On his blog today, Nicholas Kristof gave STAND a shout-out, writing that students have taken the lead in the fight against genocide:
"University campuses, backed by organizations like STAND, have been very active on Darfur, and high school groups have started and expanded groups like Dollars for Darfur…I hope President Bush sees this and feels suitably mortified that kids are acting where he is paralyzed."
It is the hunger period in Darfur: the month before the harvest season when food stores are at their lowest and hunger is the highest. As the fields of Darfur fill with crop ready for the harvest, the skies of Darfur have filled with bombs, and the news from Darfur has been filled with headlines of new attacks on rebel bases and civilian villages by the Sudanese Army:
· “Sudanese Army Bombing N. Darfur” – BBC
On September 26th and October 2nd, Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifill of PBS will each moderate a presidential and vice-presidential debate. It’s our responsibility to make sure that both moderators ask the candidates about their Darfur policies.
We’re calling on all activists to write letters to Gwen Ifill and Jim Lehrer urging them to ask a question about Darfur. Address letters to each moderator at:
Insecurity: The Government of Sudan has launched a huge offensive into rebel territory in North , Central , and Southern Darfur, and stands accused of bombing rebel bases and civilians.
WRock for Darfur was a benefit event combining the anti-genocide movement and Harry Potter fandom to raise funds for and awareness of the refugees of Darfur, hosted by the JUUstice LeagUUe of Poughkeepsie who are a chapter of both STAND and the Harry Potter Alliance.
The violence that erupted on August 28 between the Congolese army and General Laurent Nkunda’s CNDP militia in North Kivu province continues this week, prompting international outcry and intervention by MONUC, the 17,000-strong peacekeeping mission in DRC. In response to the fighting, the worst since the signing of a January 2008 ceasefire, diplomats from the UN, the African Union, and the European Union released a rare joint statement calling on both sides to cease hostilities and return to their initial positions.
Today’s youth have been nicknamed Generation Q– the Quiet Generation. While this may seem ironic to those who have dedicated themselves to the anti-genocide movement– or any of the other critical movements of our time– the reality is that too often today’s youth are associated with ipods, video-games, MTV addictions, and perhaps most tragically, apathy.
It is safe to say, that when art and human rights are synthesized, the outcome can have a certain devastating effect. When Picasso revealed his Guernica painting to the Paris Worlds Fair in 1937 it struck like a cudgel to the minds of a people on a continent that had only felt the breath of the Nazi political machine. Guernica was a sinister foreshadowing, the end signal of the old world as we (collectively speaking) new it. A copy of Picasso’s cubist holocaust hangs at the entrance to the UN Security Council chamber, a looming reminder of that body’s purpose.
Tonight, Tuesday, September 9th, STAND will hold a National Conference Call for all student activists at 8 pm EDT. We’ll discuss our plans for the year including the upcoming National Conference, STAND Out Loud, and our fall Advocacy campaign, Call to Candidates, and much more.
On Saturday, the Government of Sudan (GoS) allegedly launched heavy attacks against two Darfur rebel groups in Northern Darfur, sparking off a series of heavy military confrontations. The rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Movement – Unity (SLM-Unity) and the United Resistance Front (URF) “claimed government and militia forces attacked their positions on Saturday around the North Darfur towns of Disa, Birmaza and Tawila, causing heavy casualties” according to the AFP. Those casualties included more than two dozen civilians, and over twice as many military.
