Letters to the Editor
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The complexity of Sudan
Thanks for publishing this article, Salon. I've been wondering for some time why the Sudan/Darfur situation doesn't get more coverage... it's not like the situation is "going away" just because I haven't read anything about it in the last month or two.
I wonder if part of the reason the story doesn't have more "legs" is that the situation is so complex and ambiguous. It's not something that can be summed up on World News This Hour in 30 seconds, or even a couple minutes. Who are these people? Why are they fighting? Who are the "good guys" and "bad guys"? The story doesn't break down along US political lines at all... put yourself in inside the head of your average Repug talking points functionary running affairs in Washington these days and imagine what they're thinking:
"Do I support the Sudanese rebels because they're Christians fighting Muslims? But that causes more violence in the area which is bad for oil exploration and pisses off our "ally" Egypt. So instead, I'll do nothing and let the UN try to "solve" the situation... aha see? They can't handle it either! Now you know why we nominated John Bolton to clean up the UN!"
Of course the other reason this story is ignored in the US is what I call the "Hotel Rwanda" Hypothesis. Remember the scene where the UN peacekeeping leader (Nick Nolte) tells the Rwandan hotelier (Don Cheadle) who naively thinks US help is on the way: "You're not black. You're not even a n----r. You're AFRICAN."
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Racism.
As a human being first and a white man second I am sickened to hear of the plight of the Darfurian refugees. We wealthy Westerners live well in large part off of the fruits of the exploitation of black Africans, which is well documented within the historical record. Our comfort is not unconnected to their suffering, and neither are our ignorance and racism. It makes me ashamed that, like so many of this, the depth of my sadness and revulsion at reading this story is paralelled only by my absolute lack of any idea as to how I can personally effect change to this unacceptable situation. As useless as it may be to say it: I don't know what to do, but I know we can and must do something to stop this situation and also to address the ignorance, apathy and racism that has, and continues to cost the lives of countless human beings who happen to be black Africans.
In pathetic outrage,
Squire.
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I been to sudan from the egyptian border to uganda
I always thought Islam was a friend of Black Africans.
I have been wrong so often that I could make money betting on the team I think will lose.
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Murder from Darfur to Cairo
Thank you Salon.com for continuing to post stories that should be on the free TV news and radio.
I am a Black American who traveled to Sudan as a college student.
This is a horrible, gut-wrenching story, and I'd like to know what the President is doing? Why can't he send in troops? (Oh, let's Remember Katrina?)
The bad guys here are the Egyptian police, and in Dafur, it's the Arabs who are raping, and killing the Black Sudanese.
The bottom line, is, if these Africans weren't so BLACK, someone would have moved on their situation a long time ago. They are not Asians, Hispanics, or any other "exotic" looking group. We are proving the words of W.E.B.DuBois who predicted the "problem of the 20th Century is the problem of the color line." The problem of color has now passed it's poison into the 21st Century, and it is reflected in the mass murder, and genocide of dark-skinned people.
We are still paralized by racism, and inaction. If that was Barbara Bush, or relatives of the mass media big shots, something would have been done from day 1.
America has always been touted as the moral leader of the free world.
But now since we are a facist state under this administration, the only solution would be a massive effort undertaking by the people of the United States to demand that Congress, and the UN go past their prejudices, and act to save lives now!
Patricia A. Kelly
Editor, The Nomad Review
New York City
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A badly needed reminder of an overlooked crisis
Thank you Salon, for reminding us that there is more to the world than the U.S., Europe, and Israel/Palestine. Thank you for filling a journalistic hole that encompasses most of the third world and its inhabitants, whose stories remain largely ignored by the Western media.
What is happening in the Sudan is truly unconscionable. But just like with the Rwandan genocide almost 12 years ago, there is hardly any political will to solve the problem - not from the U.S., nor the U.N., nor the rest of the "international community." Not even from the next-door neighbours to the conflict, the Egyptians, who blast the Sudanese with high-pressure water cannons and leave them to rot in refugee camps, rather than lifting a finger to help out their fellow human beings.
This is a travesty that will continue, for as long as world leaders, major media outlets and the general public persist in their bias and overlook people who are not wealthy, who do not have connections to power, who have skin darker than tan, and worst of all, who live in the continent of Africa. The voices that do speak out for the refugees of Darfur are few and far between, but I am glad that Salon is one of them. Keep up the good work.
-Signed, a white Canadian
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What about UNHCR and their salient disinterest?
I was in Cairo when this happened. Not all participants in the demonstration were eligible for resettlement abroad -- many were fleeing economic hardship. The American Universtiy in Cairo's Forced Migration and Refugee Studies programme issued a thorough and unbiased report on this event (almost 70 pages long), which elucidates some of the not-so-clear ideas behind the unfortunate riot.
[send me an email if you want to read it, I can forward a copy to you]
There was little surprise that the easily excitable Egyptian police, who are mostly conscripts incidentally, and likely uneducated peasants from Upper Egypt, would storm the Mustafa Mahmoud square at eleven o'clock at night with batons and water cannons.
Now I'm not saying the refugees deserve what they got; I want to know why the UNHCR took no interest in trying to assuage what was clearly about to become inflamed tempers on both sides.