Water Wars? The Damn Dam...

Well, we all knew it was coming, sooner or later.

Unfortunately, the totally disfunctional Islamic government now in charge of the "new" Egypt doesn't know it's ass from a hole in the ground when it comes to diplomacy. Tsk tsk! Yeah, nothing like fundy politicians going on television saying they're go to war with Ethiopia if E goes ANY further with its construction of a massive damn across a portion of the Blue Nile.  Surely Cheops is rolling in his grave (WHEREVER IT IS) right now...

Well, we ain't seen nothing yet.  As the world continues to suffer through more drastic climate changes thanks to the shift in the Jet Stream and the melting of the Polar Ice Caps, to name just a few well-documented changes that didn't just "creep" up upon us over thousands or even hundreds of years but are happening right here and now, within the average person's lifetime, Ha!  If I live to be 100, as I'd planned previously (I'll wait and see how things are going...) perhaps Mars won't look so forbidding to mankind after all...  Meanwhile, I am sure to be entertained by the antics of the idiots in Cairo.

From Yahoo News

'No Nile, no Egypt', Cairo warns over Ethiopia dam

By Shadia Nasralla | Reuters – 1 hour 26 minutes ago

 

By Shadia Nasralla

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's foreign minister, vowing not to give up "a single drop of water from the Nile", said on Sunday he would go to Addis Ababa to discuss a giant dam that Ethiopia has begun building in defiance of Cairo's objections. [Right, dude.  Way to start negotiations from the get-go -- we won't give us a SINGLE DROP OF WATER.]

Speaking to Egypt's state news agency MENA two days after the Ethiopian government flatly rejected a request [? request? More like a threat of war if construction was not halted] from Cairo to halt the project, Mohamed Kamel Amr said Egyptians view any obstacle to the river's flow as a threat to national survival.

"No Nile - no Egypt," he said, highlighting the pressure on the Egyptian government, whose popularity is wilting in the face of economic troubles, to prevent the hydro power plant cutting already stretched water supplies for its 84 million people. [How about reinstituting the birth control programs that were very popular under the former regime, you dildo heads?]

Last week, Ethiopia summoned the Egyptian ambassador after politicians in Cairo were shown on television suggesting military action or supporting Ethiopian rebels - a mark of the threat felt in Cairo from the plan to dam the Blue Nile, the tributary that supplies the bulk of water downstream in Egypt.
"Egypt won't give up on a single drop of water from the Nile or any part of what arrives into Egypt from this water in terms of quantity and quality," Amr told MENA, noting that Egypt has little rain and is effectively desert without its great river.

Speaking at a news conference, he declined to detail the action Egypt might take next but noted Ethiopian assurances that Africa's biggest hydro station would not cut water supplies.

"We have a plan for action, which will start soon," Amr said. "We'll talk to Ethiopia and we'll see what comes of it. Ethiopia has said it will not harm Egypt, not even by a liter of water. We are looking at ... this being implemented."

Countries that share the Nile have long argued over the use of its waters, repeatedly raising fears that the disputes could eventually boil over into war. Egypt, struggling with a shortage of cash and bitter internal political divisions following a 2011 revolution, called on Ethiopia to stop work after engineers began diverting the course of the Blue Nile late last month.

In Addis Ababa, a government spokesman called that request a "non-starter" and dismissed threats from Cairo of "sabotage" and "destabilization", saying attempts by Egypt under its previous military rulers to undermine Ethiopian leaders had failed.

The possible downstream effects of the $4.7-billion Grand Renaissance Dam, some 40 km (25 miles) from Ethiopia's border with Sudan, have been disputed and full details are unclear.

While letting water through such dams - of which Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia already have several - may not reduce its flow greatly, the filling of the reservoir behind any new dam means cutting the river's flow for a time. Evaporation from reservoirs can also permanently reduce water flowing downstream.

Now 21 percent complete, the new dam on the Blue Nile will eventually have capacity of 6,000 megawatts and is central to Ethiopia's plans to become Africa's leading exporter of power.

Sudan, which borders Egypt and Ethiopia and also gets much of its water from the Nile, said it supported the project. [Okay, so where was the Egyptian government when this dam project was on the drawing board, and before construction even began?  Were there no consultations, no negotiations going on before hand -- I don't believe that for a second!]

"The Grand Renaissance Dam brings many benefits and blessings for us," Information Minister Ahmed Belal Osman told reporters in Khartoum.

