PRESIDENT OBAMA'S WORDS ~ A TEST ON HIMSELF ~ "If we care, the world will care~If we act, the world will follow
"If we care, the world will care.
If we bear witness, the world will know.
If we act, the world will follow." Barack Obama
April 30, 2006
And is this true?
If we don't care, the world won't care.
If we don't bear witness, the world will know.
If we don't act, the world will follow,
......and won't choose to lead.
With respect,
which one will it be, President Obama?
"If only words could heal ~ and they can play a part,
but we need our leaders to have the political will
and moral integrity to act on behalf of courage
and basic human rights that allow living out
a normal lifespan
with dignity."
Sandra Hammel
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"Incentivize"?
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Genocide needs a leader to continue.
And so do the people who are the powerless victims.
Even if Bashir was telling the truth,
meaning he doesn't have and has never
had anything to do
with the Darfuri genocide since 2003 ~
he has done NOTHING to stop it.
Bashir lies time and time again.
We are waiting for the actions of our honorable
President to match the words
he so eloquently and rightly spoke
when he was a U.S. Senator
and a Presidential candidate.
Some of my past Darfur posts on this blog:Dear World, Just who do we think we are and why...
Calling out our leaders who are-moral pretenders
Why is genocide okay with us? Because it's not us
This is it big event ~ Stand up and be human
Darfur In the News
New York Daily News: Obama Missing Opportunity to Deal with Darfur? Save Darfur, an organization seeking to bring an end to the mass murders in Sudan, urged President Obama to pressure China to crack down on the Sudanese government. The group contends China has the economic clout to squeeze Sudan into ending the killing and allowing humanitarian workers to take steps to curtail the famine among thousands of refugees in southern Sudan. "This is President Obama's first critical test following the release of his new strategy for Sudan," said Jerry Fowler, president of the Save Darfur Coalition. "His leadership on Sudan is essential when he meets with President Hu Jintao. If he does not make it clear that the U.S. is serious about peace in Sudan, it will send a message to China that its current Sudan policy is acceptable." Save Darfur fears Obama will drop the ball on the Sudanese genocide, noting that the issue hasn't received any attention during Obama's trip through Asia.
FrontPageMag.com: Obama's Silence on Sudan. President Obama's recent trip to China presented a golden opportunity to address a crisis that has long confounded the international community: the ongoing conflict in Sudan. Unfortunately, it turned out to be an opportunity missed. Recognizing the importance of Obama's China trip for Sudan's future, 44 members of Congress sent a letter to the president last Friday before his departure, asking him "to make Sudan a priority" in his discussions with the Chinese. "Failure to exert sufficient public pressure on China regarding its relationship with Khartoum will send a signal to the rest of the world that the United States places other interests ahead of achieving peace in Sudan," the letter states. Obama has done little to change China's thinking. So, left with only Obama's strategy of "cookies" and "stars" rather than one of hard substance, the tragedy in Sudan is set to repeat itself.
Sudan Tribune: US envoy discusses CPA with Sudanese adviser. Ghazi Salah Al-Deen, Sudanese Presidential adviser and the visiting US envoy to Sudan Scott Gration discussed today the CPA implementation and Doha peace process to settle Darfur conflict. The US envoy proposed to hold next April only elections for the Sudanese presidency and the post of president of southern Sudan government, as well as state governors. He asked to adjourn the legislative elections to the period of after the southern Sudan referendum. Further Gration suggested extend the National Assembly membership from 450 to 510 seats. The US envoy proposed to the two peace partners during his last visit also to accept the results of the fifth census but to amend the constitution in order to prevent modification of the peace agreement with a number of voters less than 80%. Also he suggests guarantying southern Sudan 30% of the executive power as it is the case currently.
Sudan Tribune: Darfur civil society meeting kicks off in Doha. The consultative forum of Darfur civil society kicked off today in the Qatari capital with the participation of 170 groups in a bid to associate them in the ongoing efforts to end the six year armed conflict in western Sudan. The Doha process started in February 2009 with talks between the Sudanese government and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). However the two parties failed to continue the peace talks after Khartoum refusal to release over hundred rebels sentenced to death. JEM spokesperson Ahmed Hussein Adam told Sudan Tribune yesterday that most of the civil society representatives are supporters of the ruling National Congress Party; he also urged the mediation to include delegates from the displaced and refugees camps. Djibril Bassole, the Joint Chief mediator and Qatari state minister for foreign affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah Al-Mahmoud stressed, in their speeches at the opening session, on the important role of the civil society in the peace and reconciliation process as well as its responsibility to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table.
