How many people have heard of Darfur?Sudan?If you read or watch or listen to the news,chances are that you’ve heard of these places and the genocide that goes on there.You’d have to be living under a rock not to.To sum up a long,sad and awful story in as few words as possible,In 2003 the government of Sudan struck oil and made the already rich people living in sudan richer and giving the dirt poor farmers zip.This enraged a lot of poor people and they started to revolt.Now,for the sudanese,oil meant power,and they sure as heck weren’t about to give up their power without a fight.They hired a nomadic group of people who had hovered outside of Sudanese civilization for centuries.These people where generally beileved to be the Sudanese equivalent to bandits.The Sudanese government now made them government sactioned bandits.They attacked the poor farm villages not bothering to distinguish rebels from innocent townsfolk,leaving behind a trail of murder,rape,and all sorts of general destruction.THes people(named the janjaweed,meaning devils on horseback,a good description in my opinion)have doneterrible things.There have been millions upon thousand of murders rapes,and more people displaced from their homes then is possible to count.These people have moved into refugee camps that are in a really awful state,the lean to’s that they make look like they could barely stand up to a slight breze much less monsoon season.Yet,thes people are living there for months,maybe years,hoping someday to return and rebuild their lives.So now you know what’s going on there,you may be asking yourself,why has no one doing anything?is anyone doing anythng?these are exellent questions.The answer to the latter is yes,celebrities like Mia Ferell,and George Clooney are among the advocates for peace in this issue.They bring with them a lot of support,and their celeb. status brings a lot of publicity.Now about the former,the answer lies in politics.Now,the United states has been active in trying to stop this terrible conflict.They are being thwarted at every turn by China,with whom Sudan has become a partner and the leading suppplyer of oil.The chinese are benifiting by getting cheap oil(sudan needs money bad!)and they really don’t want that to stop.The united states can’t do much with China in the way, as the two contries are joined at the hip.So you see all of this won’t stop without the full support of the Chinese.One campaign is targeting the olympics,held in beijing.They are calling it the”genocide olympics”.The chinese don’t like this as they view the olymics as a coming out party for China and a way to re assert themselves as a world superpower.This is having a veary positive effect,the government of China is putting pressure on Sudan to do something.There’as still a lot to do do before the conflict there stops,but at least there’s a beacon of hope for a geonocide free future.