He gave no details, but Sudanese officials have said the dam will enable Ethiopia to export power to Sudan, a country with frequent outages and one of its closest allies in Africa.
(Editing by Alastair Macdonald, Tom Pfeiffer and Kevin Liffey)

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P.S.  Did I forget to mention that the Islamist government in Cairo probably wouldn't hesitate to start a war it cannot possibly win, if only to rally the populace behind it -- you know, life and death of our country and all that jazz.  An obvious ploy to try and distract the populace from the increasingly deteriorating conditions going on around them around them.  Hmmm, no bread, no problem.  Hmmm, no free-spending average-Joe AMERICAN and ENGLISH tourists, no problem.  Waiting in lines to fill up with adulterated gasoline, no problem.  No garbage pick-up, no problem.  No clean wate rto drink, no problem.  No water to grow our crops -- whoa, now that's a problem...  Hey yeah, Abdul, our government frigging sucks and can't see the pyramids for the mounds of garbage being piled up all around them in the desert, but they want us to go to war over our water rights.  Okay, let's go, dude.  Geez, where is the Hind of Hinds when we need her...

Churches "Built by Angels"

From Yahoo News. (Image: From Sacred Sites of Ethiopia and the Arc [sic] of the Covenant - Bet Giorgis Church, Lalibela) Ethiopia: lifting the mystery on rock churches 'built by angels' by Emmanuel Goujon Emmanuel Goujon – Sun May 31, 7:58 pm ET LALIBELA, Ethiopia (AFP) – The ancient mystery shrouding Lalibela, Ethiopia's revered medieval rock-hewn churches, could be lifted by a group of French researchers given the go-ahead for the first comprehensive study of this world heritage site legend says was "built by angels". The team will have full access to the network of 10 Orthodox chapels chiseled out of volcanic rock -- some standing 15 metres (42 feet) high -- in the mountainous heart of Ethiopia. Local lore holds they were built in less than 25 years by their namesake, the 13th-century King Lalibela, with the help of angels after God ordered him to erect a "New Jerusalem". The monolithic structures are located 500 kilometres (300 miles) north of the capital Addis Ababa. Long a holy pilgrimage site in a land proud of its Christian Orthodox heritage, they are also a travel draw in a poverty-stricken country hoping to boost tourism. The multidisciplinary team of historians, archaeologists, topographers and a specialist in liturgy will spend several weeks probing the subterranean complex to try to identify its origins. Historian Marie Laure Derat, with the French Centre for Ethiopian Studies (CFEE), said "there are several theories". In one, "an Egyptian patriarch was believed to be the source of these structures, another says the 13th-century King Lalibela built the site from scratch." "During the day the king would work with Ethiopian artisans and at night he would 'be helped by angels'. Some even cite a key role by the Knights Templar," she said, referring to one of the key Western Christian military orders of the Middle Ages. Though earlier studies have been carried out, they were generally by lone researchers with restricted access who studied mainly church interiors. Derat said the heretofore reluctant Orthodox church gave the French team carte blanche to probe "the entire site, not just the churches, to understand how the periods overlap and to read history in this open book that is Lalibela." Funded by the French government and Ethiopian Airlines, the team is already certain the chapels were not built in one go. Research chief Francois Xavier Fauvelle said three distinct periods have been identified in the maze of deep tunnels, passageways and chapels, some of which resemble ancient Greek temples. "There was originally a basalt dome under which we found evidence of cave dwellers. Then there was the construction of a fortress with trenches, a perimetre wall and underground tunnels," he said pointing to rocks he said where once part of the defence wall. "The third period was established thanks to an enormous mound of earth about 20 metres high that came from the excavation of the church of Gabriel Ruphael," he said, referring to the chapel some believe was once King Lalibela's residence. "The Ruphael Gabriel church was probably part of the fortress and was turned into a church: the facade was extended, windows opened and a chapel dug out," said Fauvelle. UNESCO added Lalibela to its world heritage list in 1978, a boon for tourism efforts in this country of 85 million where poverty is rampant and agriculture accounts for nearly half the economy. Visitors can already join organized tours of the site. But the bid to shed light on its origins has not shaken the Orthodox clergy and faithful here, who contend that Lalibela arose with divine intervention. "It is God through his angels who made these churches," said Alebachew Reta, spokesman for the Lalibela clergy who insisted "the 10 churches were created in just 24 years." "You can observe that even one would be difficult to build in that space of time. So for us it is God's work," said Reta. "For the one who created mankind, building these churches was not difficult."