{"id":241,"date":"2004-05-04T16:45:55","date_gmt":"2004-05-04T20:45:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=241"},"modified":"2005-12-31T15:58:24","modified_gmt":"2005-12-31T20:58:24","slug":"do-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/do-something","title":{"rendered":"Do something"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arab nomads on horseback have been committing genocide in western Sudan. I’ve been reading and hearing about it for a while. Just yesterday, I forwarded a link from Bookslut<\/a> about the UNICEF efforts of Irvine Welsh<\/a> (author of Trainspotting) to raise awareness in Britain about what’s going on in Darfur (that area of Sudan), and how the Arab militias have driven as many as 1 million black Sudanese out of their villages, possibly with government backing.<\/p>\n

For some reason, until 20 minutes ago, I never thought to do<\/em> anything. I just wrote my senators (you can find yours (with their contact info) at www.senate.gov<\/a>), imploring them to do something to stem the crisis. Here’s what I wrote:<\/p>\n

Dear Senator,<\/p>\n

What’s going on in Sudan reached atrocity level a while ago. PLEASE tell me that the U.S. is engaging in SOME sort of action to stop it. This has the potential to lead to more deaths than the genocide in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

I understand that American troops are spread thin (and I support the actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq), but a key lesson from Rwanda and Bosnia was that even the threat of U.S. airstrikes can be incredibly effective in deterring tribal barbarism. We need to stand up and do our best to stop this latest bout of ethnic cleansing.<\/p>\n

I know Sudan isn’t an oil hotspot, and it has no proximity to Europe (a key argument of President Clinton when justifying the Kosovo operation), but these are human beings who might die in the millions. (Further–and this is tangential, I admit–their assailants are out to spread a particularly barbaric form of Islam, creating just the sort of area that a Bin Laden could use for a base.)<\/p>\n

Lastly, PLEASE don’t write to me about how this is a matter for the UN to address. I think the drips-and-drops of the Oil-For-Food scandal has gone to show that the UN is both morally and financially bankrupt.<\/p>\n

Thanks,<\/p>\n

Gil Roth<\/em><\/p>\n

If you can think of other actions we can undertake to help raise awareness of this atrocity, and help get armed forces to stop it, please e-mail<\/a> me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arab nomads on horseback have been committing genocide in western Sudan. I’ve been reading and hearing about it for a while. Just yesterday, I forwarded a link from Bookslut about the UNICEF efforts of Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting) to raise awareness in Britain about what’s going on in Darfur (that area of Sudan), and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Do something”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sudan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-3T","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":939,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/clooless","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":0},"title":"Clooless","author":"Gil","date":"May 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I think Nina Shea gives George Clooney a little too much, um, credibility in this essay about his cluelessness re:Darfur, but I'm with her on the idea that maybe it's not Bush's fault. I've been pretty quiet about Darfur lately, mainly because I'm beaten down by the idea that it's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sudan"","block_context":{"text":"Sudan","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sudan"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":328,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sudans-osama","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":1},"title":"Sudan’s Osama","author":"Gil","date":"August 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Lee Smith, besides being the all-time MLB saves leader and a novelist who writes about southern women, also discusses the Arab world on Slate. Last week, he wrote a pretty neat piece about Sudan, discussing the \"palace intrigues\" and motivations for the genocide, while also trying to put the current\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/help-out","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":2},"title":"Help out","author":"Gil","date":"August 25, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"oday's been designated a \"Day of Conscience\" by people who are trying to stop the genocide in Sudan. If you're interested in helping save the citizens of Darfur, there are plenty of regional events today that you can participate in.For more information on the on the genocide in Sudan, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sudan"","block_context":{"text":"Sudan","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sudan"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":294,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/no-genocide-for-oil-you-french-motherfers","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":3},"title":"No Genocide for Oil, you French Motherf***ers!","author":"Gil","date":"July 12, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in May, I wrote my Representative about the Congressional resolution on the Sudanese genocide. He wrote back this weekend (see below). There've been some developments, but no serious results yet. Several Congressmen are calling for the U.S. to label this a genocide, which would automatically trigger intervention by a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sudan"","block_context":{"text":"Sudan","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sudan"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/and-boy-are-my-arms-tired","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":4},"title":"And, boy, are my arms tired!","author":"Gil","date":"June 14, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm back from California. I'll ramble extensively about it tonight. Until then, here's an e-mail response I received from Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), regarding the Sudan query I sent him last month:Dear Gil:Thank you for expressing your concerns about Sudan.I appreciate your concerns regarding the civil war ongoing in Sudan,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sudan"","block_context":{"text":"Sudan","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sudan"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":230,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/sudan-crisis","url_meta":{"origin":241,"position":5},"title":"Sudan Crisis","author":"Gil","date":"May 17, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Doc Rampage is as pissed off as I am about both the genocide taking place in Sudan and the American media's lack of interest in covering it.Here are some more stories about what's happening there:PBSTelegraphBBCAgain, if you have good ideas about what we can do (and that don't involve sending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sudan"","block_context":{"text":"Sudan","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sudan"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}