Darfur rally
For 10 seconds on Sunday, more than 3,000 voices rang out from the centre of Toronto in a call for action in Darfur.
The scream was part of Global Day for Darfur, an event held in more than 40 countries encouraging the world’s youth to mobilize and pressure their governments into ending the acts of genocide.
David Berkal, the 18-year-old organizer for Toronto's Ramsden Park rally, hopes the echo reaches students, adults and Parliament alike.
“It seems ridiculous to have a moment of silence in a world already silent on the crisis in Sudan,” said fellow organizer, Danny Richmond.
The predominantly young crowd contained several Ryerson students, including second year architecture student Endri Hoxha.
“For me, it was an eye-opener,” said Hoxha. “It’s a matter of doing something rather than just talking, talking, talking.”
Hoxha and a few other students plan on introducing the initiative to the Ryerson Students' Union, in hopes of setting up a Ryerson chapter of Student Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND). But until then, he plans on putting the pressure his local MP, as well as continuing to attend rallies.
“I’m going to bring all of my friends to next one to pass the message on,” Hoxha said.
Toronto’s keynote speaker was Senator Roméo Dallaire, author of the bestselling Shake Hands With the Devil.
“12 years ago, I failed to mobilize anyone,” said Dallaire, who was the United Nations force commander during the ill-fated Rwandan genocide in 1994. He fears that Darfur is becoming a carbon copy of Rwanda, in which the world watched lethargically as one million Tutsis were slaughtered.
“There’s just no political capital in simply saving human lives,” he said, explaining the reticence in developed nations’ intervention.
But Dallaire has hope in Canada’s young activists.
“Canadian youth today have the courage, the determination and the moxie to be aware of what’s going on in the world,” he said. “They want to move the yardsticks well beyond just what meets our personal needs.” Pushing that yardstick to stabilize Darfur, Dallaire elaborated, is within grasp for Canada's youth.
War between Sudan’s Arab nomadic tribes, supported and defended by the Khartoum regime, and the African farmers has plagued the country since 2003, leaving 500,000 dead and one million displaced.
The rally marked a year since the U.N. signed a “Responsibility to Protect” doctorine, mandating the global community to take action if governments fail to prevent genocide. Today, the African Union is the only peacekeeping force in Sudan.
“Canada must lead the international community with a sense of urgency, creating resources and making Darfur a top diplomatic priority,” said Ben Fine, director of STAND, an organization found on 10 Canadian campuses and growing.
Fine, emcee Justin Trudeau, Mohamed Haroun, President of the Darfur Association of Canada, Darfuri refugee Tragi Mustafa, and musical guests the Muhtadi Drummers and Bedouin Soundclash also attended Sunday's rally.
Comments
Jay McGinley, over 3 years ago said:
SEPT 17TH: WORLDWIDE ACTIVITIES AWESOME!
BUT WE ARE NOT STOPPING GENOCIDE IN DARFUR
DARFUR VIGIL DAY 116 (now in NYC); 56 DAYS HUNGER STRIKE since July 4, 2006; Jay McGinley (jymcginley@cs.com) 484-356-6243 http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/
It only took just one failed component, one failed component out of millions that painstaking effort had made right, to cause the searing tragedy of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. You\'ll remember that for Challenger it was a faulty \""O ring.\""
The contributions of the many that led to a brilliantly executed September 17th series of worldwide events is something we all should humbly honor, praise, reverence and express our deep respect and gratitude for. I do. It was awesome. And a handful of truly heroic efforts took place - promoting/filling busses from Pittsburgh, Boston, Ohio, Washington...; logistics; PR.... Thank you and God bless your commitment. And your accomplishments including front page coverage in the New York Times, appointment of a special envoy to Darfur as desrcibed in Bush to Name Envoy for Darfur Washington Post, By Colum Lynch and Glenn Kessler Staff Writers Tuesday, September 19, 2006; and finally, a spotlight on China, for example The Genocide Test, Editorial, Washington Post.
What the September 17th teams worldwide did is absolutely necessary! But there is a faulty \""O ring\"" in the Campaign to Save Darfur. SEPTEMBER 17TH, AND THE FOLLOW-ON EVENTS CONTEMPLATED AND PLANNED WILL NOT STOP THE GENOCIDE. And I have yet to have anyone prominently involved with the Darfur movement disagree. And I\'ve asked them. And I\'ve received responses.
A crucial component is missing; a component that has been essential for every previous social-change movement. Stopping Genocide requires Monumental Social-Change - NEVER has genocide been stopped. N-E-V-E-R. Never. Not Rwanda, Cambodia, Kurds, Serbrinka, not 6,000,000 Jews.... Kosovo was far too late addressed to some degree.
What is profoundly missing is a Core Group of Leaders that anyone, EVERYONE SEES is heroically putting their skin in the game, standing up for, getting in harms way for, SACRIFICING PERSONALLY for Darfur. Name major social change that has ever come without this. Civil Rights? Apartheid? Stopping Vietnam War? Suffrage? IT HAS NEVER HAPPENED.
Unmistakable-Sacrificial-Leadership-visible-to-the-masses is the spark plug; the inspiration; the moral clarity; THE PROOF OF IMPORTANCE THAT INSPIRES COMMITTED ACTION IN OTHERS. Leadership of this kind, in sufficient quantity is - the price to Save Darfur. Until the \""price\"" is paid, the genocide will not stop, no matter what else we do.
We can do everything else right (and these are NECESSARY): advertising, PR, rallies, celebrity participation, strategy, Sudan Envoys... but without the ignition, without the spark-plug we\'ve got our \""O ring,\"" our efforts will crash in defeat, and 4,000,000 family members in Darfur are exterminated.
I have been begging for two years for such effort: 9/23/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/09/radical_commitm.html, 10/17/04: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2004/10/jay_mcginley_ai.html, 8/11/05: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-6-pioneers-must-pay.html, 8/14/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/08/the_latest_from_1.html, 7/11/06: http://standwithdarfurwhitehouseii.blogspot.com/2006/07/call-to-battle-launch-all-out.html, 8/16/06: http://rescuerestoredarfur.blogspot.com/2005/08/hunger-strike-day-12-enough-radicals.html, 8/22/05: http://platform.blogs.com/passionofthepresent/2005/07/jay_mcginley_hu.html
So Jay, does all this make you right? What matters is: 1. Might it be correct?; 2. That YOU decide, correctly, in time. As Reverend Gloria said in NYC on Sunday, “It’s about T-I-M-E.”
Rosa Parks was a seamstress. Steven Beko was from no organization. Ghandi was a young lawyer and the wave upon wave of fellow leaders were from all walks of life. Dr. King a brilliant minister and many co-leaders were uneducated laborers. King said, \""Anyone can be great because anyone can serve.\"" Gandhi said, \'The frailest, old crippled body can be just as powerful as any head of state.\""
BUT THE MOST LIKELY SOURCE FOR THE LEADERSHIP CORE IS STUDENTS. This has been true in every movement. And if the students of this country do not rise up for humanity and justice, NOW, there is no hope. THEY must form the core of our leadership. We adults in the NGOs, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques HAVE MADE OUR POSITION CLEAR. WE WILL NOT GET IN HARMS WAY FOR DARFUR.
Someone(s) cried out about the \""O ring\"" long, long before the Challenger exploded. I\'m sure of it. He/She/They were blown off as troublemaker, renegade, lone ranger, loner, outsider, not-a-team-player.... The Challenger exploded. All that is left are, regrets. Jay McGinley jymcginley@cs.com
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