Four years into the conflict in Darfur, when it seemed things couldn't get any worse, they have. It's been a bad few weeks in one of the world's most troubled zones: the Sudan/Chad border. Consider these developments:
-Inside Sudan the government has been attacking established camps of internally displaced persons in attempts to "re-settle" people back to their villages. The villages are of course totally unsafe and the already dispossessed now live in a state of danger and frustration that is more volatile than ever.
-President Omar El Bashir of Sudan has once again manipulated the international community and forced further delays on the vital deployment of United Nations/African Union Peacekeepers to the region.
-Rebels in neighboring Chad (puppets of the government of Sudan) have "declared war" on France. This is a half-baked attempt to prevent vital deployment of European Peacekeepers to the troubled border between Chad and Sudan.
-The lobby and advocacy movement in this country is now being hailed as "a PR Scam" perpetrated by the US government and the US establishment.
The good news? Perhaps that actors George Clooney and Don Cheadle are to be honored by the Nobel Peace Laureates at their 8th World Summit in Rome next month. One of the Laureates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu explained: "They have brought the suffering in Sudan into the awareness of millions, and have raised tens of millions of dollars to assist the victims of violence there. They inspire us all and show that every person, in every walk of life, can do something to help make the world a better place."
Let's see, with the UN blocked by bureaucracy, humanitarian aid organizations hampered by the government of Sudan, rebels trying to prevent the EU from stabilizing the border, the entire advocacy movement in this country discredited, the abject failure of the news media to give a damn about the issue anyway and on-going malaise by the US government, I guess the people of Darfur must look to Messrs Cheadle and Clooney to save them. It seems we have to rely on actors to make the world a better place. I personally don't want to think what that might mean for the Presidential race, but that's another matter.