Western Society finds itself gripped by what’s happening in the Middle East and Asia. Every movement, every attack, every threat that occurs in Israel, Afghanistan, Iraq, and North Korea receives the utmost attention from the media, world leaders, and all citizen themselves. The ongoing political and religious dramas as well as their ever-growing body counts and potential for more death truly have everyone’s attention.

As much as it seems that everyone may genuinely care about the well-being of these people who are a world away from us, why is that the continent of Africa, a land of even greater oppression, death, and destruction does not merit such respect and seems to get ignored?

The answer may be that the modernized nations of the world are entirely self-serving in their global interests. All of our combined efforts in the aforementioned trouble spots are touted as necessary to bring about a semblance of peace, ensuring personal liberty for those who have been oppressed for eons. This is only a small piece of the puzzle and perhaps not the true intent as ultimately our actions are intended for our own well-being. It appears that the struggles receiving the greatest attention are those which would have the greatest potential impact on the Western World. The modernized nations really want peace to save our oil interests, prevent the initiation of World War III and crush the Islamic fundamentalism who want us destroyed.

That is why Africa is being ignored. In the whole scheme of things, the Dark Continent has no bearing on what happens in the global marketplace and our daily lives. It’s a sad way for the world to look at things. As they have showed throughout the rest of the planet, the United States, Europe, and the United Nations all have the power to facilitate change in Africa. But, they choose not to exert it.

It is startling that nations who tout their higher calling can turn a blind eye to what’s happening there. The atrocities taking place in Sudan’s Darfur region far rival what is occurring in the Middle East. In three short years, government-funded militias intent on genocide and ethnic cleansing have caused the death of 400,000 people and demolished countless villages which have displaced another 2.5 million, initiating vast starvation and creating the possibility of a death toll that may exceed 1 million in the next dozen months.

As this continues to occur, few nations have raised worthwhile protests and no nation has deployed military might necessary to save these people. The UN, the world’s supposed peacekeeper, has been slow to react and – despite calling it the worlds’ most important humanitarian issue – has done virtually nothing. Back in May the UN passed a peacekeeping resolution but has not decided on a gameplan for instituting the plan and finds itself ideologically split on how to save the Sudanese.

As the UN focuses on being politically-correct and passive, and the world’s modern nations focus instead on oil, more and more people innocent people are dying daily in Darfur, because true and evil oppression is allowed to reign without fear of reprisal.

The African crisis does not end in Darfur. The continent finds itself possessing 60% of the worlds’ cases of AIDS/HIV and 2 million Africans died from the infection in 2005 alone. Once again, global intervention has been restrained at best, as the UN and the World Health Organization have been suspect in their efforts.

Thusly, due to complete indifference from the rest of the world, Africa is slowly and surely becoming a dead land.

Maybe one day, this all might change. If one was to hazard a guess, one could believe the world may intervene in say twenty years or so. By then, China’s and India’s economies will have developed to glorious heights and they will have lost the low-wage benefit to the global marketplace. That would then leave Africa as the last destination for such a resource.

Then and only then would our global peacekeepers truly care about the plight of Africans, because saving them would create a very positive outcome for the rest of the world from a financial standpoint.

Looking at it that way, one could define Africa’s modern history as strangely being bookended by slavery: The slave trade of the 1800’s sent it into an abyss from which it has never escaped and the veritable slavery of low-wage production may one day prove to be the thing that saves it.