Reuters News Service and Reuters AlertNet is holding a LIVE Newsmaker Event “Debating Darfur” at 15:30 Central European Time (09:30 Eastern North America Time). If I have understood correctly online video of the event will be available for viewing later in case you missed the LIVE webcast. Featured on the Reuters Debating Darfur expert panel will be the following personalities:
Ann Curry, NBC News anchorwoman (U.S.A.)
Mia Farrow, ex-actress and UN Goodwill Ambassador (U.S.A.)
Heidi Annabi, Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations (U.N.)
Lauren Landis, Senior Representative to Sudan, U.S. Department of State
Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, Sudanese Ambassador to the U.N. (Sudan)
John Prendergast, Senior Advisor International Crisis Group, ENOUGH Project to Abolish Genocide and Mass Atrocities (U.S.A., Belgium)
Read more about this LIVE web event at the Reuters Newsmakers website: Dealing with Darfur – what’s next?
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O.K., what’s wrong with this lineup of international personalities? Well for one thing, it is not international in scope. Where are all of the journalists and diplomats and politicians and crisis experts and TV & film stars from the rest of the world? Isn’t the Crisis in Sudan an international problem and not just a U.S.A. vs. the Republic of Sudan problem? Where is Germany’s representative, China, Pakistan, The U.K., Malaysia, the Arab League representatives, and so on and so forth?
Let’s see what happens. At least the participation from CJ’s (Citizen Journalists) and online media publishers and blog authors and readers from around the globe should give some international perspective to this debate. In the meantime the refugees trying to survive in the desert heat, filth and squalor, and fear in the camps of Darfur and Chad keep waiting and waiting and waiting and dying and dying and dying while we debate the topic. Ich bitte Dich! Wirklich. Muss dass sein?
It’s been a (very) long time since I have written anything about the ongoing genocide and humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan but today I read this important notice on Darfur at a fellow author’s blog, Grandiose Parlor II. Why have I stopped writing about Darfur? Because I’ve given up on the idea that the so-called “International Community” will actually do anything useful to end the conflict and do what has been so obvious to many people for the three long years of misery and suffering and death:
1. STOP THE GENOCIDE IN DARFUR BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY (Mohamad X).
2. STOP THE GOVERNMENT OF SUDAN AND ITS FINANCIAL BACKERS FROM KILLING ITS OWN PEOPLE FOR OIL AND LAND AND MILITARY SUPPORT.
3. STOP THE KILLING AND HELP THOSE MILLIONS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN AND MEN (what’s left of the men and boys) RETURN TO THEIR LANDS.
4. STOP SUPPORTING THE GOVERNMENTS AND COMPANIES THAT ARE COMPLICIT IN THIS GENOCIDE. HOW?
a. BOYCOTT THE GENOCIDE GAMES IN BEIJING IN 2008. ATHLETES & FANS. NO GAMES FINANCED BY THE OIL FOR GENOCIDE IN DARFUR AND SOUTHERN SUDAN.
b. SEND A MESSAGE TO BEIJING AND MOSCOW AND OTHER CAPITALS SUPPORTING THE KHARTOUM REGIME THAT YOU HAVE HAD ENOUGH.
c. SEND A MESSAGE THAT EVERY GOVERNMENT FIGURE AND FOREIGN INVESTOR THAT SUPPORTS THE MURDEROUS REGIME IN KHARTOUM CAN UNDERSTAND. NO MORE MONEY FOR YOUR COUNTRY'S GOODS. NONE. ZIP. GAR NICHTS! DIVEST IN SUDAN NOW OR SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.
Remember, in the last century alone more than 100 million people died in violent conflicts worldwide, 60 million died at the hands of their own governments. And you know what people said? “If I had only known it was going on. I didn’t know. I feel so helpless and sad.” Well guess what, we know today, and we can stop it. Now!
BTW: What’s the deal on those Pakistani UN Peacekeepers trading “Gold for Guns” down in the Democratic Republic of Congo? Has anybody posed a question about this latest U.N. "Scandal in the Jungle" to Ms. Heidi Annabi of the U.N. Peacekeeping Ops Department? Non? Where is Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on this scandal? Hiding under his desk, again?
Additional Resources and Related Stuff:
Reuters Darfur Newsmaker
http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/newsmakerDarfur
Council on Foreign Relations
Crisis Guide to Darfur (a powerful six-part multimedia special report)
Global Voices Online – African Voices
The Reuters/GVO LIVE Darfur Debate
Ndesanjo's LIVE blogging transcript of the Darfur Debate (Jikomboe blog)
Darfur: The Reality, The Agenda, and the Proposed Solution
Global Voices - Sudan posts (articles by global blog authors)
Black Looks
Blogging for Darfur (with perspectives from African scholars), 05/24/07
BBC News
China says Olympic boycott calls 'will fail', 05/18/07
RSF.org (Reporters without Borders - Paris)
Boycott Beijing in 2008 Campaign
(RSF is not focusing on the Sudan-China-Darfur connection, yet...)
Technorati tags:
Africa 
Sudan 
China 
Darfur 
Genocide 
human rights 
Reuters 
Global Voices 
media 
journalism
2 comments:
And I ask where are the African journalists - particularly those in Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria?
Legislation such as this are needed from members of the African Union:
"On Wednesday May 23, Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed Senate File 1075, a targeted divestment bill which will divest Minnesota's State Board of Investment from companies that support the genocidal government of Sudan. "Minnesotans can be proud that we are taking action to help cut off the flow of money to Sudan's military. We're doing our part to stop the crimes and inhumanities in Darfur,”
Very simple, African people don't trust western media anymore. Westerners are just yelling, shouting, and dancing. They don't possess the ability or influence to settle problems in Africa anymore.
A fine example here...
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