If you are in despair because you feel there is no cause in the world which is both achievable and worthy of your attention, then buck up, open your eyes and look again. Look to the Darfur region of Sudan, where the government-supported Janjaweed troops are engaged in a campaign of rape, property destruction, torture and murder directed against the Darfurian people. This is genocide.
Following the successful example of the divestment campaign against South African Apartheid in the 1980s, the Sudan Divestment Campaign is organizing an effort in state legislatures across the country to remove states’ retirement funds invested in Sudan and reinvest them elsewhere. It’s a legitimate question whether divestment might further hurt the people of Darfur. However, as the campaign points out, Darfurians are not currently receiving funds from the Khartoum government that reaps the rewards of foreign investment. In addition, typical divestment proposals make an exception for investment in humanitarian organizations in Sudan.
Don’t tell me it can’t be done, the system is rigged, there’s a conspiracy that will prevent action, so you might as well just sit in your chair and bitch without doing anything, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, fucking blah: The campaign succeeded just three days ago in convincing the huge University of California system to divest from Darfur. On a collegiate level, divestment has been Dartmouth, Harvard and Stanford. Some form of divestment legislation has also been successfully passed in the states of Arizona, Illinois, Louisiana, New Jersey and Oregon. These commitments will have a measurable impact, and that impact will grow with every additional institution and state government that joins the divestment effort.
Knocked out of your stupor of “can’t-won’t-don’t”? Good. Here’s what to do:
1. Go to Project Vote Smart and enter your 9-digit zip code (don’t worry, they’ll help you figure that out) in the upper left-hand corner. They’ll shoot back a list of your state and local political representatives, with contact information.
2. Write each of your state legislators and your governor a letter (or call them) asking them to support legislation instituting a Sudan divestment policy for state retirement funds.
3. Visit Newspaperlinks to find a link to your local newspaper. Click through to your paper’s website and write a letter to the editor.
4. Tell me if you know of any state or collegiate organization that is actively organizing a divestment campaign. I’ll post a link to it right here on this page.
Sudan Divestment Movement Organizations:
- Sudan Divestment Campaign… national organization
- SudanActivism… better organized national website
- Students Taking Action Now: Darfur…
- Amnesty International… downloadable posters
- Kentucky Divest… (sign a Kentucky divest petition)
- North Carolina Sudan Divestment Campaign… (sign an NC divest petition)
- Brown University
- Columbia University
- George Washington University
- University of Pennsylvania
- Yale University
Jim,
I’m amazed that there has been so much movement on this issue. Back in July 2004 I was asked for info about Darfur by a senate legislative aide and ended up talking to friend who had lived in Africa. He referred to the genocide as “the season of the war” (it sounds more romantic in the French) Apparently every year there are seasonal fights over water rights in this region.
I thought maybe this was just the classic problem of white people not caring about anything that happens in Africa, so I asked another friend who immigrated from Sudan. Her response was even less hopeful. It is indeed merely a seasonal squabble over water, she told me. The tribe that lives in this region is not like her tribe. Her tribe remains loyal to their home village and when someone from the village moves to Khartoom or America, they continue to send money back to their home village. In this way her village has built a hospital as good as the one in Khartoum, and her husband and his friends in America belong to a civic organization that builds wells in the home village. There are businessmen from Darfur who live in Khartoum, my friend says, but they do not invest in the infrastructure of the region. She denies that the government is involved in systematic geoncide or that the government even has an airplane capable of providing the kind of air cover witnesses have reported in the area. She has since visited her family who lives in Sudan and returned to the U.S.
If this genocide is ever stopped, it will be by international pressure.
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/991873821.html?dids=991873821:991873821&FMT=FT&FMTS=ABS:FT&fmac=13e0683db920788e813f0caa5a4d0618&date=Feb+23%2C+2006&author=Colum+Lynch&desc=Sanctions+Against+Sudanese+Officials+Sought+Over+Darfur