❧❧❧ Whatever you can do or dream, you can BEGIN IT. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Goethe ❧❧❧
❧❧❧ You were born whole, not broken. Sandra Hammel ❧❧❧
I just read the comments about the billboard sign in Missouri (West Plains billboard depicts Obama wearing a turban) that has a message about Senator Barack Obama. There is a picture of the billboard, but I will not post it here. This hatred makes me feel depressed. More depressed about the ugly Americans who write the hate they feel than the financial crisis. Then I read this The Low Road to the White House.
McCain and Palin have taken us down a road that is not helpful. Hillary Clinton started this stuff during the primary season. When I volunteered for the Obama campaign in New Hampshire in January, she was doing it, too. But now, the low lying fruit feels empowered by John and Sarah - their crusaders. The hate that is spewing forth from the McCain-Palin campaign is stirring the pot and it is not beneficial in any way to any group.
There are people who believe what they want to believe. Truth is not a goal for them. They claim to be Christians. I feel confident Jesus Christ would not consider these human beings one of his followers. Their beliefs about Barack Obama are wrong. They claim he is a muslim, that he is for gay marriage, which unfortunately he is not, that he will increase abortions and he will take away their guns and raise their taxes. These things are what they want to believe. But really, what is going on is that they are against Barack Obama for a reason not spoken - so they are clinging to these reasons to make their opinion of Barack Obama legitimate in their mind.
In need of feeling comfort I went to music
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................................................. In the Arms of An Angel Sung by Sarah McLachlan
THANK YOU BARACK OBAMA for being willing to take this bigotry and let the ugly be seen in daylight
................................................. John McCain
Watch The Choice 2008 on air and streaming free online beginning Tuesday, October 14, at 9 pm on PBS. Also, please check local listings for national television rebroadcasts on Sunday, October 26 and Monday, November 3, 2008. Tuesday, October 14, 2008, from 9 to 11 P.M. EST on PBS
Encore broadcasts: Sunday, October 26, and Monday, November 3, 2008
Download free from iTunes beginning October 15, through the end of November.
The lyrics of this song include "I get all the news I need in the weather report"
My reason for thinking of this line is that many USA citizens get their news from places that are frivolous and entertaining....The View, Entertainment Tonight, etc. The line in the lyrics above points to the absurdity in how we don't take seriously how we get informed. If indeed, if we do inform ourselves. Nowadays, there is so much to filter. I have watched the campaign since before it began - following Barack Obama in the news, reading his books. Having volunteered for his campaign, I have seen up close how he manages his candidacy. Politics is necessary. We need people to be our representatives and our leaders. To get quality candidates means someone has to be willing to have his/her integrity and his/her family's quality of life be put through the sleaze grinder.
We can say I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE but that won't fix our mess
We have made this world what it is....one way or another we have done our part. Whether it is that we are not informed or disengaged in our democracy, or we have turned the other way when our elected politicians have been given license by our complicity to reek havoc on our U.S. Constitutional rights and our laissez-faire oversight. Whether we have allowed ourselves to be spoiled and only look as far as our borders, I think it is not an overstatement to say we have a mess on our hands. And no leader can save us without our engagement. We expect everything to fix itself by our complaining, blaming our leaders and not making some tough resolute decisions as individuals who are a nation.
I think it is silly to complain that Sarah Palin isn't being treated fairly by the press. She hardly has been allowed to answer questions by the press. We are being asked to vote for someone who we don't know.
Barack Obama has run an extraordinary campaign. And John McCain hasn't.
And yet, we continue to hear that John McCain has more experience to lead than Barack Obama. Lead what? He hasn't led his campaign well. He has been all over the place with his off-the-hip statements on this Bush bailout. This is no maverick. This is a shoot-off-the-mouth before thinking style. Some may call it "maverick". I call it juvenile.
You know that question "What would Jesus do?" Well, "What would Sarah do?" if she were leading us out of this bailout and the Iraq war? And how would we have any idea of knowing? We don't. Because we have so little idea of who she is and how she governs. If we are to vote for her based on John McCain's selection, i.e. trust his judgment, then well, I don't think that would be smart.
