Saturday, September 16, 2006

Global Day for Darfur

I'm veering a bit off of the subject of climate here... As you've probably heard, the Sudanese government has placed a deadline of September 30th for the withdrawl of the African Union peacekeepers from the Darfur region. This Sunday, rallies are being held in cities around the world to call for UN intervention. People attending the rallies are being asked to wear a blue hat to symbolize the need for UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

I’ll be going to the rally in New York (from 2-5 pm, in the East Meadow of Central Park). For information about the plans in your area, check the Global Day for Darfur site. Retired Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, head of the UN mission in Rwanda, will be keynote speaker at the Toronto rally.

Not that the climate has been irrelevant here. Many experts feel the ongoing drought in central Africa may have played a role in the Darfur crisis, just as the 1990s drought in Afghanistan may have played a role in the rise of the Taliban. In the case of the Sudan, changes in rainfall brought the nomadic peoples into conflict with settled pastoralists. If you are interested in the subject, I recommend this article in the magazine Seed.


tim said...

I like a comment about experts feelings.

This expert feeling that normal weather led to fall of Soviet Union.

1990s drought in Afghanistan credite to rize of Taliban, never mind 15 years of islamic indoctrination of whole generation and US leaving that area to itself.

See in my view it is US Democratic party that is responcible for Rwanda, Darfur, and Afghanistan. They run when things got hard and americans died. For this American Democratic party with Kerry as figurehead responcible for 2 millions dead from Khmer Rooge in Cambodia.

Personally I was against war in Iraq before it started. Now US has to finish its job there or face bad consiquences.

Simon Donner said...

Played a role, that's all I or anyone else is saying. Extreme droughts have helped plant the seed for the crisis in the Sudan, and possibly the rise of the Talbin. The climate was by no means the sole cause, or the primary cause, in either case... and it does not make the actions or inactions of the Sudanese gov't, the Taliban, the international community, etc. any more defensible.