It’s not easy being a Black African in Darfur these days. They are being ethnically “cleansed”, and no one knows how to stop it. Humanitarian groups are frantically trying to help survivors and desperately calling for military aid. They seem to be screaming their message to a deaf world; three years of genocide have already gone by. The UN has been paralyzed, and the Sudanese government is suspiciously reluctant to stop the Janjaweed (waring rebels). Currently, these rebels are free to storm into villages atop horses and camels with their machine guns and create hell on earth. Their tactics include not only slaughtering masses of people, but also burning down entire villages, and systematically raping women and young girls.

Though the UN has set an April 30th deadline for peace negations, little faith rests in their ability to make a lasting difference. UN deadlines and agreements have come and gone before, but the situation is the same, if not escalating.

How did this happen?

Sudan has been troubled from the start. The East African nation is populated with Muslims, Christians, animists, and both Arabs and Africans. The groups have always been fighting to protect their conflicting ways of life. In 1983, the mostly Arab government tried to instate Shari’ a, Islamic law, to the protests of many Christians and animists.

The current situation began in 2003. Amidst rumors that the Sudanese government had been oppressing Black Africans in favor of Arabs, rebel groups, including the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), began attacking the government. The government took no official action. However, another rebel group, the Arab Janjaweed, began their aggressive attacks on Africans with renewed vigor, sapping the SLA of possible recruits and effectively weakening them. The Janjaweed conveniently grew stronger during this time, equipped with expensive arms and well fed animals.

The Janjaweed have embarked on a terrifyingly successful ethnic cleansing campaign. Since 2003, they have displaced 2 million people, and an estimated 200,000 have died, both directly and due to effects of displacement. Many refugees are running to border states, and countries like Chad, already impoverished, have hundreds of thousands of refugees living (and dying) on their borders.

The displacement has caused a massive humanitarian crisis. All of these newly homeless (and hopeless) are starving, sick, and desperately poor. They have lost their lives and their livelihoods, and they live in constant fear of the ever present Janjaweed. Their refugee camps are not safe, their government is not responding, and the world shakes its head in pity, and then returns to safety and puts the ugliness of Darfur out of its mind.

This is a crisis. As we watch, thousands are dying and the map of terror is growing. The entire area is at risk of complete destabilization. The situation will not resolve itself.

The African Union has 7,000 troops on the ground, but it’s not nearly enough. The UN Security Council must decide when and how to deploy troops and countries must decide whether or not they will be sending soldiers. Every minute that ticks by while these decisions are being made costs precious lives.

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on April 28, 2006

On April 12th, 2006, rebels charged through the streets of N’Djamena, Chad’s capitol city, intent on seizing power from current President Deby. The attempted coup failed that day, but the rebels haven’t given up yet. They’re rumored to be circulating just outside the city, waiting for another opportunity to pounce. Why the sudden interest in leading this indigent nation?

Chad, one of the poorest nations in the world, has recently stumbled upon a modern day goldmine – oil. For the first time, the sweet smell of crude oil is filling the air with dreams of wealth and stability. This inky promise has been enough to arouse greed in both the government and the rebels.

The World Bank has, until recently, been funding construction of a pipeline running from Chad’s valuable oil fields to the sea, liberating their land-locked crude for sale on the world market. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the money that will no doubt follow the pipeline. Being such an impoverished nation, the World Bank stipulated that a large majority of the income go to development and alleviating poverty. Chadian leaders initially agreed, but recently decided that they should have the power to allocate the oil money when and where they chose. The World Bank has since stopped funding Chad’s development.

The World Bank has good reason to be worried. The African Union has estimated that corruption costs Africa $150 billion every year. All too often, money that is desperately needed to keep people healthy and alive is used to fund the opulent lifestyles of an elite few.

Throughout many African nations, corruption seeps through almost every service. Even teachers and doctors are not immune to taking bribes in return for higher grades or better treatment. At the highest level, leaders of nations are living well beyond their means while their countries are steeped in intense and deadly poverty. This type of spending begets an negative feedback loop that Africa cannot afford: as foreign investors watch their money go to waste, they are less likely to provide more funding, and African nations are left in an even more desperate state.

