(no subject)
Check out pulitzer.org and click on the year 2006. Go to the Commentary written by Nicholas D. Kristof reporting on genocide in Darfur....and respond. react. reach out...
When grieving victims intrude onto our TV screens, we dig into our pockets and provide the massive, heartwarming response and contribute to aid them. We begin to feel sympathy for the lives of these people and donate as much as we possibly can. But what if the people who need it the most are silenced? What if a figure of 70,000 innocent lives were destroyed due a secret? This secret I speak of is the Genocide in Darfur. This archive underscores that a slaughter is waged by and with the support of the Sudanese government as it tries to clear the African area of non-Arabs. It encourages killing, burning villages and farms, terrorizing people, confiscating property from members of African tribes and forcing them from Darfur. These people are beaten to death, forced to watch their families humiliated and raped, little kids are taken to be used as “sex-toys”, they have body parts cut off, infectious diseases and no help. Even their leaders are corrupt. They will not allow reporters into the country, and they even arrest people for speaking out about the genocide.
When I read the individual stories of how these people began to suffer, I was devastated. Here I am in America, complaining about not owning an I-pod when these people lost almost everything they had, including their dignity. I waste hours on myspace gossiping about useless nonsense when instead I could be spreading knowledge about this genocide to friends so we all can contribute to the aid of Darfur. According the author of these articles, President Bush knows about the genocide and continues to hide it from our country. The solution remains within us. If we all come together and spread awareness for these people we can help. The article states that if we raise money and spread knowledge, we can contribute to a good deed. If we create a current budget to help pay for the African peacekeepers in Darfur, we will know these people are being helped. It saddens me that many of the females are not only gang-raped daily, but having stillborn babies and living the rest of their lives leaking urine due to horrific childbirth injuries. A woman was actually sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped this woman and then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300. This is horrifying and something needs to be done to end this madness.
Are Americans stingy with their money? I believe so. But many times, for valid reasons. When we hear that our donations sometimes end up for bad causes, it makes us not want to help out. Also, I think we feel that one person, can’t make a difference, so until the world begins to help, no one will. This is the wrong mentality. Our contribution as a whole still left us ranked dead last among 22 top donor countries. That means the United States of America has been so self-absorbed in our own daily lives, that we forget how good we really live. I believe we need to find ways to get reporters and news cameras into this country to film the realities of Darfur’s new lifestyle, or should I say death toll. Once more and more people realize the shocking truths of the genocide, we can begin to give aid to the African tribes. As one can see it is imperative to start spreading the knowledge.
What can OUR generation do?
When grieving victims intrude onto our TV screens, we dig into our pockets and provide the massive, heartwarming response and contribute to aid them. We begin to feel sympathy for the lives of these people and donate as much as we possibly can. But what if the people who need it the most are silenced? What if a figure of 70,000 innocent lives were destroyed due a secret? This secret I speak of is the Genocide in Darfur. This archive underscores that a slaughter is waged by and with the support of the Sudanese government as it tries to clear the African area of non-Arabs. It encourages killing, burning villages and farms, terrorizing people, confiscating property from members of African tribes and forcing them from Darfur. These people are beaten to death, forced to watch their families humiliated and raped, little kids are taken to be used as “sex-toys”, they have body parts cut off, infectious diseases and no help. Even their leaders are corrupt. They will not allow reporters into the country, and they even arrest people for speaking out about the genocide.
When I read the individual stories of how these people began to suffer, I was devastated. Here I am in America, complaining about not owning an I-pod when these people lost almost everything they had, including their dignity. I waste hours on myspace gossiping about useless nonsense when instead I could be spreading knowledge about this genocide to friends so we all can contribute to the aid of Darfur. According the author of these articles, President Bush knows about the genocide and continues to hide it from our country. The solution remains within us. If we all come together and spread awareness for these people we can help. The article states that if we raise money and spread knowledge, we can contribute to a good deed. If we create a current budget to help pay for the African peacekeepers in Darfur, we will know these people are being helped. It saddens me that many of the females are not only gang-raped daily, but having stillborn babies and living the rest of their lives leaking urine due to horrific childbirth injuries. A woman was actually sentenced by a tribal council in Pakistan to be gang-raped because of an infraction supposedly committed by her brother. Four men raped this woman and then village leaders forced her to walk home nearly naked in front of a jeering crowd of 300. This is horrifying and something needs to be done to end this madness.
Are Americans stingy with their money? I believe so. But many times, for valid reasons. When we hear that our donations sometimes end up for bad causes, it makes us not want to help out. Also, I think we feel that one person, can’t make a difference, so until the world begins to help, no one will. This is the wrong mentality. Our contribution as a whole still left us ranked dead last among 22 top donor countries. That means the United States of America has been so self-absorbed in our own daily lives, that we forget how good we really live. I believe we need to find ways to get reporters and news cameras into this country to film the realities of Darfur’s new lifestyle, or should I say death toll. Once more and more people realize the shocking truths of the genocide, we can begin to give aid to the African tribes. As one can see it is imperative to start spreading the knowledge.
What can OUR generation do?