PRESIDENT OBAMA FINALLY SPEAKS ABOUT DARFUR. NADAL INTO ROUND 4 in MIAMI
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School in Camp Djabal
Darfuri refugee camp in ChadThe first picture is of the teacher preparing for class on the sand
Pictures from Stop Genocide Now's website at iACT Day 7
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release March 30, 2009
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AFTER MEETING WITH SUDAN SPECIAL ENVOY SCOTT GRATION,
SUDAN ADVOCATES, AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Roosevelt Room
5:24 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Obviously on a busy news day, I wanted us to make sure that we weren't losing sight of something that has been an ongoing international crisis, and that is the situation in Darfur.
As many of you know, there has been a longstanding humanitarian crisis there, prompted by displacement and genocide that has been taking place. There have been a series of negotiations around resolving this crisis in Sudan. It has not gotten resolved, and it is now worsening.
And so I wanted to publicly affirm the importance of General Scott Gration, who has been appointed as Special Envoy to Sudan, to work on a whole host of issues that I think are of importance to the international community and should touch the conscience of all of us.
General Gration is one of my top national security advisors. He's somebody who I've known for a long time. We've traveled together in Africa. He was a close associate during the campaign. And so I can't think of somebody who is better equipped to travel to Africa, the continent where he grew up, and communicate to Sudan a couple of important points: Number one, we have an immediate crisis prompted by the Khartoum government's expulsion of nongovernmental organizations that are providing aid to displaced persons inside of Sudan. And we have to figure out a mechanism to get those NGOs back in place, to reverse that decision, or to find some mechanism whereby we avert a enormous humanitarian crisis.
Even as we're dealing with that immediate issue, we can't take our eyes off the longstanding conflicts in Sudan that have resulted in all these persons being displaced. And that means that General Gration's task is going to be to see if we can reinvigorate the North-South agreement, make sure that it's implemented in an effective way, and that we are also exploring a mechanism whereby we can get talks between rebels and the Khartoum government that could help, once and for all, resolve the Darfur situation.
This is going to be a very difficult task. It will be a time-consuming task. We don't expect any solutions overnight to the longstanding problems there. Fortunately, what's happened in Darfur has touched so many people around the world, and we have seen such an extraordinary mobilization of advocates, many of who are sitting at this table -- we've got bipartisan interest on the part of members of Congress around this issue -- that I actually think that America can speak effectively with one voice and bring the moral and other elements of our stature to bear in trying to deal with this situation.
I can't think of a person who's better than Scott Gration to represent us in this critical task, and I am sending him off with my full confidence. He will be speaking for the administration, and he will be coming back to report to me very shortly about what he's found there and additional steps that we can take to deal with this situation.
So, thank you, Scott, for the great work.
GENERAL GRATION: Thank you, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: All right, everybody. Thank you. END 5:28 P.M. EDT
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From: Ashley Roberts
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 6:10 PM
To: All Staff
Subject: DARFUR ADVOCATES MEET WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, SPECIAL ENVOY GRATION IN ADVANCE OF SUDAN TRIP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: press@savedarfur.org
March 30, 2009
DARFUR ADVOCATES MEET WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, SPECIAL ENVOY GRATION IN ADVANCE OF SUDAN TRIP
Save Darfur optimistic on administration’s Sudan commitment, calls on U.S. to lead multilateral effort to reopen humanitarian access
WASHINGTON – Following a meeting with President Obama and Special Envoy Gration at the White House, Darfur advocates expressed their optimism at the administration’s stated commitment to bring peace to Sudan and reiterated the need for urgent U.S. action to reopen humanitarian access to Darfur. Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler released the following statement:
“The coalition was reassured to hear the Obama administration’s commitment to bring peace to Sudan during a meeting at the White House today with Darfur advocates and congressional leaders. During his trip to Sudan this week, it is critical that Special Envoy Gration convey to the Sudanese government that they now face a fundamental choice as a direct result of President Bashir’s actions. They must choose between continuing policies which have thrown the lives of millions of Sudanese civilians on the fire and have placed Sudan on a path toward greater international isolation, or reversing those policies and reconciling with an international community whose support for Bashir, and thus for Sudan, will only grow weaker as time passes.
“The coalition is also hopeful that Gration will soon travel to key capitals to directly engage with leadership and garner support for multilateral efforts to convince – and if necessary compel – the Bashir regime to reopen humanitarian access and make real progress towards achieving a true peace in Darfur. Bashir’s recent decision to expel 13 international aid organizations has left millions of Darfuri civilians at immediate risk of starvation and disease. With this expulsion, approximately 1.1 million civilians will soon run out of food, nearly 1 million will soon run out of potable water, and 1.5 million will be denied medical attention.
