A breath of fresh air

As I traveled across Darfur and Eastern Chad, I would stay in friends' houses along the way. There was one particular house that I especially enjoyed stopping at, for it was located on a large hill. In the morning, with the rooster still crowing and smoke from the morning fires just beginning to trickle into the air, I would climb the rocky hill and stand on a large rock overlooking the village beneath me. I would spread my arms wide and inhale deeply. I loved the fresh, cool morning air filling my lungs. It was such a nice difference from the hot, dusty air I would breathe all day in the car.

I had a similar experience today as I read an article in the St. Pete Times. I read about a group of Tampa Bay teenagers getting passionate about Darfur and raising awareness and money to help save my friends. Hearing that a least a few of America's youth found a place in their hearts for someone other than themselves is so refreshing. This extraordinary group of high school graduates have attacked the notion that 400,000 people don't matter if they don't start with the letters M-E. They have given me hope that my friends can be saved if more people accept their role as global citizens.

These teens have banded together to host a benefit concert on July 9. It is called the Sudan Relief Jam and is going to be an awesome eight-hour concert event featuring all sorts of different music. They are just getting started, but have already organized, rounded up sponsors, and are working hard at getting an official t-shirt made, TicketMaster account set up and spreading the word.

Where: Skipper's Smokehouse - Phone: (813) 971-0666
When: July 9th from 2:00pm - 10:00pm
How much: $15.00 in advance/$20.00 at the door

I will post as much information about this event as I can, but you can also check out their website: www.sudanreliefjam.org. I believe strongly in what they are trying to accomplish and know firsthand the difficulty of motivating people to care about anything, much less Africa.

To read the article about the teens, click here.

Continuing janjaweed attacks in eastern Chad

UNHCR fears further displacement
Source: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

Date: 06 Jun 2006

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond –
to whom quoted text may be attributed – at the press briefing, on 6
June 2006, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

UNHCR is extremely concerned about continuing attacks by janjaweed
militia in eastern Chad and the potential for more internal
displacement of local Chadians. This ongoing insecurity also poses a
threat to 213,000 Sudanese refugees from Darfur in a dozen
UNHCR-administered camps in this remote region along the border with
Sudan. On Saturday, armed militiamen stole 350 head of cattle from a
village 20 km west of Koukou Angarana, in the Goz Beida region of
eastern Chad. No casualties were reported, but this is just one recent
example of escalating violence which is causing increasing
displacement and sometimes death.

The janjaweed attacks against Chadians appear to have become more
systematic and deadly over the past three months and there is no sign
that this pattern will stop.

There are presently an estimated 50,000 displaced people in eastern
Chad who have fled their homes in recent months following dozens of
attacks by janjaweed. In some cases, people flee out of fear of
impending attacks, and many have been displaced several times. A major
attack near Modeyna on March 3-4 led to the displacement of thousands
of villagers to Koloye, 15 km away. Dozens of local inhabitants were
reportedly killed during that attack. Militia later attacked Koloye
and the displaced from Modeyna once again had to flee, this time to
Gouroukoun, a village near Goz Beida, which presently hosts some
11,000 displaced people.

On April 13, hundreds of janjaweed attacked the village of Djawara,
massacring over 100 men and stealing hundreds of cattle. Djawara, 60
km from the Sudan border, and other surrounding villages are now
deserted. Most of the inhabitants fled north-east to Dogdore to join
others recently displaced. Dogdore now hosts an estimated 9,000
displaced Chadians.

UNHCR teams have interviewed many displaced in spontaneous
settlements. They say attacks are being perpetrated by janjaweed
militia coming from Sudan. They also said that on several occasions,
they recognized Chadians from other tribes taking part in attacks
together with the Sudanese janjaweed militia, alleging that those
Chadians had concluded agreements with the militia to avoid attacks on
their own properties and livestock.

On May 1, a group of 150 janjaweed attacked cattle herders near
Koukou, stealing 2,000 head of cattle and killing five people.
Repeated attacks early April at the border, especially on the village
of Singitao, caused more displacement near Goz Amir refugee camp. UN
agencies and NGOs were able to relocate some 1,300 displaced persons
to the village of Habile near Koukou.

The arrival of additional displaced persons in Chadian villages and
towns often strains already limited resources, including water. The
town of Goz Beida, with 6,000 local inhabitants, hosts 14,000 Sudanese
refugees in Djabal camp and is now trying to cope with an additional
11,000 displaced Chadians the outlying village of Gouroukoun. Because
of the limited water resources, we have started to relocate some of
these people to other villages around Goz Beida. So far, we have moved
2,000 people in UNHCR trucks.

These relocations are part of an inter-agency 'cluster approach'
toward IDP issues in eastern Chad. UNHCR is responsible for protection
and shelter; UNICEF for health and water; and WFP for food security. A
few non-governmental organizations are also working with us.

Again, we urge authorities in Chad and Sudan to reinforce security in
border regions to prevent further attacks and displacement, and call
for more international engagement in dealing with the very serious
issue of spreading instability and insecurity.

In all, there are 213,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad as well as
50,000 displaced persons. There are also 47,000 refugees from the
Central African Republic in southern Chad.

Repost: The Water Boys

Sometimes at night I can still imagine the pounding drum beat of a water boy. This rhythmic pounding is the lifeline of an entire community. In the Darfur region of the world there is no running water. Water comes either from the drying central lake or deep wells dug in dry riverbeds. These sources are often far from the showers and washrooms where the water is needed, and that is where the Water Boys come in. A Water Boy is a career that provides the link between the supply and the demand. Please, allow me to describe to you a water boy:

Meet Ibrahim. His hair is tightly braided and his skin is freshly oiled. He rises early in the morning and steps outside his dark hut, squinting at the already bright sun. He shakes some coals and a few weak embers rise. He quickly inserts some dry reeds and a flicker of a flame gives him hope for a hot breakfast. He heats some medidi (a drinkable rice and sugar mixture) and gobbles it down. He knows he needs his strength for the day ahead.

Once his stomach is satisfied, he makes his way through some thorn trees and over some brown grass to the animal pen. He unlatches the goatskin lock and swings open the branch that is doubling as a gate. He enters and approaches his capital investment - a donkey.

