pissed off at "The Onion"

I started writing this entry pissed off at The Onion for satirizing genocide, but as I started summarizing the points they made, they kind of highlight the issues nicely: oil, ethnicity, the UN, etc. And while I certainly don't think genocide is a laughing matter, and they crossed the line by having a photo of a billboard advertising the "official machete" of the genocide, they did a good job getting their point across.

You can read it at http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4050

An article on The Onion this week jokes about Nigeria being host to the "2008 Genocides". The whole point of the article is to point out how ethnic strife is on the rise in Nigeria (Christians vs Muslims), all because of, you guessed it, oil, compounded by a dependence on food imports, a volatile economy, and the recent dodgy elections. And of course the recent polio outbreak doesn't help matters either. They discuss how Rwanda is a much better choice than Tajikistan (cuz that conflict may or may not continue) and Iraq ( cuz there may not be an Iraq by 2008). Combine all this with the predictable UN response: "the slow-to-move, ineffectual UN will do everything it can to help shepherd Nigeria into a combined religious, political, and economic disaster of horrific proportions", nd you have a national crisis on your hands.

And, of course, Nigeria will dig its own grave by "defaulting on our $2 billion IMF loan, investing the entire treasury in the overhead-heavy petroleum business, and turning a blind eye to regional guerrilla groups. That'd be a good start. After that, food shipments must fall into rebel hands, armed forces must go unpaid, and the emerging national infrastructure must be allowed to deteriorate." And although the "West" has traditionally turned a blind eye to such ethnic conficts (they occur in a different time zone, you see), this genocide will be difference because there's OIL at stake.