Friday afternoon in hot and humid DC. Got to keep it light.
Here is a link to a novel take on the Darfur crisis by Mark Fiore - appearing on Mother Jones website.
A great op-ed.... but my biggest grip with this and many other commentators is the labelling of Darfur as a genocide. It does not now classify as a genocide, and it may never have.
The UN set up a panel of experts to provide an authoritative voice to the debate over whether Darfur amounted to a genocide - they concluded it did not. That was back a few years ago when the conflict had not morphed into what it is today --- a complicated overlapping set of mini-conflicts between militias, rebels, tribal groups and the government. A high placed UN official involved in Darfur mediation told me personally that it is not genocide, and it actually is unhelpful to label it as such. He told me that more people are dying from inter-tribal clashes nowadays than they are from Janjaweed attacks.
I don't like genocide being used as simply an advocacy tool. it is a sacred word that deserves our respect - the way we can show that respect is by being careful when we employ it.
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