Today President Bush passed a bill allowing local and state governments to cut ties with Sudan. This was done in response to the genocide that is currently occuring in Darfur.
The legislation allows state, county, and municipal officials to seek ways to take out the money that they invested in companies that bring the Sudan government a lot of profit. These companies control oil, power production, mining, and military equipment.
I am so happy that Bush has finally started to do something about this issue. Like we have done in so many conflicts in the past (Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, etc.), we cannot just pretend that nothing is going on and do nothing.
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Good post Emma. I agree that this is a positive step forward. But I think the US government should do more diplomatically and legislatively to end the genocide. Also, why aren't there more countries around the world rushing to help those in Darfur?
From what I can tell (and I haven't done any real research on the subject), Darfur is a horrible genocide. With that logic, it seems like every country would be trying to do something about it. Is there something that is stopping these countries from doing anything? Something politically or economically? I can't understand how no one does anything about something this awful.
Like Emma pointed out the United States has helped out in several conflicts such as the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust, however, in the past it has take America a quite some time before the government is willing to interfere with other country's problems. Perhaps it is like the Holocaust; one of our excuses was that we were distracted by the ongoing world war. With the Darfur, we have the Iraq war which began at about the same time the ethnic wars began.
I suppose most countries don't have the economic means to intervene in this conflict, and with the wealthier countries continents away, Darfur can seem like a tiny island of violence in the middle of Africa. The good thing is that awareness is growing, with the help of celebrities such as George Clooney, and now Bush.
In these situations, nations have so much to think about before going in and helping in conflicts. They often think that they don't have the means to help alleviate the conflict, if they help one conflict like this then they must help other similar conflicts (they don't want to just pick and choose which problems to involve themselves in and which not to), etc. However, I think that if the US, a superpower, helps in Darfur, other nations will follow. We have such a huge influence on other smaller nations and we must use this influence to bring about change.
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