I’ve had a really hard time understanding the Sudan conflict, and I don’t think it’s due to a lack of effort on my part. Media coverage is sporadic and often betrays biases and the issues themselves are muddled by too many groups with too many competing interests. Reading a linear narrative of one Lost Boy’s experience is enlightening, if painful.

This summer, one of my favorite people ever mentioned somewhat cynically that he was safe in his country because Ghana is relatively poor in natural resources. The entire continent of Africa is fascinating to me because it has been forced to remain (like much of South America) simultaneously so rich in raw materials and so poor in technology to process it. The ethnic, cultural and religious tensions having plagued much of the area for so long are so incredibly easy to exploit for material gain and it’s way too frustrating to me to watch the West continue to do just that, decade after decade. But, so it goes, and I think the only way any of us will ever be able to have any sort of impact is through seeking answers on who is exploiting whom and to what gains.

But. How can I possibly hope to sort it out when China’s providing 90% of arms to the Sudanese army while exploiting its significant oil reserves? What’s the point of aid if UN rations are systematically intercepted by the Janjaweed? How can I make a difference when global warming is quickly turning much of central Africa into the Sahara?

I’m frustrated.

I haven’t been able to vote in my life and it kills me to hear how many people around me who very well could are choosing not to out of a sense of futility. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy — we can’t be taking away our own power to make a difference, there are enough external sources trying to do just that already. Our governments can and must act because there no longer is such a thing as a regional conflict.

“There is a perception in the West that refugee camps are temporary.”