“During his campaign, President Obama often touted the power and necessity of using transformational multilateral diplomacy to address international crises. Ending the current humanitarian crisis in Darfur and bringing peace to Sudan calls for exactly this type of complete and fully resourced diplomatic effort. Gration’s role will be vital and must continue to be supported by the president’s engagement.”
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About the coalition: The Save Darfur Coalition – an alliance of more than 180 faith-based, advocacy and human rights organizations – raises public awareness about the ongoing genocide in Darfur and mobilizes a unified response to the atrocities that threaten the lives of people throughout the Darfur region. The coalition’s member organizations represent 130 million people of all ages, races, religions and political affiliations united together to help the people of Darfur. For more information on the coalition, please visit www.SaveDarfur.org. To obtain footage from the Darfur border region, coalition events, various interviews, and more, please visit the Save Darfur Coalition media gallery at http://media.savedarfur.org. All footage may be previewed in non-broadcast quality and may be purchased in broadcast quality by filling out the purchase request form provided on the site.
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Subject: Meeting with President and Special Envoy Gration
I came away from the meeting heartened by the President's direct engagement. It's obvious he has a lot of confidence in General Gration and that General Gration will have access to the President. All the participants underscored to both General Gration, and then to the President when he joined the meeting, the extreme urgency of the situation. In his public remarks, the President noted the extraordinary mobilization of advocates and the bipartisan interest in Congress (there were a half dozen Senators and members of Congress in the meeting as well). We need to maintain that mobilization and continue to insist on a sense of urgency. General Gration is off to Sudan tomorrow. I'll look forward to hearing his report when he gets back.
Below is from http://www.stopgenocidenow.org/iact/iact7/day7
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Uploaded by iACTivism
Day 7: March 30
Gabriel, Katie-Jay and Yuen-Lin spent their day fasting and visited a school in Camp Djabal where the students share songs from their homeland.Action
Today we are asking you to spend a little more time on your daily action. Write a letter to your leader outlining what needs to happen before we will be quiet and step down from our urgent campaigns. Click here to find out how.Day 7 Action: Write your Leaders
We must demand that our leaders pay more attention to Darfur. We need our MESSAGE to be loud and consistent. Today we are asking you to spend a little more time on your daily action. Write a letter to your leader outlining what needs to happen before we will be quiet and step down from our urgent campaigns. It’s simple - the Enough Project has outlined the policy asks (
Find your leaders:
United States
Canada
Australia Prime Minister
UK Members of Parliament
If you have information about leaders in your country not listed here, please send a comment below. We will add it!
As a default, you can always Wake Up, Brush your Teeth, Call your Leaders!
After spending some time with students and teachers at the one of the schools in Camp Djabal, we gave them a book of letters written by a school in Georgia as part of their Save Darfur Club. We also told them about the Darfur Dream Team Sister School Program. Here are the two letters we were given to bring home with us (with minor spelling and grammar errors corrected).
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March 28, 2009
Dear all members of Save Darfur Club,
We are the family of New Sudan School co-education for basic at camp of Djabal in Eastern Chad.
We hope that all the family of Save Darfur Club is very well and that your health is very good.
We send to your our greetings and regards. If you ask about us now, we are well, but have lost our homes. We were Sudanese citizens, but now we are refugees and this is a very bad thing.
Our friends in U.S.A in Save Darfur Club, I know you are doing very hard work so as to help us in the camp. This is a very good feeling.
Thank you very much for your letters.
*******
28/3/2009
New Sudan School Co-education for Basic
Letter to U.S.A from Sudanese refugee students
Our requests to students in U.S.A from students in Djabal camp of Sudanese refugees:
1. Clothes for the very weak students
2. Shoes
3. Culture and Sports tools
4. Piano and other musical instruments
5. Computers and cameras
6. Dictionaries
7. Forms
8. Libraries
9. Place to play sports
10. Also we need high secondary school
11. Scholarship for teachers and students
Thank you so much for your humanity. We have great confidence in you to help us.
My name is Sulieman Yahia Sulieman, English Teacher in School
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There are two ways you can donate to education in Camp Djabal. If you are part of a school, please check out Darfur Dream Team Sister School Program and their registry for donations.
If you are not part of a school, but would like to send money, you can send a check for USA for UNHCR with SGN/Djabal in the memo line to:
SGN
1732 Aviation Blvd #138
Redondo Beach, CA 90278
We will forward it to USA for UNHCR and make sure that 100% of your donation goes towards education.
Some laughing and some singing, on an empty stomach.
