Today, In Sudan a young girl was raped while gathering wood for her family, a little baby died from diarrhea, and a mother waited in line for hours at a over crowded refugee camp to receive food rations that in total amount to only 1,017 calories. That's only slightly more then a small size Big Mac Value meal.
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They didn't ask for any of this. For six years, the innocent people of the Darfur region of Sudan have suffered horrible human rights abuses and have been forced from the their homeland into overcrowded refugee camps. Rape, murder, and suffering have become common place in their daily lives. The statistic are so disturbing that most people refuse to look at them anymore. God forbid someone, like me, try to bring them up in conversation.
President Omar al-Bashir, after being indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, decided to change his weapons from guns and machetes to starvation and rape by kicking out some 16 different aid organizations that were vital to the survival of the people.
I have signed countless petitions and started more then my fair share. I have written emails to Senators, Representatives, Newspapers, TV news stations, and Mr. Obama himself. And I have done all of this from the same place that I write this posting. The comfort of my safe, warm, home. There is a elephant in the room and that elephant is the fact that we are failing the people of Darfur and Sudan in general. Horribly.
Though Technology has brought us all closer and though it offers us all with an avenue to learn more about each other, in the case of the efforts to end the genocide in Darfur it has been ultimately a failure. Think about it, without raising our lazy butts from our computer chair at work or home we click a few buttons and add our name to a petition or open letter to the President that asks him to do more for Darfur. We send emails to our Congressional representatives saying that Darfur is important and asking them to make it a priority. We send requests to sign on to same letter or petition to all our friends via email, Facebook and Twitter and within a few hours the signatures are piling up. Before we know it there are 50,000 signatures. How can they ignore all these signatures you think to yourself. Then, as your email/letter/petition gets sent to its target destination, feeling good about ourselves, we go out for a gigantic lunch and curse traffic from our luxury vehicles.
But how much have our emails, petitions, open letters, tweets, or Facebook updates really helped?
The proof is in how our current administration has reacted to the continued genocide and the expulsion of major aid organizations since they have taken office. While the genocide continued and Bashir kicked out the only organizations providing those suffering with any relief, this administration has appointed a envoy that likes use terms like "gold starts" and "carrots" and they have released a overdue and mostly confidential Sudan Policy. Ever wonder what they did with all those petitions and letters that we all "signed" and sent? With one click of the delete button they turn off the issue like most people turning the channel when the genocide gets its annual three minutes of TV time.
Technology has been great at getting the word out and educating people about Darfur but its time for us realize that it is completely ineffective at provoking our government into action. Its time for this movement to go low tech, maybe not completely but to some degree. We need to hit the streets and pound the pavement. We need to line the streets in front of Congress and the White House with hordes of people not asking for this administration to live up to its promises to the people of Darfur but demanding it. We need to pick up the protest signs and remind our politicians that if they want our vote come re election time then they need to listen to the will of the people that employ them.
What happened to the days of bullhorns and protest signs? What happened to hands raised and fists pumping in unity? We need a revival, we need to go old school, shut down traffic and fill the streets. We may feel like we have done all we can but are willing to do what we must?January 19th is the anniversary of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that ended the 22 year North-South Civil war. Its the day chosen by people and organizations around the world to show their support for the people of Sudan. This is your opportunity to help take this movement to new heights. Join an event near you or start one yourself.
Lets stop getting things done and start making things happen.
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