I spend more time on research on buying a televsion, a car than we have been allowed to do on Sarah Palin. Well, I have access to this internet and have done my homework, but most USA citizens want to be spoon fed. I have read and heard so many times that Barack Obama hasn't told them what he is going to do with the economy or whatever else subject, but the very person saying that has done no research on Senator Obama's stands. I have. It is there.
And no one could have a detailed plan that the average get-me-through-the-day USA citizen would sit still for about this ecomony disaster. Besides no one worth his or her salt would spell out a detailed plan because there is so much that is unknown from a President's need-to-know position to do that intelligently. This mess didn't just crop up - it is deep and it has a covert information that must be known first.
Besides that, the average American can't handle the truth, in my opinion. We don't want to hear the truth.
Raise taxes? It is my understanding that we have already bailed out (during the Bush haze and daze) to the tune of $25 Billion $85 Billion $ 200 Billion and this $700 Billion will be more like $ One Trillion
Do you know how much the Iraq War Price Tag is? Look on my sidebar - it is continually increasing.
I need $50,000. But I have no taxpayers to bail me out. And isn't that the rub?
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............................................... Network - "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore" Peter Finch wins best actor due to this speech Uploaded by conserv8
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............................................... Somewhere Over the Rainbow Sung by Eva Cassidy from Washington, D.C. Uploaded by CasaLucita
In the second of four installments on how the presidential candidates would lead, Margaret Warner talks to people who have worked closely with Obama over the years about his leadership style and decision making process.
The first seven minutes of the video show several advisers and former colleagues describe Obama as someone who trusts his advisers, encourages unemotional and open debate on issues and makes quick deliberate decisions after that process. He is also described as someone willing to make small concessions if it will serve a bigger purpose.
Continue watching to see former colleague Republican State Senator Steve Rauschenberger add that Obama was a cautious politician who made little effort to compromise with the Republican Party.
"He's very methodical in how he evaluates decisions. He asks a series of questions. He'll engage you in dialogue on the options. And then he'll make a decision. And he doesn't look back at that decision."- David Axelrod, Obama Campaign Chief Strategist
"He listens to various viewpoints. He elicits dissenting views. He weighs those rationally and pragmatically. But then he tends to make a relatively swift and clear decision."- Susan Rice, Obama Campaign Adviser
"We were looking for a Democrat that we could work with and that maybe this was the crossover person that we could get and really make some progress on welfare reform." -Steve Rauschenberger, R-Former Illinois State Senator
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), Illinois: Now, with Joe Biden at my side, I am confident we can take this country in a new direction.
MARGARET WARNER: If you want to get an idea of how Barack Obama would govern at president, look at whom he picked for vice president and how.
DAVID AXELROD, Obama Campaign Chief Strategist: He's very methodical in how he evaluates decisions. He asks a series of questions. He'll engage you in dialogue on the options. And then he'll make a decision. And he doesn't look back at that decision.
MARGARET WARNER: His chief political strategist, David Axelrod, said the choice of the far more experienced Senator Biden was no fluke.
DAVID AXELROD: You know, there were those who said, "Well, you don't want Joe Biden because Joe has been around a long time. He's got a lot of opinions. He's a strong personality."
And Barack said, "No, that's exactly what I want." He's completely comfortable with very bright people. He doesn't mind being challenged. He enjoys it.
MARGARET WARNER: The novice presidential candidate built a formidable campaign organization just that way: with a multilayered brain trust of aides and advisers. Insiders say Obama manages by hiring people he trusts and giving them a long leash. His light-handed management style became an issue this spring.
TIM RUSSERT, Former Host, NBC's "Meet the Press": You said one of your weaknesses is, quote, "I'm not an operating officer."
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: Well, I think what I was describing was how I view the presidency. Now, being president is not making sure that schedules are being run properly or that paperwork is being shuffled effectively. It involves having a vision for where the country needs to go.
A 'no-drama' mantra
MARGARET WARNER: Obama makes the big decisions, but he expects his advisers to speak up.