The donkey is ornery this morning and backs away from Ibrahim. He shakes his hand and turns his body, as if he is threatening to turn Ibrahim'’s day sour with one swift kick to the midsection. Ibrahim grabs him by his mane and calms him down.

"Agod sakit (Stay still)" he begs the large animal. Finally, with the donkey'’s jitters gone, Ibrahim reaches for a heavy burlap sack and places it on the animal's back. Then follows a coarse pad made of woven straw, a blanket and then a wooden saddle. This saddle is not ordinary for a bar is placed across where a human normally sits. This saddle is not made for joy rides, this is business.

The last touch to add to his steed is the most important piece of equipment - the water sack. This equipment is made out of leather and sits on the saddle. It actually has two large sacks, one sits on either side of the donkey. At the top there is one opening that leads to both sacks and that the bottom corner of each sack is a tied-off opening.

Ibrahim adds the other two essentials tools of the trade -– large buckets and a wooden stick - and he is ready for his commute to work. He makes his way through the quiet streets, through back alleys and under archways. Each house’'s front yard is surrounded by large, mud-brick walls.

He arrives at the well and stands in line. He makes his way closer and closer and pays the Well Master a small fee. He attaches his buckets to the rope and lowers them in to the well. Seconds after they hit the bottom with a splash, he strains and tugs and works the buckets back up to the surface. Once at the top, he empties them into the sacks on the donkey. He repeats this until both sacks are bulging full, seeping water, and the donkey teetering a bit from the load. Then, it's off to make money.

Unless he has specific clients - people who prearrange for his water delivery service -– he has to roam the streets looking for buyers. The way he lets people know that he is walking past their large compound walls is by beating his stick against his buckets. Bang- Bang - Bang. Now the whole block knows a water boy is near.

No luck here so he continues to the next block where a young girl sprints out of her family's gate and calls him over. She points him over to the family barrels where he parks the donkey. Now comes the trickiest part of his job as he must untie the opening to the sacks one at a time and empty the water into his bucket. Then, he must empty his bucket into the barrel. He must do this all while dealing with a donkey who simply doesn't enjoy the task at hand. So Ibrahim gallantly grabs the tie and lets some water through, the donkey jolts and sends water (money) crashing to the dry ground. Ibrahim readjusts and tries again. On his fourth or fifth time, he gets a full bucket. He ties off the sack and dumps it in the barrel. Once the barrel is full, the young girl pays him and he is done.

It's off again to the well, to continue his job as the town'’s plumbing system -– yet another way the people of Darfur have ingeniously beaten the odds.


In Darfur, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Survival is not an option and the people are so creative. They manage to find a solution to every problem. They reuse everything and waste nothing. These very people are now the victims of genocide. Please, help me take a stand for them and end their unjust murders.

Lessons from a naked man

Many years ago, when my parents were working in Southern Sudan, they lived with a rural tribe. This tribe, as is often the case in very hot climates, made the common-sense decision that clothes were to be optional. In fact, everyone went around with little else than a string of beautiful beads around their waist - anything else was abnormal.

Nearby there was a town that was seeking to be known as "modern." So, as a part of their modernization effort the town passed a law saying that anyone who came into the town's limits had to be clothed. The ultimate example of "no shirt, no shoes, no service."

One day my parents visited the town to pick up some supplies (yes, fully clothed) and on their way back saw the most unusual sight. Strutting down the road toward the town - his face lit up by a wide grin - was a very tall, very dark Sudanese man. The rich darkness of his skin contrasted greatly with the the brand new, bright white tennis shoes he was wearing on his feet. That's right, he was only wearing shoes - nothing else. Beaming from ear to ear and confident that he was now clothed, because he had on a pair of shoes, he was eager to visit the town.

This was a man who had spirit. He was dedicated to his goal of visiting the town and had worked up and saved up to buy his shoes. He was proud of being clothed and oblivious to the weird glances he was receiving. He was carefree, happy and intent on enjoying himself despite his circumstances. Captured in this picture are so many lessons that it would be hard to define them all here. I will go into a few things that I see, but would love to hear from you as to any other things you can see or learn from this story.

I wish sometimes that our society would let us act like this. Not so much the walking around naked part, but rather, releasing us of self-imposed inhibitions and social norms. We dictate to ourselves what is appropriate, what is normal and what is not. We convince ourselves that there is no other way to live. We try so hard to conform that we often scorn those who do not meet our standards, almost as if we are jealous they have the freedom to be different. This is true in both the secular and Christian worlds.

One of the things I loved the most about my friends in Eastern Chad and Darfur was their spirit. They managed to laugh under the most dire of circumstances, stay hopeful even while planting dead seeds in parched land, and maintain a generous attitude that rivals any other culture that I have experienced. If you arrived at dinnertime, you were guarenteed a place around the tray of food - no matter how meager the rations. Chadians perfected the art of "visiting" and would always keep a pot of tea on the fire to welcome the steady stream of friends stopping by to chat. There was no hurry - you were always welcome. A favorite quote of mine goes like this: "Americans may have watches, but Africans have the time."

Unfortunately, this spirit is being violently crushed even as you read these words. Every day, fathers have to witness their young daughters get raped before they themselves get killed. Mothers are forced to flee from their homes and take up camp in the desert to excape harm. There is a genocide taking place in Darfur AND it is now spilling over into Chad as well. Over 400,000 people - my spirited friends - have been killed and over 3.5 million others have been forced to live as refugees in their own countries.

Please, join me and everyone else who realizes that what is happening "over there" is the worst man-made humanitarian crisis our generation has ever seen. Help save Darfur. Help save the last remaining spirit of my friends.

TIME RUNNING OUT IN DARFUR

By Nat Hentoff
Washington Times

After prolonged, fractious negotiations, there appeared to be hope
that the horrendous genocide in Darfur might be coming to an end after
hundreds of thousands of black Muslims and others have been killed or
died of disease, and 2.4 million of the survivors have been torn from
their villages into refugee camps. But a peace treaty signed on May 5
in Nigeria between the government of Sudan and one of the rebel forces
is coming apart.

