I've reached one of those: "Wow, I had so many things to write about, but what do I write about?" moments. The number of hits on my blog is in decline, which means I better learn how to add youtube videos- especially the one I saw of a crazy man in Amsterdam who is seen juggling running chainsaws!
But, there are a number of important matters to discuss. Today, el presidente announced new measures to combat the genocide in the Darfur region of The Sudan. I was actually delighted to hear Bush take action, but I am concerned that it may be (pardon the pun) too little too late. Nevertheless, we can all push partisan differences aside and wish for the best (if only we could with Iraq).
This brings me to today's subject. Cong. Brad Miller (D-NC), who represents Greensboro and outlying areas, spoke at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro on Apr. 10 about his visit to Darfur. While this is dated material, the events that are occuring certainly are not.
I came across an article in the Apr. 18th edition of the Greensboro publication "Yes Weekly!" by Jordan Green, a reporter I greatly admire, about Miller's talk. To be fair, even though I am a partisan Democrat (unless an idiot like Jerry Springer is our candidate), there have also been visits to Darfur by Republicans like Cong. Bob Goodlatte and Cong. Frank Wolf, both of Virginia. I am not sure if Wolf took part in this trip, but I believe from reading a separate article in "The Roanoke Times" that Goodlatte did. I actually have tremendous respect for Cong. Wolf because of his global human rights iniatives. We met many times and even became friends (!) when I was a reporter in Woodstock, Va.
In Green's article, Miller, who went to The Sudan with a delegation lead by Cong. Steny Hoyer (D-Md), said he had reservations about meeting President Omar al-Bashir during the first week of April.
Miller said the Sudanese president snubbed the group, and they were instead met by a low-level government rep. He added that everyone in the delegation had reservations about meeting someone they regarded as a monster to begin with.
Miller told "Yes Weekly!" that he was also frustrated with Bashir's efforts to make humanitarian efforts in Darfur even more difficult. The NC Congressman added that what is going on in Darfur now is probably more tribal violence as opposed to an outright genocide, which it was in 2002 and 2003. An estimated 400,000 people have died in Darfur, and there are 2.5 million refugees from the violence.
Miller talked with an activist group at UNCG called Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. Student Katie Mariategui said she was disappointed by Miller's bleak assesment and that they would like to see an internationally enforced no-fly zone over Darfur against the Sudanese Air Force, which the group sees as an insitigator in the violent situation.
Miller added that he was frustrated with what the situation which he feels has been made worse by the fact that the United Nations Security Council has been unwilling to take action because member nation China is an economic partner with the Khartoum regime.
According to "Yes Weekly!," Miller said the following as he expressed his frustration:
"What is our point of leverage? I really don't want to send our military in. We did make a promise that we would never let genocide happen again, which has broken repeatedly in the past sixty years.........I want to stop it. What can we do?"
Miller did however praise the UNCG students for their political activism regarding the humanitarian crisis. He ruled out American military intervention, but he did say that he would be involved with the matter legislatively.
Like Rwanda before and Sierra Leonne presently, this seems to be yet another ugly situation in Africa which is going to be very hard for western countries to resolve.
Useful links:
If anyone knows of any good links regarding Darfur, please point them out to me here below.
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