SUSAN RICE, Obama Campaign Adviser: He listens to various viewpoints. He elicits dissenting views. He weighs those rationally and pragmatically. But then he tends to make a relatively swift and clear decision.
MARGARET WARNER: Susan Rice is one of his key foreign policy advisers.
SUSAN RICE: He makes everybody feel as though their viewpoint has been heard and appreciated. So even if you happen to be on the losing end of a decision, you feel like your perspectives have been valued, which makes it much more easy for you to be enthusiastic in supporting the decision he ultimately makes.
MARGARET WARNER: That has made for an extremely disciplined campaign, where there are few leaks to the media about internal disagreements. Rice says Obama laid down a no-drama mantra when he hired her.
SUSAN RICE: That means that people check their personal histories and their personal baggage at the door. There's no tolerance for people biting at each other, trying to tear each other down.
MARGARET WARNER: What happens if someone violates that?
SUSAN RICE: I haven't seen it happen yet. We'll see. I suspect it won't be well-tolerated.
MARGARET WARNER: Obama's own decision-making, his advisers say, is dispassionate and never off-the-cuff. Former congressman and federal judge Abner Mikva is a long-time mentor.
FORMER REP. ABNER MIKVA (D), Illinois: I have never seen anybody in the political arena who can be as deliberate and cool as he is on decisions. In all the years I've known him, I've never seen him emotionally angry. I'm sure he's been -- I mean, I could tell he was upset at times, but the emotions never went into the decisional process.
MARGARET WARNER: When Russian troops moved into Georgia last month, Obama's campaign issued a carefully worded statement calling on both sides to stop fighting. Only later that day and the next did Obama have tough words for Russia.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: The United States, Europe, and all other concerned countries must stand united in stemming this aggression and seeking a peaceful resolution.
SUSAN RICE: The basic point here, Margaret, is he's fact-driven. He didn't look at the initial reports and view them through the prism of preconceived notions about Russia or Georgia.
A blend of principle, pragmatism
MARGARET WARNER: His decisions are a blend of principle and pragmatism, as evidenced by his stand on the war in Iraq over the past five years.
His campaign likes to point to a speech then-State Senator Obama gave in October 2002 arguing against going to war. Long-time friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett says it was an example of his boldness and prescience.
VALERIE JARRETT, Obama Campaign Adviser: At the time that he took the position that we shouldn't have gone into the Iraqi war, it was an unpopular decision to make. And there were a lot of people around him who said, you know, you're in the middle of a Senate campaign. Do you really want to make a decision that's not going to be popular? Our country is ready to do something.
MARGARET WARNER: But it was an anti-war rally, and he was careful to say he didn't oppose all wars.
And when Obama arrived in the U.S. Senate more than two years later, he did not immediately join the ranks of Democrats demanding an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces or even a fixed timetable.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: None of us are interested in dictating military strategy to the president, but rather to set a mission for the military, and that is what this debate is about.
MARGARET WARNER: Congressional watcher Norm Ornstein believes Obama had an eye on his political future.
NORMAN ORNSTEIN, American Enterprise Institute: This was somebody who was looking ahead thinking, "You know, I might be president. The last thing I want or need is to dig myself into a hole or back myself into a corner. I want to leave some running room here."
MARGARET WARNER: Obama learned the value of pragmatism in his early days as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. Jerry Kellman had hired the 25-year-old Obama to train low-income clients how to push for what they wanted from public officials, but not to turn their nose up at getting something less.
JERRY KELLMAN, Community Organizer: He's tied to the principles, you know, but he's not tied to how you get there. That's very much out of organizing. You're there to do a job, and you're there to get things done. But beyond that, you'll use anything and do anything within the limits of what you define as ethical and what you define as your ultimate goal to get it done.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: I would urge an aye vote.
MARGARET WARNER: He followed the same M.O. after law school, when he took a Chicago seat in the Illinois State Senate in 1997. The Harvard-educated young reformer quickly realized it took more than good ideas to get something done, especially since the Democrats were in the minority.