Two weeks after the signing, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
wrote in the French daily, Le Figaro, that "there is not a second to
lose...the region is undergoing the worst humanitarian crisis gripping
the planet." On the same day, Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s relief
coordinator, emphasized on the Sudan Tribune's Web site: "The next few
weeks will be make or break. We can turn the corner toward
reconciliation and reconstruction, or we see an even worse collapse of
our efforts to provide protection and relief to millions of people."
Earlier, he had warned: "The alternative to peace through this
agreement is too horrendous for any of us to contemplate."

But on May 18, the Sudan Tribune reported that Khartoum had
"detained" two well-known Sudanese human-rightsactivists
"incommunicado, putting them at risk of torture ...Detaining them
sends a clear message to victims of rape and torture that no one in
Darfur who attempts to stand up for the rights of the victims is
safe."

Meanwhile, on May 15, the Khartoum-directed Janjaweed, relentless
murderers and rapists, attacked two villages in the north of Darfur.
As a New York Times headline the previous day all too accurately
proclaimed: "Truce Is Talk, Agony Is Real in Darfur War." That story
told of how the Janjaweed again broke the so-called peace treaty,
attacking the village of Menawashie. They "killed one woman, wounded
six villagers and raped 15 women."

"They told us," said a villager, "you are slaves, we will finish
you. We will not allow you to move from Menawashie, not one
kilometer." Added another survivor, Aish Adam Moussa: "They always say
peace is coming, but we are still waiting."

The core hole in the quickly unraveling peace treaty is the
promise of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to demobilize the
Janjaweed fully, and with verification, by mid-October.

Says Ismael Haron in the Gaga refugee camp in Chad: "We know Omar
Hassan al-Bashir. We have seen him make agreements and then break them
10 minutes later." And, if the Janjaweed keep murdering and raping for
months to come and beyond October, who will stop them? After all, Mr.
al-Bashir has, for three years, earnestly insisted he would disarm the
Janjaweed.

As of this writing, the United Nations has agreed to send a U.N.
force to bolster the greatly inadequate African Union monitors in
Darfur, but it will take months to organize and provide for these U.N.
peacekeepers. And in the village of Menawashie, the survivors will
still be waiting.

Reporting for the past 10 years on Khartoum's horrific crimes
against its own people in the south, and then in Darfur, I continually
keep reading, and talking to, the most authoritative chronicler of
these atrocities, Eric Reeves of Smith College in Massachusetts, who,
as Nicholas Kristof noted in the May 7 New York Times, has financed
his ceaseless campaign to inform the world of this genocide "by taking
a loan on his house."

As Mr. Kristof adds, Mr. Reeves, while trying to save untold lives
in Darfur, "has been fighting for his [own] life, struggling in a
battle with leukemia." But I still can reach him on his Web site
(SudanReeves.org) and sometimes on the phone. His analyses can also be
read on SudanTribune.com.

And in the May 10 New Republic, Mr. Reeves wrote that the May 5
peace agreement "at face value amounts to an extraordinary gamble with
the lives of more than 3.8 million human beings...in Darfur and [in
refugee camps] of eastern Chad...In essence, the victims of genocide
are being asked to trust that the perpetrators of genocide will disarm
and restrain themselves." If, Mr. Reeves insists, there is not "a
meaningful international force" deployed to protect the survivors in
Darfur, the international community will sigh too late and say, alas,
that peace treaty was "a meaningless piece of paper."

My own view is that unless there is a willing coalition of nations
going outside the United Nations and into Darfur to rescue those still
waiting for deliverance, a message will be sent to other nations that
destroy their own people. And Mr. al-Bashir will become the patron
saint of these future perpetrators of genocide.

President Bush, more than any other world leader, has done a lot,
though not enough, to prevent the extermination of the black Muslims
of Darfur. With that record, he can, despite all his other problems,
gloriously enter history by moving to exterminate this genocide by
helping to organize a coalition of willing nations while there is
still time.

Chad under siege?

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- The government of Chad is under
political siege, juggling mounting hostilities with the Sudanese
government as the lives of 200,000 Darfur refugees stashed away in its
countryside hang in the balance.

Without aid from the international community, the government contends
it is likely to face an emerging war with neighbor Sudan, who has been
seeking to destabilize the country over the last three years.

'Sudan`s ultimate goal is to change the regime of Chad before settling
the issue of Darfur,' said Mohammad Adam Bechir, Chad`s ambassador to
the United States, in a recent interview with United Press
International. 'They want to settle the issue of Darfur in their own
way. They want to put in Chad a government that is pro-Sudan and puts
both the refugees and the rebel groups in a sandwich, so they don`t
have much choice but to accept whatever the terms of settlement the
Sudan government is ready to give.'

Until now, the Sudan government has been vehemently opposed to
allowing international forces to enter its borders, including the
war-torn region of Darfur. In a statement from the Sudanese Foreign
Ministry last week, the government said 'any forces, if that is agreed
upon, would be a force for supervision and not a force for peace
implementation.'

But on Tuesday, the government said it would allow a joint African
Union-United Nations assessment team to enter Darfur next week to
evaluate any additional needs of the African Union Mission in Sudan
(AMIS) and the requirements for a U.N. peacekeeping force.

The 15-nation U.N. Security Council will begin their 10-day trip on
Monday, visiting Khartoum, southern Sudan, refugee camps in Darfur and
Chad and African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

'You have to have the assessment team on the ground in order, as a
precondition really, to have an expanded force there and eventually a
U.N. peacekeeping force,' said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the U.S.
State Department. 'They do need to try to get a handle on the
violence. All the parties need to meet their obligations under the
Darfur Peace Agreement. But the only way that you are going to really
address the security situation in the immediate term is to have that
expanded mission, to have that U.N. mission. And the decision by
Khartoum to let in the assessment team is a step along that pathway.'

U.N. spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Stephane Dujarric,
confirmed plans Wednesday amid mixed reports that the peacekeeping
mission would arrive in Khartoum for consultations next week before
heading to Darfur to 'see for themselves and plan for an eventual
takeover to a U.N. team,' and 'assess what the AU force needs now.'

It is expected that it will take roughly four months to deploy
peacekeeping troops after the joint mission has had time to assess the
situation.

