I accidentally deleted my post I worked on today, so I'll try to recreate it. I was reading an article in the Economist called "Glittering towers in a war zone." The article discusses an emerging metropolis in the northern region of Sudan called Khartoum (dubbed a "new Dubai"). Sudan is a country with a lot of internal conflict. It also happens to be a huge oil producer. It exports its oil to countries like China, that need more and more oil by the day to meet a growing economy's needs. The problem lies in the fact that Sudan's north wants the oil money, while the poor south is home to most of the oil supplies. The north has sent in foreign oil workers, such as Chinese workers, to tap into the supplies. Unfortunately, the south has gone largely uncompensated for the oil and the surplus oil has haphazardly been dumped around the south, often poisoning the cattle of the south's farmers. This has created more tension and resulted in violence on the part of the south towards the foreign oil workers. The country's problems are compounded by Darfur's situation in the west, where 2 million people have already been killed. Sudan's own president boldly describes the Darfur situation as exaggerated and deems Darfur an "unimportant province."

Although the U.S. has sanctions against Sudan, other countries like China and India are reluctant to express disdain against this huge oil supplier. This shows the hesitation that countries have in making a statement against human rights violations when oil is on the line. Hasn't the U.S. been known to act in a similar fashion in other instances? Our addiction to oil makes it difficult for us to separate energy needs from politics. It is hard for us to take a stand against tumultuous nations that may be harming their own people, when our oil supplies are in jeopardy. If we are able to develop more alternative fuels that actually help minimize our oil dependence, we may feel more free to face up to nations committing wrongs against their own people without worrying about our own energy needs.