Why doesn't Africa matter to us?
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“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people could changethe world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I was the guest speaker March 18, 2007 for Social Justice at the Unitarian Church in Newport, Rhode Island. The subject that I was asked to speak on was the Darfur genocide.
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Use Your Voice to Stop the
1 Omar al-Beshir 2 Janjaweed
3
5
7
9 Genocide 10 International community
11 You and me.
What do all of these words have to do with one another?
where a genocide is happening today,
in
The Sudanese self-appointed, President Omar al-Beshir has an ally,
who has been in the business of supporting the al-Beshir regime in order to get
The collaboration of the Sudanese government with the Arab Janjaweed have been targeting the Darfuri people - targeting that fits the definition of genocide - for four years this February.
The international community of governments has virtually done nothing affective to show that genocide is unacceptable.
And all genocide needs
to thrive - is what has been happening. No accountability.
Words with no integrity. Words of care by President Bush have proven to be just words.
You and me. If WE care – what difference can we make?
Plenty.
“We don’t have to wait for some great politician to be our champion.
We ARE the Champion we’ve been waiting for.
Let us Stop Waiting for Someone Else to Make the Difference
Let us STOP “Waiting for the World to Change”.
Get Inspired
By
BEING the INSPIRED
We have been called to be human in the most basic way on this subject.
Where there is a will - there is always a way.
And where there is NO will - there is never a way.
This is not so much a religious principle, as it is simply a virtue of character.
We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers.
I am one person, but I am on a mission. Genocide vs. the human right to live…out … a normal existence - is a passion for me.
You are one person, who I am sure has a heart and a soul
that wants the same thing the Darfuri and Chadian people want –
A safe environment for your family to live.
There are many people in the
There are also, many people in our country - who don’t know the genocide is happening.
Words are all that I have to impress upon you my message, my passion.
Words to move you
inspire you
or possibly be the impetus for you
to be an activist for the Darfuri and Chadian families
that need our attention
and the using of our voices.
You are important. Your heart and your spirit are needed.
Our news media has relegated this
The Associated Press reported that the United Nations stated the following:
and charged that demands for U.N. peacekeepers in
and claims that Zionist groups want to weaken
and that Jewish organizations are behind dozens of rallies.
Al-Beshir has said
He claims that human rights groups’goals are to carve up
and get access to its oil reserves”
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What can you do?
Be informed
Tell others what you know
Contact a
Go online to one of the websites that has been involved in this cause and sign a petition.
- http://www.uusc.org/ link to Drumbeat for
- http://www.Savedarfur.org
- http://www.ajws.org/
- www.sudandivestment.org/rhodeisland
- http://www.genocideintervention.net/
- http://www.standnow.org/ (High School and College Students)
Schedule a Call, an email or letter, routinely - in your calendar and contact:
President Bush
UN Sec Gen Ban ki-Moon
Senator Jack Reed
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
Representative Patrick Kennedy
Representative James Langevin
Most important in your communication is to express why this is important to you
And your RI legislators are working on
Darfur Activists in Providence, Rhode Island
on the floor of RI Senate Chambers waiting for Senators to arrive and talk to them
about their understanding and voting plans on S 87 - Targeted Divestment from Sudanese Companies, that virtually fund the Darfur genocide
March 20, 2007 Rhode Island Senate Before Called into SessionThe *RI Senate Bill 87 did pass with a vote of 33 to 0 ( 2 abstaining)
*Targeted Divestment from Sudan with RI State Pension Fund Investment
23 Darfur Activists (StandNow and Save Darfur) in the Rhode Island gallery before RI Senate called in session where RI Senate Bill 87 would soon be voted on
Make sure your personal mutual funds are not supporting the genocide
Fidelity Co. - Sudandivestment.org
Divestment: Targeted divestment focusing on companies that directly finance the Sudanese
government’s military campaign in
Of the 400+ international companies operating in
the “worst offending” Sudandivestment.org
Many
operate in
Mainly in the oil, telecommunications or weapons - industries
If such companies prove unresponsive to shareholders’ efforts to address their complicity
and refuse to change their behavior,
shareholders then remove their funds.
70% of the government’s oil revenues are spent on defense.
Both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch report that these funds
have been used to purchase expensive military equipment like the bombers
and helicopters used against civilians in
Participate in the Global Days for
Use your voice
Use your presence
Don’t count on others – but be a champion yourself
Your participation is needed
Stand up, stand out
Live out loud
Refuse to be a part of the silence
Silence kills
Refuse to be inactive and complicit about
Let’s …Make…this…the Genocide - That – We - Stopped
Non-profit aid organizations have been leaving
The African Union has never had a mandate to protect,
just to record stories of victims
65 % of the
In the refugee camps the majority is made up of women and children.
Rape of children and women is used as a tool of genocide
The refugee camps are not places of safety
450,000 dead
2.5 million living on sand
under a scraggly rare tree
or a piece of plastic with nothing, but the will to live
A
(Moms around the World Oprah show)
But if things continue as they have been – normal lives will be a memory and nothing more.
Genocide is the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, cultural or any other group of human beings.
Adolf Hitler, a charismatic leader and his followers opened the first camp in
This was 12 years of the world playing their part in silence and complicity.
The international community officially said - NEVER AGAIN - at the end of World War II and Hitler’s regime.
Those two words NEVER AGAIN made people feel better to say them
however what … have … they - in reality - meant?
The words Never Again are meaningless
without quick, decisive and
unquestionable willful acts to prevent or stop genocide.
* Andrew Natsios our US Special Envoy to
It was genocide THIS IS NONSENSE (
Picture this:
It is before dawn and you are sleeping.
Without any reason or warning, you wake up to the sound of planes bombing your house, your neighborhood.
Just then - Janjaweed come in on horseback and camels - pillaging and violently attacking everyone indiscriminately.
Your house and every house on your street, in your town are burning to the ground.
You are farmers with livestock and all your livestock are being stolen.
All of your possessions are being stolen.
You are seeing your father and brothers shot - right in front of your eyes,
your sister is being raped in front of you.
Everyone is running away while being chased. You are scared and have no one – you are running alone in the instant madness.
After days and days of walking you come to a barren land where others are assembled.
You have nothing. They have nothing. But there you are.
With no food, medical help, water, no spare clothes, no facilities.
And now it has been four years that you are living like this.
And you wonder why no one seems to care.
This is western
And our government and the rest of civilization stands idly by.
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There will be two opportunities to see this story from the perspective of the people who are living through it
In a film titled “Darfur Diaries – Message from Home”
Next Sunday, March 25, at the Jane Pickens Theatre at
director/producer/author Jen Marlowe, who will also sign
the book Darfur Diaries – Stories of Survival
April 23, here, at
I also would like to encourage you to see the film that has finally made it to
It is the story of a political activist, who used his voice to be an abolitionist and social reformer.
William Wilberforce, who was a friend of John Newton, who was the captain of a slave ship for 20 years. Once
When William Wilberforce is asked by his friend, William Pitt, who became Prime Minister at the age of 24,
to take on the slave issue,
Wilberforce goes to his friend, John Newton to ask his advice on what to do:
John Newton tells him
“God sometimes does his work with gentle drizzle
Not storms,
Drip … drip… drip
That is what “we the people around the world” have been working toward - to end the genocide in
Please be one of us.
of us.
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We have a moral obligation in this country to speak out against our government's actions if we believe in our hearts that something is wrong or if our government needs to take a stand when it refuses to. That is who we should be and what we should have the courage to live out. I believe - it's an unspoken creed of decency.
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