Sand and Sorrow

I just finished watching a documentary called “Sand and Sorrow.”

As docs go this isn’t great but the story it tells and the message far outweigh the production’s short-comings.

It is about the efforts of a few to get the U.S. Govt. and others to do something about the on-going genocide in Darfur.

Several months ago I wrote about the “Lost Boys” from southern Sudan who had to leave because of conflict there.

Recently I wrote about Steven Spielberg and his decision to NOT assist with the Beijing Olympics because of China’s involvement with the Sudanese government who back the so-called “Janjaweed,” who are the militia-like group responsible for most if not all of the slaughter and rape and the like in Darfur.

In this documentary the most disconcerting thing I heard (there is plenty to see!) was that shortly after 9-11, we began to get more intelligence information from the Sudanese government about terrorist activity inside their borders (I guess everyone has read or heard that Osama bin Laden once lived in Sudan and used that as a base of operations for much of his activity until he went to Afghanistan.) My point here is that if what is said in the doc is true, we have sort of turned our eyes away from Darfur in exchange for the information they provide.

Another point of this movie is what can we/anybody do? I have no idea except to support some relief work going on. I like Samaritan’s Purse. I used to have my contributions to them designated to southern Sudan years ago. I think I’ll switch to Darfur.

I am naïve about this stuff but I find it strange that we have sustained a boycott of Cuba for years – decades, yet we have done nothing to stop the brutality and whatever else is going on in Sudan. Overall I think U.S. foreign policy is inconsistent at best – misguided at its worst.

This was not supposed to be a ramble but rather a recommendation to watch this movie if you can. Like I said I don’t think it is a great one as far as how it is done – far too long to make the points it makes but still a very important story that people need to hear.

And as with everything I’m sure I don’t have the whole story but all you have to do is look at the eyes of the Sudanese government guy when he talks about what they are doing and then look in the eyes of the women who have been raped and the children who are starving in the camps in Chad waiting for somebody – somewhere to do something to help them. I think it is safe to assume that the story contained in this movie is true. I’m sure the makers have some anti-U.S. bias in their portrayal of our govt. but I’d agree that we have made many mistakes in our dealings with countries like this in the past under both Republican and Democratic administrations.