Genocide in Darfur

Where stands the real problem?

I write this article today with a mix of feelings- I'm both a little embarrassed and a little angry. Angry at the fact that yet another situation is currently taking place in which we as humans are again repeating history, instead of learning from it, and have yet again launched a brutal injustice against fellow humans based solely on outward appearance (and the inability to understand another's culture). Embarrassed because this particular saga has been going on for a few years now, and I just awoke to smell the bacon.

A few weeks back, I received the opportunity, and what I now call the blessing, to watch the movie Hotel Rwanda alongside a group of young adult youth workers. If you haven't seen this movie, I highly recommend carving out a few hours to become a student of it. After we had reviewed the film, we began discussing the implications of it and forced us to take a look at what part we might play in human persecution around the world. As you can imagine, the current crisis in Darfur took center stage- an issue that at the time, I knew nothing about and could not understand why.

The Wikipedia online Encyclopedia defines this crisis:

"The Darfur conflict is an ongoing armed conflict in the Darfur region of western Sudan, mainly between the Janjaweed (translated: "devils on horseback"), a militia group recruited from the tribes of the Abbala Rizeigat (camel-herding Arabs), and the non-Baggara people (mostly land-tilling tribes) of the region. The Sudanese government, while publicly denying that it supports the Janjaweed, has provided money and assistance and has participated in joint attacks with the group, systematically targeting the Fur, Zaghawa, and Massaleit ethnic groups in Darfur. The conflict began in July 2003. Unlike in the Second Sudanese Civil War, which was fought between the primarily Muslim north and Christian and Animist south, in Darfur most of the residents are Muslim, as are the Janjaweed."

They go on to say:

"The mass media once described the conflict as both "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide," and now do so without hesitation. After fighting worsened in July and August 2006, on August 31, 2006, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 17,300-troop UN peacekeeping force to supplant or supplement a poorly funded, ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The next day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region."

Even as I write this I am appalled by the ability of one human to enact such violence on another human because they have some warped idea of what a "normal" person should be. I am even more taken back that we (myself included) who sit thousands of miles away and an abundance of resources, look on with disgust, but will never stand up for what we know is right- even after seeing the aftermath of events such as the Holocaust and American Slavery (something we as a society still have not healed from). A quote from the character Jack in the movie Hotel Rwanda, [after Paul thanks him for shooting footage of the genocide and convinced that it will spark others to come and help] best sums it up:

"I think if people see this footage , they'll say Oh my God, that's horrible. And then they'll go on eating their dinners."

Isn't that the truth? The realistic truth is that in only a few short years, the death toll has been estimated at approximate 400,000 people, though all sources that I have seen all agree that it is hard to calculate. The realistic truth is that this portion of the Sudan is compromised of nearly 50% children (tomorrow's future) and the major cause of death among the 10,000 people who die monthly is actually disease (curable ones like Diarrhea) and hunger- a result of the conflict driving over 2 million people into homelessness.

I am amazed that a simple box of Pepto Bismol for a few measly dollars could keep a dehydrated kid alive, and they don't have access to it because we are hoarding all of it in the medicine cabinets of our newly remodeled bathrooms, of our oversized (bigger is better mentality) homes (that we have two mortgages on). You see the problem in the world isn't the lack of resources…it's the distribution of them. Do you really think that the God of this universe would make too many people and not enough stuff?

So I will wrap up today posing to you the same question that is rattling around in my head,

What Part Does God Have You Play In This?

I will make a point to wrestle with this question and to seek out an answer. I don't think I am called to pack up my bags and head over to the Sudan, though some may, but I do think that I can reach into my pocket and give to the future of that culture. Whatever you do, don't simply "go on eating your dinner".