The Borders We Share: A New Way to Fix a Broken World
Section 2: Oil and Dust Disputes (Posts 7-12)
Post #8: Laputa’s Wells, Saudi Sands: Oil Beyond One Flag
The Wells That Bleed
Beneath Laputa’s sun-scorched dunes, oil wells gush like dark veins, their flames dancing against a sky bruised by sandstorms. Here, the island’s fishers—kin to Cimmeria’s nomadic tribes—roam inland, their nets traded for spears as they guard ancestral trails now scarred by Ruritania’s derricks. These royal rigs, crowned with gilded banners, pump wealth claimed by decree, guarded by steel and ambition. The clash is raw: wanderers versus lords, trails versus wells, diaspora versus dominion. Cimmeria’s shadow looms, its tribal pride fueling defiance, while Ruritania’s greed drives deeper drills. Yet Laputa is no mere tale—it mirrors the Saudi-Yemen border, a 1,800-km frontier torn by Houthi clashes, 150,000 dead (UNHCR), and oil’s relentless grip. Can rivals share what fuels their wars?
I am Dr. Jorge Emilio Núñez—Dr. Jorge to you—and welcome to Section 2: Oil and Dust Disputes, where we chase resources that ignite strife but could forge peace. After Section 1 paired Khemed with Crimea and Sherwood with the Amazon, your voices summoned a council of legends. Today, I call upon Sinbad the Sailor and his vizier, Jafar, as Laputa’s local sages, their tales steeped in desert lore. My friend King Arthur, whose Round Table unites foes, offers impartial wisdom. And Robin Hood, our Sherwood ally from Post #4, returns to champion the dispossessed. My Núñezian Integrated Multiverses—2017’s egalitarian shared sovereignty, 2020’s gritty cases, 2023’s multidimensional lens—charts the path. Let us weave fiction and reality, sharing what divides.
Laputa’s Feud, Saudi Sands’ Strife
Picture Laputa’s inland dunes, where Cimmerian fishers—now nomads led by elder Zara—traverse ancient trails, their tents pitched where wells now stand. These tribes, once coastal (Post #7), migrated inland seeking grazing lands, their diaspora driven by drought and Ruritania’s rigs fouling the reefs. Ruritania’s crown, under Count Viktor, stakes oil-rich sands, derricks pumping millions, claimed by a 1915 edict. Zara’s kin sabotage wells, their spears carving tribal runes; Viktor’s guards burn camps, flares lighting the night. Cimmeria’s kin across the sea whisper rebellion, eyeing Laputa’s wealth. Oil stains the dunes, tents collapse, and trust vanishes. Sound familiar?
Now turn to the Saudi-Yemen border, a volatile scar etched by colonial pens. My 2020 book, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty (Ch. 8), roots this in Britain’s 1820–1971 dominion (Núñez, 2020). London drew lines across the Arabian Peninsula, splitting tribes—Hadrami, Zaidi, Bedouin—with scant regard for their fluid loyalties. Pre-oil, borders were irrelevant; tribes roamed from Aden to Najran, loyal to shaykhs, not maps. The 1930s oil concessions sparked vague demarcations, especially in the Rub’ al-Khali, fueling disputes. Saudi Arabia’s 268 billion barrels (BP, 2020) drive 20% of global supply, while Yemen’s 3 billion barrels tempt Houthi raids (150,000 dead, UNHCR). The 1990 Saudi-Yemen treaty fixed some lines, but Houthi strikes—backed by Iran’s arms (e.g., 2019 Aramco attack)—reignite strife. Tribal migrations persist: Yemen’s 70% rural poor (World Bank) cross borders, echoing Laputa’s diaspora, seeking grazing or refuge. Colonial treaties, like Britain’s 1913 Anglo-Ottoman line, ignored Zaidi clans, sowing discord. Regional powers meddle: Iran fuels Houthis, the U.S. arms Saudi ($100 billion, SIPRI). The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain—falters; Qatar’s 2017 rift exposes fractures (Núñez, 2020). Like Laputa, it’s nomads versus rigs, tribes versus states, entangled in a quantum web where one raid ripples to Riyadh, Sanaa, and beyond.