'The speed with which we deploy will depend on how quickly the
governments give us these troops. So we will be looking at a couple of
months. By a couple of months, I mean four months or so,' Annan told
reporters at the United Nations Wednesday.

The United Nations has previously warned that a catastrophic situation
could still worsen in Darfur unless the international community
bolsters the U.N.-backed African Union peacekeeping mission there. The
roughly 7,300 member African Union force in the region has been
largely unable to halt violence, despite a peace deal signed on May 5.
The agreement was designed to stop the fighting that has killed nearly
200,000 and displaced roughly 2.5 million since 2003.

Bechir explained that Sudan`s tactics to isolate member states and
play rebel groups against each other has contributed to the lack of
efficiency by the African Union.

'The African Union has been mediating this issue, and the African
Union, I`m afraid, doesn`t want to be blamed or point fingers to any
of its member states,' said Bechir. 'And that`s why this limits the
efficiency of the African Union as a mediator or serious judge of the
problem.'

Fighting broke out in Darfur in 2003, after rebels complained that the
region had been marginalized by the central government. Rebels
affiliated with the Sudan Liberation Movement and the Justice and
Equality Movement attacked Sudanese government facilities. Janjaweed
militia, with support from the Sudanese government, responded by
launching attacks on Sudanese civilians.

Chad, which has already cut off diplomatic relations with Sudan, has
repeatedly called on the international community to send peacekeeping
forces to the region.

'We were the first mediators,' said Bechir. 'We mediated between the
rebel groups and the government. It has taken more than three years of
mediation to reach a signed agreement.'

But with limited means and Sudan`s eagerness to destabilize the
country, Chadian authorities argue that the situation facing refugees
and the ongoing genocide in Darfur also falls to the responsibility of
the international community.

'Under these circumstances, Chad can no longer play as the mediator.
This is now the role of the international community. Our president
kept asking continuously; this is not the responsibility of Chad
alone. Our position is very sensitive. You can only go so far. We have
very limited means in Chad. We ourselves are in danger,' said Bechir.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

UN Threatens to Cut Off Refugee Camps in Chad

May 27, 2006: The UN is threatening to cut off supplies to some refugee camps unless Sudanese rebels stop using the camps as bases. The Sudanese rebels often have family in the camps, and usually come into the camps wearing military uniforms (the favorite attire of both the Sudanese paramilitaries and the rebels on both sides of the border.) Chad is responsible for security at the refugee camps, but because of the expanding civil war in Chad, the army is too busy trying to keep president Deby in power, to worry about refugee camps. Chad's security forces were never very efficient in the first place, but now the border with Sudan is apparently wide open for any truckload of guys with guns.

What about the people?

I have to admit that I was quite shocked as America's favorite horse - Barbaro - went down in the opening strides of the Preakness, but nothing has got on my nerves quite like the coverage since then. Since Barbaro - which I must remind you is still just a horse - broke his leg, the mainstream media have been treating it like the death of a president. Round-the-clock updates, photos of him recovering, poignant shots of children laying flowers next to a fence, juicy gossip ("Barbaro is now flirting with mares, delcared a headline from a "respectable" news agency) and an appearance by the surgeon on ABC, NBC, CBS and many other stations all are over the top.

People - real people, not horses - are dying by the thousands in Darfur. Real people are having their bones purposely broken out of vengeance. Over 3.5 million real people, human beings, are displaced from their home and lack food, water and healthcare. But what does the media cover all weekend long? The drama of a four-legged animal who broke his leg in a race.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for Barbaro pulling through and avoiding the slaughterhouse, but c'mon, get real! 300,000 intelligent, funny and capable humans have died because of a preventable genocide. My friends have less odds of surving than a horse here in America. Please, urge the media to give attention to Darfur. Click on the Be A Witness Campaing link on the right and join the fight.

International Justice Mission

Last night, my wife and I had the priviledge of attending an IJM Benefit Dinner in Orlando. Not only was it a fun gala event with good food and music, but it was also a rare chance to hear IJM's President Gary Haugen speak live about his passion for rescuing children and their families from slavery. We also got to hear from Ted Haddock, Communications Manager for IJM, and see some of his pictures.

Thoreau said, "Thousands whack at the leaves of evil, but only one attacks the root." IJM is the one attacking the root.

IJM is doing a great work in the world and is really making a difference. Every day they are restoring dignity, life and love to people around the world. They are an incredible organization and I strongly encourage you to learn more about their successes and to donate to them financially. You can click on the link in the right sidebar to go to their website.

Some people are the hands and feet of justice, others are the wallet...which one are you?

When is a chicken worth its weight in gold?

When is a chicken worth its weight in gold? To answer this question, let me tell you a story about a disease and a diseased. It is a story about the dignity that every human deserves.

Leprosy - despite all the advances in medicine in the modern world – is one of the most debilitating diseases that still run wild in Eastern Chad.

Leprosy is a disease that attacks not only the body, but also the heart and soul of a person. As a leper’s hands and feet lose the ability to feel and are worn down to bloody nubs, the leper becomes an outcast. Shunned by family and friends, they are forced to live in the outskirts of town and are denied basic human interaction. If they take their family with them, they too are shut out of life with others. They live by begging and survive on the barest of threads.

Growing up the son of a doctor whose life was dedicated to serving the poor people of Eastern Chad, we often came in contact with the ‘despicable’ members of society. I remember clearly spending one whole day cleaning up a leper colony (a place where outcasts had joined up to form a new village) and seeing the amazement on their faces that someone valued them.

My father began to befriend and give medical treatment to one leper in particular. He would bandage his wounds and then sit and talk with him – treating him not only with medicine, but also with dignity and respect. Over time, they became good friends and we helped out their family on a regular basis.

One night, in the cool early evening of the desert, the old leper came limping into our front yard. As he approached, clothed in dirty rags, he called out my dad. In between the stumps that use to be his hands, he had clinched a tiny, scrawny chicken. My father went out to greet him and the man looked up at him. With tears in his eyes, the elderly man looked at my dad and thanked him for caring. He told my father how he had never been treated like a human after getting the disease. He recounted the abuse and the discrimination that he faced because of the cards that life dealt him. Through his tears, his eyes shone with dignity and pride. He thanked my father for noticing him and taking care of him. Then, he reached out his arms and offered my dad the tiny bird – it was so small, but it was an entire meal for his family. He apologized for not being able to give my family a nicer gift of thanks, but he was giving all that he could.

