Diamonds may be known for their cachet as the ultimate symbol of love and eternity throughout the world, but not for the San people of Botswana. Recently, the Botswana high court reversed some of the gains made by the San people in their struggle for land rights when the Judge ruled last Wednesday that their court challenge to allow them access to a vital waterhole failed to meet Botswana’s national regulations. This event follows a series of forced removals of the San people from their land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve by the Botswana government from the 1980s through 2000s in order to make way for diamond mining and tourism. Although Botswana’s San people won the right to return to their ancestral land in 2006, the government has denied them their rights to water since then. In response, the San mounted a court challenge arguing that “the government is discriminating against them by refusing them access to a desert borehole (well) on their traditional lands while allowing a luxury tourist lodge and a diamond mine access to water.”
At the root of this conflict between the San and the Botswana Government is the top-down models of development that are making it difficult for Southern Africa’s San people to maintain their way of life. The sad reality is that despite being peaceful people, modern day life has seen them subjected to violence and forced removals in order to give way to conservation, roads, cities and agricultural farming throughout the region.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
