A view on Sudan

I haven't posted much since the Africa trip, sorry, but work took a little bit of time lately.

I did bounce into this article about Sudan, looks like Universities with investments in Sudan on in companies that do business with Sudan will be instructing their investment managers to divest. Kinda like the forced divestures that took place when the world began to condemn apartheid in the late 80's.

I am on the record that I think the boycott of Cuba is a waste of time. We should be encouraging people to travel there and to trade and email and create so much communication that Castro is laughed out by his own people.

But, there is something to be said for removing financial incentives to the Sudanese government. They should not be able to use any Western capital to continue to take advantage of their own people or these militias. The Southern Sudan government, which will some day become a county, should though have access to financial investment. They are much less militant than the north. This isn't to say they are Western, until you've been there you can't believe how different this specific part of Africa is. They have learned to expect bad government and oppression. It's sad.

So, I say kudos to anyone pulling financial incentives away from the Northern Sudanese government but push those same dollars to the Southern Sudanese entities. In downtown Karthoum they are building a horrific archiectural nightmare hotel that looks literally like an egg. Guess what, if a bank had any guts they would call that loan and get out! Who has that loan I wonder?