Young women in Cape Town, South Africa. South African President Mbeki is one of nine world leaders who could actually do something about the genocide.Boston Herald
That song. It’s been all over the radio during the Christmas season.
But 20 years after singer-activist Bob Geldof brought us the “feed the world” musical appeal for Africa, little has changed.
To their credit, Geldof and friends such as Paul McCartney and Bono recently re-recorded the Holiday hit. It’s now making the rounds on the airwaves and finding its way to store shelves, just as the original did in 1984 when Geldof was moved to action after watching a television show on the Ethiopian famine.
Natural disaster, inbred corruption and dreadful indifference had condemned over one million people to death.
Relief agencies performed heroically back then, but too many government, institutional and corporate leaders did nothing. Well, not exactly. Once the bright spotlight of shame and guilt coaxed them from their protective shells, they did wring their hands and promise “never again.” Until 1994, that is!
Ten years later, the world watched as 800,000 Hutus and Tutsis mindlessly slaughtered each other in Rwanda. In the words of the PBS “Frontline” series, it was a “triumph of evil.” Not exactly our finest hour. So, what did we learn? Well, after the bloodshed subsided we got even better at calling press conferences, wringing our hands and promising “never again.” It was the cruelest illusion of leadership.
Now, another ten-year cycle has passed and it’s happening again. In fact, genocide has been occurring in Sudan for many years as the United Nations and the great powers serve as concerned spectators. Sure, the situation is complex, with at least two civil wars underway simultaneously in Africa’s largest nation. But aren’t the worst of times precisely when we require the best of leaders? Why is it when times get tough, so many of our purported leaders simply vanish?
Blame starts with the morally bankrupt regime in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum. This Arab network of the north has systemically murdered, raped and tortured Christian and animist political opponents in the south, real and imagined. To date, experts estimate that two million people have perished. Some say that peace is at hand in this unyielding saga of north-south butchery. Don’t believe it.
In more recent years, the Khartoum government and its cutthroat janjaweed militia have driven one million people from their homes in southern Darfur and into ghastly refugee camps, some of which relief agencies can’t even reach. The death count is already 70,000 in this bloodbath between nomadic, government-armed Arabs and black farmers – countrymen all. By most accounts, another one million Sudanese could starve to death in the coming years as a result of the conditions created by genocide, lawlessness and poor harvests.
One should never overlook the heroic work undertaken by Non-Governmental Organizations. They may talk little, but they walk directly into harm’s way. Every day, they risk their lives to feed, heal and house people who otherwise serve only as backdrops on the nightly news. And yes, there’s the occasional politician, such as former Bush-appointed envoy to Sudan and outgoing U.N. Ambassador John Danforth, who rise above the business-as-usual pretensions to find humanity and justice. One suspects that the Episcopal Reverend Danforth may have some greater spiritual insights than are available to the standard-issue politician. And yet, one can’t help but think that this Ralston Purina heir knows that most American pets eat better than the people of Darfur.
So, some time soon there will be yet another hand-wringing episode over Darfur filled with the customary “never-again” promises. Yes, life-saving initiatives are being attempted. Some are succeeding against all odds. Still, it’s abundantly clear that the Sudanese genocide is simply not a priority for world leaders. There’s just no short-term political or financial gain in it.
While the murderous bunch in Khartoum is the first to blame for this genocide, a secondary source for blame, and the primary source for solutions, belongs to nine men. Until George Bush, Tony Blair, Jacques Chirac, Gerhard Schroeder, Silvio Berlusconi, Vladimir Putin, Kofi Annan, South African President Thabo Mbeki, and African Union Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare get really serious about Sudan, we will have no claim to living in a civilized world.
In fact, these men may want to consider spending less time on, say, ignoring HIV/AIDS, destroying same-sex marriages, breaking up world-class corporations for personal gain, preventing Muslim children from wearing religiously appropriate clothing, crushing efforts to use stem-cell research to save lives, waging needless wars, and dodging varied allegations of political or criminal wrongdoing.
Instead, they may want to suspend their personal fears and confront really big issues, like genocide. As was the case with Ethiopia and Rwanda, Sudan is a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions. Indeed, the tendency to talk tough and do little may be best summarized by Constance in the Bard’s King John who said, “Thou wear a lion’s hide! Doff it for shame, and hang a calf’s skin on those recreant limbs.”
We’ll witness true leadership when Bob Geldof won’t have to issue a 30th anniversary edition of “Feed the Children.” That’d be a very good thing, since Zimbabwe or the Ivory Coast is next on the genocide watch.