We got to laugh quite a bit today. At New Sudan School, we spent time with students again. I asked if anyone knew a joke. A girl in blue stood up and started singing. The whole class erupted in laughter. I was laughing without knowing what the song was about. The song was in her tribes vernacular. She then translated it in to Arabic, and the laughter in the room got louder! Finally, they told me in English. The song talked about how she “would rather marry an old man, than that white teethed boy with the neck of a camel.”
Also on the video, a boy and girl perform a beautiful duet. It is a song about being respectful of your parents and following their directions. I really liked the voices of these two good looking kids.
If I remember correctly, the classroom that is singing together, are singing a song about going back to Darfur; but, I did hear a lot of songs yesterday, so I could be mistaken about the meaning of that one. I don’t have Bouba around right now to ask him.
It was fun, except for when I asked that same classroom that sang for anyone that had eaten anything that morning to raise their hand. Out of 52 students, only 8 raised their hands. Not funny at all.
Peace, Gabriel
Write to President Obama
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
You can also write to the President at:
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
President Obama can be called:
202-456-1111
or
1-800-GENOCIDE
The White House comment line is available
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. weekdays
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Find USA elected politicians contact information at this link:
www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
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TENNIS
SINGLES
Rafa beat Frederico Gil 7-5, 6-3 in Round 3
Monday, March 3, 2009 in Miami.
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Round 4 Rafa Nadal's singles match
is scheduled to be played on Stadium Court
Tuesday, March 31,
not before 9:00 p.m. USA EDT
He will play Stanilas Wawrinka
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DOUBLES
March 30, 2009
M Lopez (ESP) and R Nadal (ESP) vs B Soares (BRA) and K Ullyett (ZIM)
DOUBLES
Rafa and his friend Marc Lopez had a difficult challenge lined up for today's second round of doubles against B. Soares and K. Ullyett.
The pair had more experience than the Spaniards and at the end they prevailed in two stes, 6-3, 6-4 after and hour and 18 minutes of play. From www.rafaelnadal.com
(Rafa and Marc won Round 1's doubles match, 6-2, 7-6(5), against Brunstrom and Rojer.)
March 31, 2009
STADIUM start 11:00 am
[21] T Berdych (CZE) vs [3] N Djokovic (SRB) - ATP
Not Before 1:00 PM
[8] S Kuznetsova (RUS) vs [13] C Wozniacki (DEN) - WTA
[5] A Roddick (USA) vs [9] G Monfils (FRA) - ATP
[Q] T Dent (USA) vs [2] R Federer (SUI) - ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM
[11] V Azarenka (BLR) vs S Stosur (AUS) - WTA
Not Before 9:00 PM
[1] R Nadal (ESP) vs S Wawrinka (SUI) - ATP
GRANDSTAND start 11:00 am
[7] G Simon (FRA) vs [10] J Tsonga (FRA) - ATP
[4] A Murray (GBR) vs V Troicki (SRB) - ATP
Not Before 2:00 PM
[12] F Gonzalez (CHI) or [18] R Stepanek (CZE) vs [32] F Lopez (ESP) or [8] F Verdasco (ESP) - ATP
[11] D Ferrer (ESP) or [17] M Cilic (CRO) vs [6] J Del Potro (ARG) - ATP
Singles Draw Doubles Draw Sony Ericsson Open Official Site
Watch live streaming (not free)
Try this for free live streaming online at
http://www.channelsurfing.net/watch-wabuk-1.html
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Round 3 Miami Rafael Nadal defeated Frederico Gil March 30, 2009
Part 6 of 6
Uploaded by merikob
Part 2 of 6
Part 3 of 6
Part 4 of 6
Part 5 of 6
These could be removed eventually, as often happens after posted.
Nice Picture of Rafa during Round 3 match - Miami 2009 - March 30
Pictures of Round 3
Rafael Nadal shows his undiminished drive
An interview with Rafa after Round 2
NADAL d Gabashvili
6-2, 6-2
Rafa's original forum before NIKE took over and created a newer forum:
http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=84197
A Fan Website for Rafa
vamosbrigade.com
NOTE
My computer just crashed because of major problems that hopefully will be fixed tomorrow. I am going to post this as is. Thank goodness blogspot had automatically saved my work otherwise I would have nothing at all.
Labels: Bashir, Camp Djabal, Chad, Change, Darfur, Genocide, Gil, ilovemylife, Miami, MORAL IMPERATIVE, Nadal, Political Will, PRESIDENT OBAMA, Sandra Hammel, STOP, Sudan, Wawrinka
posted by ilovemylife @ 6:48 PM
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