It tends to bring virtue-signaled solace to many a liberal mainly concerned with showing off the latest in proper buzzwords. It offers the satisfaction of righteous rage to those conservatives mainly concerned with smearing snowflakes. But much of this – despite the genuine importance of the debates at hand – is theater, narcissistic navel-gazing gone amok. In reality, across the political and social spectrum most people maintain wildly Western – specifically Euro – centric world-views, and Africa still exists in their imaginations as (at best) one grand Sally Struthers-hosted "Save-the-Children" commercial.

Just look at the coverage gap between Russo-Ukrainian hypotheticals in Eastern Europe, and a simultaneous array of actual African disasters unfolding before our (closed) eyes. Now, the crisis in Ukraine is no joke. The thing could kick-off the most egregious European conventional war since Hitler and Stalin locked horns. And this time there are nukes aplenty on both sides. Still, a few caveats seem salient. For starters, thousands of Africans – and even a few Western soldiers – are actually dying down there. Second, the conflicts in question involve – at least tangentially (or in alarmist Washingtonian heads) – some of the same competitors, such as the US, France, and Russia (plus China to boot!). Finally, as in Eastern Europe, the US – and other Western little brothers – bear much of the responsibility for, if not starting these conflict-fires, well…certainly accelerating them.

If for no other reasons (you know besides bountiful dead or starving human beings), here's a brief rundown of the ruckus most of us mostly missed since making – and probably breaking – those New Year's resolutions. It's been nothing less than an Africa ablaze with war, coups, and conflict-catalyzed famine. So much for something new in '22.