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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (62219)	12/18/2002 2:53:45 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

Muslims all over the world seem to be embroiled in conflicts with their neighbors The "Bloody Borders" concept. I don't know the answer either. Not all Muslim Countries have oil, although I guessing at that.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (62219)	12/18/2002 11:30:31 AM
From: Ilaine	Respond to of 281500

>>it struck me today that part of the answer might be oil<< I have been toying with that idea myself, but, take, for example, Nigeria. Nigeria has oil, but it's mostly in the southern part, which is mostly Christian. A lot of the ethnic violence is over oil wealth - who gets the money. Reading about Nigeria reminds me of reading about Louisiana in the 1930's. You've probably heard of Huey Long, the Louisiana populist. He was a US senator who supposedly had a good shot at being elected President, although I really doubt that he had any real chance of beating Roosevelt. At any rate, what you may not know is that Long ran against the entrenched powers in Louisiana that were getting filthy rich off of oil money but allowing all the money to be siphoned away. His rallying cry was "share the wealth!" He taxed oil companies and used the money to build highways, schools, universities, bridges, and hospitals. Pollution from oil refineries and chemical companies was terrible in Louisiana until the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. The air was dirty, the water was dirty, the land was dirty. They wouldn't do a thing about it until the government forced them. I see the same thing all over the world, whether it's China or Nigeria. Human nature never changes. This is why I love the idea of laissez faire capitalism but can't really support it. So when people in the Third World scoff at the idea of free markets, I listen. When Clinton talks about a Third Way and Bush talks about capitalism with a human face, I think they are raising the same concerns I raise.