britain? Was there not a
case for Britain to pay reparations to the descendants of African slaves?

These are timely questions in a summer in which Blair and Bush, their hands

de Waal, Alex. "Sudan's Chance." Prospect 113 (August 2005)

The recent death of John Garang is a shocking setback to Sudan's peace process, but not a fatal one. The Bush administration deserves much of the credit for the peace deal signed in January, and if it keeps its nerve, can help preserve the peace with Garang’s successor

For decades, "Sudan is never news" was the Africa correspondent’s rule of thumb. But Africa’s largest country has been consistently newsworthy. Sudan has been wracked by civil war since independence in 1956, as the southern third of the nation has resisted the depredations of the ruling military and commercial elite. The most intense war followed the June 1989 coup by Omer al Bashir, who overthrew an elected government and imprisoned all dissidents. His mentor and eminence grise, the Islamist theoretician Hassan al Turabi, declared his intent to create an Islamic state.

Sudan has also suffered repeated famine over the past 20 years. It needn’t. The country possesses the largest irrigated farm in the world, the Gezira scheme, initiated by Lord Kitchener at the behest of the Lancashire cotton industry 101 years ago. It is also the world’s largest producer of Gum Arabic, which we consume daily in fizzy drinks and chocolate bars. Southern Sudan has substantial oil reserves, now eagerly exploited by Petrochina and others. Despite this economic potential, the great majority of Sudanese live in abject poverty, several million of them drawn to the shanty towns around the capital, Khartoum, which stands as a gleaming Arab metropolis amid an expanse of sub-Saharan wretchedness.

Kantara, John A. "Der Quellen-Forscher." Zeit 33 (11 Aug 2005).

Er verwirklicht Ben Gurions Traum: Die Wüste wird zur blühenden Landschaft. Mit der Erschließung von Wasserspeichern will Arie Issar endlich Frieden zwischen Israelis und Palästinensern stiften.

Ein Gespräch mit Arie Issar führt immer zum Wasser. Vom Skopusberg, wo man die beste Aussicht über Jerusalem hat, zeigt er auf die engen, verwinkelten Gassen, die seine Heimatstadt zum Labyrinth machen. »Dort unten hat mein Vater Eis verkauft.« Am Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts war der religiöse Jude vor russischen Pogromen geflüchtet. Er lebte davon, in der Jerusalemer Altstadt Klumpen gefrorenen Wassers feilzubieten.

Wasser ist auch für Arie Issar das Element seines Lebens. Fast dreißig Jahre hat der Geologe und Hydrologe im Herzen der Negev-Wüste gelebt, im Zinn-Valley. Den Professor am Wüstenforschungsinstitut von Sde Boker beschäftigte eine elementare Frage: Kann Israel Wasser gewinnen, wo eigentlich kein Wasser ist?

Joffe, Josef. "Die Wüste lebt." Zeit 33 (11 Aug 2005).

Unter dörrender Sonne züchten israelische Wissenschaftler Welse und Aale, Seerosen und Algen

Von Josef Joffe

Sde Boker/Israel

Was macht der Aal in der Wüste? Er wächst, und zwar in einem Wasser, das es dort in der freien Natur gar nicht gibt. Die winzigen Würmer kommen per Flugzeug aus Europa, wo sie an den Flussmündungen abgefischt werden, und landen in Tanks, die mit Brackwasser aus ein paar hundert Meter Tiefe gespeist werden. Dort werden sie gepäppelt und dann in die Räuchereien Europas transportiert.

Wo das? In Sde Boker, einem Forschungszentrum der israelischen Ben-Gurion-Universität mitten in der Negev-Wüste. Brackwasser, etwa ein Zehntel so salzig wie Meerwasser, gibt es reichlich unter dem Wüstenboden – im Negev wie in der Sahara. Es ist sauber und heiß, und die kleinen Aale wachsen am schnellsten bei 26 Grad, die an der Schelde nie erreicht werden. Das hat Samuel Appelbaum herausgefunden, der Herr der Aale im Jacob-Blaustein-Institut für Wüstenforschung.

Lechner, Wolfgang. "Die Macht des Wassers." Zeit 00 (1996).

Jahrzehntelang haben Israel und seine Nachbarn sich gegenseitig das Wasser abgegraben. Auch der Konflikt mit den Palästinensern ist letztlich ein Krieg um das Lebenselement. Nur an der Grenze nach Jordanien sieht es so aus, als könnte die gemeinsame Sorge um das Wasser auch einen Frieden erzwingen.

Das Wasser , das ich anfasse, ist braun und grün, es hat breite Blätter und wächst fast vier Meter hoch. Sein Stamm fühlt sich kühl an. Mit den Fingerspitzen kann ich ihn eindrücken wie einen festen Schwamm. Ich breche das Ende des Fruchtstengels ab, und aus der Bruchstelle beginnt es zu tropfen."Geben Sie acht", sagt Saleh Ata Romani, "das Zeug macht rote Flecken auf ihrem Hemd, die kriegen sie nie mehr raus!" Das Wasser ist eine Bananenstaude. Sie steht im Dorf al-Auscha, elf Kilometer nördlich von Jericho, und der Bauer Saleh Ata Romani ist stolz auf die spannenlangen, grünen Früchte, die sich unter einer blauen Plastikschutzhülle krümmen.

Hass, Amira. "The settlers are gone, the polluted water remains." Haaretz (25 Aug 2005).

On the eve of the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza Strip, two assumptions relating to water sources took wing among Palestinians. The first: behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's decision to leave the Strip lies the fact that the supply of potable water, which was consumed almost exclusively by the settlers, has dwindled. The second: once the settlers leave, the Palestinians' water problems have been solved.

These assumptions have been circulating from one neighborhood to the next and from one conversation to the next, acquiring credibility, and finally turning into solid truths in the eyes of many. And it is hard to argue, especially against the second, "positive" assumption.

The serious shortage of water in the Gaza Strip is apparently fertile ground for the creation of legends - a kind of refuge from the harsh reality. Ninety percent of the water that comes from the coastal aquifer to the faucets of people in the Strip - about 1,300,000 people - is nonpotable. Never mind its brackish taste, which becomes more disgusting by the year. It can be covered by putting a lot of sugar in your tea. Never mind its murky color, which can be camouflaged by cooking. The problem, first and foremost, is that it is polluted and dangerous to the health.