Meanwhile...
Yesterday i was struck by the toughness of the 8 o'clock news. Earthquake catastrophe strikes Pakistan, India and Afgahnisten. Africa refugees deported to the desert by Spanish-Marrocan inhuman politics. Sudan more and more unsafe. China builds huge oil-facilities in Sudan.
Hold on for a second, what? China? I know they were messing around in Central Asia, but now it seems Chinese world geopolitics are in full gear. We here nothing about this in Dutch media, except: "the Chinese economy is growing, let's invest there", but what are the Chinese cooking??
Read this article for an analysis of Sino-U.S.A. world geopolitics.
Read this brilliant article on the United Nations, peace and the dramatic first years of the 21st century.
Resourceful website on the Politics of International Oil
posted by jonathan even-zohar @ 10:28
2 comments
It was after the Gulf War that his mother and boyfriend at the time decided to 'descend' from the Holy land and set sail towards The Hague, being the birthplace of Even-Zohars
mother. Jonathan managed well in Grade school and High school, so the
next logical step was the University, the infinite source of knowledge.
After speculating on Industrial Design, Social Geography and Journalism
it was the study of History at Leiden that turned out to be his
decision.
Now, four years into the study, matters have only become more
complicated as this student advances towards World History; meaning the
complete array of fields a historian may implement in explaining the
entire past of the entire world to fellow men. It is especially the
philosophical character of World History that attracted Jonathan.
For him there is only one question that stands above all others like a
lonely chuchtower in some Flemish village, which asks the cause of the
Western Rise and the Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, the role of the
European self- and worldimage throughout its history may explain the
role of Europe in the Eurasian Human Web. Thus, the direct contact
between Islam and Christianity is to be investigated. Were Muslims
constantly on the verge of invading Europe? How did Arab people perceive
the 'barbaric' Christians? How was Science spread and how did the West
pick up knowledge form the Arabs or from further East? Europe and the
Islam are still not at peace, certainly not in the mind.
2 Comments:
Don't be surprised.
China is not only active in Africa when it comes to oil. It is improving relations with a few Latin American countries (most notably Venezuela with Chavez making maximum use of this to annoy the US), of course with Russia and other South Asian countries which are traditionally part of the Chinese sphere of influence, but recently some Chinese companies are even active in Canada (!) where they are hoping to get their hands on some valuable oil resources.
It's scary to see the wide scope energy has. It influences just about everything... Some good resources on China and oil include articles by the Jamestown Foundation. More generally on (peak) oil, check The Oil Drum.
(oookay, ignore this tangent... maybe not very relevant to your post huh... )
So why is everybody focussing on this so-called War on Terror instead on this head-on world-battle for energy-domination?
Ok, so China is big, arrogant and there are a lot of Chinese, but i find it very sad that international collaboration is sidelined to make way for Imperialism...We, as a species, are apperantly not able to learn from history...
...or maybe Europeans are just to soft, laid-back, anxious and xenophobic, hypocritical hippies...
By the way, thanks for the link The Oil Drum!
and...all is relevant ;)
Post a Comment
<< Home