The Beijing Olympics this summer were supposed to be China’s coming-out party, celebrating the end of nearly two centuries of weakness, poverty and humiliation.
Instead, China’s leaders are tarnishing their own Olympiad by abetting genocide in Darfur and in effect undermining the U.N. military deployment there. The result is a growing international campaign to brand these “The Genocide Olympics.” Nicholas Kristof, N.Y. Times, 1-24-08
Darfur Crisis Update: Your Governments Just Can't Seem to Scrounge Up Enough Helicopters or Troops; But You Can Make a Difference, Take the Turn Off/Tune In Pledge!
By Richard Power
Here are two stories that highlight the inexcusable moral failure of the great nations concerning the genocide in Darfur:
The UN-African Union peacekeeping force proposed for Sudan's Darfur region will take most of 2008 to deploy fully, the UN's head of peacekeeping has said.
Jean-Marie Guehenno said not enough troops had been contributed to the force. Only 9,000 of 26,000 planned troops have been deployed so far.
It is the first time the UN has said there could be such a long delay. BBC, 1-18-08
Two prominent Senators today introduced a resolution urging the international community to provide the necessary resources for the Darfur peacekeeping force.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph Biden and ranking member Richard Lugar warned that any delay in assisting the force “will result in the continued loss of life and further degradation of humanitarian infrastructure in Darfur”. Sudan Tribune, 1-29-08
Of course, there is no excuse for the delay in deployment or the shortage of helicopters. None whatsoever.
Meanwhile, Dream for Darfur is calling for all of us to make a difference on the bottom line:
With the 2008 billion-dollar Olympic marketing blitz about to begin, now is the time to act.
Olympic corporate sponsors have been silent about China’s financing of the Darfur genocide, even as the sponsors are spending billions to enhance China’s image as Olympic host.
This is unacceptable. If sponsors continue to ignore China’s complicity in the Darfur genocide, we will ignore their ad blitz. We will TURN OFF their multi-million dollar marketing campaigns during the Games.
Join us: Pledge to TURN OFF Olympic sponsors’ ads during the 2008 Games and TUNE IN to Darfur Live – the daily live broadcast with Mia Farrow from a Darfurian refugee camp.
China can use its influence to bring security to Darfur.
The Olympic sponsors can use their influence with China.
The people can use their influence with the sponsors – some of the most recognizable brands in the world.
Until the sponsors tune in to Darfur, the people will TURN OFF the sponsors. Dream for Darfur
Click here to sign the TURN OFF/TUNE IN Pledge.
I encourage you to follow events in Darfur on Mia Farrow's site, it is the real-time journal of a humanitarian at work; the content is compelling, insightful and fiercely independent.
For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.
Here are other sites of importance:
Dream for Darfur
Enough: The Project to End Genocide and Mass Atrocities
Genocide Intervention Network
Divest for Darfur.
Save Darfur!
Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.
Darfur, Olympics, Divestment, Africa, UN, Genocide, Mia Farrow, Dream for Darfur, China, Sudan, Investors Against Genocide, Richard Power, Words of Power