Today I’ve got a guest blogger who I’m hoping will make more appearances in the days and years (touch wood) to come, the author and traveler James North (that’s his pen-name; I’ve known him for more than 30 years as Dan Swanson). North and I have long been curious about the Darfur issue. Why does it get disproportionate attention? What should Americans of conscience do? North has begun studying the issue. What follows is his introduction to his ideas:
I’ve had ambivalence about the save Darfur campaign for years. I’ve spent time in the Sudan (not in Darfur itself, but just to the east, in Kordofan), so for me Sudanese people are warm and real, not a distant abstraction, and the fact that several hundred thousand of them have died is not something I can easily ignore.
At the same time, although I’m no expert, I know enough about the Sudan to understand that it is complicated, and the way the conflict is sometimes portrayed here – as bad “Arabs” murdering good “Africans” – is far too simple. By “complicated,” I don’t mean that everyone is equally to blame, that there are no war criminals, that the International Criminal Court was not justified last week in indicting the Sudanese president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, for genocide. But “complicated” may mean that there is no easy solution. If the Iraq War has taught us anything it is that a military invasion by Western soldiers does not end violence overnight.
I’ve also found some aspects of the Darfur campaign disturbing. First, as the East African scholar Mahmood Mamdani has pointed out in the London Review of Books, it sometimes appears that more people are protesting about Darfur here than about Iraq, which the U.S. is itself directly occupying. I also sense – in precincts like The New Republic – that Darfur is being used as another way to portray “Arabs” as murderous, religion-crazed fanatics who will never make peace with Israel.
My suspicions could be wrong–or unimportant. Whatever the motivation of some of its supporters, maybe the Save Darfur campaign has stopped a bad situation from getting worse? And though I’ve often noted that mass killing continues, largely unnoticed, in Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, maybe instead of being a critic I should support the Darfur campaign and try to extend it to those other places?
That’s why I decided to try to get up to date on what is actually happening in Darfur. I looked into the latest work of several major Western experts – including Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, and Gerard Prunier. In coming days I will report on what they’ve said. Even though they have spent decades studying the region, they don’t always agree–a fact that underscores the complexity of Darfur.
My research project speaks to the tremendous inequality between the rich world and the poor world. I’m sitting down to look into the intricacies of tribal and ethnic clashes in a remote area partly because I live in a rich country that can have an impact there. By contrast, people in the Sudan are not studying, say, the details of U.S. policy toward native Americans, so that their government might pressure our government into improving conditions on the Navajo and Sioux reservations.
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Mr. Weiss,
Thanks. Looking forward to the Darfur articles.
As it happens, just this morning I had a discussion with a pro-intervention liberal friend of mine, who said we must "save them from themselves." While trying to argue against intervention, I realized that I know absolutely nothing about the situation, so I just kept changing the subject to Iraq.
-Ryan
Thank you for this interesting post.
There are several data points which don't square well with the mainstream American media's impression of Darfur (that it's an on-going genocide demanding urgent humanitarian intervention). I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this.
1. Many of the principal backers of action against Sudan are Jewish Zionists or evangelical Christian Zionists – in fact, there is a broad overlap between the Jewish groups who supported war against Iraq and those who now want sanctions or intervention in Darfur. For example, the 'Save Darfur', group described by the Jerusalem Post:
"Little known, however, is that the coalition, which has presented itself as 'an alliance of over 130 diverse faith-based, humanitarian, and human rights organization' was actually begun exclusively as an initiative of the American Jewish community. And even now, days before the rally, that coalition is heavily weighted with a politically and religiously diverse collection of local and national Jewish groups. [...] Besides the Jewish origins and character of the rally – a fact the organizers consistently played down in conversations with The Jerusalem Post – the other striking aspect of the coalition is the noted absence of major African-American groups like the NAACP or the larger Africa lobby groups like Africa Action." [see Xymphora's blog for more]
Why is this?
2. The US-backed Kenyan invasion of Somalia, in the Horn, has caused an immense humanitarian crisis second only to Iraq, according to Oxfam. The US also sporadically bombs Somalia. What exactly is the mechanism that ensures we don't hear much about this in the United States, compared to the (apparently not US-sponsored) troubles in Darfur?
3. China is the major business partner and oil client of Sudan, and Zimbabwe for that matter. To what extent is US support for intervention or sanctions in Sudan, about confronting and blocking China's growing influence in Africa? Is the same true of Zimbabwe, where China relies on for chromium, platinum, and the trans-Angola pipeline?
This would be the 'Chomsky thesis' for why the US seems to be on the side of intervention, as compared to the 'Walt/Mearsheimer Thesis' of (1.) What weighting should we give these different motives?
Good to know that it's all a Jewish plot.
I refuse to believe a word about them darkies unless written by a whitey. I propose sending SOG on a fact finding mission to darkest Darfur for this blog.
Soggy, bring me back ten of the blackest Darfurites you can find. I need hood ornaments.
Got enough hood ornaments, maybe some lawn jockeys though. Sreiously though, since the Palestinians are living under the most oppressive regime there over was or ever will be. And they are undergoing the worst oppression in the history of recorded time. Worse than anything hat there has evern been then ahow about exchanging them form the black sudanese. They really don't have any problems after all. Surely there would be a stampede out of Nablus, wouldn't there?
bad spelling. Since the Phil Weiss fan base is of such high intellect I apologize.
I have noticed before that some in the "save Darfur" crowd had some unsavory background and very likely an hidden agenda. Yet, I have always been in disbelief at the idea that this story was only a ploy to divert attention from Iraq and to massage public opinion towards interventionism in general. If only because it seemed marginally efficient. Possible after all, it's not like we haven't seen worse in the past few years.
