From the category archives:

Darfur

James North writes
Alex de Waal has decades of experience in Sudan and Darfur, and his point of view is valuable, as is this blog: "Making Sense of Darfur."  His latest post is particularly useful:
* He endorses the measured, diplomatic approach of the Obama administration, and its special envoy, Scott Gration.
* He reminds us that the Save Darfur organization provides almost no direct relief to the refugees in Darfur.

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Rob Browne at DailyKos urges Rabbi David Saperstein (of the Union for Reform Judaism), who is fasting for Darfur, to fast on behalf of the people of Gaza too–a crisis in which American Jews have far more influence than they do in Sudan. Browne writes to Saperstein that he is being "hypocritical":

Rabbi, it is my concern that the RAC's [Reform Jewish Religious Action Center's] lack of public outcry and advocacy regarding [the Gaza] crisis removes your legitimacy to discuss humanitarian concers elsewhere in the world. If you, the RAC, and the URJ (Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish religious movement in North America), cannot, or will not, use your power and significant influence with the Israeli government to alleviate the suffering that they have assisted in creating and maintaining, why would citizens or international leaders consider listening to your requests with respect to the behavior of other govenments.

PEP at its best, Progressive Except for Palestine. Young Jews, what do you think of this one-way compassion?

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His own family expelled from Uganda, Mamdani brings that lesson to Darfur

by Philip Weiss21 May 2009

James North writes: Mahmood Mamdani surprised me during our recent talk in his office up at Columbia University; he said no one at all from the Darfur solidarity movement has approached him to discuss his just-published Saviors and Survivors, (aside…

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Mamdani is persuasive in Darfur debate, Prendergast waffles

by Philip Weiss15 April 2009

By James North Several hundred people packed into the Cowin Auditorium at Columbia’s Teachers College last night, and nearly all of them stayed more than 2 hours for an intriguing debate about what is actually happening in Darfur and what…

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Bromwich: Who talks about the 4,700,000 Iraqi refugees?

by Philip Weiss7 April 2009

David Bromwich has a fabulous post on ways that aristocracy perpetuates itself–Larry Summers’s payday. And he offers this comment on James North’s piece on Mahmood Mamdani’s Darfur book, posted here yesterday: The report confirms a suspicion about the way the…

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Mamdani: ‘Save Darfur’ movement is not a peace movement

by Philip Weiss6 April 2009

James North writes: I remember Mahmood Mamdani from 35 years ago, when he was the most dynamic leader of the newly-organized union of graduate students at Harvard. Today he is a distinguished professor at Columbia, one of our most original…

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Thought experiment 2 (Darfur)

by Philip Weiss25 March 2009

From Foreign Policy: “As Secretary Clinton remarked last week, President Bashir and the government in Khartoum will be held responsible for each death that occurs in those camps caused by their expulsion of the aid workers,” Wood said. That was…

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Bosnia! Kosovo! Darfur!

by Philip Weiss3 January 2009

Israeli tanks have reportedly entered Gaza. Where are all the liberal internationalists? Another thing: They always lectured us about the need to support moderates over extremists in democratic societies. Where is the moderation in Israel?

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Some Victims of Sudan President Don’t Want Him Arrested

by Philip Weiss26 September 2008

By James North More current issues have pushed Darfur to the sidelines for now, but here’s a fascinating letter in the Financial Times from a southern Sudanese, John Achiek Deng. He is quite persuasive when he says: “In southern Sudan,…

Intervene in Darfur? Cakewalk Is Spelled, IED

by Philip Weiss10 September 2008

Another in the series, How to Think About Darfur, by James North: Here’s a link to the most important single magazine article I have read over at least the past 5 years; it appeared in the British publication Prospect. Bartle…

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Does the Save Darfur Coalition Have a Hidden Pro-Israel Agenda?

by Philip Weiss27 August 2008

Another in a series, “How to Think About Darfur,” by James North When I started looking into Darfur, I said right at the start that I was suspicious that the solidarity movement, or at least some part of it, was…

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Darfur Doesn’t Lend Itself to Black and White Distinctions

by Philip Weiss21 August 2008

Another in the series, How to Think About Darfur, by James North The New Republic has a long cover article on Darfur, along with a shorter piece by editor-in-chief Martin Peretz. For Peretz, Darfur is black and white: “Even if…

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Darfur: When We Say ‘Genocide’ We Lift Human Actions Out of History

by Philip Weiss14 August 2008

A continuing series on How to Think About Darfur, by James North I first looked into the definition of genocide in the early 1980s, when I was writing Freedom Rising, my book about southern Africa. One chapter described the apartheid…

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Understanding Darfur: An Olympic Update

by Philip Weiss12 August 2008

Another dispatch on “How to Think About Darfur,” by James North: Lopez Lomong, who was chosen by his Olympic teammates to carry the American flag at the opening ceremonies, is an extraordinary young man. He is one of the “Lost…

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