AFP: South Sudan clashes leave 47 dead: military. Forty-seven people were killed in ethnic clashes in south Sudan's Lakes state region, a military spokesman said on Wednesday. The violence follows an attack on Sunday in which five were killed and a minister in the semi-autonomous south's government was wounded in Central Equatoria state. More than 2,000 people have died in the south and 250,000 been displaced by inter-ethnic clashes since January, according to the United Nations, which says the rate of violent deaths now surpasses that in the western region of Darfur. Many fear the violence will disrupt ongoing voter registration for Sudan's 2010 general elections, the first in 24 years and a key part of the 2005 peace deal that ended the country's two-decade-long civil war between north and south.
standnow.org
USE YOUR VOICE
TO CALL UPON OUR LEADERS
TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT
ABOUT SOMETHING THAT IS VERY WRONG
No More Empty Promises
We are visitors on this planet.
We are here for ninety or one hundred years
at the very most.
During that period,
we must try to do something good,
something useful, with our lives.
If you contribute to other people’s happiness,
You will find the true goal, the true meaning of life.
H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama
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GENOCIDE WILL STOP WITH US
blogfordarfur.org
"The Most Important Office is That of Private Citizen"
Louis D. Brandeis
Comments to President Obama:
202-456-1111 or 1-800-GENOCIDE
Join the Fast for Darfuris
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people could change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
Help - Use Your Voice
1-800-GENOCIDE
NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE
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My Speech
Newport, Rhode Island
End at Washington Square
This is a historical town.
Native Americans
This land was once the homeland of people such as the Wampanoag, Coweset, Nipmuc, Niantic, Pequot and Narragansett. The truth is we stand on land that once had an entirely different social structure than the one that came from immigrants.
Slave Trade
By 1776, several thousand African slaves lived and work in this
In Colonial times, slaves comprised nearly one third of the total town population
with one in three
Jews
When Jews were forced to convert to Catholicism in
and expelled if they refused,
some eventually came to
In the spring of 1658, fifteen Spanish Portuguese Jewish families arrived in
who formed the beginnings of what eventually is the congregation of Touro Synagogue.
The establishment of Touro Synagogue played an unique role in Colonial American History
as well as democracy.
George Washington wrote a letter titled: To the Hebrew Congregation in
Today, we stand here in this historic
In this 21st century we have a Genocide going on
and where is the attention?
On the
who are the victims?
Victims, not only of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,
but of the world’s complicity.
Our being silent is used as a tool in the arsenal of Bashir.
But we gather here to say with our presence
Genocide is Not Okay with Us.
Genocide in our time
MUST Be Noticed,
Must be Reported by our media,
Must have the leaders of free nations use their political clout
To End the
And actually put some meaning to the words
Never Again
Words we love to use
At the languishing end of each genocide that this planet has hosted.
There has been no acceptable genocide.
Bad things happen when good people do nothing.
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Genocide is not only a word, it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race relies on it.
Complicity is not a policy.
Complicity comes from a lack of will.
It comes from an administration that has lost its moral compass.
It comes from a world too wrapped up in its self-importance to stop and contemplate
just what human disaster will we condemn, if not genocide.
Choosing to live in a world where it is okay to murder, torture, rape and starve to death a group of human beings truthfully
means we live in a world with a moral vacuum.
Just exactly when is genocide not okay with us?
Just exactly which ethnic group of people can genocide be used to rid the earth of them
and Just exactly which group of people can we turn our backs on and the definition of genocide fits our values?
A Moral Nation Needs to Stand Up for Right
And Know that Genocide flourishes when there is no accountability.
Stopping Genocide is a Choice.
What does it say about us If We Choose to Allow Darfuri families to live this 5th year of genocide as a way of every day life?
Where there is a Will there is Always a Way
Where there is No Will there is Never a Way
One voice won’t stop a genocide, but that is no excuse to be silent.
We CAN make a difference.
Get on board with we activists who have been working for the last few years.
Join a group. Join my group. Go online to www.savedarfur.org
Don’t leave this up to me
Commit a minimum of 15 minutes a week to doing something to help stop this genocide.
If not you, then who?