The Council of the Dunes
The noon sun blazed over Laputa’s dunes, oil wells casting jagged shadows across the sand, their flames flickering like restless spirits. I stood at the heart of a weathered circle of tents and rig scaffolds, joined by a council of legends. King Arthur, my friend from Camelot’s storied halls, stood resolute, his silver crown glinting, his calm gaze a beacon of impartiality forged through uniting Saxon and Briton. Sinbad the Sailor, weathered by a thousand voyages, leaned on a gnarled staff, his robes dusted with the ochre of Laputa’s sands, his eyes alight with tales of shared seas. Beside him, Vizier Jafar, a sage of the island’s lore, clutched a scroll etched with tribal chronicles, his bearded face stern yet thoughtful. Robin Hood, our rogue from Sherwood’s green, lounged against a tent pole, bow slung across his back, his sharp grin promising mischief or justice as the moment demanded.
Zara, elder of Laputa’s nomads, stepped into the circle, her spear etched with Cimmerian runes, her weathered hands trembling with restrained fury. “These wells poison our trails,” she rasped, thrusting a goatskin flask to the ground, its water dark with oil. “Our herds sicken, our kin flee to Cimmeria—a diaspora born of Ruritania’s greed. My fathers roamed free before Britain’s lines caged us.” Her voice cracked, eyes darting to the horizon where tents dotted the dunes, half-abandoned.
Count Viktor of Ruritania strode forward, his gilded armor clashing with the desert’s austerity, a ledger clutched like a shield. “By crown decree of 1915, these sands are ours,” he declared, voice booming. “Our wells fuel empires—your spears bleed our wealth.” He pointed to a derrick, its pipe scarred with tribal marks, oil pooling at its base. “You sabotage progress, Zara, and call it justice.”
Sinbad raised a hand, his voice rolling like waves on a forgotten shore. “In my fifth voyage, I landed on an isle where two clans warred over a spring—one drank dawn, one dusk, yet both thirsted. I bade them share—pipes split the flow, both thrived. Laputa’s wells are your spring.” He turned to Zara, his weathered face softening. “Your goats die—oil seeps into oases, yes?” She nodded, clutching her spear. To Viktor, he added, “Your rigs falter—spear-cuts cost you barrels daily?” Viktor’s scowl was answer enough.
Jafar unrolled his scroll, its edges frayed by time, and spoke with measured gravity. “Before Britain’s 1913 lines—echoes of their Gulf treaties—Laputa’s tribes roamed as one, from coast to dune. Wells block migrations; nomads flee, swelling Cimmeria’s camps. History warns: colonial pens split Hadrami from Zaidi, sparking fires still burning. Share the wells, or lose all to sand.” He fixed Zara with a steady gaze. “Your diaspora grows—half your kin now tentless. A council could fund their return.” To Viktor, he added, “Your oil slows—tribal raids cost millions. Reason bids you parley.”
Robin Hood sprang to his feet, arrow nocked, his voice a low growl. “I’ve seen lords glut while folk starve—Sherwood’s nobles hoarded venison, left us bones. Here, Ruritania’s rigs enrich palaces, while Zara’s kin drink oil. Split the wells’ gold, Viktor, or my bow speaks for the hungry.” He loosed the arrow, its shaft burying in a rig’s scaffold, quivering as a warning. Zara’s eyes gleamed; Viktor’s hand twitched toward his saber.
