Well, India and Pakistan are flashing gang signs at each other again, and the Hamas Ministry of Propaganda (which is inexplicably headquartered in Atlanta rather than Gaza) is crying foul at the Israelis for hitting back, but Darfur continues to be one of the prime sources of suck on the planet. News from the region remains on the back burner, of course, because the oppressors are charmingly ethnic, the atrocities are happening in a particularly unphotogenic armpit of the earth, and nobody there has nukes.
One thing that situations like this produce in boxcar lots (other than meaningless UN paperwork) is squalid tent cities teeming with refugees. As is usual, this has the end result of concentrating hapless victims in one place so that they may be preyed upon more efficiently thanks to economies of scale (cf. the Warsaw Ghetto).
While various international organizations, governments, militias and other large bodies of people moving in step are doing their level best to screw things up wholesale, it took a human interest story on the retail level to point out the futility of the whole farce.
It seems that setting foot outside the refugee camps to gather firewood is pretty much a guaranteed ticket for rape and murder. Hearing this grotesque factoid shocked a young American student so much that he was moved to help. He decided to raise money to aid the women in the refugee camps by buying them...
...more fuel-efficient stoves so they don't have to go out and collect firewood so often.
I didn't know whether to laugh or cry or punch the wall. I mean, lor' bless him for doing something, but... just... damn. Reckon Daniel Craig will play him in the future movie? Instead of Defiance, they could call it Efficiency.
We captured tens of million of firearms captured in Iraq. Instead of running them over with bulldozers, the firearms should be sent to Darfur, passed out and then we draw the curtain for 5 years.
ReplyDelete-Shootin' Buddy
Do these stoves come with shop tools and AK-47 blueprints? Yes?
ReplyDeleteOr at least the DIY kit for a Liberator pistol?man
ReplyDelete420 stoves. Amongst how many people?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations. Young Master Twinkie has just introduced 420 more things for the strong to take from the weak; 420 more objects of black market value that will belong only to those who have the means to keep them; and 420 more excuses for human predators to ravage the same flock of human sheep. Again.
Bravo.
Well, what would you have him do instead, 'Dawg? It's not like any government involved (including our own) would have allowed him to send them firearms.
ReplyDeleteAnd you know that if he'd even mentioned the idea of some kind of weaponry for the ladies, the Forces of Right Thinking would have had kittens. Pink ones with purple spots. At the very THOUGHT of arming people to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteWell, what would you have him do instead, 'Dawg? It's not like any government involved (including our own) would have allowed him to send them firearms.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I have all the answers, but China is in Sudan because there is oil. China gave the government AK-47s, who hand them out to rebel forces (some of which are Arabs) who kill other groups (some of who are Christians.)
I's a good old fashion fight over land, government and resources. As the only other superpower on the planet, China is staking it's claim to as much energy as possible to meet it's future needs. We're doing the same, (besides Iraq, there was the curious case of "feeding the hungry" in Somalia which somehow transformed into nation building under a queer set of circumstances [not enough rolling armor],[and, yes. there's oil in Somalia, probably quite a bit])
Sometimes I wonder if we're just having a double secret stealthy undercover cold war with china just because if we were openly hostile, and we rattled the saber a bit with charlie commie, we could no longer buy cheap crap at big-box-mart.
Regardless, you are right. Anything genuinely useful that we do in Dafur runs the risk of igniting another Vietnam in another country. Those crying loudest today to "do something" will also be the first to tell us to cut and run if a limited war were to start in the region.
word verification = diself, which I suppose may be a portmanteau that means getting all the #2 fuel oil for yourself, before the other superpower comes in and takes it.
Anyone know of this genius learned his trade in the "Shopping carts for the homeless" program (http://dosomething.org/project/carts-homeless)?
ReplyDelete(Word verif: "Hydra" - Toto 1979)
the atrocities are happening in a particularly unphotogenic armpit of the earth
ReplyDeleteI beg to differ.
The armpit of the world is the part of Africa where Liberia, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea and whatnot are. It's just about as violent, and if the people don't kill you the malaria will.
Also, the outline of the coast there actually looks like an armpit.
Sudan at least has natural resources worth fighting over.
ISTR reading about a small village, bereft of men due to jobs not being there or something, bothered by Shining Path guerrillas. Someone armed the women with single-barrel shotguns and trained the women in their use. Shortly thereafter, the guerrillas stopped bothering the village.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I don't have a citation for the story.