That is when a chicken is worth its weight in gold.
------------------------------------------

Right now, almost 400,000 men, women and children - with the same dignity and right to life and respect as the old man - have been slaughtered in Darfur. Millions are displaced due to the violence taking place there. Please, take a stand now for Darfur and help save an entire race of human beings from being wiped off the face of the earth. Save my friends.

The Chronicle article about me

Reprinted here with the permission of the Citrus County Chronicle.
---------------------------
Local man urges pressure for international action

By Jim Hunter
Citrus resident Scott Sutton has fond memories of growing up along the Chadian border next to the Darfur region of Sudan in Africa. It was a desolate landscape, but the people of the region were what make his memories so fond.

They were generous, caring people who had little but who needed little, he said, and they lived life with an infectious joy.

That’s why he is so shocked when he sees the lifeless faces staring back at him from the TV reports of the refugee camps there now.

He remembers a wonderful people, full of life; people, he said, who have “a remarkable ability to survive in a wasteland.”

They live in a harsh, arid land that sees rain but three months of the year — and not a drop the rest of the year, he said. They live very essentially, though still have a joy for life.

Sutton’s father was a missionary doctor for the nondenominational WEC International mission in Chad and was the only doctor in his whole province. Even back in the early 1990s, because of the centuries-old cultural, religious and tribal strife in the region, his father worked with refugees from neighboring Sudan, Sutton said.

But things slowly got worse. His family had to evacuate once, though the situation was never as bad as it has become now. “They’re dotted all over the landscape now,” he said of the refugee camps.

When he reached his middle teens, the young Sutton went to a boarding school in Germany for high school and subsequently went to the University of North Carolina for his degree in journalism, but he routinely went back to Africa.

As the situation deteriorated, his family had to leave. Sutton was last there in 2002. He still corresponds with friends and is appalled by what he hears.

What he reads and sees on TV has him very dismayed. The longstanding conflict in Sudan that has driven refugees from Darfur into camps in Chad has turned into a dire situation, he said.

The Sudanese government had turned a blind eye to what amounts to genocide by Arab tribal militia forces on indigenous African civilians. The raids on camps and raping and killing by the militias was widespread. That ultimately sparked a rebel uprising.

Since early 2003, about 2 million have been driven from their homes in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

There is a recent glimmer of hope. The largest of three rebel groups fighting the government late last week agreed to a truce, but it’s unclear if all the rebel groups will do so. The peace deal would disband the government-backed Arab “janjaweed” militias.

But even as the possibility of a peace deal unfolds, Sutton said, there is another long running problem about to turn disastrous. The United Nations estimates that about 180,000 people have already died from illness and malnutrition since 2003.

Just last week, the United Nations said it was cutting in half the daily food rations it gives to about 3 million people in the war-torn Darfur region. There are another 3 million displaced persons in neighboring areas of Sudan who also depend on the food to survive.

The World Food Bank said it had gotten only about a third of the funds necessary from the international community to feed the people this year. About 79 percent of that has come from the United States.

Sutton said the three-month wet season is approaching, when it’s almost impossible to truck in supplies.

He has watched the situation get worse and worse, and now he feels he has to speak out in his own community and to urge citizens to speak up to get the United States to force the United Nations and international community to act. He has put up a Web site to draw attention to the situation.

He said he doesn’t expect the United States to send troops, but that all self-respecting citizens of the world have a moral obligation to speak out and demand intervention before Darfur becomes another Rwanda. (See his column in today’s Commentary section).

Sutton is now a communications specialist for Progress Energy in Crystal River, but if his heart could have its way, he said, he would be handing out water and supplies to the refugees in Darfur and playing with the lovely children he remembers.

He is fluent in Chadian Arabic and French and knows the culture. But since it’s not possible for him to be there at the moment, he figures the next best thing is to do what he can to get U.S. citizens to understand what is happening.

To read Sutton’s stories of Africa and see more of his personal commentary, visit his blog at: www.dyinginthedust .blogspot.com.

This is GREAT news

Although this news is from almost a year ago, it is new to me. I am so thankful that an organization like the International Medical Corps and a charity like the Gates Foundation have recognized the dire need of the Chadian citizens. The world is focused on the refugees - and rightly so - but what many aid workers are beginning to notice as they travel to the camps is that the people along the way are in just as much need as those in the camps. Kudos to the IMC and the Gates foundation for working to better the host population.

Before they were involved, my father was the only doctor doing any medical work in this entire region. He single-handlely built hospitals and clinics, trained nurses, and procurred supplies. Now, where he was alone in his work for a decade, there are hundreds of medical professionals and large amounts of money being spent. It's about time the world took notice.

To read more about the $537,000 Gates Foundation grant to help Chad cope with the Darfur crisis, click here.

Tale of Two Girls

Two Christmases ago I was making a quick pit stop in a grocery store in Charlotte, NC. I just needed to pick up a few items before meeting up with my fiancée and I stopped at a store in an affluent district of town. As my eyes were searching the shelves for my desired item, my ears caught the sounds of a young girl and her mom visiting with a friend. This is how I remember the conversation going:

Friend: “Don’t you look cute today! Are you getting ready for Christmas?”

Mom: “Yes she is, she can’t wait for her presents.”

Friend: “What are you asking for this year? An IPOD?”

Mom: “No, she already has one, she couldn’t wait until Christmas so she bought it herself.”

At this point, my ears are fully attached to this conversation. I am 22 and do not have the funds to afford an IPOD music player. Here was a mom saying that that her 6-year old daughter not only already owned one, but also bought the $200 piece of electronics herself.

The mom continued: “Yeah, she just wasn’t happy without it, so we said she could spend some of her allowance to get one.”

Ok, now I was beginning to get mad. The words that jumped out at me were “wasn’t happy” and “some of her allowance.” $200 is just some of her allowance? Not happy?! I had visions of this little girl dancing around listening to her music in a room filled with once needed, now discarded toys. At that point I felt like turning around and shaking both mother and daughter. Instead, I turned around and left the store.

