Darfur
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Why does no one care about Darfur? A rally yesterday in London only managed to draw 150 people (chronicled here by blogger Lakshmi). The answer, I suspect, is multi-facteted, and ranges from indifference and impotence to cynicism and war/genocide-weariness. And I should know after all, since I am one of the people who doesn’t care. Correction: didn’t care.
I didn’t care (or rather, didn’t act) until a couple of weeks ago when I saw the film Hotel Rwanda, a movie which I had avoided at the cinema because the trailer made it look like an overly-sentimental (and therefore in my mind, less authentic) version of events. I wanted to learn about what really happened in Rwanda–not the sanitized cinematic replay.
As it turned out Hotel Rwanda was far from sanitized or overly sentimental (although it had its moments). And if there is one thing I was struck by as the film progressed and after the credits rolled it was that although an atrocity like Rwanda should never happen again–it was happening again. Not only that but it was happening on the same continent; hundreds of miles north of Rwanda’s mass graves more graves were being dug.
As someone who regards himself as a responsible human being. And as a Jew who was constantly taught “never again” in relation to the Holocaust, I resolved to do something, however small, to voice my opposition to what was happening in Darfur. So I went to the Human Rights Watch website and found out what I could do to help. (Little things like keeping up-to-date with events, contacting local politicians and media, letter writing.)
If you visit the site one of the things you will notice is a list of addresses (for UN and Sudanese officials) you can contact to urge that action is taken. I’ve already written my letter–to His Excellency, President Omar El Bashir, no less. If you really do care then I urge you to do the same. His address is:
People’s Palace
PO Box 281
Khartoum, Sudan
If you don’t want to write the letter yourself but you do want to send one, email me and I will send you a copy of my letter.
(Also posted at btcnews)
