AnAfrican

Or maybe, as many people have argued, Saudi Arabia realized that OPEP (and the non-OPEP players) are simply not disciplined enough to bring their production down enough to move prices up.

So they've decided to fight for market-share this time. And they can, since their production prices are on the low side.

Who's oil ? Syria's ?

Syria's production is close to Belarus's production and behind Cuba's. And even before its decline it was behind Ukraine's production.

It's not a big enough player for anything. Especially for a juggernaut like Russia.

GP was saying that stability was probably welcomed. Even the Syrian Government Army could be welcomed after one spends some time with a different militia taking over a place and collecting taxes and enforcing new rules EVERYDAY.

Even if some of those militias were better than the new stable regime.

The generalization about what Sunni Muslims want is quite gross.

warlords in the DRC vs local government in the DRC.

except for outside recognition of legitimacy, the line can be thin.

(and it is, since people jump from one to another easily)

there's not that much oil to control in Syria

I don't have any different sources. I read them differently.

You read "the US made plans to make/support relebellion and the sectarian aspect". I read "the Syran regime already has these vulnerabilities that could get exploited"

Probably because I don't believe in an all-powerful US.

>PLAY ON SUNNI FEARS OF IRANIAN INFLUENCE: There are fears in Syria that the Iranians are active in both Shia proselytizing and conversion of, mostly poor, Sunnis. Though often exaggerated, such fears reflect an element of the Sunni community in Syria that is increasingly upset by and focused on the spread of Iranian influence in their country through activities ranging from mosque construction to business.

> There is also tremendous fear in the Alawite community about retribution if the Sunni majority ever regains power.

> DIVISIONS IN THE MILITARY-SECURITY SERVICES: Bashar constantly guards against challenges from those with ties inside the military and security services.

> THE ECONOMY: Perpetually under-performing, the Syrian economy creates jobs for less than 50 percent of the country,s university graduates. Oil accounts for 70 percent of exports and 30 percent of government revenue, but production is in steady decline. By 2010 Syria is expected to become a net importer of oil. Few experts believe the SARG is capable of managing successfully the expected economic dislocations.

You'd punish a whole country for the actions of a rebel warlord that the government is actually fighting ?

>Without this foreign interference Assad could have crushed the rebellion and the country would be in a more stable situation today. Why are we supporting the side that will divide the population along sectarian lines, against a government who has a track record of ruling for all religions?

Most of this isn't actually true.

- Assad wouldn't probably have crushed the rebellion in any way after part of the army deserted.

- Assad did voluntarily release some Jihadists in order to exarcerbate the sectarian aspect of the conflict

If i'm not mistaken, he also became Disney's biggest individual shareholder.

And stadiums. and hotels. and presidential palaces. and airports in the middle of nowhere. and presidential palaces in the middle of nowhere.

At the end of the day, any method will have its cons.

I don't know why you're downvoted.

I agree a hundred percent. People from stable democracies tends to underestimate how afraid people can be of chaos and how easy it is for some goverment to associate democracy with chaos.

When a moderate opposition starts to organize, a non-moderate one (or one that takes advantage of ethnic fault lines) does too.

I bet most multilingual people didn't have to become mulitlingual.

It's not really clear to me:

Are they saying that the jump happened in a large metropolis ?

Or that Kinshasa was the first large city in which HIV became an epidemic ?

I've always thought the argument was purely political.

Any social program is easier to sell in an homogenous country because the opponents wouldn't have the "these people would benefit" argument.

Beyond that, I still fail to see how it would matter.

That's very simplistic.

Here's a great case :

It is often said that the West picked Mobutu over Lumumba because the lattest was seen as a threat to mining interests.

Yet Mobutu nationalized the mines, then nationalized and redistributed most foreign assets.

And yet he was still supporter by the West.

The explanation: Mobutu played his cards right. The West was worried about Communism, he declared himself as strongly anti-communist and that was enough.

>Rather than electrify the whole country, Ethiopia has concentrated on providing power and transport links to its industrial parks.

That tends to be the tough part. Hard choices.

The Soviets got into those countries after the Nazis.

They had no Soviets to get rid of by the time they welcomed the Nazis.

It would be accurate for Gabon and debatable (but not inaccurate) for Angola.

Basically, we think about these blocks:

- West Africa

- North Africa

- East Africa

- Southern Africa

- Central Africa

Now some countries are "on the border" and the description depends more on cultural or economical ties than pure geography.

Angola could be southern or Central. Zambia could be eastern or central (or even southern) Uganda could be eastern or central.

It's complicated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Union#Role_of_Regional...

But Gabon is definitely Central Africa.

those areas are much emptier. and I guess the fact SEA is mostly islands doesn't help either.

Post-Colonial Institutions are the perfect successor of Colonial Administrations.

The nature of the beast is often misunderstood.

The main horror of colonialism was not foreign control. The main horror of colonialism was its absolute authoritarianism and the administrative rule that was used to enforce it.

It's really odd to think any human being with that level of absolute authority could be somehow begnin.

As a side-note, it's always weird to me to see place like Gabon or Congo called "West Africa".

It's clearly on the West Coast but within Africa, the West starts after Cameroon.

housing prices going up usually means there is a boom

In my country, even legitimate transfers by commercial entities have to be "authorized".

The idea is to try to keep some money in our economy but at the end of the day:

- the process gets rigged anyway - it's costly to enforce - most of the cost of compliance is passed to us citizen