Reaganomics, Sudan Style
No matter how long I live here, I still feel like a foreigner. Sometimes I feel provoked to revert to this "other" status, and the emotions it produces are contradictory and confusing. So I was surprised at the purity of my distaste for this article. The author's main theme is the disparity between the quality of life in the capital and the provinces (especially the long suffering Darfur). This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the tone of the article which is self-righteous and condescending.
While The disparities between rich and poor are great throughout the developing world, they are never wider than in the presence of crude oil. It thrusts the economy through the sound barrier and pulls the elite with it, as well as those fortunate or smart enough to tack onto them. This is rounded out by expatriates who are now willing to invest their money - which leaves the bottom 70% of the so of the country in the same position they were in prior to the discovery of oil. Add the other factor, which is the gap between the capital and the provincial towns in most of the developing world and you can begin to imagine how the contrast appears. It is made more poisonous by the proximity of the haves and the have-nots. The situation reinforces itself, like a snake swallowing its own tail, despite the subtle, incremental improvements in peoples' lives (e.g. cell phones in everyone's hands, etc).
All of this is terrible, and you find yourself wondering whether or not to invest in your country or not; whether to be glad for the incremental improvements or decry their effects on the national fabric; and so on. You are angered that the kleptocratic government that has dragged your country into the muck is also the one with the good fortunate to preside over the largest boom in the nation's history; while simultaneously you are pleased that things are finally looking up and that your countrymen can enjoy the things that other people do.
That is not the tone that the author of this article takes. Instead you get the impression that he is angry that the country is seeing a pick up at all, especially in light of the political stance that the United States has taken. On more than one occasion he laments the trade that is taking place between the Sudan and other countries in the Middle and Far East - countries that are currently benefitting from that trade to the exclusion of US companies who are denied access due to the sanctions placed by the US government. "How dare they be doing well, despite our displeasure at their record on human rights?!" he seems to be saying.
"... [Y]oung, rich Sudanese, wearing ripped jeans and fancy gym shoes, sit outside licking scoops of ice cream as an outdoor air-conditioning system sprays a cooling veil of mist." Air-conditioning?! How dare they!? That these barbaric Africans could possibly be comfortable despite Sally Struthers' best efforts to comfort them is apparently too much for the delicate sensibilities of the author. As is the revelation that "across Khartoum ... flatbed trucks hauling plasma TV’s fight their way through thickening traffic". With an example like the US where not one tv, plasma or otherwise, was bought during the Katrina fiasco (remember that?), how could the Sudanese fail to do the right thing?
What makes it all so galling is that I find myself defending the very regime which I detest. Yet I feel I must, because of the hypocrisy of articles like this.