As I replayed that conversation in my head over and over again, I could not help but think of little Zara. Zara was a girl that I knew growing up in Eastern Chad. Life in a barren dessert wasteland is never easy, but a young girl’s lot in life seems to be extra tough. As the oldest girl of eight children she had never really had a childhood. From the moment she was strong enough to carry a pot, she was put to work helping her mother. She would go fetch water from the local well, she would chop and split firewood, and she would join in the arduous task of grinding grain for the evening meal.

Once her siblings were born, she had the chores of caring for them as well, often carrying them on her fragile back as she went about her other chores. Her father had run off to Libya to try to find a good job, leaving her mother and Zara to try to grow enough crops on their patch of desert to last another year.

Yet despite these odds against her, her lost childhood and her struggle to provide for her family – all before the age of 10 – Zara never lost her smile. Zara sang as she worked, hummed as she cleaned and laughed during the few moments she got to play with other kids.

Being Muslim, Zara’s family did not celebrate Christmas but instead, celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan. This once-a-year festival is a time off rejoicing and feasting and gift giving. For her celebration, Zara didn’t receive anything more than a plain, white dress – her first new clothes all year. Her eyes lit up upon receiving this humble gift and she wore it proudly until it was in tatters.

Zara’s reaction and joy is so different than the girl in the Charlotte grocery store. The girl in the store has enormous advantages in life, but she was less joyful and less content than the girl in Chad. She was being taught that the way to happiness is through money and through instant gratification, whereas Zara was learning that happiness could be found in any situation and to be content with little.

If I have the choice to raise my future daughter with all the wealth in the world or in the middle of the desert, I would be inclined to raise her like Zara – finding joy in a land of little.
--------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, millions of young girls like Zara are now being starved, beaten and even raped in Eastern Chad and Darfur. The dangerous lack of security has allowed rogue militias to destroy villages, herds and lives in a brutal genocide campaign. Now Zara, and those like her, live in refugee camps and where smiles and laughs once were, now only exist blank stares and desperate cries for help. Help save Darfur now – help save my friends - help save Zara.

The Water Boys

Sometimes at night I can still imagine the pounding drum beat of a water boy. This rhythmic pounding is the lifeline of an entire community. In the Darfur region of the world there is no running water. Water comes either from the drying central lake or deep wells dug in dry riverbeds. These sources are often far from the showers and washrooms where the water is needed, and that is where the Water Boys come in. A Water Boy is a career that provides the link between the supply and the demand. Please, allow me to describe to you a water boy:

Meet Ibrahim. His hair is tightly braided and his skin is freshly oiled. He rises early in the morning and steps outside his dark hut, squinting at the already bright sun. He shakes some coals and a few weak embers rise. He quickly inserts some dry reeds and a flicker of a flame gives him hope for a hot breakfast. He heats some medidi (a drinkable rice and sugar mixture) and gobbles it down. He knows he needs his strength for the day ahead.

Once his stomach is satisfied, he makes his way through some thorn trees and over some brown grass to the animal pen. He unlatches the goatskin lock and swings open the branch that is doubling as a gate. He enters and approaches his capital investment - a donkey.

The donkey is ornery this morning and backs away from Ibrahim. He shakes his hand and turns his body, as if he is threatening to turn Ibrahim'’s day sour with one swift kick to the midsection. Ibrahim grabs him by his mane and calms him down.

"Agod sakit (Stay still)" he begs the large animal. Finally, with the donkey'’s jitters gone, Ibrahim reaches for a heavy burlap sack and places it on the animal's back. Then follows a coarse pad made of woven straw, a blanket and then a wooden saddle. This saddle is not ordinary for a bar is placed across where a human normally sits. This saddle is not made for joy rides, this is business.

The last touch to add to his steed is the most important piece of equipment - the water sack. This equipment is made out of leather and sits on the saddle. It actually has two large sacks, one sits on either side of the donkey. At the top there is one opening that leads to both sacks and that the bottom corner of each sack is a tied-off opening.

Ibrahim adds the other two essentials tools of the trade -– large buckets and a wooden stick - and he is ready for his commute to work. He makes his way through the quiet streets, through back alleys and under archways. Each house’'s front yard is surrounded by large, mud-brick walls.

He arrives at the well and stands in line. He makes his way closer and closer and pays the Well Master a small fee. He attaches his buckets to the rope and lowers them in to the well. Seconds after they hit the bottom with a splash, he strains and tugs and works the buckets back up to the surface. Once at the top, he empties them into the sacks on the donkey. He repeats this until both sacks are bulging full, seeping water, and the donkey teetering a bit from the load. Then, it's off to make money.

Unless he has specific clients - people who prearrange for his water delivery service -– he has to roam the streets looking for buyers. The way he lets people know that he is walking past their large compound walls is by beating his stick against his buckets. Bang- Bang - Bang. Now the whole block knows a water boy is near.

No luck here so he continues to the next block where a young girl sprints out of her family's gate and calls him over. She points him over to the family barrels where he parks the donkey. Now comes the trickiest part of his job as he must untie the opening to the sacks one at a time and empty the water into his bucket. Then, he must empty his bucket into the barrel. He must do this all while dealing with a donkey who simply doesn't enjoy the task at hand. So Ibrahim gallantly grabs the tie and lets some water through, the donkey jolts and sends water (money) crashing to the dry ground. Ibrahim readjusts and tries again. On his fourth or fifth time, he gets a full bucket. He ties off the sack and dumps it in the barrel. Once the barrel is full, the young girl pays him and he is done.

It's off again to the well, to continue his job as the town'’s plumbing system -– yet another way the people of Darfur have ingeniously beaten the odds.


In Darfur, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Survival is not an option and the people are so creative. They manage to find a solution to every problem. They reuse everything and waste nothing. These very people are now the victims of genocide. Please, help me take a stand for them and end their unjust murders.

