Following the fast, the Peace in Sudan Rally is being held until 3 p.m. today in Lafayette Square, Washington, D.C.
Supporters have gathered in solidarity with the Sudanese Diaspora and activist leaders to commemorate the 7th anniversary of the declaration of the Darfur genocide by Congress, while highlighting ongoing violence in Abyei, Southern Kordofan and other areas of Sudan. Maine Darfuri advocate El-Fadel Arbab of Portland’s Fur Cultural Revival is scheduled to speak during the rally.
If you missed the chance to participate in the fast or the rally, it’s not too late to take action. Visit Darfur Fast for Life for information about contacting your representatives about making Darfur and its people a priority.
On Friday, advocates for Darfur around the world will be uniting in a hunger strike with four objectives:
Immediate protection of civilians
Unimpeded humanitarian access
Accountability for the crimes against humanity committed by Sudan’s regime, as alleged by the International Criminal Court (ICC)
Justice brought to bear for the Sudanese people for genocide crimes and other atrocities committed in Darfur and throughout Sudan, as alleged by the ICC
We fast in solidarity with the people of Darfur because they do not have a choice. We fast as a personal expression of outrage at a world that has allowed the suffering of millions of innocent people. We fast because we simply watched as Darfur’s defenseless people were forced into wretched camps where today they are facing starvation and disease. We fast because those in positions of authority, who know what is right and just, could and should do more to alleviate their suffering and bring peace, protection and justice to the people of Sudan.
We fast for Darfur’s courageous people — because we yearn for a world where human rights are respected and a life of dignity is the legacy for every man, woman and child.
If you cannot fast, consider contacting your government officials about the four objectives (listed above). Even mentioning this fast to at least one other person is an accomplishment as it increases the dialogue about Darfur.
Following the documentary, the remarkable Honoré Gatera, the head guide at the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Gisozi, Rwanda, is interviewed by Charles Annenberg Weingarten (see below).
Weingarten leads explore.org, a philanthropic multimedia organization that makes documentary films and photographs to showcase extraordinary nonprofit efforts and leaders around the world. You might also find of interest explore’s work on the Darfur people of Sudan.
It is our privilege to share both programs with you, thanks to explore and Link TV. To help the viewer-supported Link TV continue to provide this kind of programming, visit LinkTV.org to contribute.
Action: Help raise $50,000 for Kigali Center
I invite you to take one small step toward helping move us toward a more peaceful future; visit facebook.com/exploreRwanda and hit “like” to help raise $50,000 for the Kigali Memorial Centre – donated by explore.org. Your voice represents $1 toward the $50,000 goal.
Please consider sharing this initiative with others; there is still quite a distance to reach the goal.
Saturday, a new country will be born in South Sudan.
In today’s video from the Enough Project, we glimpse heightened emotions among the Sudanese people. While violence along the border has marred the build-up to this historic day, individuals who have lived through decades of war are voicing refrains of peace and of hope.
Here in Portland, the Sudanese Community Association of Maine will mark the day with “A Celebration of Independence for South Sudan,” tomorrow, July 9.
The event begins with a Raising of the Flags ceremony in Monument Square at 9 a.m., followed at 10 a.m. by a march on Congress Street to the Portland Expo, 239 Park Ave. The celebration will include Sudanese music, food, dancing and speeches by local activists, elected officials and Sudanese community leaders.
Stanley Nelson’s critically acclaimed documentary “Freedom Riders” will air on the PBS series “American Experience” at 9 p.m. ET Monday.
An official selection of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, “Freedom Riders” takes us back 50 years ago, during six months in 1961. Those critical days saw 436 men and women, many young college students, risk jail, violence, even death, to help gain equal rights for all Americans.
With a story told through the eyes of those who were there, “Freedom Riders” has an immediacy that brings 50 years ago right to this moment, making palpable the uncertain future faced by those courageous individuals who believed that non-violent resistance could set people free.
Amidst unthinkable brutality, these men and women would go on to see the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement blossom in their hands.
We honor their bravery, perseverance and blessed idealism.
Exactly 50 years ago, 13 men and women embarked from Washington, D.C., on a southerly bus journey that would alter social justice in our nation.
Beginning May 4, 1961, Freedom Riders directly challenged the federal laws that banned segregation on buses and in waiting rooms. The non-violent movement would eventually grow to 436 courageous people – many of whom were college students – whose peaceful demonstrations catalyzed the U.S. government to enforce anti-segregation law throughout the bus system of the deep south.
