There’s a Genocide Going on out There Folks – Anyone Care?

It may seem remote and “over there” to a lot of people, but if the Katrina tragedy showed nothing else it was that the comforts and liberties we take for granted in America are built on a house of cards.
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I’m sure I was one of tens of thousands of people who read Nicholas Kristof’s article “Never Again, Again?” in yesterday’s New York Times. I’m sure all of us who read it shuddered at the gruesome recounting of the murder of a 2-year-old girl, Zahra, at the hands of the janjaweed militia in Darfur.

Kristof was in Chad a year ago and has opened many people’s eyes to the genocide in Darfur since that time, unfortunately to little avail. Now, he is frustrated and disturbed because the genocide continues.

I have been to Sudan and Chad twice this year to bear witness to this genocide and I have written about it at the Huffington Post and elsewhere. Reading Kristof, I shuddered more than most, because I have seen and heard what he so movingly describes. Today, Kristof articulates many levels of responsibility: the janjaweed milita, the government of Sudan, the rebels, President Bush, and you and me. I would like to underscore the latter level of accountability.

Even at the Huffington Post, for sure an attempt to create a liberal voice in the media, Arianna and others criticize mainstream American media for its obsession with celebrity content over substance. However, I do not see a lot of productive interest in this genocide among the editors and readers of the Huffington Post.

It was amusing to wake up to the grimacing and foolish Preisdent Bush trying to open a locked door in China this morning, and know that 402 readers thought it worthy of comment. I did enjoy and appreciate John Cusack’s post last week. I was interested in Arianna and Cusack’s dinner with Chalabi and amused by the photos of Arianna’s celebrity-packed Yahoo event. But if the Huffington Post cannot make genocide center-stage, and its readers can rarely be bothered to comment on this complicated and appalling tragedy, I would suggest that it is not only 2-year-old Zahra who will be forgotten, but much of humanity.

I am no Kristof, but we must start to do something about this and other genocides if the world is to ever become a better, fairer, safer and more humane place. The Huffington Post and its readers should start to pay more attention and care. It may seem remote and “over there” to a lot of people, but if the Katrina tragedy showed nothing else it was that the comforts and liberties we take for granted in America are built on a house of cards.

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