The Ivory Coast plunges into civil war... mainly over cocoa. See, apparently 40% of the world's cocoa is grown there, so it represents the main source of income for the country. So when a group of guerillas wanted to stage a coup d'etat, they seized control of the cocoa fields, not the capital.
The government decides to bomb the guerilla-held territory, and at the same time strengthened its hold on the populace by... bombing the French military bases. Why? Well, about 40 years ago the Ivory Coast achieved independence from French colonial rule. So despite the fact that most of its supporters have never lived under French rule, the history is still recent enough to exploit. The government accuses France of helping the guerilla forces, and massive public support swings the government's way.
Fiendishly clever, until you get to the bit where the French and all other foreign nationals are fleeing the country on specially provided flights. Now, I'm no fancy big-city lawyer, but it seems to me that this might be a poor move, economically speaking.
So anyway, now I'm in a dilemma about cocoa and chocolate. It seems like all the foods I enjoy (coffee, chocolate, chicken) begin with 'c' and move on to 'ruelty'.
Posted by phreq at November 11, 2004 04:15 AM | TrackBackThe worlds in an odd place at the moment. Well odd or scary, I can't decide!
Posted by: Emba at November 12, 2004 09:45 AMHiya, Rachel here... I'm too sleepy to make any kind of sensible comment, just thought I should follow through on the drunken Mercury exclamation of 'I found your blog! I should send you mine!'. Because it's less stalkery this way :). I stuck the link in the url box, but if technology fails me (or my innate luddite tendencies come through some more) it's holding_pattern on Livejournal. Hi again :).
Posted by: Rachel at November 15, 2004 09:56 PMThanks
Posted by: Online Home Loans at November 19, 2005 10:07 PM