Darfur's Anne Frank (60 Minutes kicking ass)

To understand what is happening in Darfur, 60 Minutes came upon on the story of a boy named Jacob. We know him only because his name is on schoolbooks found in the ashes of his home. Jacob's village was wiped out. Our team saw his books in a museum. We didn't know whether Jacob was alive or whether we could find him. But we decided to try. Our search turned into a remarkable journey into a place we were forbidden to travel looking for a boy swept up in the 21st century's first genocide.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/20/60minutes/main2111909.shtml

Very simply a modern-day Anne Frank. The 60 Minutes story on Jacob last night represents some of the finest jounalism being done in this country. The show is absoulutely on fire lately. Creativity and curiousity combined to humanize the genocide going on in Sudan, hopefully in a way moves the U.S to lead the international community to prevent Sudan's version of the Final Solution.

As a tribute to the shows run of damn good stories lately (just off the top of my head I'm thinking about recent stories such as the Amedinijad interview, Kinky Friedman profile, Internet Gambling, Bush treatment of religious right wingers, Woodward), I'm running a shot of Ed Bradley under my name.

 

If Bush truely beleived in Jesus, he would pull every soldier, sailor and marine out of Iraq, immediately, and plant them in the Sudan. Since the Holocaust of WWII, we've had genocides in Cambodia, Rawanda, Uganda, Nigeria, and now Sudan.
If W had any real belief in Christ and his teachings, he would turn over the tables at the UN and stop this madness. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld: Phony Tough and Crazy Brave

 

The Duke lax story, done by your boy Ed, also was outstanding.

I only caught part of last night's Jacob story because of football and baseball, but what I saw was very good.

The most interesting part that I saw was how Sudan's government is using its knowledge of Al Qaeda to hold off the U.S. from pushing for more U.N. action. They apparently were quite friendly with Osama for five years and they keep dangling bits of info to the U.S. gov to hold off any interference.

The picture of their U.N. ambassador cracking up as Bush called it a genocide at the U.N. was quite damning. Apparently, the U.S. has gotten some excellent intel from them, so we're not going to do shit about it until that well runs dry and they seem to know that.

 

Thanks Bigpern. I knew I was leaving out a biggie. The Duke Lacrosse story was definitely one of the best. I don't have all the answers on dealing with genocide and terrorism, but the world needs to know what's going on so there can be an honest debate. A common set of facts is the missing ingredient in the current news cycle debates.

 

I regret our government is doing nothing (and we should be there blowing up murdering Islamic fundie assholes), but what about every other damn country in the world?

Is blood not on their hands as well?

 

Hell, what about the UN?

 

In theory, yes, but other countries don't paint themselves as the policemen of the world like the U.S. "We removed a horrible tyrant from Iraq," etc. Yes, but what about all the tyrants that are worse than Saddam? If that is truly the U.S.'s mission, then it isn't prioritizing very well. Unless perhaps there are other motivating factors. Nah, couldn't be.

 

Thank God this site is called SportsJournalists.
Anyone out there embarrassed at calling themselves a "journalist" these days? Good for 60Minutes, it can still bring it. But as long as other news outlets are going to focus on "local issues" (because that's what the consultants, the focus groups and the shareholders want), there will be no momentum for a story. "Darfur's Anne Frank" won't spark any national outrage or move the Bush Administration (I gag at using those 2 words) to do anything but take care of its own selfish goals.
When is some journo gonna grow a pair, stand up at a Bush PC and ask, "Mr. President, how much is Iraq costing on a daily basis? How much have we spent thus far? Who's gonna foot the bill?" Who's gonna ask why the Superdome was made ready for football season while the Ninth Ward is still an unpopulated war zone?
Sorry, but we're screwed.

 

Let's see...we've blamed the U.S., the United Nations and other countries on this thread for not doing enough to stop the madness in Darfur and the Sudan. Why don't other Islamic countries put a stop to it? This is a case of Muslims killing other Muslims. Oh, wait...it's Arabic Muslims killing African Muslims. Gee...I thought the U.S. was the only racist country out there, or you would think from the media and the U.N. members sitting on their hands while this is going on.

 

Actually, most of the residents of Darfur are black Christians or animists (it's tough to call them just African because, well, even the Sudanese of Arab heritage in the north are Africans, too).

While the United Nations isn't perfect, the member nations really dropped the ball on Darfur. Many nations want a blue-helmeted force to take over for the African Union force (the AU countries want this too), so the Security Council passes a resolution calling for that. The one problem? The resolution requires the consent of Khartoum before such a force can move forward. And in case anyone has forgotten the government's role, I'll recap for it: most towns and villages are destroyed when Sudanese Air Force helicopters start shooting missiles and ammunition into homes and other buildings. When people flee, the Janjaweed militia (armed and trained by the Sudanese military) shoot or hack the survivors while fleeing. And we're requiring the consent of a dictator like Omar al-Bashir before going in?

And on another side note, wasn't there a debate on this board about six months ago? If I remember correctly, someone took up the argument that Africans were too dumb to stop killing each other (despite the fact that most wars on the continent were proxy wars between the United States, Soviet Union, China, France, et al), and therefore shouldn't require international intervention. If whoever wrote that is still around, can you re-state your case? I disagree, but I'd like to hear where you're coming from...

 

If being a dumbass were a crime, you would have been locked up with the key thrown away a long time ago.

 

Hondo never lets facts or humanity get in the way of his hatred of those different from him.