By Ricky Calderon
IV Leader Columnist, Oct. 25, 2007
It's A Mad World
Since the destruction of Hiroshima during the close of the Pacific Theater of World War II, the United States has had a vested interest in the maintenance and supervision of the world’s weapons of mass destruction. Whether for the nobly idealistic pursuit of peace or the more realistic notion of squeezing an oversized thumb on the rest of the world, our nation has crusaded against those whom possess the power to unleash nuclear fury on their neighbors.
But the real weapon of mass destruction has remained virtually unchallenged, a weapon so heinous and disgusting that it stains us (assuming I have any readers other than my dear mother, this weapon may seem familiar from last year). This weapon, like so many other things, has left a mark on the human race. It reminds those of us who choose to look inward that we hide inside ourselves a monster.
This weapon is not an invention of man but an expression of man, an expression of man’s susceptibility to corruption and omnipotence. It is the true weapon of mass destruction, destroying lives not in an instant, but is instead the gradual extermination of our own people.
It is our stain, it is our monster. It is genocide, the grand suicide of the human
race.
Darfur is a region in western Sudan, the largest country in Africa just south of Egypt, and is paying witness to the terrible power of this weapon. For years, conflict and harsh life pervaded the Darfuri existence. Having been pushed to the brink of starvation, the Sudanese Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement formed in order to topple the governmental powers that be.
These insurgencies were met with harsh hostilities from Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the president of Sudan. The capitol began openly financing and arming the Janjaweed, a group of militias and tribes who rape, murder and torture Darfuri civilians.
Settlements thought to harbor insurgents, or simply loosely affiliated with them, are attacked with the full support and at times cooperation of the Sudanese military. To date, over 400,000 men, women, and children have been slaughtered by the genocidal campaign of the Sudanese government. Those who have not sought refuge in neighboring regions remain in country, a mass of over one million individuals, under the constant threat of death. Peoples and cultures are under fire: the threat of extinction looms over their heads. Their protection should be guaranteed by their very existence but efforts to defend them are few and far between.
The AMIS (African Union peacekeeping force) can barely defend the people with its poorly funded and undermanned forces. Humanitarian efforts are attacked by governmental forces and by rebel out-groups, leaving very little aid forthcoming.
Our own government does little to stem the flow of death in Sudan. Our leaders voice their concerns yet, unfortunately, hollow words dictate little action, especially with such pressing business in the Fertile Crescent. Too little has been done to staunch the cultural bleeding that permeates this terrible conflict; personal gain and greed seem to have taken the spot-light in the global stage.
Our own pursuits of needless comforts seem to outweigh the lives of these people a world away. It is this sort of careless and untouchable mindset that allows such heinous acts to continue.
These people are one and the same with us. Their DNA is the same as ours, they are us and we are them. The problem will not disappear if we ignore it, but the people of Darfur will.Africa is our home.
Whether a person is black or white, Africa was man’s place of birth. For thousands of years people have lived and thrived in Africa. The roots of culture gripped the African soil millions of years ago, setting the foundation for human ascension. The death and destruction that thrives across the continent is erasing our most ancient cultures, supplanting them with violence and repugnance.
Our ignorance of the situation is what fuels the destruction of our culture, the disease that destroys it from within. If we allow it to continue, we are abandoning our own survival and soliciting our own social decay not to mention our own end.
The greatness of the human race is not written in books or represented in great monuments; it is hidden within every man, woman and child. Human greatness is worth preserving; human life is worth saving. To ignore the destruction and suffering of fellow people and fellow cultures would be a disgrace to the good in
us.
The monster raging in each of us permeates in two forms. The monster that acts, like those who destroy the people of Darfur, and the monster that ignores. Our ignorance is a monster capable of the worst type of destruction, the destruction of life and culture. Its power has swayed the minds of many for too long and it is time for a resistance.
These words may enrage you, shock and disgust you, but will the affect stay true days or weeks from now? Will you still care, will you even remember? What promises can we make that this will still remain in our minds? We must put aside our pride and ignorance and realize that these people are what matter, now and into the future. We fight our demons not for ourselves, but for our race.