Much of this corrupt behavior is not the result of an ideology of selfishness; rather, a desperately impoverished state leaves many people with no choice but to take bribes in order to feed their families. Most African countries only unlocked the shackles of colonial control within the past three decades and are still struggling to get on their feet and overcome the oppressive, exploitive infrastructure left behind by the colonial regimes. This does not excuse the despotic leaders who surround themselves with lavish luxuries, but it does help to shed light on middleclass corruption. It also suggests that the solution lies in developing Africa to eliminate such despair. Doing that is, of course, the hard part.

Only well-planned, compassionate and binding development projects will help raise this continent out of corruption and despair. Along with development, democracy will help. With multi-party systems, individuals will be more accountable for their actions because of opponent’s watchful eyes. The authoritarian colonial legacy unfortunately left room for all-powerful leaders, but as this fades, so too will the corruption.

The World Bank is right to stop funding a program that they believe will not help the country get out of its desperate situation, but it is heartbreaking to see Chad sacrifice such needed development and money. While Africa as a whole waits to see these ideas of reform come to fruition, Chad sits on the brink of a bloody power struggle, and the resource that could make stability a reality stays locked up in greedy politics.

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on April 21, 2006

For the past five weeks, France has seen revolt and riots rage throughout the country. An estimated 3 million students and workers came together to shut down the Eiffel tower, worry the authorities, and effectively close many schools and universities. Political graffiti filled public space, and chants of outraged citizens - “Mr. Villepin, you are not king” – have made their way to the ears of French leaders.

Due to the overwhelming force of people power, President Chirac recently announced that the French government will drop the controversial law, dubbed CPE (Contrat Premiere Embauche), which would have made it easier for employers to fire workers under 26 who have been employed for less than 2 years.

The French youth used the one democratic process available to them, and the government was forced to listen.

In many countries, including the US, many protestors feel that their noise and numbers are merely symbolic of their discontent and largely ineffective. France has a rich history of revolt as a legitimate form of communication, and the passion that fuels these frustrated masses is fed by past success. The revolutionary spirit has coursed through their veins since the French Revolution, when the masses accomplished the monumental task of emancipating power from an absolute monarch and delivering it to the people.

The current atmosphere of wide-ranging discontent and rebellion most recalls the massive protests of 1968, which eventually caused not only reformed laws but also a regime change.

In May of 1968, several students began to protest an attempted university reform. The situation escalated after the police used violence to control the students, and French workers joined students in a mass protest. Soon, two thirds of the workforce was on strike, and the government effectively lost control of their country. Workers would not have joined the protest if they were happy; France’s unemployment was at a high (as it is now), and wages were very low. The workers were inspired by the students and reminded of their frustration with the current administration. The outlet for this frustration was strike and revolt.

In 1968, the unhappy workers were able to bring the country to a halt. President Charles de Gaulle got things going his way again, but was shaken by the intense disapproval and stepped down within a year.

This time, French officials acknowledged the mass protest as legitimate dialogue of a sort, and decided to amend their decision to fit the desires of their people. The strikers saw their desperate attempt to join the political discussion work; the leaders listened and changed. In France, the power of the people lives on.

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on April 14, 2006

Charles Taylor, The former President of Liberia and indicted war criminal who spend decades terrorizing West Africa for personal gain, has been captured. Taylor was found (along with his wife and several bags of cash) 600 miles from his villa in Nigeria, where he had enjoyed a couple years of relatively peaceful exile. Taylor is responsible for completely destabilizing Liberia and Sierra Leone and for the torment and murder of thousands of innocent people. Current Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has made an official request for Taylor, which means that he will finally be tried for his crimes; mainly, his part in the atrocious civil war that rocked Sierra Leone in the 1990’s.

This wasn’t even the first time Taylor had been exiled from Liberia, nor was this his first attempted escape from capture. After his first exile, the result of a falling out with then leader Samuel Doe (understandably angry after Taylor embezzled almost 1 million dollars), Taylor fled to the US. He was captured and served a brief prison sentence before sawing through the bars to freedom in 1985.

