Coming in from the cold

ARTICLE:
U.S. READY TO UPGRADE TIES WITH LIBYA, Middle East Newsline

Another reader writes in to say:

>Moving strongly into Africa... I notice oil and gas exploration (with plenty of 'gushers' found) is exploding all over N. Africa and E. Africa as well as the telecommunications and the services industries. Libya, Egypt, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya...

I am teaching a current events class tonight for CAP-USAF Aux. Cadets: "East Africa's Path to Peace and Prosperity - Jobs, FDI, Connectivity, Security!" Its gonna be a blast!

I have done this type of class twice now. The Cadets perk up and get involved (even hours later they show up with thought or question after question), the parents and Senior officers slide in, participate and suggest topics for future classes. It's all based on looking at current events from the PNM point of view, simple, verifiable and believable. As a suggestion, if you were to write a "A Guide to Current Events Analysis - The Use of Horizontal Thinking" as a High School level textbook, you would create an entire new mind set in our younger people. I know you are strongly focused on the powers that be and soon will be, but a generational shift not impossible and without help - these kids are VERY confused about world affairs. Today's media and political parties, etc, do a wonderful job of keeping the kids ignorant and confused.

Tom says:

More good indication of the utility of Vol. III, which definitely will be a guide to horizontal thinking.

Comments

[Robert Johnson]

Dr Barnett: As a follow up; The Cadets (a very sharp bunch of volunteers to start with) worked up a reverse analysis plan for each country in E Africa:

Peace & Prosperity in the GAP = Jobs = Employers = FDI and Connectivity = Security = "A New World US Military" = Sucessful Globalization = Peace & Prosperity..., and so on and so forth - closing the circle.

Countrys sometimes skipped steps or did them in shades of the above (surrogate forces etc.) but it was interesting to see where they fell into the formula - constantly moving along within it was a different thing.

Favorite Cadet statements, "Follow the money" and "Look for where the money isnt, thats where it can do the most the fastest." They, as Cadets did not look to the military for the final solution (Yah!) they looked to it as a facilitator of the process.

Africa started out as a very depressing place and then, looked at horizontally it suddenly became a place full of enormous promise, some of it already cooking...

[The Globalizer]

Unfortunately, I'm a bit cynical on Libya, at least US motives. It's little more than a response to China in Sudan as a play at the edges of the Arab world.

If we were serious about Africa, we'd ramp up connectivity efforts in Zambia, Namibia, and Botswana, putting pressure on Mugabe along the way.

[CitSAR]

A quick wires search of the E and N African countries shows a significant amount of FDI is already flowing.

Although a huge amount is oil and gas related, its coming from Russia, Europe, US and Asia - basically everywhere. The item that really hit me was the huge jump in mid-east and E African communications infrastructure investment. I think that speaks to a verifiable and positive pattern of development - a real catalyst. Way more than I expected to see.