Jim Moore’s blog: Innovation, Strategy, Public Policy

From the BBC today:

style=”font-style: italic;”>…the United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a watered down statement on Darfur.

>The United States had pushed for a much harder hitting resolution criticising Sudanese government abuses.

>The more softly-worded compromise expresses concern at
the situation in the Darfur region, welcomes plans to send a high-level
team there to investigate and urges all sides in the conflict to comply
with a ceasefire agreement.

>However, rather than condemning Sudan, it expresses
solidarity with the country in overcoming the presesnt situation. It
was voted against by the US.

>”Ten years from today the only thing that will be
remembered about the 60th Commission on Human Rights is whether we
stand up on the ethnic cleansing going on in Sudan,” US delegation head
Richard Williamson told AFP news agency.

The point here is that the United States is now pressing the UN to
act, or to at least witness strongly.  And the UN Human Rights
commission, made up, sordidly, by some  noted human rights
abusers, is refusing to be aggressive.

This note, by the way, is from a larger story detailing the Human
Rights Watch evidence about Sudanese government orchestration of the
genocide.  The full BBC article is entitled, “”Mass-execution’ in western Sudan”

Dave Winer sent me this piece from
the BBC this morning–he actually scooped my call from Ken Roth of
Human Rights Watch, but I wasn’t reading my email until now. 

Witness is one of the fundamental categories of experience: 
Witness in history. The role of witness in ancient spiritual
communities. Witness and prophets.  Witness in crisis. Witness in
everyday life.

Blogs are about witness.  We witness and we discuss what we
witness.  We point to others who are witnessing to subjects we
think bear wider note.

The complaint that bloggers and citizens have with mainline media is
that it does not witness in a responsible manner. It does not witness
with the care that we think should accompany its influence in society.

How can we better witness? How can we establish improved networks of
witness?  What services and technologies can we create to augment
our witnessing?

I just spoke minutes ago by phone to Ken Roth, director of Human Rights Watch.  HRW has just posted the first documented information showing that government troops are involved in the genocide in Sudan.

This is very important because it will increase the rationale for the
international community, including the United States, to act. 
President Bush has urged the government of Sudan to act to stop the
militias, and has suggested that the Sudanese government is “complicit.“ 
But the depth of that complicity is now being documented by the few
outside observers who have been able to get into Darfur.

I am writing to invite you to join together to witness to and stop a genocide. 
The genocide is happenng right now in Sudan, as we speak, in the area
known as Darfur.  Despite the Sudanese government’s trying to
cover it up–by blocking press and NGO access (e.g. an Al Jazeera
reporter was put in prison last week for trying to report), as well as
using as surrogates “private militias” that are government supplied,
the word is getting out.  But not enough is being done, not enough
world attention is flowing into witness and intervention, and the aid
and human rights organizations in the area need money for supplies and
transportation and communication.

Let’s take this one on as a community.  If we try, I know we can
make a difference.  I am not the best spokesman, but I’d like to
urge each one of you to consider becoming informed on this issue, and
to use your blog for the next two weeks to bring attention and
mobilization to this cause.  You be a spokesperson.

So far in about a year, we have mobilized in the US to block a
war, and we have supported presidential candidates and changed the tone of the campaign–and we
will help elect a new president in the fall.  In Korea we (the “we”
here is the community writ large and globally) elected a president,
turned over the legislature, and will probably overturn an impeachment.

We are not yet even near full strength, but we are becoming more and more
creative, more mobilized, wiser, and–I believe–slowly but
consistently more effective.  And the broadband infrastructure, and data/phone usage, just keeps spreading.

I urge you to join me and come together, in emergent form, to help bring
attention to the situation in the Sudan.  That there is a genocide
is still unbelievable to many of us.  Our news is more filtered
than even we like to admit.  Here are some links that will help
you understand the story:

The Passion of the Present

Here at http://passionofthepresent.com is a website/blog that Joanne Cipolla Moore and a group of friends
put together. Joanne’s circle included family, folks at Berkman,
as well as experts on genocide including Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch and Samantha Power
(who won a Pullitzer prize this year for her studies of genocide and
international policy). Joanne’s site reaches out to Christians who have
attended Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ, and urges them to consider
giving the price of a movie ticket to bring light to the Sudan.

We are in the process of putting together a related blog of folks on the ground in Sudan and neighboring areas.

This site is only one of many that could help–and that could speak
about Sudan to particular audiences with particular skills and
values.  I’m speaking here, on this blog, primarly to highly
technological and communication savvy bloggers.  I think our
community, with our special resources, can help.

Over the weekend at BloggerCon II there was much discussion about the
insularity of the blog world. Not that we want to be–but that out of
habit, we are.  Several of us agreed that we need what Rebecca
McKinnon called “affirmative action” to reach beyond our current
universe.  We started our consideration with facts.  Ethan
Zuckerman showed preliminary analysis that showed that blogs as a group
are more exclusively focused on the United States, Europe and Japan
than even the (reviled) mainstream press.  The exception, of
course, is Iraq–but even with regard to Iraq the coverage tends to be
from a US or European perspective (i.e. “what the war means to us”)
rather than in-depth on the situation on the ground.  A wonderful
counter example, of course, comes from Hoder and the Iranian bloggers,
as well as travels to the field by western bloggers such as Adam Curry.

At BloggerCon Dave Winer suggested linking to US soldiers in
Iraq.  Britt Blaser suggested sister cities based on
blogger-to-blogger networks.  Others suggested that groups of
bloggers take on ignored regions of the world, and establish
relationships.  All excellent, important ideas.

I encourage you to find a way to focus on the people of Sudan in the
next few days.  Write to me, or write to Joanne, or just do
something creative with your friends.  Time is critical. 
Hours matter.  Consider a prominent link to “The Power of the
Present.”  It has news links with pre-set searches for Sudan
news, as well as links to continously updated pages from Human Rights Watch. The site also includes a long excerpt from the devastating NYT op-ed by Nicholas Kristof.