So, everything has a balance to it naturally in life even when one may not want it. After my high yesterday of good feelings, I decided today to research the crisis in Darfur all day long. If anyone doesn't know what's going on the greatest humanitarian crisi ever is taking place in Darfur, the western region of Sudan. In 2003 several rebel groups started fighting back against the Sudanese government claiming marginalization and unjust treatment over land and resources. Since then, the Sudanese government has raised its own Arab guerilla army called the Janjaweed, translated as guns on horseback. This malitia has not only fought against the rebel uprising, it has used the opportunity to carry out systematic destruction and relocation of non-Arab ethnicities througout Darfur. The crimes against the civilians are as ugly as one could imagine including, random executions, torture, raiding and looting of towns through ground malitia and bombing air attacks, raping women and girls, forced relocation of peoples, and the prevention of international aid efforts. I spent the day reading about how the UN has tried to enter the country and provide relief to the now 1.6 million internally displaced people, but they couldn't due to a lack of cooperation by the Sudanese government.
October 22, 2004 - "... the number of conflict-affected persons requiring aid in Darfur rose to 2 million, or a third of the population, including both 1.6 internally displaced people (IDPs) and 400,000 affected people in place, from a total for both groups of 1.8 million in August, Jan Egeland said. The number excluded the 200,000 refugees who fled to neighbouring Chad (http://www.un.org/apps/news/storyAr.asp?NewsID=12314&Cr=sudan&Cr1=&Kw1=number&Kw2=idp&Kw3=sudan).
An estimated 70,000 people are known dead, more than 1.5 million are homeless and at least 2.2 million people are affected by the humanitarian emergency in Darfur, Sudan. The situation is becoming even more grave as the rainy season takes its toll: The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 10,000 people may be dying each month. Malnutrition, malaria and cholera are among the greatest health risks (http://www.catholicrelief.org/our_work/where_we_work/overseas/Africa/sudan/dafur_crisis.cfm).
It should be noted that most of these statistics are admitedly inadequate due to the UN's inability to safely enter the region. I felt completely helpless in the face of this.
Then I went to church and was just sickened as we all sang and asked God to treat us like a father and prayed for his love. A few other things really upset me too but I won't go into them. The only thing I need to say is that I was disgusted by our spiritual, as well as many other kinds of, selfishness. I'm reminded of some thing Jordan always asked, I believe from the words of Augustine, "What do I love when I love my God?" The answer is others. This wasn't meant to be a spiritual entry, so what can we do? How can we love others in this situation?
There are a few courses of action.
A) Visit Amnesty International's Activism website on this issue at http://web.amnesty.org/pages/sdn-toolkit-eng
B) If you are a fellow student of mine come to SAGA meetings next semester. I'm going to make it a point to address this. This is really what we're all about.
C) Talk to other people about this. I know that most people probably don't know much about it or just hear little snippets on the news.
