Complexity and Conflict

Picture is of Bob Geldof and President Bush aboard Air Force 1. Article here from TIME is of Geldof’s conversations and reflections while traveling with Bush around Africa. Geldof, as mentioned here, has been extremely laudatory of Bush’s aid toward Africa which is something of which we are conflicted.

Of course, we want to help… Of course, we feel a sense of obligation and moral duty to help those less fortunate than us. Its part of humanity. Its part of the higher calling of most any religion on this planet for the well-off to assist the needy, the sick and the hungry.

But seeing Geldof sitting there reminds us of his own noble efforts back in the mid-80s to “do something” to stem the tide of starvation, sickness and disease which resulted in… truckloads of grain and rice foreign to the diet of the East Africans for which it was intended sitting and staying on the pier and which was held hostage itself by the governments and warlords in exchange for further power.

How does this happen? Don’t our intentions count? Isn’t our willingness to at least attempt to do the right thing amount to some Karmic justice where some fruit is borne for our efforts… at least as much as picking up the phone and dialing a 1-800 number counts for effort?

In Africa, it would appear that Bush is treated as a King. Perhaps that’s the wrong term as many of these people have seen other individuals exert undue influence upon their lives as self-styled “Kings” with disastrous consequences. A “savior?” Even worse, given Bush’s and this country’s own ecumenical sense of the word as it relates to spiritual salvation, self-reliance and individualism. And that in itself presents a danger for further commitment. One welfare state is enough, thanks.

In the article, Bush speaks or spoke of Africa playing no role geo-politically and how, again, aid for Africa is simply doing the right thing. With China’s long reach probing for oil in the Sudan and as a consequence resulting in the genocide in Darfur, how can this be true anymore? And how can we, as the lone global superpower (for the immediate time being) with the military, logistics and resources to affect positive change throughout the world in the face of disease, misery and yes, evil, square that with realpolitik where we turn a blind eye to naked aggression against entire peoples unable to defend themselves?

Its realized that this isn’t a new issue… that these aren’t novel foreign policy concepts just now being introduced. It would seem though with modern technology in T.V. and the internet that tend to shrink the globe, a possible recession looming here (certainly un-funded future domestic commitments), new geo-political challenges and the very simple American demand for financial accountability brings all that we do both here and abroad into sharper focus.

No answers here – just a lot of questions.