Belated Weekly Wednesday Update...

Sorry all, but this Weekly Wednesday Update is only late because we've got so much going on this week that I spent a large portion of Wednesday working on other stuff for the campaign.

On to the update.

News Update:

The BBC is reporting that a fresh outbreak of violence in Darfur has left thousands (one estimate says 12 thousand) more people displaced - this is going to overwhelm the already overwhelmed refugee camps in Sudan and Chad, which are not only currently housing refugees of the Darfur crisis, but many camps have also taken in refugees of the crisis in the Congo.

Last week President al Bashir launched a new peace initiative, which doesn't involve any rebel groups or opposition parties, and therefor does not promise to be all that successful.

The judges of the International Criminal Court have asked for more evidence before they will decide whether or not to charge al Bashir with genocide and other war crimes for his actions in Darfur. 

Also, South Sudanese rebel groups kidnapped 9 Chinese oil workers in the third abduction of Chinese workers in the Sudan this year. This is yet another sign of China's involvement, and of increasing tension between Khartoum and South Sudan. If the civil war were to break out once more, al Bashir's government now has a shiny new toolkit of genocidal tactics to wage on the people of South Sudan, all of which have been rehearsed on the people of Darfur.

Not good.

And Campaign Updates:

We will be tabling at the Amherst Regional High School's bike-a-thon for Darfur on the Amherst Town Common on Sunday (that's tomorrow) from 11 to 2. You should definitely come by if you're in the area either to bike yourself, to donate, or just to get more information.

"Pain By Numbers" is the official title for our body bags on the library lawn event; that's THIS WEEK. The display will go up on Wednesday and Thursday, with Thursday being the Day of Silence/Remembrance. If you can get to UMass that day, definitely come by Pain By Numbers; buy some challah, sign up to be silent or just to mourn, and find out more information about the conflict and the timeline of destruction in Darfur.

We're also having an Open Mic Night on November 20th, so if you know any type of performing artist, PLEASE CONTACT US. We're looking for any performers we can find. We'll be serving coffee and baked goods too, and it's a fun chance to donate to a really great cause.

And finally, and this note will be repeated next week, if you do nothing else, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE VOTE. We will have to deal with whoever gets elected for four, maybe even for eight, years. That's a long time, and your vote is your chance to affect the outcome. So please vote on November 4th, or mail in your absentee ballots.

And for your action - 

Come to the Amherst Town Common on Sunday, or stop by Pain By Numbers Wednesday or Thursday to sign our petition to the presidential candidates. They need to know from Day One that the American public wants a change in Darfur.

Weekly Wednesday Update...

News : It's been uncovered that one of the ships being held off by Somalian pirates last weekend contained weapons headed from Kenya to South Sudan. This isn't directly related to Darfur, but it means that its very likely there's an increasing arms race between Khartoum and South Sudan, which could mean a new outbreak of the Civil War in Sudan, which would not be good (obviously).

Updates:

Library Lawn Event - While we're still nameless, the event is chugging along smoothly; we've got half the body bags constructed for our display, and the other half will get done this weekend. We're also working on setting up the day of silence/remembrance; we've decided to hand out pins explaining why people are being silent or if they aren't being silent, explaining why they are in mourning.

Open Mic Night - We don't have a room confirmation yet, but we decided on November 20th for the Open Mic Night, so if you're a performing artist of any kind - dance, music, spoken word poetry, improv, drama, etc - in the Amherst area, and you're available that night, get in touch with us please! Comment here, or e-mail us at umassdarfurgroup@gmail.com.

And finally, for your weekly action - this weekend we'll have a table up at the Humans Versus Zombies Charity Day, so if you're playing the game stop by the Commonwealth Room between 9 and 5 on Sunday and sign our petitions and buy some cookies and brownies. Enjoy!

Weekly Wednesday Update

First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates last week.

Now on to the update:

First, news on Darfur - Any one who's been watching the presidential and vice presidential debates knows Darfur is well on its way to becoming a national issue (and it's about time). Record numbers of people tuned in for the VP debate, where Biden spoke about the genocide, and millions were also watching the latest presidential debate, last night, when Obama spoke about Darfur and there was even a question related to the conflict.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court is still undecided about pressing charges on Omar al Bashir - and al Bashir is still not happy with the ICC. Bashir recently said that any warrant for his arrest would hinder the peace process.

