Under the Sun: Basis of unity

"North-South divide" - this terminology may looks simplistic at first glance - but the state of affairs suggests that the developed countries' pursuance of their interests has been and is being undoubtedly made at the expense of the developing world.

African leaders call for the unity of all african states as a solution to get Africa out of poverty (even though, obviously, we are very far away from it) The South Centre carried the speeches by Khadafi of Lybia and Obesanjo of Nigeria during the Sirte Summit of the African Union in June in its latest issue of the South Bulletin.

In Latin America, the Boliveraian Revolution is going strong in Venzuela. Its impact on a continental scale is yet to be seen but some are optimistic. See Sarah Wagner's Knocking over Dominos in Latin America" - "the good example threat", as it was called by Znet. And of course we would not forget the rum island's decades of sufferings under the embargo of the most powerful state of the world, because of the "threat" it once posed on turning the continent red. You don't have to be a socialist but you have to admit that Cuba probably has the best record in education (and especially in medicine) in the developing world.

And don't forget about the arabs - the calls for unity dated back to the the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, "thanks" to the existence of common enemies which were the colonial powers. Various movements gained momentum and intensified during the european mandates and reached its height before the defeat of the arabs in the hands of israel. Now panarabism exists only in nostalgies.

Pan-ism surely evokes some sceptism. But to unite doesn't mean to be brought under one nation which is afterall a human construct. As long as there is a common enemy (of course there are other things too, i skip it here), there can be a basis for unity, or solidarity if you like - in chinese the two words can have the same meaning - and so the saying goes "unity is power".

I think it's time to take a look at the ancient militarist strategist Sun's book on how to forge alliances and common fronts.