Africa is the hell Whites always imagined it to be
I am not saying this to be cruel. I am not saying this because I'm racist. I'm saying this because Africa is, and has been, dissolving into a humanitarian trap that will suck down anything in its path. The conditions there are horrendous. In nearly every country you go to, awful and despicable things are occuring. Chad is catching the overflow from Sudan. Sudan is massacring its own people. Everyone is riddled with disease, poverty, malnutrition, and sectarian strife.
There's a group on Facebook called 400,000 faces. Part of me recommends that you join it. I did. I do like what they stand for. The idea is that when all 400,000 people join it, one for each person dead in Darfur, they will lay everyone's facebook photo out along a gym floor, photograph that, and then take the 4,000 page booklet and send it to Bush. This is a powerful way to make a point.
On the other hand... I don't honestly understand what people expect this to accomplish. More aid for Darfur. Yes. This can come in the form of monetary donations. Well, the monetary donations and aid never make it to the people who need it. We prove this over.. .and over.. and over.. and over. Every time we send money, it ends up in corrupt hands, and the people who were suffering suffer more because now the bad guys have more resources to better shore up their wickedness.
Okay. So. We commit troops. Well, who's troops? The UN's? The US's? The US has very few troops available. Sadly, they are engaged. We can argue all we like about why and whether they should be, but it cannot and does not change the fact that they ARE. And Americans expect the forces to come from us. It is unspoken. We know very well that no one else commits like we do, and yet we are not begging Britain, China, Japan, Australia, or any other government to be proactive and enter Sudan. We only ask ourselves.
But really, you're not just asking the government to help. You're asking them to commit young men who've most likely already been on multiple hazardous deployments to do it again, under the guise of a United Nations army. In reality, we all know that no one else is coming. We'll put on different helmets, but it'll still be American kids in the middle of the camps. It'll be Danny, and Joey, and Amanda, and Christina- the people I sip drinks with in the bar. The people I hear about over amaretto sours and reggaeton. Do you have any idea what it's like to try and come up with a conversation with someone who seems like they should be broken, and is just hiding it in a way you can't understand? Christina, who's friends throw a wild party for her and buy her as many shots as they can because her unit's deploying to Iraq. Danny, who tells the ladies at the bar that some night he still wakes up punching. Joey, who dances even though he was sent home when a bomb blew up next to his truck, blowing his ACL and MCL. Then you see a picture on his computer of Amanda. Dead.
These aren't a nameless army. This is not a Peacekeeping force. These are people. Young, vibrant people. And yes, people are dying... but... how do you look these kids in the eye and tell them you don't care if they die too?
Save Darfur. For god's sake, end the tragedy. But help me find a way to do it that doesn't end like this.
There's a group on Facebook called 400,000 faces. Part of me recommends that you join it. I did. I do like what they stand for. The idea is that when all 400,000 people join it, one for each person dead in Darfur, they will lay everyone's facebook photo out along a gym floor, photograph that, and then take the 4,000 page booklet and send it to Bush. This is a powerful way to make a point.
On the other hand... I don't honestly understand what people expect this to accomplish. More aid for Darfur. Yes. This can come in the form of monetary donations. Well, the monetary donations and aid never make it to the people who need it. We prove this over.. .and over.. and over.. and over. Every time we send money, it ends up in corrupt hands, and the people who were suffering suffer more because now the bad guys have more resources to better shore up their wickedness.
Okay. So. We commit troops. Well, who's troops? The UN's? The US's? The US has very few troops available. Sadly, they are engaged. We can argue all we like about why and whether they should be, but it cannot and does not change the fact that they ARE. And Americans expect the forces to come from us. It is unspoken. We know very well that no one else commits like we do, and yet we are not begging Britain, China, Japan, Australia, or any other government to be proactive and enter Sudan. We only ask ourselves.
But really, you're not just asking the government to help. You're asking them to commit young men who've most likely already been on multiple hazardous deployments to do it again, under the guise of a United Nations army. In reality, we all know that no one else is coming. We'll put on different helmets, but it'll still be American kids in the middle of the camps. It'll be Danny, and Joey, and Amanda, and Christina- the people I sip drinks with in the bar. The people I hear about over amaretto sours and reggaeton. Do you have any idea what it's like to try and come up with a conversation with someone who seems like they should be broken, and is just hiding it in a way you can't understand? Christina, who's friends throw a wild party for her and buy her as many shots as they can because her unit's deploying to Iraq. Danny, who tells the ladies at the bar that some night he still wakes up punching. Joey, who dances even though he was sent home when a bomb blew up next to his truck, blowing his ACL and MCL. Then you see a picture on his computer of Amanda. Dead.
These aren't a nameless army. This is not a Peacekeeping force. These are people. Young, vibrant people. And yes, people are dying... but... how do you look these kids in the eye and tell them you don't care if they die too?
Save Darfur. For god's sake, end the tragedy. But help me find a way to do it that doesn't end like this.