Eric's Beijing Diary

The professor was from South Korea. In his student days, he had been part of the student movement that helped to dethrone Singman Rhee (1960), South Korea's president turned despot.

The two debaters were young Africans. One, a mild-mannered young man from Ethiopia, was defending his country's position in refusing to grant independence to the rebellious province of Eritrea. The second student was a zealot. A bit of a hothead. He was an activist in the Eritrean independence movement. Knowing that the discussion could get heated, Professor Kim repeatedly thanked the two students for their civility.

The place: Monmouth Oregon. Oregon College of Education. During my undergraduate days, among other things, I did a minor in Public Administration. Sitting in Professor Kim's political science class and listening to this debate, I was inclined, as I suppose anyone would be, to focus on the discussion of the moment, and what the odds might be for one side or the other winning out.

That was in the early Seventies, during the civil war in Ethiopia that lasted thirty years, giving Eritrea independence in 1991. But the truth is, they're still going at it. The seemingly endless conflict between these two forces is being played out today in neighboring Somalia, with Ethiopia supporting the internationally recognized federal government, and Eritria supporting the Islamist militia. Strange how some corners of the world seemed to be adicted to endless, protracted conflict.

China has a strong interest in Africa, so conflicts such as this are easy to follow, because they are well covered. I don't think anyone doubts, though, that the current interest in Somalia is largely due to the American targeting of an Al Qaeda terrorist--an attack that was initially reported to be successful, but now seems doubtful. But as China wants to be seen more as an arbiter in these kinds of disputes, I wonder how much attention is being paid to the history behind these conflicts. The Americans got into a lot of trouble in Vietnam because they paid far too little attention to the impact of French colonialism in hardening the resistance movements that would cause the most powerful nation in the history of the world to be bogged down for ten years. We ignore history at our peril.