mali!

oh man shit is so interesting over there. apparently the country's got a north and a south. the north's a big desert about the size of france. recently there was an uprising in which this nomadic group called the tuaregs took over the north and claimed it for themselves. this development had something to do with the revolution in libya; gaddafi messed regularly with neighboring countries, using tuaregs as a proxy military of sorts. like right after, though, these islamic militants took over what the tuaregs took over from the tuaregs, so now they're in charge. they've been stoning fornicating couples and amputating hands, and now france has invaded to help out the official malian government. the official malian government, however, is a military dictatorship that's been abducting journalists and beating down civilian prime ministers and not doing a tremendous job of governing. the french had some initial success beating back the islamists but now they're back again. coverage has said like eight or nine hundred heavily armed fellows overran some semi formal boundary between the north and the south and now things are see-sawing. there are like 16 million people in mali all together. western countries are concerned about northern mali ending up like afghanistan, a training ground for terrorists. one does get the impression it's pretty sparsely populated up there, with "tricky desert terrain." but what about these tuaregs?

i've got some questions about all this. how many people in the north are keen on stoning fornicators, or a little sympathetic to it? how many are muslims, at least? what do they think of these "islamic militants?" are they home grown, charismatic fellows, or foreigners with guns who just swept in? whadda people think of the official malian government? does it have any religious aspect to it, or is it ecumenically oppressive? 27% of the men and 12% of the women are literate. is this a situation where everyone's starving and being an islamic militant is reliable work?  the tuaregs, despite being "routed," are still in the north. what to do they have to do with all this going forward? about 90,000 people have apparently already peaced out of the north. what's happening with them? what're the plans for dealing with people still there who want to leave?

i gotta talk to natalie about this. never am much interested in any place until it's a fat disaster.