DONNIE TROTTER (D), Illinois State Senator: Barack is no different than any other elected official who comes down to Springfield with the belief that they can change the world, that, "I'm going to go down there. I'm going to make this difference." Actually, it's shattered.
MARGARET WARNER: Democratic State Senator Donny Trotter.
DONNIE TROTTER: He came down and learned very rapidly that he had to start building coalitions with the other side if he wanted to advance his agenda.
MARGARET WARNER: Obama did just that. He spearheaded bipartisan compromises on a number of issues, including ethics reform for legislators and videotaping confessions in death penalty cases.
Chicago Tribune reporter David Mendell, who wrote a biography of Obama, spoke to us at the Democratic National Convention.
DAVID MENDELL, Obama Biographer: He would always try to bring all sides of an issue, if there were conflicting sides, into the room, into one room, sit them all down, and try to get them together. He came out what seemed to be with respect from both sides.
Political caution, compromises
MARGARET WARNER: Yet Obama voted with his party most of the time, dismaying many Republicans who had hoped for something different.
Former Republican State Senator Steve Rauschenberger was Appropriations Committee chairman. He said his party had high hopes for this political newcomer.
STEVE RAUSCHENBERGER (R), Former Illinois State Senator: We were looking for a Democrat that we could work with and that maybe this was the crossover person that we could get and really make some progress on welfare reform.
MARGARET WARNER: And?
STEVE RAUSCHENBERGER: Most of us were pretty disappointed.
MARGARET WARNER: Rauschenberger also saw political caution in the numerous times Obama side-stepped an up-or-down vote on controversial issues like abortion.
STEVE RAUSCHENBERGER: Well, you know, if you take a look at his record, he has a very large number of "present" votes, which in the Illinois General Assembly are votes which are neither yes or no votes, although they are effectively no votes.
MARGARET WARNER: Meaning what?
STEVE RAUSCHENBERGER: Anybody would be foolish not to recognize him as calculating.
MARGARET WARNER: Biographer Mendell says Obama's present votes and his legislative compromises reflect his clear-eyed view of what's possible and what isn't.
DAVID MENDELL: So he has been willing to compromise and make some compromises in his political career, as well.
DICK CHENEY, Vice President of the United States: Please raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear...
MARGARET WARNER: Obama brought the same style to the U.S. Senate in January of 2005. Already a celebrity from his 2004 Democratic convention speech, he took pains not to upstage more senior Democratic senators.
And he sought Republican allies on narrowly tailored issues, like Senator Chuck Hagel, Senator Dick Lugar, and social conservatives Tom Coburn and Sam Brownback.
DAVID AXELROD: His hallmark, his style of leadership is to try and bring people together. His attitude is, "We may disagree on 90 percent of what we - of issues, but on those 10 percent, how do we work together and move things forward?"
MARGARET WARNER: Yet he was no maverick, voting with his own party more than 95 percent of the time.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA: The bill would end all lobbyist-funded gifts, meals, and travel, and strengthen the...
MARGARET WARNER: One issue where he did risk incurring his fellow Democrats' wrath was on ethics reform, says party Whip Dick Durbin, the senior Democrat from Illinois.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), Illinois: When he started talking about going after lobbyists and the way they bundled campaign contributions, and particularly when he went after that sacred cow of the corporate chartered jets and said, "We as senators should pay the full fare, not some special fare," it ruffled a few feathers.
I can tell you, a lot of veteran senators on both sides of the aisle said, "Who is this guy? You know, he's gone too far."
Confidence in his own skills
MARGARET WARNER: In the end, Obama prevailed on both lobbyist disclosure and corporate jets. But the bill wasn't as tough as public interest groups had hoped.
Ornstein says that reflects Obama's willingness to take an incremental solution over none at all.
NORMAN ORNSTEIN: There is a much greater level of practicality and pragmatism than either his own public persona would suggest or than the stereotype of him as an ardent liberal ideologue would.
MARGARET WARNER: And Ornstein thinks he's going to need that if he's elected.
