Posted on 02/08/2005 8:24:22 AM PST by heyou54
What constitutes a “humanitarian crisis?” Sadly we all know what happened December 26, 2004. What was it? A tsunami left its signature on several nations, killing 226,000 plus people and destroyed countless lives – forever changing unnumbered individuals. But do we know what has been going on in Sudan for the last 20 years?
Sudan, the war torn country of which the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has dubbed “the world's worst humanitarian crisis” is nothing less than that, a crisis. Fatima a 28 year old widow who has fled to Chad with her four daughters and son recalls, "Armed men came to our village. They started shooting and killing people. This is why I had to leave. I didn’t bring anything with me." She lost her husband in the fighting. Sadly this account not isolated, it is almost identically the same account of thousands of other Sudanese. To us, this is horrible. But to Fatima and her countrymen and women, this is life.
Then why are there so many American’s who have never even heard of Sudan, let alone of the genocide in this country? Why does primetime news show us over and over again the tsunami victims, but not the victims of rape and torture in Sudan? Could it be, a tsunami struck in an instant and genocide in Sudan has taken 20 years to escalate? We, are more interested in helping the tsunami survivors because we live in the information age, we don’t like to wait on anything. When we want something we want it now. When we are hungry, we pop something in the microwave and 30 seconds later, we have a meal. Therefore, naturally we would be more inclined to be drawn to a tsunami before genocide.
There are humanitarian agencies heavily involved with helping the Sudanese. However, the international world needs to put pressure on the government of Sudan. They must stop the evil actions being carried out against their own citizens. The United Nations has been sending aid to Sudan for years. However, for some reason Kofi Annan (the Sectary General of the United Nations) is being “soft” on the Sudanese government. If we want to make a long term, lasting difference, we need to let Mr. Annan know we want him to stop the genocide in Sudan. One way you can do this is by visiting www.SaveDarfur.org or www.iabolish.com Now that is seems (from reports) that there were no WMD’s in Iraq, it is safe to say that we went to Iraq to free the people from Saddam. New York City congressman, Charles Rangel has said: “We acted too late to save millions of Jews during World War II. We didn’t act at all when hundreds of thousands of innocents were slaughtered in Rwanda. We have the opportunity now to stop a genocide and we must act.”
Will we wait and only act after hundreds of thousands more Sudanese have been killed, or will we step up to the plate and take the steps necessary to keep this from becoming yet another holocaust?
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