And in the Congo, violence is getting worse also, leaving thousands of Congolese refugees migrating into Sudan's refugee camps. Understandably, this is exascerbating an already difficult refugee situation in the Sudan. The conflict in the Congo has also been labeled a genocide, and many of the tools of war are similar to the tools al Bashir uses in Darfur and in South Sudan; most notably, rape has become the most common weapon of war in the Congo, prompting some activists to call that conflict a conflict against women.

And the final news update (this one is kind of vague and a little unrelated) - The Kenyan ships that are currently being blocked from transporting their goods by Somali pirates, are reportedly holding weapons headed for South Sudan. South Sudan currently operates seperately from al Bashir's government in Khartoum, but importing weapons suggests that there is an arms race between Khartoum and South Sudan - which may mean another outbreak of the Sudanese Civil War is on its way.

On to news about our group -

It's official; the Save Darfur Campaign of MassPIRG is hosting an event on the Library Lawn. We'll be putting up a display of body bags (artificial ones, made by the group), showing the progression towards genocide in the Sudan. At the event, we'll be having people sign up for a Day of Silence/Remembrance (the current plan, I believe, is to have two seperate lists - one for people who plan to be silent, and one for people who plan to wear a pin but can't be silent), which is the following day (we'll also have the lawn on that day). We're in the process of booking the lawn for the 29th and 30th of October, so look for us.

We're also planning yet another event; we haven't booked anything yet, but we're looking to have an Open Mic Night / Coffee House in November. If you know a band that would be interested in playing, or an accapella group, or a comedian, or any other type of performing artist, leave a comment or send an e-mail to umassdarfurgroup@gmail.com, and we'll be in touch. For anyone interested in attending, keep your eyes peeled for more info.

We also have confirmed that the ENOUGH Congo Speaker Tour will be coming to UMass. UMass is one of only three schools to have booked the speakers, who will most likely be a mix of refugees and academics. That tour will come through on December 3. We'll have more information on that as details get confirmed, also.

And your weekly action (there'll be two this week, to make up for last week):

Now that the presidential candidates and vice presidential candidates have spoken up about Darfur, send a postcard to the next president, asking them to deal with Darfur on Day One - http://action.savedarfur.org/campaign/addyourvoice?rk=912vegpqzXvkE. If you're really passionate about getting the presidential candidates to ask, stop by the MassPIRG Office (415 Student Union, UMass Amherst) and sign our petition, asking the candidates to make their plans for Darfur public.

And your second action is to just learn more about Darfur; you can always head to the BBC for news updates, or check Nicholas Kristoff's NYTimes Column (it's not always about Darfur, but he very often has news). However, if you're more interested in television style learning experiences, there are a number of great videos about Darfur floating around out there. Here are a few links.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXdWDM4fmRY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMBZpGRF4tg&feature=related

And finally, pretty much any of the videos on this page : http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate/crisis/darfur

That's it for this week. Check in again next Wednesday, and as always, any thoughts, interest, comments, questions e-mail us at umassdarfurgroup@gmail.com, or leave a comment.

Weekly Wednesday Update and Action

As promised, this is your Weekly Wednesday Campaign Update.

The Save Darfur Campaign is currently planning a very exciting Library Lawn event for late October. More details on that as they get finalized, but the plan for now is to have a body bag display, symbolizing the hundreds of thousands of victims of the genocide.

Also in late October, we'll be having a Day of Remembrance for the victims. We'll be giving out pins for people to wear all day. Signups for that will be at the Library Lawn display.

This weekend we'll be having a bakesale, so look for us in your dorms Sunday night. We'll be selling baked goods from Henions as well as homemade treats. If you're interested in helping out, we'll be baking in Greenough Residence Hall Sunday afternoon and selling all over campus Sunday night, so leave a comment or send us an e-mail at UMassDarfurGroup@gmail.com and we'll fill you in on details.

