Posts by Michelle .
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Darfur: To the Victor Go the Spoils
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GOP Failure of Leadership on Tea Partier Abuse of the Holocaust
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Is Obama's Man Too Nice for Sudan?
A Holocaust Victim on Facebook: Crude or Compelling?
Published November 19, 2009 @ 11:44AM PT
Holocaust education is important. Adolf Hitler famously quipped, "After all, who remembers the Armenians?" - education and remembrance are critical for moving the world closer to the still-hollow concept of "Never Again."
Devotees of the anti-genocide cause, both educators and advocates alike, constantly search for new ways to engage and expand their audience. But is a Facebook alter-ego of a child victim of the Holocaust going to far?
A 22-year-old Polish man created a Facebook page for Henio Zytomirski, a seven year old Jewish boy who perished in a Nazi concentration camp. The page is updated regularly with brief posts from the child's point of view, as if he is reliving the horrific experience:
"Winter has arrived. Every Jew must wear the Star of David with his last name. A lot has changed. German troops walk the streets. Mama says that I shouldn't be frightened, and always that everything is just fine. Always?"
I've written in the past about my unease with victim identification methods of education and advocacy. (The tactic has been widely discredited as a pedagogical tool.) While I recognize the need for creative approaches to grabbing and holding people's attention on such a depressing subject, putting words into the mouths of child ghosts seems rather tasteless.
Adolf Hitler, Soccer Coach?
Published November 18, 2009 @ 08:00AM PT
If I told you that one in 20 British schoolchildren think Adolf Hitler was a German soccer coach, would you be a.) appalled, or b.) skeptical?
The results of a survey of 2,000 children in the UK revealed that while most students aged 9-15 recognized Hitler's rightful role as one of history's most nefarious mass-murdering war-mongers, 13.5% of them thought he discovered gravity and 7% thought he was Germany's national soccer coach. It gets better: 15% said that Auschwitz was a WWII-era theme park, and 6% though the Holocaust was a celebration of the end of the war.
The survey, however, was multiple choice, which really begs the question: Are the pre-teens a.) really that dense, or b.) smart-asses?
Darfur's Rebels Divorced from Reality
Published November 16, 2009 @ 04:48AM PT
Darfur's various rebel factions seem to be operating in more of a "chaos and havoc" mode than anything strategically oriented towards achieving their insurgent objectives. That is, of course, if you can even rightly call some of the faction "rebels," as they often appear more like common bandits with a steady arms flow, using a hollow ideology to somehow justify their existence.
Either way, their latest tactics reveal more self-interest than concern for the people in Darfur they claim to represent.
Serially-delayed multi-party peace talks due to resume in Doha, Qatar today were once again postponed, after the two largest rebel factions refused to participate. The branch of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) led by leader-in-self-imposed-exile Abdel Wahid has been busy threatening elections officials in South Darfur and attacking UNAMID peacekeepers, while the leader of the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) Khalil Ibrahim protested that the peace talks should first begin with him.
Ibrahim's arrogance conveniently ignores the fact that direct negotiations with JEM failed earlier this year.
Three New (to Me) Internet Resources on Genocide
Published November 15, 2009 @ 03:15PM PT
For all of the students of genocide and conflict out there, here are a few internet resources that I recently stumbled upon:
The Peace Media Clearinghouse is a collaboration between the US Institute of Peace and Georgetown University's Conflict Resolution Program. The easily-searchable Clearinghouse offers "multimedia materials that support conflict analysis and prevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation," including items such as a documentary on child soldiers in the DRC and a computer game on nonviolent conflict management. You can search by country, region, language, subject, or type (photo, podcast, etc). The site even has an open-source element, allowing you to add or suggest new materials. (Hat tip: Forced Migration Current Awareness Blog.)
Aid Worker Attacks in Chad a Sign of Worse to Come?
Published November 13, 2009 @ 04:37PM PT
I'd like to think that there's a special place in a particularly fiery afterlife for anyone who attacks humanitarian aid workers.
The UN announced today that six international humanitarian agencies are suspending operations after a French ICRC worker was kidnapped and a Chadian national staffer with Solidarite was murdered. The suspension will impact service delivery to 37,000 Darfuri refugees and internally displaced Chadians, and comes after an increase in attacks in recent months. Since the beginning of 2009, 190 attacks on aid operations have been reported.
The culprits remain unknown, but could be any of the number of rebel factions (Chadian or Darfuri) or opportunistic bandits that roam freely in the Chad-Sudan border region. Sudanese-backed Chadian rebels are known to attack humanitarian convoys and compounds in eastern Chad, steal their vehicles, and drive them back to basecamp in Sudan; evidence of this was also noted in the recent UN Panel of Experts report on Darfur.
Attacks often peak in advance of another rebel incursion -- now that the rainy season is over, are Chadian rebels gearing up to make another pass at N'djamena? Or is this just a case of cut-and-dry banditry?
A Devastating Report on Darfur
Published November 10, 2009 @ 04:25AM PT
After reading the latest UN report on Darfur, it should be abundantly clear to anyone that the Government of Sudan (GoS) is far from deserving cookies and gold stars.
In fact, no one comes out of the Report of the Panel of Experts looking good. The report, which covers a broad investigative mandate including arms embargoes and violations of international humanitarian law over the past year, exposes all actors in the Darfur conflict -- the governments of Sudan and Chad, the rebels of both countries, and a three-page list of corporations -- as the morally-depraved, power-hungry thugs they are, and in meticulous detail. It's a fascinating read, especially considering that the extensive documentation was assembled by the Panel despite significant obstruction of their work.
In fact, GoS stonewalling and obstructionism is repeatedly noted through the report, including intimidation and at least one case of arrest and detention of Darfuris interviewed by the Panel. Several government officials agreed to provide requested information and then were never heard from again. The Panel also noted multiple incidents of cosmetic measures implemented by GoS to feign the appearance of concern for its obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, such as committees to combat sexual violence and decrees against torture and targeting civilians during combat operations; according to evidence uncovered by the Panel, these measures are hollow efforts to pay lip-service to human rights and civilian protection and actually change nothing about the situation of Darfuris on the ground.
Nothing raises suspicion like acting like you have something to hide.
Breaking: Bashir Cancels Turkey Visit, After All
Published November 08, 2009 @ 01:42PM PT
[Update: Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a state-run news agency that he is comfortable talking to Bashir "Because a Muslim couldn't do such things. A Muslim could not commit genocide." Can he really be that naive and foolish?]
What caused Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir to cancel plans to visit Turkey this weekend?
The indicted war criminal was scheduled to fly to Turkey on Sunday for a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The trip grabbed international headlines after human rights groups protested the rolling out of the Turkish welcome mat for the wanted president, and European Union (EU) asked the wanna-be-EU-member to rescind the invitation. Turkey, however, remained defiant.
But word broke this afternoon that Bashir's plane left for Turkey without its VIP passenger -- though the reason remains unclear. Did Bashir cancel his visit at the last minute because:
a.) Turkey caved to EU pressure and quietly revoked the invitation?
b.) He was worried by rumors that Israel or Greece might intercept is plane en-route and arrest his genocidal arse? Or,
c.) Who the hell knows, but I sure would've paid money to be a fly on the wall of the room where that decision was made.
