More Tragedy, More Inaction

Yesterday, as Secretary General Ban Ki Moon congratulated China on the staging of a successful Olympics at the UN's noon briefing, the Sudanese government was staging something too. Yesterday Khartoum hit a new low as it unleashed its forces on a camp for internally displaced persons in South Darfur.

Kalma camp is home to 90,000 people displaced by government/janjaweed attacks upon their villages. Dozens of residents were killed, and more than a hundred were wounded, most of them women and children. Government forces are said to be massing outside the camp today, as terrified residents await a second assault.

We have listened again and again to the United Nations express 'concern' for the horrific acts perpetrated by the Sudanese government, but for more than five years those hollow words have done little to help the people of Darfur. The UNAMID (United Nations Mission in Darfur) force is incapable and perhaps unwilling to protect this anguished population. It is imperative that the international community stand up to the Sudanese regime and end the slaughter. World: where are you? Where will we draw the line?

Comments

[peachfuzz]

The level of uncaring is an exceedingly harsh, shameful reality.

[domorethantalk]

I'm not sure how the posts became about one US political party versus another regarding the problems in Sudan, or what the real point of claiming that the economic relationship between the US and China is the reason that no one has taken more decisive action in Sudan, but if any of you really give a darn about the people of Darfur or any place else in the world, why don't you personally do something about it? I applaud Mia Farrow's attempts to raise awareness about the numerous human tragedies going on there as well as the attempts by others to raise awareness of the conditions of people all over the world. Politics aside - the choice to be an advocate for people is a good choice. The awareness that Ms. Farrow has raised has made a significant impact on the people of Sudan, but there is a ton more work to do. Many refugees in Souhern Sudan are now experiencing peace and I am excited to get to help in the rebuilding process by helping supply clothes, medical supplies, hygiene products and food

[UltraClassic]

Mia, I always read your posts on DarFur. I respect your concern although there are plenty of other places besides DarFur facing senseles violence (like northern Mexico for example).

Mia, you are wasting your time with the democrat party. They have already shown us that in their play book, nothing is worth fighting for. Obama is going to win, the democrats will increase numbers in the house and senate, and trust me, beyond a few meaningless speeches and maybe a rock concert here and there, nothing is going to be done about DarFur, not by the current crowd that is about to take control.

[Tayo]

I wish I could disagree with you, but unfotunately I cannot. I have the feeling you would be proved right. It's not a cheering thought.

[GrainOSand]

What is the suggestion? What can individual citizens do short of raising a private army and flying to Darfur ourselves and shedding blood and life for the cause? Most are not willing to do that, and writing a check does not seem to be helping. One thing is certain the GOP has never ventured to be concerned about anything that resembled the people of Darfur unless it was for purposes of political expedience. I will slightly doff my hat to Bush for the aid to Africa concerning AIDS, but with little enthusiasm. Reagan drug his feet on Mandela, McCain opposed a simple holiday to commemorate one of the greatest Americans (though many only pay lip service to this and really miss just how great King was). Nixon was not about law and order but about phraseology that calmed the fears of certain folks that he would be hard on the darkies. The GOP is the Ghastly Overtly Prejudiced Party.

The Democrats will do what they will do and I aim to give them a chance. The verdict has long since been in on McCain regarding his heart. I trust no politician and I trust the GOP less. If the GOP wins that is fine, for in that result is a solution for self-defeating stupidity. Thus the process is a self-correcting process.

[jeanrenoir]

As in the 1930s, in which the pacifism engendered in Western elites by the terrible waste of WWI had the ironic effect of making the elites so devoted to "peace" that they failed to stop Hitler, WWII, or the Holocaust, our era, bedeviled by the "pacifism" engendered in the West by the Vietnam era, has been tragically complicit--in Rwanda, for years in Kosovo, and now in Darfur--in genocidal wars against minority populations which can only be stopped by military intervention and, necessarily, the willingness to kill significant numbers of killers in order to save much, much larger numbers of innocents. In the 30s and now, the West is simply morally confused, and millions die as a result. It's perfectly ironic symbolism that the maternal Boomer peace-mother waif to end all waifs, Mia Farrow, seemingly the personification of the urge to pacifism, should now be rightly calling for de facto willingness to go to war, and to kill, in order to save the innocent. Too bad more Boomers can't be converted to her bitter realism about goodness' and justice's need for violence applied in the right way at the right time.

[GrainOSand]

Through inaction the results grow dire, the future grows dimmer, the pain grows greater, suffering spreads, and we become a little less distant from being a lower sort of being. The possibilities of a better world for us all -- in any now where there is an us -- slips further, by each incremental choice and decision of individuals, communities, nations, and organizations of nations. Through inaction, through indifference, through inane negligence of empathy and concern for our fellow person -- we slip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbDU592CP7o&feature=related

[DaOne]

You are absolutely right. We have abdicated any sense of moral outrage at the expense of placating the economic relationship between China and the US.

The sad fact is that there will be no line drawn because it's not in our "strategic" national interest.

The people of Darfur have experienced 9/11 many times over and nobody speaks for them. It's truly despicable and we are all complicit in letting it continue.