Thanks to you all! You are the best friends one can have. I
am touched with gratitude at what is happening over at
http://passionofthepresent.org.
Technorati
shows 137 links from 60 sources to http://passionofthepresent.org. Just
a few days ago we were struggling at 21 links from 11 sources.
Very
special thanks to each of you who is helping spread the news as it
breaks, as well as helping googlebomb “Sudan.”
As Patrick Hall says in The Horn of Africa,
“Here’s a variety of bombing I support:
Googlebombing Sudan.”
This effort has been a real education for me.
I can’t help but be blown away by the tragedy–especially when I see
the photos. And some of the tragic aspects–such as widespread
slavery and a genocidal North-South civil war, have been going on for
years.
I’m humbled at my own lack of awareness. For example, here is a post about a mission
by Boston-based African American leaders and then-Havard student
Jay Williams in 2001 to free 6700
slaves. The photo above is from that trip. Essentially,
money was raised and it bought the freedom
of these people. Of course, basic freedom was just the beginning
of helping them become repatriated to world society as world
citizens–and there is more to do. My shock is that at the time I
heard only vaguely about the slavery in Sudan, and did not focus on it
until
now.
Sudan, like many other crisis points, is like William Blake’s grain
of sand in which an entire universe can be found. Unfortunately,
the universe within Sudan is defiled by some of the worst forces of human
society–big oil money, ethnic cleansing and genocide, rape and
exploitation of women, harboring of terrorists (Osama himself!),
brutal dictatorship, death squads–and international lack of
interest.
The “bully proof” curriculum that is used in my sons’ elementary
school emphasizes that the worst acts occur where they will not be
seen, for example at the edges of playgrounds in unsupervised
time. Sudan is one of many examples of the edges of world
society–and the bullying things writ large that some people will
inflict on others.
The good news is that we are expanding our online community, and
deepening our shared
understanding of the situation in Sudan. And we are learning at
a more general level as well. We are becoming more aware of
genocide and edge states and
world government as systems–as as systems in profound trouble.
This is important learning, even though it is also frustrating because
action in support of the victims in Sudan continues to be feeble on the
ground–especially when
compared to what might be done, and what is needed. And the
global system does not have a way to cope effectively with such
situations.
Yet I believe we are making an important start in terms of helping ourselves in the blogosphere become more truly aware. Ethan Zuckerman
has been an important teacher for us–introducing us to Africa
and helping us see that we can learn from much from Africans and from
analyzing the African situation.
And from understanding these specifics more general solutions may also
be invented. Or put another way, it is hard to imagine that
effective solutions can be invented without specific knowledge.
So we are making a start. As Donald Rumsfeld presciently said,
“there are things that we don’t know we don’t know.” Amen.
Thanks to Daniel O’Huiggin who is responsible for many of the posts on http://passionofthepresent.org.
Dan is a natural-born blogger. Like Joanne, the other writer on the
blog besides me, Dan has been quiet about himself. Dan is passionate
about the situation in Sudan, and got involved by emailing us and
offering to help. Dan’s day job is as an undergraduate at Cambridge
University in England where he studies Indian languages.
It is a wonderful thing to wake up here in Boston and find that
during the U.S. night Dan has been sifting away at news and comment
from the ground in north Africa and from European political capitals,
and has put it all together to provide a daily update with his own
insightful perspective.
