The thing that I don't understand is how people, and I count myself as part of this group, can look in the mirror and claim to be a good person and yet do nothing to end the suffering of people anywhere. Thirteen years ago the world sat back and watched as a genocide occured in Rwanda and did nothing but offer platitudes and appologies for the fact that we did nothing to end the attrocities that were occuring. After the killing was finished we stood upon our soapbox and decried the violence and told the world that this would not happen again, not on our watch. Well guess what we are a bunch of liars.
For nearly four years the systematic murder, rape and destruction of the black African tribes of the Darfur region of the Sudan has been occuring at the hands of the Janjaweed. We see the pictures, we hear the stories and we shed a tear or offer up a moment of prayer and then worry about not having an iPod or where we are going on Friday night. If these people were white would we care more? Would we do something then? Is our lack of caring, our lack of a response a racist response?
Sure it is easy to throw up our hands and ask 'what can I do? I'm nobody. I have no power.' and then change the discussion towards what happened on the latest episode of Survivor. But that is a real question, an important question. What can we do? The current state of the world dictates that action of this nature has to come from a nation, a nation responsible to its people. This necesitates that we as a people stand up and tell our governments to stand up and end the genocide.
I can understand to some extent why people have been hesitant to enter the fray in Darfur. Its really a no win situation from a public relations stand point. When the US and other countries sent in troops to end the violence in Ethiopia they were vilified for either their actions or their inaction. They were vilified as colonial powers enforcing their will on the African people. So when Rwanda was going up in flames, the powers sat back and were vilified for doing nothing and allowing the genocide to occur. Then they went into Kosovo in a limited manner and were vilified for either not doing enough or doing things the wrong way. If the west (Canada, America, Britain, France, Germany, etc.) were to send troops into Darfur, what would happen? What would China's response be? What would Russia's response be? Should we even be concerned with such things considering the attrocities that are being committed?
I guess I'm not too suprised by the level of inaction concerning Darfur. One only needs to walk down the streets of any western city to see the level of apathy we have for people. The richest countries in the world allow their own people to starve and go homeless. We are a society of me, me, me, me, me. A society of me, myself and I. There is no room for you or you or you. If I had to care about strangers that might force me to change, that might force me to sacrifice, that might force me to put someone else's concerns ahead of my own. I recently read the book Old Turtle and the Broken Truth to a grade four class and talked about things such as empathy, compassion, and understanding. We talked about how even though we may have different coloured skin or have different ways of doing things but that doesn't change the fact that we are all people and as such we need to care for one another. We talked about the golden rule. If 9 year old children can understand such things why can't we as adults?
It's complicated. The Sudanese government doesn't want us there. It's half a world away. I know all of these things but sometimes we need to stand up and do what is right, simply because it is right and bear the consequences as best we can. So I call upon you to educate yourself concerning Darfur. I call upon you to contact your political representative and tell them to do what is right for the people of Darfur and for humanity. I call upon you to make your will known with your pocketbook and boycott the Beijing olympics and to put pressure on those who wish to make money on the genocide in Darfur (namely the tv companies that will be broadcasting the olympics) to end their relationship with the Beijing olympics until Beijing uses its finanical clout to pressure the Sudanese government to end the genocide. I call on you to help spread the word an to educate those around you concerning this issue and to how they too can help to make a difference.
I call on you, and me, to do what is right simply because it is the right thing to do.
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