Don’t leave this up to me, to the few who have been carrying the torch with so little help.
Get on board.
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400,000 have been murdered
2.5 Million are homeless
We are not told the numbers of rape, including girls as young as 4 years old
We are not told the number of tortured victims, with eyes gouged out and arms and legs chopped off
The story is not being given the attention it should by our media
Let’s make some noise so that they will.
First Genocide with the Internet as a networking source
But this is the FIRST genocide not only of the 21st century,
but in the time of the internet with very affective dissemination of news and information
And it is the FIRST genocide with nationwide conference calls among we activists.
We THE People have power to stop THIS DARFUR GENOCIDE
· Get informed
· Tell your family, your friends, your co-workers, your employees and your bosses about it.
o Your President,
o Your
ü When I met with Rep Patrick Kennedy on 9/11 last fall, he relayed how important it is for the elected officials to hear from their constituents on what issues are important to their hearts. Because it gives them more confidence that what they choose to support will have our support.
ü When I met with Senator Jack Reed, October 10 (the day after he returned from
· Both Senators Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse have just recently signed the Biden-Lugar Darfur Letter to President Hu of
· You see,
· Chinese companies, such as PetroChina and Sinopec, who are in the business of extracting
·
· We can tell President Bush that THAT is exactly what we want him to do.
v The President at 202-456-1111 or call 1-800-GENOCIDE and you’ll be put through to your Governor, your President, Senator or Representative after you put in your zip code.
· You don’t have Freedom of Speech unless you exercise it.
Divestment
· Have you heard of Divestment?
· Divestment from
· There is a nationwide campaign about it.
· The state of
o Insuring RI pension monies will not invest in companies in
· If you go to one of three sites
· You can get an education about Divesting from
o www.genocideintervention.net
v They are all working together on Divestment from
Added after the speech: This is an on-going campaign, so please go to the website and sign the petition. Get your family members, friends, employees, bosses and neighbors to sign the petition. www.savedarfur.org
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The government of
An American Investment Company, called FIDELITY, through its mutual funds, not only has been a major investor in oil companies operating in
Fidelity’s holdings of PetroChina $1.3 billion, making it the largest holder of PetroChina on the NYSE.
Join us and tell FIDELITY to stop investing our money in companies helping to fund the genocide in
To be Clear
The reason to divest is that
………………………………………………….
Rolls Royce pulls out of Sudan - 4/19/07
The British firm Rolls Royce announced its decision April 19 to leave Sudan citing "increasing international humanitarian concerns about the situation in Darfur." Rolls Royce will begin withdrawing from current contracts in
Rolls Royce has been a top target of the Sudan Divestment Task Force movement that I have been telling you about today.
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Time is Up
We Need Action.
We Need Now the Deployment of the already authorized UN Peacekeeping force.
We Need Now the Strengthening of the understaffed African Union force already in
We Need Now the Enforcement of the No-Fly Zone in
We Need Now to give safety to Aid workers in
We Need Now to Increase Humanitarina Aid and Ensure Safe Access for delivery.
These Actions can be found on website after website.
Save Darfur.com is the one I have events that I am working on registered and you can sign-up there to join me in any one of them.
We CAN make a difference.
Let’s be the ones who can say:
WE MADE The DIFFERENCE,
Let’s be the ones who can say:
OUR CONVICTION IS THAT GENOCIDE MUST BE ENDED
OUR VOICES ARE GOING TO BE HEARD
OUR PRESENCE CAN EMPOWER US TO Make Genocide a Word ONLY
in the history books yet to be printed.
Let’s Be the Difference.
I am Sandra Hammel, Standing UP & Standing Out in the Fight against Genocide
I live in Portsmouth
Remember:
1 – 800 - G E N O C I D E
and the website:
SIGN THE FIDELITY OUT OF SUDAN Petition today
Thank you on behalf of the victims of Silence. The perpetrators and governments around the world don’t realize we will not take complicity for the answer to genocide, Anywhere.
Thank you on behalf of the people of
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Eva Cassidy sings Bridge Over Troubled Water
Uploaded by Joner888
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all
I'm on your side when things get rough,
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water,
I will lay me down.
Labels: ACT NOW FOR DARFUR, Basic Human Rights, China and Genocide in Darfur, MORAL COMPASS, Moral Obligation, President Barack Obama, Sandra Hammel ilovemylife, THIS IS A DEFINING MORAL ISSUE
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