By Thomas Gilchrist

“Here in Sudan, we are a liberation movement against this new colonization and we are ready for any battle,” he said, as an emotional audience shouted slogans of support. “We defeated them before and we will again,” a New York Times article quoted today.

The President of Sudan, Omar Hassan al-Bashir is not very happy with the International Criminal Court and the United Nations Security Council, who want to arrest him.

“Sudan is raising its voice. It rejects the hegemony, the colonialists,” he said.

New Colonialism is currently affecting many African countries, and Mr. al-Bashir has no idea what it is.

New Colonialism is the systematic investment in a host country with little or no fiscal return for that country.  It happens in many African countries because a) they need money, and, b) they have land.

In Senegal, where this is happening with the Saudis, the Iranians, and the Chinese, and of course, in part, by the French.   The three former all have money–oil in the Middle East, and industry in China.  The Iranians and the Saudis primarily buy land to farm.  Farming in the desert can be difficult, it turns out, so the willingness of the Vichyian Senegalese government to sell them land on the cheap to strengthen the country’s relationships is a welcome agricultural clearance isle.  The farmers, contractors, and managers, however, are not Senegalese.

China is building several buildings as Dakar continues to expand due to international interest in its location.  Only that China is doing the building, importing both the materials and the workforce.  There are Chinese ghettos in Dakar of workers presently working, or without work (when and if they will return to China, I am not sure, but if it’s cheaper just to leave them in Senegal…).

It’s reverse out-sourcing–domestic outsourcing?–in-sourcing?–granted international companies do business in America–but not like this.  Hyundai and Toyota and Sony have to employ a high majority of American citizens, though I’m not an expert on the laws.  Needless to say, forming ghettos for imported labor would violate labor laws and piss off a few dozen unions [we would burn down their factories].

But New Colonialism is a major threat to the sustainability to developing Africa.  “You’d think that the treaties signed by the African Union would protect them from situations like this,” said one international development consultant I talked to at the Dakar Airport, “but they’re overlooked, and the income is just not reaching African governments or it’s people.” At some point some one will say “Iranian unemployment in Senegal is at 3%.  Senegalese unemployment in Senegal is at 67%.  Hmmmmm….”

All this is part of the continuing process of post-colonial Africa trying to play ball on a Western field when they should be working on their breast stroke instead.

Mr. al-Bashir is obviously insane, and his hydian notion of New Colonialism is not helping anyone.  First and foremost, New Colonialism requires a country to have exploitable financial assets available to Western and Eastern development.

Africa will continue to be exploited by countries with money until they get their act together, à la trade and labor laws.  It’s simple economics.  If there’s money to be made, it will be, regardless.  Until moderate stability reaches his region, however, Omar Hassan al-Bashir need not worry about New Colonialism.

Oh, and nice suit, by the way.

By Brian Barkley

They say that when you go anywhere you’re representing your home town. Particularly, they say that when you go on Study Abroad you’re representing Kalamazoo College, Michigan, and the entire USA. They say that people remember everything you do can and will be expected out of future participants – it almost sounds like they’re reading you your Miranda rights.

(I will take the time to point out that the thing that I like the most about the French language is that it has the word “on” which translates to “somebody” or “anyone.” If English had such a word I would not have just used the awkward “they” and “you” phrasing usually found in post-game interviews with sports stars. There’s a certain fluidity that English lacks from time to time. But I digress)

However what they sometimes fail to mention is that this concept resides on a two-way street. That is, the locals often expect you to share similarities with whatever is in the news about the USA. For example, American bankers and investors were not received with as much fanfare as they had been getting in recent years.

This year we were lucky enough to go abroad at a time where everybody had a new hope for the States. George W. Bush had given the USA a bad name, and Barack Obama, well-recognized as Jesus himself descending from the heavens, had come to clean it up.

The idea was simple: Barack would clean up Washington and give the rest of the world a fighting chance. Yes, everybody wanted to talk to him (I’m sure that somebody near by can tell you which was the first country he talked to on his first day, and which countries were miffed because he only gave them three minutes of his day). Strangely, although the whole economic crisis was a buzz-kill for the entire world, it only seemed to solidify the idea that America was going to change its ways and adopt a style more helpful to everybody else.

We arrived when Obamania re-tied its shoelaces and went for the last sprint, and we left when he broke out his magic wand. The past was a long distance away, and the only thing anybody could see was the sun rising just beyond his outstretched arm. Even with all the bad in the world, I can’t imagine a more positive time.

I can’t imagine going abroad over the past seven or eight years and being George W. Bush reincarnate. I can’t imagine going abroad next year and having to explain to my host family that Obama never had a magic wand; he was just holding a pen the whole time.

I’m not an economist, but I think that it will take a long time before this recession of monumental proportions is gone. And when a country finally finds a way to triumph over its current relative poverty it will be alone in its spoils, no matter what the fair trade agreements or the EU tries to do to save each and every sinking ship in the world. In short, if the USA is supposed to save the world, then it could take a damn long time. I can’t imagine going abroad in ten years and having to explain to my host family that the help is on the way, still in transit.

I am required to act intelligently when I wear my baseball uniform and represent Kalamazoo College. However, I thought that other people – Obama, Bush, Madoff, Gates, Blagovich, etc – were wearing jerseys with “Barkley” on their backs.  

By Brian Barkley

A surprising fact about French people is that they are French. The people I knew through my daily activities at school and at home happened to be more French than most; that is, they were from families who had lived in France for as long as anybody can remember. These peoples’ roots come from a mixture of the Gauls, the Romans, and also Germanic tribes, but everybody is commonly referred to as French now. 

I can say the same thing for myself, my family, and many of my friends – we are all Americans. My family has been in America for several hundred years, and after that amount of time one of my ancestors ceased to be a Scots-Irish, British, French, or German immigrant, and was actually recognized as an American. So therefore I am American.

To the French, however, I was not just an American. I was Irish, also. Maybe a little bit Scots. No, I was not just American, I was something else. Although I am as much of an American mutt as the next American, these French people felt the need to qualify me as something else, as a type of European who had fled and forgotten to keep with the customs of the home country.

Although I am pleased to know my ancestry, I did not like that the French forced me to be a member of the Scottish or the English people. American is American; that’s the beauty of our country. There are no questions asked, even if someone has an accent; every person who lives in this country becomes American after a time, whether they have citizenship or a green card. Meanwhile, second- and third-generation North Africans are still classified as foreigners in French society.

By Joey Kilmer

Well, ladies and gentlemen, the title says it all. Today (Monday) is our last day here on this island. Yesterday the liberal arts group arrived. We knew they would be doing things that we did on our first day, so when they came to a particular lookout, we made sure to be snorkeling in the water down below. Incidentally, it’s the cove on the island where Darwin arrived. Hey, did you know that when Darwin came to the Galapagos (in 1835), he was here for only 5 weeks. He probably didn’t stay on San Cristobal for more than a few days to a week, and he definitely didn’t go snorkeling.

A few days ago I bought an underwater disposable camera. I took some really cool pictures of fish and sea lions. It was a lot of fun, but I can tell I got spoiled by the invention of the digital camera. After like 20 minutes in the water, I looked down at the camera and was surprised to see I had used up 2/3rds of my pictures already.

So I’ve been here for about a week. Here’s what my next week looks like: us ecology kids are going to go on a tour with the liberal arts kids to three other islands: Floreana, Isabela (the biggest) and Santa Cruz. We’ll spend a few days at each and get from one to the other via boat. There will be more snorkeling involved and a bunch of other cool stuff.

Cross-posted on Joey’s personal blog