Darfur

Last night I had the opportunity to hear John Prendergast speak here at OSU.  He spoke about Darfur and Beyond: What we can do to Confront the Human Rights Crisis in Africa.  In the beginning he captured our attention with a real story of a mother escaping the genocide of her village only making it out with two of her four children.  It is because of these stories that we must do something.  

Prendergast mentioned the history of countries and the "growing pains"  of new countries.   He mentioned how Africa is depicted, in the media, as a hopeless place that is in lots of conflict, from movies like Blood Diamond and others, even when those countries are not in conflict anymore and have been peaceful for some time.  He compared the wars of Europe with the wars of Africa.  He mentioned how presidents try to make a better legend for themselves in the last months of their term and will focus on things they think the American people want.  

But ultimately what he said was that we have the power to create this change we want to see.  The fact that we filled up the auditorium on a Friday night to hear him talk shows the interest we have in helping to solve these issues.  Writing letters to representatives and senators, calling the white house and letting our government know what we think is important will help guarantee that they do something about it.  Also writing to the media and telling them we want to hear more about these issues will help.  He said this is the first time there has been a large movement to end a genocide while it is still going on.  He mentioned the connection of China's oil in the Sudan and the pressure we can apply to China with the Olympic Games coming up.

Overall it was a good talk ... He did talk for a long time tho ...  But it was very informative