Death is an important, but factual stage of life. It usually occurs when a person has reached an age where their grandchildren are running around, demanding to be brought for ice cream after dinner and where they get to reflect upon their life with a mixture of happiness and sadness but most of all contentment. Fond memories of a full life are to be stored in their minds – memories of family and friends, their births, their weddings, their funerals.
It is not uncommon for life to end before this envisioned conclusion. In the western world, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and sudden death syndromes are the major culprits in ending life abruptly. We go to great lengths to prevent our early decline from these causes of early death. We exercise, we eat healthy foods and we have regular checkups with our family physicians. This enables us to prolong our lives.
But there are certain places in the world where lives are cut short by war and human rights abuses and where lives are scarred forever. One of those places is Darfur.
We should all be fairly familiar with what is happening in Darfur today. Close to 600,000 men, women and children have died as a result of mass human rights abuses that have been committed by the Sudanese government. 2.5m people have been displaced and 4m people are in dire need of food and medical aid.
The Darfur Peace Talks in Libya have resulted in nothing being resolved due to the fact that seven of the main rebel groups were not in attendance. Even though the Sudanese government announced a cessation of hostilities during the peace talks, it carried out a number of aerial bombing raids and ground attacks during which dozens of people were killed.
This past week, the Sudanese government expelled the head of the United Nations humanitarian operation in South Darfur, Mr. Wael al-Haj Ibrahim. The expulsion arose because of the government troop’s round up of thousands of refugees from Nyala refugee camp. Mr. Ibrahim urged the refugees not to return to their villages and former homes, which was the Sudanese government’s plan of action, because it was unsafe to do so. Mr. Ibrahim was accused of interfering in the internal mechanisms of Sudan and it was based on this that he was expelled.
Again, Sudan has shown total disregard for the operations of the United Nations and appears totally hostile to this global organization. So while we have peace talks, while the UN threatens sanctions, and while the emergency break has been applied to the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force, come February, the conflict in Darfur will enter its sixth year. How will we answer our future generations’ condemnations of our inaction?
As the former US Ambassador to the UN recently stated, “There is a lot of rhetoric from the international community, but nobody has the stomach to do anything about Darfur.”
This past summer, former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others traveled to Darfur to highlight the urgent need for international action to save the millions of lives that are at risk in Darfur. They tried to help, but they failed. The Sudanese government patted them on their heads and told them to be on their way – thanks for stopping by.
There is a great phrase “strategic importance.” What does this mean? Since when should we ignore human cries for help based on their country not being of “strategic importance?” Sudan is part of the axis of evil that the world was told about after September 11th, 2001. We have since been informed that Sudan is part of the partnership to combat terrorism and has become a strong alley in that war on terrorism that seen over 3,000 thousand American lives lost in Iraq and countless injuries to young men and women whose lives have been changed forever.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton bombed Sudan because it was a major sponsor of fundamentalist Islamic terror groups but more specifically because it was giving refuge to Osama Bin Laden. Sudan, a Wahhabist Islamic state, is still a sponsor of terrorism. Part of that sponsorship program is directed towards its own people, those that do not conform to the Wahhabist beliefs of the country’s leaders.
There are countries and multinational companies that are supporting the Sudanese regime. Over the last four years, Sudanese infrastructure has experienced an investment of $10b. Investment and financial companies are investing in corporations that are making billions of dollars, not only in Sudan, but in other conflict areas in Africa. Unbeknown to a great number of the global population, their retirement funds are coming, in large part, from companies supporting the conflicts in Africa.
Now, we all understand that we all want to live a comfortable life. We all need money, for most, there is a need for cheap goods, and we all need financial security. But should we achieve all this through the blood of innocent men, women and children? Should we excuse those companies that are making blood money? If so, are these companies any worse than those that used slave laborers during the Holocaust? Would we have made money from the blood of Jewish children if we knew what was happening to them in the death camps of Europe?
So who can stop the tide of death in Darfur? You can! You can help stop what is happening in Darfur, because if we fail to stop what is happening in this place that is commonly referred to as “hell on earth,” it will quickly spread further than Darfur. The Central Africa Republic and Chad have already become embroiled in the situation in Darfur, with the Sudanese government’s sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, running missions into these countries to attack the Darfuri refugees and local tribal areas.
If things in Africa are to change, the attitudes of those in the developed world must change. The international community is concerned about global warming. But we are witnessing the initial effects of global warming today in Darfur. We have the opportunity to do something about it.
The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the biggest concert of its kind to help stop the horrors that we are witnessing in Darfur. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will be staged in New York and will feature some of the biggest stars from the world of entertainment. For more information, please call me, David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email me at dnolan@iafhr.org. To voice your concerns, please visit our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.