Arthur stepped forward, Excalibur’s hilt gleaming, his voice steady as stone. “Hold, Robin. At Camelot, I forged peace from chaos—warring knights bent knee to one table. Laputa demands no less.” He turned to Zara, his gaze kind yet unyielding. “Your kin suffer, yet sabotage deepens their woe—oil lost funds no tents.” To Viktor, he said, “Your wealth blinds you—nomads’ trails cradle your rigs. Deny them, and rebellion festers.” He faced me, crown catching the sun. “Núñez, your Multiverses—how do they bind these foes?”
I met his gaze, sand swirling at my feet. “My 2017 framework, Arthur—egalitarian shared sovereignty: all speak, roles fit skills, rewards match toil, the mighty aid the meek. A council zones wells: nomads farm coasts, nobles drill dunes. Oil splits 60-40—fishers fund tents, nobles tech. My 2020 work grounds it in Saudi-Yemen: tribes and states can share.”
Robin snorted, kicking sand. “Tribes trust no crowns—Saudi’s gold blinds, Yemen’s poor bleed. Why heed your council?” Sinbad countered, voice soft as a desert breeze. “Tales bind, Hood. In my third voyage, I shared a ship’s hoard with rival sailors—none sank. Laputa’s oil can lift all.” Jafar added, “Britain’s 1930s lines split tribes, as in the Rub’ al-Khali—Houthi fires burn yet. A council heals scars.”
Zara gripped her spear, voice wavering. “My kin flee—can your council bring them home?” Viktor sneered, “And share my oil? For what—nomad whims?” Arthur raised a hand, silencing both. “For survival. Zara, your diaspora starves without oil’s coin. Viktor, your rigs fall without nomad peace. Núñez’s vision offers a Round Table—speak, or perish divided.”
I nodded, turning to all. “My 2023 lens, Arthur—pluralism of pluralisms—sees agents, roles, contexts beyond linear strife. It weaves quantum threads: one raid ripples through all. Let us build that table.”
The Núñezian Lens: Sharing the Wells
The council’s voices—Sinbad’s tales, Jafar’s chronicles, Robin’s fire, Arthur’s calm—illuminate Laputa’s strife, but it is my Núñezian Integrated Multiverses that forges the path to peace. In my 2017 book, Sovereignty Conflicts, I proposed egalitarian shared sovereignty as a framework to resolve territorial disputes, not through conquest or partition, but through equitable collaboration. This approach rests on four foundational principles, designed to ensure fairness and sustainability. First, every party must have a voice, ensuring that no group—be it Laputa’s nomads or Ruritania’s nobles—is silenced. Second, roles must align with capabilities, so that fishers leverage their knowledge of coastal grazing and nobles their technological prowess in drilling. Third, rewards must reflect contributions, balancing the labor of nomad trails with the capital of royal rigs. Fourth, those with greater means must uplift the disadvantaged, fostering mutual reliance over rivalry. Applied to Laputa, this framework envisions a council where Zara’s kin and Viktor’s peers hold equal seats, governing a zoned landscape: coastal lands for fishing and farming from dawn to noon, inland dunes for drilling from dusk to dawn. The oil wealth, a treasure pulsing beneath the sands, would be split 60% to nobles for their rigs and 40% to nomads for their tents and herds, with nobles’ technology restoring oases and nomads’ trails guiding rig placement. This council would also address the diaspora, funding the return of Cimmerian kin with oil profits, turning flight into homecoming. The dunes, scarred by conflict, would endure as a shared legacy, their wells a beacon of unity rather than division.
