Darfur Fast for Life

Outside of Darfur fasting is an option, even a health choice (a pretty dodgy one, actually). It's quite the opposite for those trapped inside Darfur who are out of options. This is it: out of options. We are not messing around now; we're angry.

Here is the Darfur Fast for Life website with links to information. Please also check with Enough Project. Raise holy hell--especially on what is Mother's Day. Can you imagine how these mothers are feeling right now?

A Darfur peace conference in Ethiopia has been cancelled because on Friday night Darfuri leaders were told they would not be allowed to attend. We are almost used to this by now; you may not be. But let's just tell you why this should matter to you...though we can hardly believe we'd have to. Look at a map, locate Sudan, locate where in the world this is, the countries to which it is adjacent. No one wanted to hear about Somalia either, until pirates took an American ship. Don't come to us, we told you a year ago, when the Horn blows back on North America, Europe, elsewhere. A little (enlightened) self-interest is a good thing. Think about it.

[photo courtesy of IRIN: Women recently displaced by fighting in North Darfur have settled in a camp for displaced people in Zamzam, south of El-Fasher/© Heba Aly/IRIN]

a fuming ciao-meow/GG Central

Waiting in Darfur...

...& in Chad. Deceptively peaceful looking. Trouble is brewing, as usual, in Chad, uproar in Congo. Mia Farrow is in Darfur/Chad right now & here is her website/blog. Momentum to do something about Darfur (& other areas of Sudan) has been growing as Obama's Inaugural approached. Susan Rice's United Nations appointment is a good sign.

If you want to help, Darfur Peace & Development Organization is a good place to start (the website is undergoing a bit of work, so please be patient). For information, policy, & activist positions, Enough Project is excellent. So, too, is Amnesty International.

It's a busy week ahead for all of us, but please read a bit from Mia's website/blog. She has especially intriguing entries the past 12 days, ranging from Rwanda to Congo, with Darfur/Chad in between. No need to paraphrase her. She's an eloquent writer. [Photographs courtesy of Mia Farrow/all rights reserved]

Ciao for now.
GG's editor

Day Seven: The Women of Darfur

Women and girls living in Darfur and eastern Chad-- in camps, towns and rural areas--live in constant fear of sexual violence. The perpetrators are usually men from the Sudanese security forces, militias, rebel groups, and former rebel groups. Gender-based assaults occur as part of attacks, but also in times of relative calm.

In this webcast, Mia talks with women about their lives in the refugee camp. [For those who prefer YouTube for subscription purposes, we will replace the MySpace code with YouTube code when it becomes available later this evening or tomorrow. GG does have other aspects to her life, contrary to some people's perceptions. I mean, we're off to Provence, after all...]

Coming tomorrow: The Darfur Olympics Closing Ceremony.