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May 14, 2006
Helping Darfur must be for the right reasons
I guess it’s been a chilly day for the devil.
I figured he’d be ice skating before I would agree with President Bush, but what the president announced May 8, in the name of the American people for the people of Darfur, I agree with whole-heartedly.
With this, we can become the America we are supposed to be, instead of the America we have seemingly become.
Without the “all-the-options-are-on-the-table” threats, we can again be the ideal that was for so long the essence of the United States and help these people without asking anything in return.
The aid the president says we will send, $224 million, is not enough. I hope we send more.
Because, as I think of all the oppressions in history — the Jews, the Tutsis, the Indians, the slaves brought to America, all the oppressed people throughout all times — the people of Darfur have it worse.
It is worse because their oppression comes not from one source but from every source possible under the unrelenting Sudan sun — including part of it being their own fault.
These black farmers are oppressed because of the color of their skin, their non-Muslim religion, and their own lack of knowledge.
They are oppressed because of geography and nature, and because of timing in the world situation.
Ten years ago in Sudan, of which Darfur is a part, seven out of ten had a job, and six out of the seven worked in agriculture. They raised crops and sheep. Unfortunately they planted the same crops year after year in an effort to survive and make a living, which is detrimental to the land. And because of our own cattle/sheep range wars of a few hundred years ago, we know that when sheep graze they leave nothing.
Overcultivation and overgrazing helped the surrounding desert creep across the land squeezing the farmers into a smaller space every year.
And when the annual rainy season arrived, from April to October, it didn’t come as nourishing rain but as a tsunami from the sky, eroding more of the land and allowing the desert to take a bigger bite.
Then the rainfall began to decline and the 110-degree temperatures baked the rest of the life out of the earth.
To add to their bad luck, their natural resources are iron ore, copper, chromium, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold and (you guessed it) petroleum.
In 1999, the government of Sudan made its top priority the development of its oil fields, some of which were populated by farm villages.
With the desert coming from one direction and the government projects from the other, the people of Darfur crowded into their villages, tended their animals, and planted their meager crops.
They hunted for food, and now, overhunting killed off the wildlife.
They were weak and out of hope, but because they still had water, they became a target.
They were also targeted for their color, their religion, and everyone wanted their land for one reason or another.
In attempts to drive them out, rebels calling themselves the Janjaweed, attacked.
Villages were burned and the people were raped, mutilated, branded, murdered, their water was poisoned and crops wasted.
And all their oppressors wanted was for them to be gone or dead.
The government assisted the rebels, possibly in the hopes that the land would be freed up for oil projects.
About 200,000 of the people of Darfur have been killed, slaughtered for trying to defend their villages. Wasted for trying to stay alive. And 2 million to 4 million have been forced from their homes into camps.
And they aren’t even safe in the camps where nightly raids kill handfuls and the roads outside are gauntlets of death.
They are hungry, thirsty, scared, beaten and trapped.
And the one superpower who usually helps in such situations is tied up in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and fighting terrorism across the world.
What the president did on May 8, I am happy he did in my name.
Now, wouldn’t it be perfect if we could go in, not as just another marauding army, but out of love for fellow human beings?
I know pragmatic people say we should send troops to make sure the aid gets to those who need it, but wouldn’t it cost about the same to just send so much food and water that there is too much for everyone?
Wouldn’t we have less of a problem recruiting other countries to share the cost of sending carrots rather than sticks; butter rather than guns?
And wouldn’t it be perfect if we did it without coveting their undeveloped oil fields?
John Hourihan is wire editor of the Connecticut Post. You can reach him at 203-330-6207 or via e-mail at jhourihan@ctpost.com.
Posted by todd on May 14, 2006 6:16 PM
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