This vision is no mere dream—it finds grounding in the real-world strife of the Saudi-Yemen border, as detailed in my 2020 book, Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty (Ch. 8). The 1,800-km frontier, etched by Britain’s colonial hand from 1820 to 1971, sundered tribes like the Hadrami and Zaidi, whose pre-oil migrations knew no borders. Britain’s 1930s oil concessions, followed by vague demarcations in the Rub’ al-Khali, sowed seeds of conflict still reaped today—Houthi raids, backed by Iran, have claimed 150,000 lives since 2015 (UNHCR). Saudi Arabia’s 268 billion barrels fuel 20% of global oil supply, while Yemen’s 3 billion barrels tempt cross-border grabs, echoing Laputa’s wells. The 1990 Saudi-Yemen treaty stabilized some lines, but tribal migrations—70% of Yemen’s rural poor crossing borders (World Bank)—persist, driven by drought and war. A GCC-led council, including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and even Iran, could mirror Laputa’s solution, zoning the border: northern dunes for Saudi drilling, southern plains for Yemeni farming and fishing. Oil profits, estimated at $10 billion yearly (IMF), would fund schools, tents, and grazing lands, easing the diaspora’s plight. The 2002 GCC talks, like the region’s earlier treaties, show sharing reduces clashes, offering a blueprint for peace.
Yet complexities abound—Iran’s arming of Houthis and the U.S.’s $100 billion in Saudi arms (SIPRI) stoke nonlinear chaos, as do the GCC’s fractures, evident in Qatar’s 2017 ostracism (Núñez, 2020). My 2023 book, Cosmopolitanism and State Sovereignty (Ch. 6), introduces a pluralism of pluralisms to navigate this web. This lens recognizes multiple agents—tribes, Riyadh, Tehran, Washington—each with distinct roles: Yemen as host, the U.S. as observer, the GCC as mediator. It spans contexts, from regional oil markets to global trade, and realms, from survival to profit. Unlike linear approaches—Saudi dominance over Yemen or GCC exclusion of Iran—this framework embraces the quantum entanglement of actions: a Houthi drone strike on Aramco cuts Saudi oil, ripples to Yemen’s starving diaspora, and shakes global markets. By zoning wells and sharing wealth, the council tames these ripples, redirecting oil’s bounty to fund Yemen’s 70% rural poor and Saudi’s urban dreams. Meddling powers—Iran’s proxies, U.S. drones—lose sway when tribes and states thrive together, their stakes intertwined.
This solution, born of reason and history, counters the colonial scars that fuel Laputa’s and Yemen’s strife. Britain’s 1913 Anglo-Ottoman line, like its 1930s Gulf treaties, ignored tribal fluidity, splitting kin and sparking rebellions that echo in Houthi fires (Núñez, 2020). By restoring migration paths and sharing oil, the council heals these wounds, offering a model where diaspora finds home, and wells fuel hope rather than war. As Arthur’s Round Table bound knights, so too can Laputa’s council bind nomads and nobles, Saudi and Yemen, in a shared future.
Why It Matters
Laputa’s nomads are Yemen’s tribes, Ruritania’s wells are Saudi’s rigs. The Gulf’s oil powers your world—cars, lights, dreams. This isn’t a tale; it’s a map to share what divides. Next Tuesday, Post #9 probes deeper—Sinbad sails again. I’m Dr. Jorge, crafting this into a book. Join me at https://drjorge.world or X (https://x.com/DrJorge_World ).
References
- Núñez, J.E. (2017). Sovereignty Conflicts (Ch. 6, 7).
- Núñez, J.E. (2020). Territorial Disputes (Ch. 8).
- Núñez, J.E. (2023). Cosmopolitanism and State Sovereignty (Ch. 1, 6).
NOTE:
New posts every Tuesday.
PREVIOUS POSTS:
Blog Post #7: Cimmeria’s Dust, South China Sea: Rivals as Partners
NEXT POSTS:
- Post #9: Laputa’s Wells, Part II: The Entangled Price (May 6, 2025)
- Post #10: Oz’s Emeralds, Gulf Oil: Gems of the Deep (May 13, 2025)
- Post #11: Utopia’s Oil Dream, Nigeria’s Delta: Fairness Flows (May 20, 2025)
- Post #12: Ruritania’s Pride, Iraq’s Line: Dust Meets Dignity (May 27, 2025)
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Tuesday 29th April 2025
Dr Jorge Emilio Núñez
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