NORMAN ORNSTEIN: He's going to have to abandon some of the deepest desires of his own party's liberal wing and build relationships with and make compromises with conservative Republicans. Does Obama have the backbone to stand up to and defy some of his strongest supporters through this process and the left?
MARGARET WARNER: Durbin says he does and recalls the day Obama first looked at the draft of a bipartisan energy bill. It had provisions to expand drilling that Democrats fiercely opposed, but it also included new steps on renewable fuels.
SEN. DICK DURBIN: He said, "I think I'd better endorse this and so it will move forward. This could be the beginning of a good bipartisan solution." That to me reflected Barack Obama as an executive, looking for reality, looking for that compromise that still holds to the same basic principles.
MARGARET WARNER: That could make some of his liberal supporters disappointed or even angry?
SEN. DICK DURBIN: Yes, of course. And I understand that, when you start talking about the reality of governing, there are those on both ends of the political spectrum who will be upset. They want purity.
MARGARET WARNER: Those who know him say Obama has supreme confidence and that he could bring Republicans and Democrats around to support a new style of governing.
DAVID MENDELL: That's just how confident he is of his own skills, his own power of words, and his own message, and his own persona, and vision. He just believes that he can win over anybody.
MARGARET WARNER: The gridlock of Washington would present the ultimate test of that confidence.
This is the letter I sent to Jim Lehrer (and a modified letter also went to Gwen Ifill)
Jim Lehrer MacNeil/Lehrer Productions 2700 South Quincy Street Arlington, VA 22206
Dear Mr. Lehrer,
My name is Sandra Hammel and although I was raised in Indiana, my entire adult life I have lived in Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a public school music teacher. I am __ years old and for the first time in my life have volunteered for a Presidential campaign because I am so worried about the direction of our country. Since retiring a few years ago I have been a community leader and lobbied with other concerned individuals of all ages about ending genocide of Darfuris with our U.S. Senators, Representatives and the President.
I haven’t always been aware of the history of genocide. Not until the ten year anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, when I caught the PBS Frontline airing of Ghosts of Rwanda did I know much of what happened in 1994 in Rwanda. Stunned by my ignorance and the horror of the reality, I educated myself further. Frontline was merely a springboard to my becoming a part of activism and engaged in our “We the People” government. I did not want to be defined by complicity. And I believe neither should we allow our representative government to be in the case of the Darfuris and the government-supported genocide that is in its sixth year.
In July, I did a study on Darfur and media coverage in my state and it was published in my local newspaper as a Letter to the Editor. With overwhelmingly higher media mention of any one of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie or Britney Spears than Darfur, I made my personal effort to sound an alarm of underreporting important stories, especially the genocide of the Darfuri families.
Mr. Lehrer, I would like to thank you for mentioning Darfur to the extent that you do on PBS. It is noticed by the citizen activists. We sincerely appreciate your efforts and your fair and balanced reporting.
As the moderator of the up-coming Presidential debate, I ask you to consider asking the candidates to express their views about genocide and why it is important for a country that is the leader of the world to support the human right of the Darfuri families to live out their natural lives. Historically after a genocide has played itself out, our national leaders say the words “never again”. But those words do nothing more than assuage our guilt after it is safe that we will have to do nothing more than speak these words of a future promise. It is so depressing that we have broken that promise with Darfur. I urge you to ask Senators Obama and McCain to speak of their future administration’s specific plans to stop the five and a half year genocide of the Darfuris. It is important that the USA supports the ICC in their indictment of al-Bashir because no accountability is license to continue the genocide strategy. I urge you to consider asking the candidates why they would or wouldn’t strongly support the ICC. Please, include this subject in this important election debate.
I feel that this issue needs to be included in the debate because the USA stands for justice and genocide is not justice. And complicity makes the USA a tool of Bashir’s army. Genocide can only be successful if we remain silent and maintain empty rhetoric of concern.
I apologize if I sound preachy. It is not personal toward you, but out of my passionate plea to state the case for the Darfuri families who have no voice in the debate. Better to speak up than to be still about genocide. My freedom to speak with my voice is all that I have.
