tt

This Week August 8, 1990. Page M7

FUTURE WATCH

S modern com-

munications,

through new tech-

nologies, operate
@ 54 the speed of light and
radically change the way
people see their nation
“tribe”, many more
countries will be created
during the coming
decades. Flag designers
and manufacturers will
just love it.

Hiiit

DEIOMOrOW

By FRANK OGDEN

Large, land-mass countries,
created through conquests of the
past drafted international bor-
ders that ignored natural
“tribal” boundaries. Such
countries including the
U.S.S.R., China, India, Canada

@and the U.S.A., will fracture.

The results will be many
benefits and a few dangers.

For most countries, existing
international boundaries were
established via military con-
quest. Many of these regions are
undergoing political turmoil
today.

The U.S.S.R. is really 16
“countries”. By the turn of the
century perhaps 40 per cent of
Soviet citizens will be Moslem —
religious traditionalists in an
atheist country. For various
political and military reasons,

the Soviet Union has placed
most of her nuclear weapons in
Shiite Muslim Azerbaijan. With
the unrest there today, it isn’t a
big stretch of the imagination to
see a transfer of such weapons,
in a quick, bold move, to neigh-
boring Iran.

The population of China is
mainly Han-Chinese — roughly
just over one billion of them. But
where are the majority of their
nuclear weapons positioned? In
the area inhabited by six million
non-Hans.

An obvious and as yet unrecog-
nized feature of the recent hype
over South Africa and Nelson
Mandella being “recognized” as
the black leader in South Africa
belies the facts. Mandella
belongs to the Xhosa tribe, one
of the smallest, with about 1.5
million members. Zulu Chief
Gotha Bethulazi, not Mandella,
will decide, when he is ready,
what will happen in that lovely

land. Bethulazi leads Inka-
tha, the political arm of seven
million Zulus. Chief Behtulazi
is an intelligent, well-
educated politician and lead-
er. No one, repeat no one, has
ever conquered the Zulus’s.
Not the British, not the Boers
nor any other African black
tribe. By sheer numbers
alone, not to mention their
superior organizational qual-
ities ( see the film Shaxta
which is fairly true to history
as an example), military disci-
pline and physical and phyco-
logical strength the Zulus ex-
cel. The Impis, legendary Zu-
lu warriors, continually sur-
prised the Bitish during their
occupation of South Africa, by
moving massive armies great
distances overland, with min-
imum supplies, during war-
time maneuvers.

Since the distant past, friction
between the Hindu and Muslim
populations on the Indian sub-
continent has been everlasting.
Since the British took over in
1858, they provided the or-
ganizational structure that kept
the two historically-opposing
factions working alongside one
another. The British departure
in August 1947 uncorked the
genie in that bottle. Pakistan
was created, and then
breakaway Bangladesh was
formed. Now Kashmir is in
revolt, Sikhs hold sway in that

and other areas and southern
Tamils are in revolt at home and
in neighboring Sri Lanka, And
other ethnic minorities by the
dozens want their own “home”.

Everywhere, ethnic groups are
seeking “self-determination”.
They all have new (or old)
dreams and aspirations.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO

- =<

UNION OF SOVIET. UNITED ARAB EMIRATES UNITED KINGDOM

SOCIALIST, REPUBLICS

Colonies, empires and countries
formed by decision, not negotia-
tion, are under attack. It is not
just in the developing nations
either. In America, the burgeon-
ing Hispanic population in New
York, Florida, California, New
Mexico, Arizona and Colorado is
starting to use its clout. In these
areas, the signs of striving
towards some form of Hispanic
“nationhood” are readily ap-
parent.

English-speaking Canadians

TUNISIA,

Asunrise industry — creating new flags

are well aware that their im-
pression of a “conquered”
Quebec isn’t working out the
way our grandparents and
teachers and history books
claimed. Canada will fracture
before the decade ends. Held
together by political and
economic bribery, Canada has

=Ers

SURINAME

‘SWAZILAND. SWEDEN

URUGUAY

UNITED STATES.

always been an artificial nation
buffeted by the unwieldy geog-
raphy:

These ruptures aren't merely
local phenomenon. Nationalism
is now an outmoded concept.
The tide has changed. It is now
easier for a “tribe” to swim
towards independence than it
was in the past to submit to
domination.

Flag designers and manufac-
turers will be in a pennant
dreamer’s heaven.

=
 Butlor_

@® EXTERIOR
Eee SUPER ALKYD

Butler Brothers BUILDING CENTRE _ Einer

BOOKCASES

‘
l] TWO SHELF $2009

a4] FOUR SHELF $43.99

INTERLOCKING
PATIO

READY MIX
: CONCRETE

‘SPRUCE |
2X’ i

ECONOMY
STUDS

@®> EXTERIOR
SUPER ALKYD

PAVERS Reg.4.45 D
With Simulated woodgrain dis Be creative with * TOPPING
: your enuijonment $ A35
s a : Reg. 4.95 a
D es *MORTAR __
FIVE SHELF $59.98 9A 37° El Reg.4.95 “T
ee DESK GYPROC ORIENTED
STRAND
1/2” X 4X8 BOARD
_ eS $6.49 3/8” X 4X 8
DPA LAD 6 a = ’ : = ser sheet
REG$7999 WY = =

12” x 12” |
DECORATIVE |)
SCREEN BLOCKS | [E

TRINIDAD (GRANADAMARTINIQUE

PRICES EFFECTIVE ‘TIL AUGUST 14, 1990