Standing for Darfur

Many Americans just shake their heads at sights and sounds of genocide. Still others, in acts of wild compassion, donate $10 to an aid group. But one man is going above and beyond to raise awareness for Darfur. He has already done a two-week hunger fast and now he is in preparations to physically stand outside the White House for as long as he can. Read his blog to find out what motivates him (Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one reason). There are very few people in America like Jay.

http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/

Wildlife: The other victim

Hopefully, if you have found this site and spent any time on the subject of Darfur, you are aware that 400,000 of people - people like my friends - have died already from this crisis. This post sheds light on the numerous other victims of war and chaos - the animals. They are being caught in the murderous crossfire and famine as well, but they have no UN aid workers to try to help. Here are a series of pictures that I took in 2003 in Chad.

1. What are you looking at, mister? You baboon.


2. A pride of lions. Yes, wild lions. Yes, I took this picture. Yes, I was nervous.

3. Very majestic.




4.This one I call "pumba."



5.Elephants crossing a river at sunset. Later that evening, I got charged by a male bull elephant because I accidently strayed between him and his infant. Bad mistake.



6.Ostriches are famous for sticking their head in the sand to avoid facing a bad situation - remind you of anything? (Hint: our response to genocide)

NEWS: Donors legally obliged to aid Sudan: UN food envoy

We often talk about the need to save lives from a moral or ethical perspective - but what about legal?  Can other governments be sued for the deaths of millions of people if it can be proved that they did not do everything possible to save them?  I still firmly believe that the reason for helping my friends goes far beyond any legal obligations, but if it is true that there are laws in the UN requiring action, then this is potentially another way to put pressure on the international community. 

It breaks my heart that the UN has been forced to cut in half the rations it can give out due to lack of money.  These are real people who are really starving.  Not faceless statistics. 

I must say, I am very strongly encouraged by Bush's recent actions (see below).  This shows that he is listening and more importantly, leading.  We all need to step up the pressure on Congress to pass these funds.

For more up-to-the-minute news about humanitarian emergencies around the world, visit http://www.alertnet.org/index.htm.

Scott
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GENEVA, May 9 (Reuters) - The United Nations' special envoy on the right to food expressed deep concern over aid cuts to Sudan on Tuesday and said donors were legally obliged to help the African country.

"States ... have the obligation to respond quickly and in an appropriate manner to emergency food situations on the territory of a state member of the United Nations," Swiss sociologist Jean Ziegler said in a statement.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said late last month it was halving its daily food rations to some six million people in Sudan, half of them in Darfur, because of a lack of money.

The Rome-based U.N. agency has only $238 million of the $746 million it needs to feed people in the south, which is just emerging from 20 years of civil war, and in Darfur where more than 2 million have been driven from their homes by violence.

"Member states (must) immediately honour their legal obligations and ensure the realisation of the right to food of the suffering populations ... It is urgently needed to save the lives of thousands of people," said Ziegler, U.N. special rapporteur on the right to food.

On Monday, President George W. Bush diverted five U.S. ships carrying 40,000 tonnes of cereal commodities from Dubai to Sudan and also ordered the shipment of 2,800 tonnes of non-cereal commodities from an emergency stockpile.

The White House is also pressing Congress to approve over $500 million in humanitarian assistance for Darfur, an area the size of France in western Sudan where three years of fighting has killed tens of thousands of people.

"These actions will allow the World Food Programme to restore full food rations to the people of Darfur this summer," Bush said.

Sudan

Repost: How to catch an African bat

Back by popular demand, I am reposting this little slice of Darfur life. Go to the Water Boys post for another look at what the people "behind the headlines" are really like.
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For hours of fun on warm, desert evenings look no farther than a pair of pantyhose.

In the Sub-Sahara, where the nights are pitch black and the silence is only broken by the occasional braying of a donkey, evenings can be pretty dull. Most families gather around the fire or oil-fired lantern to tell stories or simply chat. With no primetime TV to distract them, families grow close together. Often, I would go sit on the edge of my cement porch and bury my feet into the cool sand. I would look up to the sky and see the brilliance that is unveiled in the absence of city lights. And then, I would hear the flutter of wings and see the brief flash of fur dart across the sky - bats!

A young friend of mine showed me how to catch bats without hurting them. I will share the secret recipe for fun with you here.

Ingredients:
1 old pantyhose, without large holes
1 medium-sized rock
bats

Directions:
*Place the rock into the pantyhose and let it drop until it is down in the toe. Then, swing it around and around, gaining momentum. At the right moment, release it so that the pantyhose flies high into the night sky. Then, simply wait. Once the pantyhouse and rock drop back to earth, chances are you will have caught yourself a bat.

The trick is that bats use sonar to track down flying insects to eat. Their sonar resonates off of the rock in the pantyhouse and so they attack it. Their claws get stuck in the fabric and they are pulled by the rock back down to earth. At this point, because bats are not good for anything other than catching, you would pick it up, release its claws and let it go. Then, repeat.

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Disclaimer: While this does not harm bats - be careful about getting rabies! Use gloves to remove them to be safe.
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My Chronicle Op-Ed Piece

Dangers in Darfur: County resident describes region’s suffering, experienced while living there for 11 years

By Scott Sutton
I want you to meet my friend, Ali. He is a young boy with a cheeky smile framing a set of pearly whites that contrast brightly with his dark ebony skin. His eyes light up with mischief as he runs down the sand-filled streets of his village in Chad, Africa.

He pushes in front of him a large, skinny circle made of twisted metal. Using a strip of sugar cane as a guide, he pushes this rolling ring — his only toy — around donkeys, through stacks of firewood, past women washing clothes, and joins a pick-up soccer game forming in the streets. He laughs, he waves and he sets out to play. This is Ali four years ago.

Growing up the son of a missionary doctor on the barren Chad-Sudan border in Africa, I had the privilege of living and playing with many kids like Ali. Their love of life was contagious and their ability to thrive against all odds inspired me. Sadly, things have changed.

This is Ali now: His once bright smile is hidden behind layers of deep sadness. His eyes are listless and cold — staring at nothing. His once-active legs lie motionless on the rocky ground beneath him. Strong, developing muscles are now no more than bone and stretched skin.

He hasn’t laughed in weeks, but more importantly, he hasn’t eaten in days.

