Have you ever imagined being a refugee? Have you ever thought of what life would be like living with a fear of being attacked by your own government whilst you are struggling to provide food and water for your kids? Well I can’t say I have but I have at least done a MTV-sponsored online simulation.
Let me tell you one thing about my experience. If nothing else, I have spent some of my valuable time (as I am trying to concentrate on my thesis these days) on thinking about the reality of Darfur, a region in Sudan plagued by governmental suppression, starvation, water scarcity, rape, murder and what the US government termed as “genocide”. Yeah, it is hard to believe but a genocide is occurring as we speak and as I write this piece for my blog. As I got my thought process going, I decided to do something. I know that I am not in a position to stop the war or to provide security to the vulnerable people in the region and I know I cannot even make sure that the starving kids or the reliant women are getting water for their survival. Believe me, it is the worst feeling I have had in a long time. So I decided to do as little as I could. I talked to my professor about “Genocide Awareness Week” on campus. I am glad this is really going to happen at my school and I feel that if not directly, I am making an effort in some way. After doing all the background research on Darfur, I have concluded that awareness is what we need. I believe that our politicians, if anyone, are in a position to do anything at all, and that they need more pressure from the grassroots to act. Thus, I am devoting my Thanksgiving break to bringing awareness on what is happening in Darfur. In the next few days during the awareness week, I hope to encourage people to speak to their families, to speak with their neighbors and to write to their senators.
I personally call it a “disgrace.” It sure is a disgrace that we are witnessing genocide in today’s world when we claim that we are the best among all species living in the planet. Humans have come a long way from living in the caves to launching satellite stations in space. We have been able to land our feet on moon and send unmanned rockets to other planets. We have been able to build damn that block huge rivers. We have been able to develop technology that allows us to talk to our dear ones thousands of miles away any time we want. But we have failed to identify crises in our own backyard and have ignored the fact that thousands of people are being killed for no rational reason. We have failed to take care of fellow humans in other parts of the world as they continue to face atrocities, be raped and continue to starve to death. We have also failed as nation states to address the issue or to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims which I believe are among the basic rights that comes along by being born as a human. The fact that 400,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been displaced in the Darfur conflict in such a short period of time is such an alarming thing. While the number of people being killed continues to grow, we have not been able to provide adequate basic needs to the refugees and the internally displaced persons. I think that this signals our failure to respect human life and to provide basic humanitarian support.
This is the first genocide of the 21st century and it happened not too long after the one in Rwanda in the early 90’s. This shows that we as citizens of the world did not learn enough from the tragedy in Rwanda and let another tragedy occur in our face. Our failure to realize from our past mistakes has been costly in terms of lost human lives. During the simulation I was also thinking of our mindset as a human being. We have fought with each other in our past for various reasons, in most cases for power. However, killing of each other, raping the women and children, burning down houses and poisoning water wells to get rid of another “ethnicity” does not appeal to me. I just don’t think that people should fight on ethnic grounds. I believe religion and ethnicity are man made. When God created humans (assuming it was indeed the God) he did not create humans of different ethnicity or religion. I believe that the human civilization came up with the idea of ethnicity or religion to prove their power. As such, I think it is absurd to have confrontations and conflicts between various ethnic groups or religions. It is also not fair that the children have to face such atrocities so early in life, instead of getting education and decent everyday meal. It seems like it was their fault that they were born in the conflict-stricken region. Like other children in the world they deserve to get at least two meals a day, if nothing else. This is a case of sheer injustice.
As citizens of the world and in our capacity as students, it is important that we keep the public aware of the issue. The younger generation could be very powerful in spreading the word out and urging our political leaders to act in their capacity. There has to be a collective effort from all: us younger generation in every school and household to the top diplomats at the UN to resolve this crisis. Our effort and involvement may prove crucial in saving lives of thousands of innocent people. That is also our duty as citizens of the world.
Do as you wish.
For the online simulation visit http://www.darfurisdying.com/
For more background information visit BBC
For current happening and the efforts from international community visit http://www.savedarfur.org/content
On what you could do, visit this site
3 comments:
Its a good piece to educate people. Hope you will continue in your dreams of liberating people.
JS
good thought, but forget about people dying in other countries, think about what happened in your own country. You can't talk crap like that when u are not present in your hometown. Go back to your country and try to do something out first rather than gulping down all those beers. May god bless u in your mission, and work harder...life's not about gossip...life's all action...and time's ticking every second.
I am a student of social science and issues such as these whereever they occur is where my interest lies. I am not going to claim that I have contributed in restoring peace in Nepal but I believe that raising awareness is a key element in all issues. If the public in Nepal were not made aware of the tyranny and the lack of effort from the political parties, I doubt we would have seen this change. Likewise, since the issue on Darfur is a humanitarian issue, I will not hesitate on spending time and effort on this cause. I believe it is a nobel cause and the lives in Sudan are as important as the ones in Nepal.
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