A little can go a long way
Tajinder Sangha
A 10-year-old boy plays outside his family's home. Then out of nowhere, a stranger grabs him. Before anyone can do anything, he is thrown into a fire. He is lucky to survive, which, sadly is not the case for several other children in his area. After a year of agonising rehabilitation, he still endures the physical and emotional agony of the event. His name is Mohammed. He's from Sudan. Do you still care?
"What do you expect, it's Africa?" is often the response I hear when people discuss issues involving conflict and poverty on the continent. People get tired of hearing about the misery of people in Africa. Their reaction does not shock me. What does continue to shock me is that many people think that all Africans are simply "ignorant and lazy and that it's a waste of time to help them."
This could not be farther from the truth.
Many people are understandably skeptical about the efforts of endless advocacy groups and causes. Advocates are considered, at best, idealistic dreamers who can't accept the harsh reality of the world, or at times, simply a mere irritation. People drown in endless statistics about the world's problems, and one signature on a petition or one body at a rally appear to be futile in the attempt to change things. However, what is rarely reported is the success stories that result from people's efforts.
The conflict in Darfur is an issue that deserves special attention given that it is and has been called "the world's worst humanitarian crisis" by the United Nations.
Darfur is located in the Western region in Sudan in Northeast Africa. There has been conflict between the Arab government and the black population of Darfur for 20 years, and the violent rebellion against the government began in 2003. The government has been accused of oppressing black Christian Africans. The government-backed Arab militia, called the Janjaweed, have been raiding villages, slaughtering black men, raping women, and stealing whatever they can find, among other crimes. More than 2 million people have fled their homes and more than 400,000 people have been killed since 2003. Women and children have endured some of the worst forms of torture. It is innocent civilians who have been affected most severely by the conflict.
Making this crisis even more condemnable is that politicians and prominent members of the United Nations promised "never again" after the Rwandan genocide in 1994, where 800,000 Rwandans were killed in 100 days. Yet when a similar situation arose in Darfur - which has repeatedly been called a Rwanda in slow motion - little has been done to resolve the conflict within the international community. So "never again" has become nothing more than a PR slogan to say, "Shit, sorry about that genocide thing. It won't happen again."
It would be unrealistic to think that things will change with one more signature or one more dollar donated to a humanitarian organisation. People have to live with the fact that change is a long process that requires long-term commitment to move forward. But in the end, the results are certainly worth the commitment.
It is not hard to find countless examples of humanitarians giving up six-figure incomes to contribute to aid work. These people will tell you the importance and success of their collective actions.
Roméo Dallaire, Canadian senator and a lieutenant-general of the Canadian Armed Forces, received his honourary degree at SFU on October 5. Dallaire is widely known for having served as a force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force in Rwanda, and for trying to stop a genocide that was being waged against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. He, better than most, knows the urgent need for action in Darfur.
Dallaire asked that people not sit by comfortably, watching such atrocities unfold but rather, to take some form of action, even if it is as small as sending an e-mail to Prime Minister Paul Martin demanding action.
Everything from signing a petition to beginning a non-profit organisation has had its unbelievable success stories. Don't believe me? Signing a petition may seem insignificant because it is only one signature, but signatures add up. Oxfam sent 5 million individual signatures to the World Trade Organization aimed at putting the issue of fair trade into discussion. The results? The petition shut down the meetings of some of the world's most powerful economic leaders. The WTO is resuming meetings this December and Oxfam plans to send 10 million signatures if enough people sign the current petition.
On a larger scale, Peace Through Health is an organisation that works to create ceasefires while it immunises citizens caught in the conflict. In on case, the organisation went into El Salvador and convinced both sides to ceasefire for 24 hours to immunise children. The ceasefire led to both parties talking and ended the war.
Canadian Senator Mobina Jaffer, who is the Special Envoy to the Peace Process in Sudan, spoke of her encounter with a young boy in Sudan. This boy had endured attacks on his village, as well as many other horrors that had happened in his region. While Jaffer was talking to him, he asked her not what she and other Canadians were doing for the people of Sudan, but what Canadians were doing for the people of Iraq? When a boy asks a politician to help a country on another continent, while his people are going through so much hardship, the extraordinary selflessness of his action induces us to care. Many people do not have the political freedom, technology, and other resources necessary to implement effective change. We do. So we must use them.
What is worse than being ignorant of the intolerable suffering people endure is knowing about it and doing absolutely nothing to change it. Apathy allows greed to succeed at the expense of human dignity. Apathy allows people to abuse their powers to inflict pain on others. Doing nothing is a form of consent. When you sign a petition, take a few minutes to send an e-mail to a politician, or donate to organisations working to assist some of the world's most vulnerable people, it means that you are withdrawing your consent.
The international community to date is not doing enough to meet the needs of refugees in Chad and Darfur. Humanitarian agencies are hindered by a lack of funds and are thus unable to respond rapidly and effectively. Small contributions can go a long way. Charles Dickens once said, "Charity begins at home and justice begins next door." Let's do justice for Darfur and let "never again" mean something this time.
Tajinder Sangha is the National Vice Chair for Canadian Students for Darfur. To get involved with with this organisation at SFU, visit www.csfdarfur.net.
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