We all watched the foreign policy-focused Presidential debate at Ole Miss, but one high school STAND chapter went to the center of the action. Check out this post from Elly Jackson of St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.
Time tends to move slowly in Darfur:
From the earliest days of the genocide, Ali Kushayb could be seen leading and directing groups of Janjaweed militias as they swept across the desert, destroying countless Darfuri villages and Darfuri lives in their wake. According to Human Rights Watch, Kushayb "was one of the key leaders responsible for attacks on villages around Mukjar, Bindisi, and Garsila in 2003-2004 in West Darfur".
Before watching the final Presidential debate at 9 pm Wednesday night, be sure to hop on the October National Call at 8 pm EDT!
The security situation in Darfur deteriorated severely this week: militias attacked a Darfur village, an ambush on UNAMID killed a Nigerian peacekeeper.
Don’t Vote. Seriously.
It is safe to say that most people are not familiar with the situation in East Burma. The name “Darfur” has finally disseminated into many households thanks to groups like STAND, although there is still muck work to be done. Most people’s experience with Burma extends as far as the zoo, where they can see the country’s Python (at least that’s where I first encountered Burma in my youth). The effort to get people to pay attention to Burma’s struggle for democracy, much less the situation in East Burma, is just beginning.
Last week, STAND chapters around the country wrote letters to Gwen Ifill, urging her to ask about Darfur at last week’s VP debate in her capacity as moderator. And she did. Still not convinced it had to do with activists like yourselves?
Look at this Sudan Tribune article:
At the end of the article, it says, "Activist organizations had been lobbying intensely for the debate moderator to ask a question about Darfur, mostly through e-mail and letter-writing campaigns."
189 police advisors arrive in Darfur to support the UN Peacekeeping mission, UNAMID. This week, the UN also committed to supplying 18 helicopters for UNAMID. Meanwhile, Qatar may be hosting new peace talks in the coming weeks.
There are an incredible number of creative and comprehensive websites out there on Darfur for you and your chapters to explore – and take your level of knowledge to the next level…
One of them is the newest site on Darfur put up by Human Rights Watch called "Failing Darfur", featuring videos, timelines, maps, reports.
Tonight, Darfur took the national stage. In front of probably more than 50 million viewers, Gwen Ifill, asked the vice-presidential candidates what they would do about Darfur. And, most likely, this was in no small part due to your letters and e-mails asking her to do so. Watch the video below!