It is not uncommon for life to end before this envisioned conclusion. In the western world, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and sudden death syndromes are the major culprits in ending life abruptly. We go to great lengths to prevent our early decline from these causes of early death. We exercise, we eat healthy foods and we have regular checkups with our family physicians. This enables us to prolong our lives.
But there are certain places in the world where lives are cut short by war and human rights abuses and where lives are scarred forever. One of those places is Darfur.
We should all be fairly familiar with what is happening in Darfur today. Close to 600,000 men, women and children have died as a result of mass human rights abuses that have been committed by the Sudanese government. 2.5m people have been displaced and 4m people are in dire need of food and medical aid.
The Darfur Peace Talks in Libya have resulted in nothing being resolved due to the fact that seven of the main rebel groups were not in attendance. Even though the Sudanese government announced a cessation of hostilities during the peace talks, it carried out a number of aerial bombing raids and ground attacks during which dozens of people were killed.
This past week, the Sudanese government expelled the head of the United Nations humanitarian operation in South Darfur, Mr. Wael al-Haj Ibrahim. The expulsion arose because of the government troop’s round up of thousands of refugees from Nyala refugee camp. Mr. Ibrahim urged the refugees not to return to their villages and former homes, which was the Sudanese government’s plan of action, because it was unsafe to do so. Mr. Ibrahim was accused of interfering in the internal mechanisms of Sudan and it was based on this that he was expelled.
Again, Sudan has shown total disregard for the operations of the United Nations and appears totally hostile to this global organization. So while we have peace talks, while the UN threatens sanctions, and while the emergency break has been applied to the deployment of the UN-AU hybrid force, come February, the conflict in Darfur will enter its sixth year. How will we answer our future generations’ condemnations of our inaction?
As the former US Ambassador to the UN recently stated, “There is a lot of rhetoric from the international community, but nobody has the stomach to do anything about Darfur.”
This past summer, former President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and others traveled to Darfur to highlight the urgent need for international action to save the millions of lives that are at risk in Darfur. They tried to help, but they failed. The Sudanese government patted them on their heads and told them to be on their way – thanks for stopping by.
There is a great phrase “strategic importance.” What does this mean? Since when should we ignore human cries for help based on their country not being of “strategic importance?” Sudan is part of the axis of evil that the world was told about after September 11th, 2001. We have since been informed that Sudan is part of the partnership to combat terrorism and has become a strong alley in that war on terrorism that seen over 3,000 thousand American lives lost in Iraq and countless injuries to young men and women whose lives have been changed forever.
In 1996 President Bill Clinton bombed Sudan because it was a major sponsor of fundamentalist Islamic terror groups but more specifically because it was giving refuge to Osama Bin Laden. Sudan, a Wahhabist Islamic state, is still a sponsor of terrorism. Part of that sponsorship program is directed towards its own people, those that do not conform to the Wahhabist beliefs of the country’s leaders.
There are countries and multinational companies that are supporting the Sudanese regime. Over the last four years, Sudanese infrastructure has experienced an investment of $10b. Investment and financial companies are investing in corporations that are making billions of dollars, not only in Sudan, but in other conflict areas in Africa. Unbeknown to a great number of the global population, their retirement funds are coming, in large part, from companies supporting the conflicts in Africa.
Now, we all understand that we all want to live a comfortable life. We all need money, for most, there is a need for cheap goods, and we all need financial security. But should we achieve all this through the blood of innocent men, women and children? Should we excuse those companies that are making blood money? If so, are these companies any worse than those that used slave laborers during the Holocaust? Would we have made money from the blood of Jewish children if we knew what was happening to them in the death camps of Europe?
So who can stop the tide of death in Darfur? You can! You can help stop what is happening in Darfur, because if we fail to stop what is happening in this place that is commonly referred to as “hell on earth,” it will quickly spread further than Darfur. The Central Africa Republic and Chad have already become embroiled in the situation in Darfur, with the Sudanese government’s sponsored militia, the Janjaweed, running missions into these countries to attack the Darfuri refugees and local tribal areas.
If things in Africa are to change, the attitudes of those in the developed world must change. The international community is concerned about global warming. But we are witnessing the initial effects of global warming today in Darfur. We have the opportunity to do something about it.
The International Alliance For Human Rights, together with Hope for Humanity will stage the biggest concert of its kind to help stop the horrors that we are witnessing in Darfur. The Voices of Hope Concert for Darfur will be staged in New York and will feature some of the biggest stars from the world of entertainment. For more information, please call me, David Nolan at 212.695.7022, ext. 315 or email me at dnolan@iafhr.org. To voice your concerns, please visit our blog at http://iafhr-darfur.blogspot.
.jpg)
Posts
0 comments:
Post a Comment