Goodman also interviewed two of the film’s subjects, Freedom Riders Dr. Bernard Lafayette, now a distinguished professor in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding and senior scholar-in-residence at Emory University, and Jim Zwerg, who was among the first to be attacked, suffering severe injuries at the hands of a mob in Montgomery, Ala. A college student at the time, Zwerg said he was influenced by what he saw his African-American roommate endure.
On May 3, Mainers have two opportunities to explore the nature of truth in Holocaust history.
First, Dr. Lawrence Langer, Emeritus Professor of English at Simmons College, will address “Interpreting Holocaust Survivor Testimonies,” at 7 p.m. at the Maine Jewish Museum, 267 Congress St., Portland. The event is presented by the Holocaust & Human Rights Center of Maine.
Then, Independent Lens will broadcast Yael Hersonski’s first documentary “A Film Unfinished,” which examines footage shot by Nazis in Poland, including a missing reel discovered in 1998. The footage flips over what had been believed true for 40 years about the “Warsaw Ghetto.”
The film’s website quotes Manohla Dargis of The New York Times: “Gratifying in its ethical insistence that there are true things in the world, and that it is necessary for us to know them.”
Three of the six Kenyans accused of inflaming the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead during post-election violence in early 2008 appeared today before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague. The other three are due to appear tomorrow.
Today, the 17th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Sang’s charges resound as a terrible echo; Radio Rwanda propaganda was an integral tool in inciting the genocidal violence that began on April 7, 1994, in Rwanda.
The African Union marked the anniversary with a lone candle adorned by a purple ribbon and a wreath of lavender flowers.
“The AU is the African organization, and the genocide in Rwanda is not only a crime against Rwanda, it is a crime against humanity Africa comprised,” Nsengimana said from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “So after the genocide, AU like UN, decided to organize every year a ceremony to remember what happened in Rwanda in a way to take lesson and learn from the experience of Rwanda, to realize, never again.”
Today’s videos feature ICC coverage by Al Jazeera English’s Andrew Simmons (below) and Catherine Soi, who brings attention to the plight of the thousands who remain displaced by the violence that erupted three years ago.
On today's anniversary, we send special wishes of peace and gratitude to Jacqueline Murekatete, who spoke recently in Portland about surviving the Rwandan genocide as a nine-year-old child. Murekatete, who is a law student at Yeshiva University in New York City, founded Jacqueline's Human Rights Corner four years ago with the support of Miracle Corners of the World (MCW). She is also one of four genocide survivors profiled in the documentary, Last Survivor.
2010 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish was in Maine last week to speak to audiences about choosing peace over revenge.
Dr. Abuelaish is the author of “I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey On the Road to Peace and Human Dignity.” In the book, he writes about finding peace after three daughters and a niece were killed during a tank shelling of his Gaza home on January 16, 2009.
Dr. Abuelaish gives talks across the world, devoting his life to bringing peace to the conflict between Israel and Palestine. His organization, Daughters for Life, is both a memorial for family members – featuring photos taken during a respite at the beach a week before the tragedy – and also a foundation that works toward advancement of girls and women, and provides scholarships.
Born and raised in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, Dr. Abuelaish has endured extreme poverty, violence, even the death of his wife from cancer in Sept. 2008, just months before the tragedy that put him on his current path.
Dr. Abuelaish writes that it is open communication, understanding and compassion that are most needed in resolving conflict.
“I worked all of my life – a doctor with one leg in Israel and one leg in Gaza – to be an example of co-existence,” he said on the memorial website.
For those of you passionate about refugee issues, you may remember flashes of a fictional Kenyan refugee camp during the teaser of Academy Award nominees for Best Foreign Language Film. I immediately wanted to know more about this film.
And here it is. This year’s Academy Award winner, “In a Better World,” (2010, Denmark/Sweden) from Danish director Susanne Bier (Brothers, After the Wedding,) opens tomorrow in Los Angeles and New York. Lucky big-city ducks.
Bier’s film asks about the value judgements we make about “other worlds,” about presumed idealized societies, such as the Denmark depicted in the film, vs. so-called “third-worlds.” How do we sabotage our contributions to peace and security through our stumbling perceptions that the humans who inhabit these two worlds are really so different?
