Today is Unite for Human Rights day and because I have been sending comments back and forth to Diamond the anonymous stripper and responding to all of your emails I haven't had a chance to write anything thoughtful, heartfelt and profound. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating and I'm just lazy, but anyway I am reposting one of my posts from last year regarding a lecture I saw with one of my clients on Darfur.
Man’s inhumanity to man knows no bounds. The examples are both profound and ordinary, spectacular and commonplace. There is, within all of us, the ability to inflict the brutality of indifference and the torture of acceptance. When Darfur screams out to a world preoccupied with wealth, power and dominance, the resulting collective non-response borders on criminal. There is no oil in Darfur. There is nothing to gain politically by winning Darfur’s favor. Darfur is not in any strategic global position and is occupied by tribal Africans. Darfur is today’s Rwanda or South Africa or Serbia or Cambodia. It is real and symbolic simultaneously. The genocide is real. The reaction to this catastrophic human carnage is symbolic. There are resolutions and declarations and pledges to help but as long as there are oil reserves to protect and nuclear threats and terrorist plots there will be no aid in Sudan. We are willingly and knowingly allowing mass murder while focusing on everything and anything but human life. By accepting Darfur’s ultimate fate of complete annihilation, we have set the priorities that our generation will be judged by. Our indifference to enormous human tragedy begins and ends with individuals. Leaders, citizens and perpetrators are equally culpable here. Leaders, who can affect change with the stroke of a pen or a directive, have done neither. Citizens, who by default, endorse with inaction and demand nothing from their fellow man, perpetuate the situation. Perpetrators, who execute the carnage, do so with no fear or expectation of rebuke. As is the case with all human violence, it is the capacity to harm coupled with the tolerance accept injustice. Indifference is the weapon of choice in our case.
XOXO- Brunette Bombshell
2 comments:
Darfur is an indelible stain on the name of humanity. Thanks for your thoughts on this important human rights issue. As the Preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights reminds us, “…recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”
Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds
Once again, you never cease to amaze me. Practical everyone is guilty of of turning a blind eye to the injustices that plague our society. When I act like i don't see homeless people I'm guilty. Becoming desensitized and immune to other people's pain (poverty, hunger, rape, murder, the list goes on) is something that has become to do. Thank you for the reminder of what's real!
xoxo
diamond
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