Thank you for your time and interest in the USA citizens who believe that we are defined by what we do or do not do about the Darfur crisis. Your consideration is appreciated. We will watch with interest.
On September 10th the government of Sudan launched new attacks on ZamZam Camp for internally displaced persons. Many of those who were injured and killed were already forced to flee their homes one, two or three times. This attack comes a week after an attack on Kalma Camp by government troops. This violence is unacceptable. Our leadership has not done enough to end this violence. We need to build the political will to move our leaders to action.
When we speak to refugees in the camps, they tell us that peace will not come before justice.
The candidates have spoken out on Darfur, but they have yet to stand behind the ICC case against Sudan’s Presidnet al-Bashir. This case will begin the process of justice and reconciliation for Darfuris who have suffered, and continue to suffer every day. The Kalma Massacre, recent attcks on ZamZam Camp, and al-Bashir’s threats against humanitarian aid workers are war crimes. We cannot allow his threats and military action in Darfur to continue as we stand by. Violence has led to yet another NGO pull out leaving 1/2 million people without aid and another attack on World Food Program envoy may push them to also pull out, leaving millions without assistance. The next President must be prepared to uphold justice and bring peace to the region today not tomorrow. The first step is for both Obama and McCain to support the ICC case.
Los Angeles, CA - The Jewish World Watch is an organization that works to mobilize synagogues, their schools, their members and the community to combat genocide and other egregious violations of human rights around the world through education, advocacy, and refugee relief.
A month ago a group of executives headed by Janice Kamenir-Reznick went to Chad to see the conflict of Darfur for themselves. They also tested a new Solar Cooker Project that they had been working on that could help protect the women.
Bridges correspondent Brad Pomerance went and spoke to Janice Kamenir-Reznick about the situation and the solar cooker.
I often think of my life in comparison with those of Darfur and Chad. Those who live in continual fear of rape, torture and physical death after they have already been raped repeatedly, had their eyes gouged out, entire communities burned to the ground with the support of their own government, land stolen and all while we – the collective “we” – do nothing more than think momentarily about it at best.
When I have thoughts that my life isn't going well, I think of these human beings who live without a home, without bathrooms, water, food. They would be happy to live safely without electricity. When I lose electricity for a few hours, I feel so inconvenienced. When someone isn't nice to me, I let it color my whole day sometimes. And yet these people have experiences that my experiences couldn't even register on the same scale. It puts my life in perspective for me.
It is too easy to put the genocide out our minds. It is too easy to think that it is important to be overwhelmed with our "first world" problems. Computers not working, traffic, car problems, house problems. Online people complain about fiction TV show characters, actors' behaviors, sports' people.
The people of Darfur and neighboring Chad live in a different world.
We are spoiled. We would benefit from becoming aware of other people's lives and gaining perspective on priorities. The world doesn't owe us a life of self-indulgence.
Our self-indulgence can swallow us up. If we can't be self-absorbed and compassionate at the same time, then maybe we need a self-adjustment in our mindset. I had a wonderful time today with my son - a day-early Thanksgiving get-together. But at the same time, I think of the people of Darfur.
Thanksgiving: Give Thanks and Take Action
As you celebrate and give thanks this Thanksgiving, remember those in Darfur by downloading and collecting signatures for our new petition.
Divestment: Pass SADA in the Senate
The Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007 (SADA) is stuck in the Senate! Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE), and possibly other senators, are holding up the bill. Learn More.
Join us in Washington, DC on Monday, December 10 for International Human Rights Day. We will bring the Dream for Darfur torch to the Chinese Embassy – its last stop in the U.S.
We have no excuses not to know about Darfur. Yes, our media is lame about reporting it. Yes, our President speaks about it when we have a rally that gets some media attention, but at the same time the President talks he doesn’t walk the walk. At the same time that Bush speaks like he is against Sudan’s government-supported genocide on the Darfuri unarmed citizens, Bush has a USA government agent sitting at the table in Khartoum, Sudan working together with the genocide-perpetrating Bashir administration. The reason? To get information from Sudan’s government about American interests regarding US fears of terrorism.
