Sunday's NY Times

Today I bought the Times. I had canceled my subscription after Jim died. He used to do the crossword puzzle in ink.

However, I am heading to the City in April and we needed to agree on a play to see and the Times is the place to go. We all wanted "funny" and we decided on Spamalot. Now it's time to decided where to stay, what else to see, and where to have dinner before the play. But, we have the dates, the place and the play. Good start.

In today's paper, the sports section was about the Yankees. Go Yankees. There was a special Sports magazine section that dealt with everything New York and Sports. Life after George. Another Yay!

In other circumstances, I would have glanced at the headlines and plowed into the good stuff in the back. Today, the headlines pulled me in. "Scorched-Earth Strategy Returns to Darfur."

To be honest, it was not the headline that pulled me in, but the picture below it.

I have been through parts of Sudan that have looked like this. Except, I could not see it from the air. Since my trip, I can now imagine what this village would have looked like before the janjaweed came through and burned the village down.

There would have been families in these huts. Clothes hanging in the breeze to dry, food cooking over coals. Goats and sheep running around. The only greenery, the trees. But, there was life. And in Juba, a sense of peace and moving forward.

Janjaweed are the "fearsome Arab militias" employed by the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The Sudanese army that accompanied them, are not from Southern Sudan. These battles have been Arab versus African. To get a better understanding read the article on line by Lydia Polgreen who writes from Suleia, Sudan.

Another surprise. The role of China. That was totally unexpected. China is a trade partner with Khartoum. The trade being arms. There is pressure on China to pressure Khartoum over their actions in Darfur. China is reluctant. But the Olympics are this year. Might there be a chance that China might respond to Darfur in light of the world's attention focusing on it in 2008?

As if this article were not enough, the Sunday Opinion pages delivered the second blow, in Nicholas D. Kristof's opinion "Africa's Next Slaughter". Oh please, I thought. Not another on Darfur.

While in Sudan, I received a brief, very brief, synopsis of what the year 2011 means in Sudan. In 2011, Southern Sudan could vote to separate from the rest of Sudan and become a separate country. In 2011, the area known as Abyei is to make some determination about their status.

However, Abyei is the place that "the northern government pumps oils from wells it refuses to give up." Abyei sits on the edge of southern Sudan. Abyei is between the rock and the hard place.

Once again, we hear "It's the oil, stupid".

According to Mr. Kristof, if war breaks out in Sudan again, somewhere other than Darfur, it will be here. The sale and use of this oil means prosperity and power to those that control it. I recommend his article.

What does this mean for my four month stay in Sudan?

Nothing, I expect.