And your action: Send Jim Lehrer and Gwen Ifle a letter asking them to ask the candidates about Darfur at the presidential and vice presidential debates. The presidential debate, scheduled for Friday, may end up being postponed, but please get the letters in the mail as soon as you can 'cause we want to make sure the hosts have them before the debates.

Mail your letters here:

MacNeil/Lehrer Productions
2700 South Quincy Street
Arlington, VA 22206

Update on the campaign

For future notice, unless there's a pressing issue, updates will be coming on Wednesdays, following our weekly meetings, and before and after major events and fundraisers.

On to the belated update for last week:

The MassPIRG Kickoff last Tuesday night was a big success! We had roughly 30 people attend our breakout session, which means that the Save Darfur Campaign has about 30 members, most of them new this semester. That means fresh ideas, new goals and new enthusiasm, all of which are very positive things.

The big news coming out of the kickoff is that we've decided on a weekly meeting time, so from now on we will be meeting at 6 pm on Tuesday nights. The first meeting, tomorrow night, will be in the Bluewall in the Campus Center, although in the future we may try to move to a classroom. There will be an announcement if that happens.

The other big news is that we are now officially planning for our first major event; we will be hosting a display on the Library Lawn and a Day of Silence/Remembrance, both in October and probably connected. More on that as the details get cemented.

Throughout the semester we will be petitioning presidential and vice presidential candidates, and media outlets/personalities hosting debates, asking them to address a plan for Darfur. We've already collected 50 signatures on the presidential/vice presidential petitions!

And finally last week we held our first Challah for a Dollah sale. Working with Hillel House we sell challah bread (a Jewish bread that we often help to bake, although we didn't last week), usually in Bartlett Hall. All the proceeds go to the Genocide Intervention Network, which in turn sends the money to refugee camps in Darfur and in neighboring Chad. The money goes to fund AU troops, purchase necessities for the refugees, and to launch self-sustaining businesses in the camps, which helps give the refugees a sense of purpose and control. We will be doing this four more times this semester. Last week we raised over $60, which is a great start. So look out for us in the future (I'll probably post to the blog when we know the dates we'll be selling).

More Wednesday! (Also, beginning Wednesday, each weekly post will have a news update)

Take Action...

Our event on Tuesday night went very well; there were a number of new faces, which is always good. Hopefully some people learned more about the conflict in Darfur, and about ways that we as students and as individuals can affect change. If you have any questions, comments or critiques about the meeting, leave a comment or send an e-mail (umassdarfurgroup@gmail.com) and someone will get in touch with you soon.

Just a few updates about the group now that we are back on campus.

As I believe I've mentioned before, The Save Darfur Campaign at UMass is lucky enough to be both a registered STAND : Student Anti-Genocide Coaliton chapter and a part of MassPIRG, which is a student funded student run organization looking at non-partisan solutions to a number of pressing social issues, including Save Darfur, Climate Change, Affordable College and Textbooks, Hunger and Homelessness, and registering new voters (our goal is to have 90% of the campus registered to vote by election day - that's 19,000 people!).

If you're interested in MassPIRG but you haven't stopped by the office or filled out an interest card yet, come by (415 Student Union). There will also be a kickoff meeting next Tuesday night, September 16, 2008. Look for another post on that as soon as I know the exact time.

And now for your thirty second action...

President Bush is going to be addressing the United Nations on September 23, so go ahead and sign this petition asking him to mention Darfur and push for the International Criminal Court Charges to go ahead as scheduled. Sudan and some of its allies are trying to postpone the charges, and delay any action for yet another year.

The people of Darfur cannot wait another year.

TAKE ACTION: Support The Case Against Bashir

Like a lot of Darfur activists, I've had mixed feelings about the International Criminal Court's decision to charge Omar al-Bashir. However, if you look at what the refugees have been saying, the refugees want this. They want Omar al-Bashir brought to justice. They know that that is the only way that there can be peace. There is no simple option. There is no compromise.

That's why I'm asking you to take action. The UN is considering blocking the charges against Bashir. Tell President Bush that the United States can't let that happen. Tell President Bush you want justice, because right now, the refugees don't have a say.

Sign here.