“Khartoum hosted Osama bin Laden in the late '90s, but the Sudanese government has played both sides by supplying America with some intelligence for the war on terror while continuing to raise the Al Qaeda specter as a warning to the West.” http://www.nysun.com/article/28371?page_no
Bush wants what information Sudan will sanction out to him, so how hard do you think he is ever going to work on ending the genocide when Sudan knows it can hold US hostage? It is well-documented that the Sudanese government armed and unleashed the janjaweed on the Darfuri people and that the Sudanese government allows the genocide to go on unchecked, all while it denies that it is happening.
The world vowed "never again" after the genocide in Rwanda and the atrocities in Srebrenica, Bosnia. Then came Darfur. Over the past four years, at least 200,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million driven from their homes, and mass rape has been used as a weapon in a brutal campaign supported by the Sudanese government.
Word of the burgeoning crisis in Darfur first came to the newly appointed U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Mukesh Kapila, in 2003. "A young woman in her late 20s perhaps, who had trekked all the way from Darfur, sat in my office," Kapila tells FRONTLINE. "And she told me her personal story of how not only had she herself been multiply raped but also that her sisters and her family had also been maltreated in that way, and that this had actually been done by soldiers and people dressed in military and paramilitary uniforms."
But when Kapila confronted the government in Khartoum, he was met only with denials. "We said it during that time, that he's blowing this out of proportion," Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations tells FRONTLINE.
… Kapila was also having difficulty getting action from leaders at the United Nations. Sir Kieran Prendergast, the undersecretary-general for political affairs and second in command to Kofi Annan, was hesitant about raising the profile of Darfur for fear of upsetting the peace process between the Sudanese government and rebels in the south, who had fought a 21-year civil war.
"The argument was always that if you could conclude the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, then that would provide a model which would enable you to settle the political side of the Darfur problem," says Prendergast, "which of course was only part of the problem."
The peace negotiations would go on for another year. By then the worst of the killing would be over in Darfur. The timing was no accident, according to Kapila: "When I spoke to my friendly contacts in the Sudan government in Khartoum, they told me that yes, they were also delaying the North-South peace agreement because they wanted to -- and I quote -- 'have a lasting solution in Darfur' before they signed the North-South peace agreement and the international community forced them to stop."
When the issue came up at the U.N. Security Council, the Sudanese government was supported by its powerful ally, China. James Traub, author of The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the U.N. in the Era of American World Power, tells FRONTLINE: "What has enabled Sudan to be as truculent as it has been is knowing that they have either the support, or at least the willingness not to act against them, of neighboring African countries, of Islamic countries generally, and of Russia and China. And above all of China. That support is critical for them."
More than any other power, the United States pushed for meaningful action against Sudan, but its standing had been weakened in the eyes of many in the international community by the war in Iraq. Prendergast tells FRONTLINE: "You know that most of the Third World regard non-interference and internal affairs as holy writ. And partly that's because they think, 'Who next?' And partly it's because the actions of NATO in Kosovo and the coalition in Iraq have agitated them in that respect and made them feel that the question of who next is a live and vivid one where they either hang together or they'll be hanged separately."
…China's economic interests remained a major obstacle to intervention in Darfur. …activists… find a way to get China's attention -- by targeting the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Activist Eric Reeves launched a campaign to shame the Chinese government by labeling the games the "Genocide Olympics." "The message to China is clear," Reeves tells FRONTLINE. "We will ensure that your hosting of the Olympics will go down in history along with the 1936 Olympics in Berlin as an occasion of international infamy." http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darfur/etc/synopsis.html
I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music
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Khartoum, Sudan Stop Genocide Time
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Spain Time
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Melbourne Time
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Hawaii Time
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RAFA NADAL -BRING BACK LONG PANTS - SLEEVELESS TOPS
Double Click on Videos to Enlarge
Darfur - The Abandoned Genocide - a video by Sandra Hammel
Want to help? Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
"May I Suggest" by Susan Werner
Satchita - Playing for Change
Stand By Me ~ Playing for Change
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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 is at stake.