After his escape, Taylor decided that he needed an education in murder. He went to Libya and sought out Muammar Quaddafi, who took Taylor under his wing for some guerrilla training. He made a fateful friend there, Fadoy Sankoh, who was also seeking Qauddafi’s training. Sankoh would eventually go on to become a revolutionary leader of one of the most frightful organizations in West Africa, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

After this training, Taylor returned to Liberia, incited violent revolt throughout the country, saw to it that Liberia was immersed in an ethnic conflict and divide that would displace over a million people and kill 200,000, and finally, took office in 1997 when an overwhelming majority voted him in. Why? He ran a campaign of threats and intimidation, telling the terrorized and exhausted Liberians that war would continue if he wasn’t elected. Liberia still hasn’t recovered; 80% of citizens are living on less than a dollar a day, and 85% are unemployed.

As part of his brutal decade-long campaign for Presidency, Taylor turned his attention to neighboring Sierra Loene. At the time, Sierra Leone was home to a peacekeeping group, ECOMOG. They had some success in keeping Taylor from gaining control, so Taylor did his part to destroy all stability and peace in the entire country in order to weaken the group. He accomplished this by funding the RUF, conveniently controlled by his old friend, Fadoy Sankoh. With Taylor’s help, the RUF committed mass-murder, raped civilians, engaged in brutal limb mutilation practices, and forced the conscription of child soldiers (whose initiation often included killing their parents, getting “RUF” etched deeply into their skin, and having cocaine rubbed into their open wounds).

After gaining control of Liberia, Taylor continued to add to his rap sheet of atrocities, but his past started to catch up with him. In 2003, the Special Court of Sierra Leone indicted Taylor for war crimes, and the UN justice tribunal soon issued a warrant for his arrest. He was also losing power in Liberia, as various rebel groups gained control of over nearly two-thirds of the country. Things did not look good for Charles. Nigerian President Obsanjo came to his rescue, offering him exile as long as he no longer interfered in politics. He took the offer, and has been in Nigeria until his recent attempted escape and capture. Johnson-Sirleaf had been under pressure from much of the world to finally try and punish Taylor.

The trial should begin shortly, and we will see how the world sees fit to punish one of the most monstrous men to walk its face in recent history.

Originally published by InternationalistMag.com on April 7,2006

May 1st has historically been known as International Workers Day, and as such has born witness to numerous strikes, rallies, and protests through the years (including the tragically violent Haymarket Riot of 1886). Now, May 1st can add another historic marker to its list: May Day 2006, A Day without an Immigrant.

Internationally observed as The Great American Boycott, many undocumented workers wanted to show the US what “A Day without an Immigrant” would really be like. Organizers asked immigrants to go on a one day strike and to refrain from buying anything, intending to highlight the important economic and social role immigrants play in the US.

What would the US really be like without immigrants?

Well, of course, it wouldn’t really exist. America is a nation of immigrants (disclosure: author is a second generation immigrant.) The US has long prided itself on the “tired and poor” who survived the long trip to the New World and built a great nation, having only ambition in common. Many of the masses who came through Ellis Island had no documentation. The US was built on the backs of these “illegal” immigrants, and groups from all over the world have created the industry, economy and culture that is America. Along the way, laws have been created to manage and monitor the flow of people in and out of the country. Since the 1700’s, naturalization laws have allowed residents to gain citizenship after a period of time, and the Fourteenth Amendment in 1865 gave citizenship to all children born in the US. Quotas and controls have been established and torn down throughout US history, with changes being made as various groups become more or less desirable, and now America is calling for change, bringing longstanding immigration policies into question.

On May Day, we saw hundreds of thousands of immigrants take to the streets to represent the millions of undocumented workers, mostly Latino, living in the US. Just what is the impact of this newest wave of hopeful Americans?

While it’s hard to get numbers on a group that is living beyond paperwork, here are a few facts:
• An estimated 90% of California crop pickers are undocumented.
• Undocumented workers contribute about $7 billion every year to Social Security and get no SS benefits in return.
• The American Farm Bureau predicts a loss of up to 9 billion dollars in agricultural production without undocumented workers.
• These workers pay rent, buy food, and thus pay significant housing and sales tax.
• American taxpayers are paying up to $11.2 billion every year for the schooling and medical treatment of undocumented workers.

While this group has a clear impact and is here to stay, the lack of regulation is punishing both American workers and legal immigrants, not to mention the illegals, whose status forces them into the underbelly of a wealthy society. This deeply political issue is being debated in the Senate, and hopefully a fair solution is not too far in the future.

Originally published at InternationalistMag.com on May 4, 2006