"Genocide-ravaged region of Darfur in Africa"
Because I am procrastinating, or whatever, (I wouldn't quite call it pleasure reading) I was randomly cruising the internet, and found an article on some crap entertainment site regarding everyone's favourite recent Sudan activist, George Clooney.George Clooney Shows No Signs of Slowing Down
"Clooney has taken on a new role recently: activist. George and his father, Nick, recently went to the genocide-ravaged region of Darfur in Africa."
What struck me about this article, was the sense of nonchalance of how the reporter refers to genocide. Obviously, it's an entertainment article, and obviously it's not the focus of the piece.
But it seems like nothing more than a gimmick, the way one would write of a hobby or their pleasure from golfing. Clooney went to "the genocide-ravaged region" almost as if he's going on a safari.
We live in a world becoming increasingly desensitised to the extreme violence and consistent abuses of human rights. Abuses not solely in Sudan, but around the world. Sixty years after the world said "never again" post-Holocaust, people read, with ease, article referring to genocide-ravaged regions as if they're drinking a cup of coffee.
Is this the extent? Is this the result?
Mass genocide, receiving a passing mention in an entertainment rag?
Why doesn't the world care more about the fact that women are being mass raped. The fact young children are having their limbs chopped off with machetes. The fact that women are watching their husbands and sons killed in front of them. On a mass scale.
'Human rights' is not a vacation.
“If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear then they will – all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us.” -George Clooney, at the Save Darfur rally in Washington.
Well, George Clooney is off somewhere, maybe Hollywood, doing something (rumours of Oceans 13.) So, it is up to us to continue to work for justice in all areas of the world.
You don't need another hobby. Be an everyday activist.
posted by Carla @ 6:51 AM
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