His mother is dead. His father is dead. His sister is missing. He is a victim of the brutal genocide taking place today in Darfur. There are more than 3 million others just like him. All of these people — people like my friends — are on the brink of extinction.

The level of suffering and loss of human life at the hands of other humans in Darfur has reached a level not seen since the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda. President Bush and Congress call it “genocide,” a legally and politically charged term reserved for the most atrocious crimes against humanity.

Since February 2003, when the Sudanese government authorized a “scorched earth” campaign against its own citizens, more than 400,000 people like Ali have died. More than 2.5 million people like him have been forced to flee into refugee camps.

If people around the world do not stand up for Darfur, then this crisis will not stop. Without pressure from the public, governments will not act. Without international help, the only trace left of an entire ethnic group will be wind-swept bones and charred villages.

For ordinary Americans to do nothing is a license for every other wanna-be dictator and torturer in the coming century to conduct similar campaigns of violence against women and children. We are watching suffering unfold on a massive scale, and history will judge us by our response.

The international community has been too slow to act. The African Union has sent 3,000 troops to secure an area as large as Texas. This is pitiful. Even 3,000 of the best-trained and equipped troops in the world could not provide security for an area this big. The United Nations’ reaction has been mediocre.

It has offered measly amounts of financial aid compared to the amount being spent in Iraq. Meanwhile, it politely asks for the Sudanese government to disarm the Janjaweed — the rogue militias committing these human rights violations. Not surprisingly, the government has done nothing to stop the attacks and nothing to help the victims.

Hopefully, the tide is turning. Last weekend, thousands gathered in Washington, D.C., to hear speeches from politicians from both parties. Celebrities, like George Clooney, urged the United States and the United Nations to increase their presence, their financial support and their pressure to save the lives of the innocent people living in Darfur. Congress is debating several bills and amendments that would increase aid money. President Bush has called the Sudanese president several times during recent peace negotiations. This is good, but not nearly enough.

The Janjaweed has destroyed entire villages, crops and herds of cattle. In a land that is only one bad rainy season away from a severe famine, this tactic is slow murder. Men are beaten and killed in front of their families and women are raped in groups.

The millions who have been forced to flee for their safety have flowed across the border into Chad. They flee to refugee camps that dot the dusty landscape like islands of fear and suffering.

The international community must act now to help the victims and prevent more victims.

Anatomy of a crisis

The crisis that is occurring daily in Darfur did not arrive overnight. In fact, it has been centuries in the making.

In the days before Europeans arrived, the 13 tribal groups of the Darfur region fought and enslaved each other. Then came the Arabs, who brought Islam, Arabic and a nomadic lifestyle to the land of indigenous farmers.

Over time, different people-groups adopted different versions of Islam, thus creating an intro-religious conflict that has its foundations in violence.

Recently, the Sudanese government has been completely controlled by Arab Muslims. The southern and western areas have been shut out of the political process and financially ignored. The black Africans in Darfur decided to organize and fight the government. The better-equipped government forces quickly repelled the rebels, but the Sudanese government did not stop there. In retaliation, it unleashed the Janjaweed on the civilians living in Darfur. They were authorized to rid the land of “unpatriotic” people. What started as a fight between armed combatants is now genocide against an entire race.

Because ethnic groups do not adhere to political borders, refugees are streaming into neighboring Chad for safety.

I remember clearly one tiny village named Farchana that lies alongside a desert “highway.” My family stopped there every trip that we took down that dusty, bumpy road. We pulled over for their fresh roast chicken — the African version of fast food.

Farchana was nothing more than a couple of lean-to shacks thrown up around a few campfires. Today, this location is home to a refugee camp that houses more than 50,000 men, women and children who rely on U.N. handouts to survive.

Genocide’s global impact

Genocide affects us all. We may be American citizens, but we are all members of the human race. To let evil run free and allow it to deny life to joyful, beautiful people is to deny the victims dignity, respect and the very right to live. It is worth repeating that we are watching genocide unfold before our eyes, and history will judge us by our response.

Everyone shakes their head and mumbles a few words about how horrible this situation is — but who is taking action? Women and men, conservatives and liberals, young and old, Muslim and Christian all have a vested interest in the outcome of this crisis and every one of us should be searching for ways to help.

You might not be able to personally hand out water in the desert or fight off the Janjaweed, but the United Nations can. Your role in this crisis can be to show the world that you care and to demand that victims are cared for and that more victims are prevented.

It will take your actions to keep the momentum going. What you do will give children, like Ali, a hope for a future that is free of fear and suffering.

Lecanto resident Scott Sutton lived in Africa’s Chad and Sudan region from 1990 to 2001. To learn more about the conflict in Darfur and how to help, go to www.savedarfur.org.

Darfur: The video game?

The grassroots movement in this country to protect Darfur is interesting, to say the least. To quote Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times:
"It gets weirder: "CBS Evening News" decided that genocide wasn't newsworthy, devoting only two minutes to coverage of Darfur in all of 2005 - but there's excellent coverage on MTV's university network and in episodes of the TV show "E.R." set in Darfur. And one of the best presentations of life in Darfur is in an extraordinary video game developed with help from MTV and available free at www.darfurisdying.com. In the game, you're a Darfuri, trying to survive as Sudan's janjaweed militias hunt you down. So that's how the response is unfolding to the first genocide of the 21st century: a video game is one of the best guides to understanding the slaughter, and our moral vacuum is filled by teenyboppers and movie stars."

Wow. There is actually a video game online that lets you pretend to be one of my friends over there surviving. You can choose characters, run for water, visit the health clinic, rebuild houses - all the while trying to avoid being killed or raped. I honestly don't know whether to throw up or leap for joy.

On one hand, it is so degrading that my friends and their very real struggle for life and dignity is being captured in a animated computer game. On the other hand, if it gets the youth of this nation interested, then perhaps it is good. At the end of the day, if the video game spurs young people to have a voice and donate money, then it is all worth it. But if at the end of the day, the Darfur genocide is just the plotline for a group of bored MTV fans, then no thanks, I want no part of it.

What do you think? In this day and age, is it approriate to make a video game of a current humanitarian crisis? Leave a me a comment or shoot me an email with your thoughts.