Prof. Enos M.r. Kiremire
2 May 2008
(Page 3 of 3)
The present war in Iraq or Afghanistan is not about communism or terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, chemical or biological weapons, nuclear weapons, Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, democracy or human rights. It is simply a war about oil whose life span is exceedingly short.
The war in Afghanistan is about the access and control of the oil-rich Gulf North region‚ around the Caspian Sea. The Iraq War is about the control of the Gulf South region‚ of the Middle East.
These regions are of tremendous strategic importance to modern economies particularly those of heavily industrialized countries which consume vast quantities of oil resulting in the greatest atmospheric pollution.
The potential of oil producing countries in Africa such as Nigeria and Angola are of great strategic importance to the heavily industrialized economies.
That a vital economic resource should be a principal driving force of world history, is nothing new. The ivory and spice trade led to the discovery and colonization of many countries. The gold and slave trade influenced the course of world history.
A country like Sudan which has a substantial reservoir of oil is highly marked. The ongoing world focus on the Darfur humanitarian crisis situation versus China's human rights abuse (China has strong oil trade ties with Sudan) with world-wide demonstrations against China's hosting the Olympics may be viewed in this light.
China poses a great threat the developed world as it is potentially a future super power. Similarly, the intervention of the allied forces in the Iraq-Kuwait war, the Iraq-Iran war, and the Yom Kippur war should be viewed under the same microscope.
It is interesting to note that not a long time ago, the Apartheid system was condemned by the developed world. Yet there were no effective sanctions imposed onto the system. In fact, for some countries, it was business as usual. Both apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia had immense human rights records.
Uganda's Idi Amin and Mobutu's Zaire tremendously violated human rights but these were not major international issues with major embargoes resulting in the crippling of their economies. Rwanda's genocide was just supervised but not stopped.
On the other hand, the Zimbabwean situation is a major international issue with all the possible sanctions (that have facilitated the precipitation of one of the worst inflations in human history) put in place.
In order for us to fully understand and appreciate the current global politics, we have to revisit what the late highly respected statesman and intellectual Dr Kwame Nkrumah termed Neocolonialism.
The author is of the view that world politics are entering the highest and most sophisticated level of the neocolonialist phase coupled with the renewed severe scramble for critical and strategic resources as heavy industrialization of the 21st century sets in.
As the scramble for oil (a limited resource) rages on, the eyes are now widely focused onto the alternative sources of energy. Hence, the techniques such as the Fischer-Tropsch method of converting coal into petrol and the use of ethanol as fuel will be important in future.
The use of solar energy will play a fundamental role. Likewise, the use of nuclear energy will be extremely important for both energy provision and military purposes. Namibia which has a good reservoir of uranium will become a centre of attraction.
While the countries of the North continue to play their competitive and fierce game of energy, the Southerners should not sit and watch. We must adequately invest in scientific research and development (R+D) and explore ways and means of finding other sources and alternative supplies of energy.
Since the modern world economy heavily depends on oil and will continue to do so for several decades ahead, it is extremely important that as much as possible, significant disruption of its flow must be avoided as much as possible.
- Prof. Enos M.R. Kiremire is the Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Namibia.
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