Thanks everyone for the support. This was never intended to be political or religious, but more an educational opportunity and a wake up call. What is happening over there is the African Holocaust.

We are so busy with our own lives and Africa seems like another world. It IS another world, as the crow flies, but at the end we are all in this together on this Earth. We failed to listen and to do something even when Rwanda was all over the nightly news. Surely we can do something now. We can write our representatives, write to your newspaper editors, spread the word to others in your neighborhood. Donations are used to expand capacity at hospitals and clinics or purchase food and medicine. I already suggested trying to raise money to purchase an aircraft, but was told the money can be spent better on something else. If I had been told otherwise, I am sure I would be right back here asking for volunteer pilots!

 

Vagabond, have you been there?

What is going on is not a holocaust, but the natural order of things. The strong dominate the weak, just as it was centuries ago before civilization allowed man to provide order and justice. When there is no order or order breaks down, the result gets ugly. Until these people learn to rule themselves and strive for a civilized way of life, nothing will change.

Many people try to blame the former colonial powers, but they have been gone for fifty years or more. War is going to be a fact there for a long time to come and no matter how correct we think our political thought is, they are going to have to hash it out on their own.

 

No, I have never been there, but I do not need to go there to feel compassion for another human being, or outrage at the perpetrators. War, regardless of provenance, has a way of disproportionately affecting the innocent. What is happening to the women and children there cannot be considered the natural order of things. It is, in fact, a perversion and an atrocity.

The war will rage on whether you or I do anything at all. However, if I can do something to intervene, I am going to do it. If I wait for them to hash it out, there might not be anybody left. Every death diminishes us.

My post is to let people know what is going on, nothing more.

 

Best of luck.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war."

The "perpetrators". You know what has killed more people than illness or famine? Government of the wrong type. Stalin and Mao made Hitler look like an amateur. The intervention will kill just as surely as the current war, except it will cost more. No sane person likes to see the innocent suffer, but prolonging that suffering under the pretext of aid has ended up causing more death and strengthening those already in power. Sometimes you have to pick up a rifle before you can plow or build.

 

"The impact is going to be the same as what's been happening in Iraq"

OMAR HASSAN AL-BASHIR, President of Suddan, explaining why his government will not allow a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur.

 

Jungle, thank you for your posts. If I can get only one person to stop and think about it some more, I feel a tremendous sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. For now, let us just agree to disagree.

"Tinimbang ka, ngunit kulang." This is my greatest fear and what motivates me.

Foi et bonne chance, mon ami.