Anyway, I hope Mr North will help me clarify my ideas on that point.
I have noticed before that some in the "save Darfur" crowd had some unsavory background and very likely an hidden agenda. Yet, I have always been in disbelief at the idea that this story was only a ploy to divert attention from Iraq and to massage public opinion towards interventionism in general. If only because it seemed marginally efficient. Possible after all, it's not like we haven't seen worse in the past few years.
Anyway, I hope Mr North will help me clarify my ideas on that point.
The official claim that genocide was going on in Darfur came from the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
SOG is right, it is another Zionist campaign.
Everything you need to know, in one concise, precise post by Joachim's compatriot, the succinct Ms. Karin Friedemann:
http://karinfriedemann.blogspot.com/2007/04/who-is-charles-jacobs.html
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I second that you read this:
http://karinfriedemann.blogspot.com/2007/04/who-is-charles-jacobs.html
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Nearly 6 million have died in Congo due to the recent wars, the chief beneficiaries of which are Chinese and US industrialists, diamond merchants in Amsterdam, and the Rwandan government. Can you recall a single front page about this story …. ever? I CAN recall acres of newsprint about 6 million dying in a war 65 years ago. And monuments. And museums. But 6 million dying NOW seems not to be a worthwhile story. Perhaps people are too busy remembering to see what's in front of their eyes.
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yes i dont have much respect for people like kristof who are stuck on darfur without acknowledging that the us has killed even more iraqis, according to demographic surveys. tho to be fair maybe kristof is doing the best he can within the constraints imposed by his employer.
and i have even less respect for american white people who moan about israeli war crimes and even have the gall to whine about 'dual loyalty' while ignoring the fact that their own country is by far the greatest terrorist state in the world today.
and i am totally enraged by imbeciles like Phil who remain 'thrilled' by OSameA the Dark Messiah and his wonderful plan to extricate our troops from iraq so they may gloriously kill and die in the great patriotic war on afganistan.
i wish you would die.
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in the next election i plan to vote for mccain on the general grounds that a stupid devil is much better than a smart one. which theory was wonderfully borne out by the reign of the bush devil.
Beating the drums for an attack on Iran, intervention in Sudan, and normalizing Islamophobia in the USA are all different faces of the same Zionist Jewish politics (heads of the hydra — an image from Carlos Fuentes, La cabeza de la hidra).
See Iran Divestment and Zionist Manipulation.
Mamdani sent me a nice thank you for The Fifth Question while I found a chat with Ruth Messinger at the Harvard Hillel quite enlightening. See Profiteering from Humanitarianism.
SOG: "Does Karin Friedemann –"
Could you tone down your insult level slightly?
Why not point out, if I remember well, you are from Chicago, what she got wrong e.g. on the Boston mosque issue? We had a very similar discussion with strong racist undertones here in Cologne. Paradoxically a German Jewish survivor was one of the most prominent voices against the mosque (supported by the German-neocon-axis-of-the-good). His argument was pretty racist. but then, how do we address problems in less affluent communities? The Muslim elites aren't the problem. And there many hard working Muslim here Cologne. From little shop up, in which I often shop [...]
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Hmmm? I know the institutions but not the guy, so far:
Charles Jabobs
Benador Associates, Camera, David Project, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; the usual suspects.
Interesting:
American Anti Slavery Group
Is his outlook based on the experience of the US Black community, or doesn't he consider it important? Never look back … If he does not cooperate with Black American institutions, when, how and why did his disassociation from the larger Human Right context occur? 1994? Don't you think his project could profit from deep roots in the US Black experience?
I heard about the phenomenon,some may well have been inspired by his work. But mainly discussed here in European are the sex slave networks. And in this context we hardly ever hear about a special Muslim connection:
Human Trafficking
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The Wikipedia piece on AASG is propaganda probably written by a graduate of the David Project Israel Advocacy program.
The Jewish Advocate of Boston is always a good place to get a good picture of Jacobs' mindset. See Confronting Israel's Seedier Side.
BTW, there seems to be a good deal of coordination between fanatic voelkisch racist Jewish groups in Boston and those in Germany, France, Italy, the UK, and the Russian Federation. In many cases the strategies are planned in the
I had a long talk with Jacobs a few years ago. He is an immigrant from Poland and is an excellent example of the extremist ethnic fundamentalist mindset associated with German Nazis, the Polish Nowa Demokracja or Jabotinskian Zionists.
The above should say "planned in the Boston area by the so-called Newton Jews of whom Jacobs is a leader."
SOG: "Does Karin Friedemann like to take it up the ass?"
Could you tone down your insult level slightly?
And what the hell would be the use of that, Leo? Don't you know the blood-engorged gideon and his soggy sore are a legend here on Mondoweiss and in the ziosphere?
The sore is unsightly but he's got a fire in his eye.
So he's not the cleanest prick, but you can't just cut old Gid off.
Besides you need at least one foaming-at-the-mouth zionut, who can thrust for hours on end about nazis, and finish off yelling about anus.
That kind of character establishes the Mondoweiss street cred. Hell, I know I'm in the right place when I see the gid puncturing posts with nothin but pure id.
It's like a porn movie about the end of empire.
*** "Babylon Backfire" with Gideon Fuego ***
Israel/the United States as "America."
Mr. Baracka, Sgt. McClam, and the media as themselves.
And introducing Philip Weiss, a courageous, conscientious old journo, slowly being reduced to doing low budget political porno for cult leader Mr. Baracka, so that one day he can buy a ticket to the only game in town.
Extras: All of us, as all of us.
Some nudity. Foul language. Graphic rape.
Tagline: "Now America's broken."
.
Yes I am happy to be in this movie. Who do you want me to Rape?
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