A Response

This is a response to one aspect of Brian's long post. In terms of our responsibilities for helping others in need, it is our responsibility. Our leaders have decided that as one of the most powerful nations in the world, it is our responsibility to help others in need who may not have the resources they need. It is not just an ethical & moral responsibility, but we have signed onto the U.N.'s list as one of the five most influential/powerful countries in the world. As one of the central powers in the U.N., we have agreed that it is our nation's duty to help others in need. However, concerning Sudan, all we have managed to do is give money, which only gets half of the job done. We need to send peacekeeping troops, or armed militia in. I understand what you are saying Brian in that it's not our problem because it is not our nation. Technically it is not our problem, but because we are bound by international affairs, it is our duty to help Sudan not only because the people there really need it, but it also makes us look good (the sad part is that everything we do has to look good).

Sudan: Civilians Driven Into Camps, Then the Bush

In the comments of this article, somebody said "Why is the US government not doing anything about this situation?" I want to ask that person then why US government should do something about the issue that is happenning out of the nation. US government doesn't have direct responsibility to help other countries' problem. And people including myself don't know every single detail of the occasion about this process. Sudanese government might not want US's help (just a possibility) or US has no right to do so (another possibility) or US might lose its own people too much, in other words, what it takes is greater than what it earns (the other possibility). Most people don't and can't know all the factors and are complaining about what they just see which is just a tip of an iceberg. In terms of legal process and international or national process by government, there is no such spot where ethic dominate practicality or viablity, in my opinion. It sounds really funny when people criticize government and what they do when they know not much of what's going on in that process. It is even funnier that I am criticizing that kind of people while I don't know what they think when they write those.
by the way, the same person as I mentioned up top also says "Is OIL more important? Are african lives worth less than Irish or Jewish lives?" And I would say Yes depending on the occasion. Life of human being doesn't necessarily have more value than oil and not every human being is equal to a person's perspective. disregarding race, gender or any kind of possible discrimination, a person tends to value his or her family more than stranger his or her friends more than those who live in a different continent. From there, inequality already exists. Equality in terms of indiscrimination on certain basis is somewhat needed but shouting for equality of all human being is simply bullshit. I mean, some people might be able to see everyone equally but that doesn't make everyone equal. I don't want to get into much detail about equality because it takes too much space if I write while I could relatively easily explain through conversation.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/16/5271/
I don't know whether what I said above is relevant or not. please give me as much feedback as possible. And sorry for all the grammatical problem or redundunt wording.

Brian

Sudan Violence Approaches Scale of Rwanda Genocide

it seems that the scale of sudan genocide is increasing (even though this article was written in 2004) but I don't know why people are so concerned about genocide. Why is genocide so bad? Let's think about another factor, overpopulation in this planet. In terms of that problem, isn't genocide pretty pleasant occurence? (disregarding all the morals such as that murder is bad)
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0403-01.htm

U.N.: Put Sudan’s Top Leaders on Sanctions List

I found two articles that seem to be relevant to the topic we are discussing. I haven't heard about "Human Rights Watch" before, at least not that I remember of. Have anyone heard of it before?

http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/1212-13.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0712-17.htm

Media source

My media Source is The Cleveland Plain Dealer, which is just the Newspaper I get back home. And it does an aweful job with its media coverage on Darfur. I have spent a lot of time searching for anything. And what i have found is that the Newspaper doesn't write many articles about the ongoing situation unless it has something to do with Cleveland. This artice is about a lost boy who is living in Cleveland and went to Tri-C. Here is the article- Check it out

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/stories/index.ssf?/base/opinion-0/119658828995020.xml&coll=2

In an article that came out today on bbc it discussed the lack of commitment that countries have had in support of sudan and stopping the genocide. it even brought up the scary thought that the peacekeepers mission could be a failure. Troops were suppose to be leaving in the next 6 weeks, but it doesn't look promising due to lack of supplies needed. I found it interesting that yet again the UN was missing another deadline, but its not just their fault, the Un works smoothly when everyone works together, but clearly that is not what is happening.

since my last post there has been nothing on newsweek.com about Darfur. I am not surprised. this seems to have been the trend for the whole time that i have been doing this meida watch. It just goes to show how uninformed most people are on the situation.

Overview of Sudan and Related issues

This is an article that I found very informative about the Sudan and the issues surrounding it.
www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/rp2004/rp04-051.pdf

Children's Rights

I think one of this biggest issues with the issue in Sudan as that children are being recruited into different militia groups. Currently, there are over 30 armed militia groups in Sudan. The UN has identified over 12 of whom have violated children's rights through physical abuse, murder, and sexual violence. One way to possibly stop the violence is through helping the children of Sudan. Many of them are being kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming militia men and dying at very young ages. If these militia groups continue to recruite these children, there would be no end to the number of militia groups in Sudan. By cutting of the militia groups' ability to recruite children, their forces will be weakened.

Here's the link to the short Sky News article: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1284086,00.html

Guys don't forget to start working on your articles this weekend. It would make it a lot easier for me and we could print earlier if they could be in by around 3 on Tuesday! Thanks!