Sunday Food for Thought: Darfur

"My son was clinging to my dress. An Arab looking man, in a uniform with military insignia, stopped his car next to me. He grabbed my son from me and threw him into a fire."
- Kalima, resident of the village of Kidinyir, Darfur

It's been 5 years. And what has the world done?

"Since the genocide began five years ago, more than 1 million children have been tortured, raped, wounded, displaced, and/or traumatized," stated a press release from STAND Canada (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), which organized the Toronto rally.

"UNICEF reported in their Child Alert Report that 'The children of Darfur have little prospect of a decent, independent future for themselves ... (as the majority of them) live beyond the reach of current international relief efforts, leaving them exposed to malnutrition, illness, violence and fear.'"

More than 200,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced in the ongoing conflict between the Arab-dominated government and African rebels.

Related:

Human Rights Watch - Darfur: Childhood at Risk After Five Years of War
Globe for Darfur
Save Darfur
Amnesty International
UNICEF - As violence continues in Darfur, children go missing and families are torn apart
A 14 year old's blog against the genocide (Warning: some may find the pictures disturbing but that girl deserves to be praised for exposing the situation exactly as it is.)
 

Fisk: The Globe and Mail Stole an Article From The Independent

Busted.

In his latest article for The Independent, Robert Fisk recounts the story of G&M columnist Jan Wong and the stir she caused following the Dawson College shootings and then reveals this:

Now I happen to know a bit about the Globe's "quality control process". Some time ago, I discovered that the paper had reprinted an article of mine from The Independent about the Armenian genocide. But they had tampered with it, altering my word "genocide" to read "tragedy".

The Independent's subscribers promise to make no changes to our reports. But when our syndication folk contacted the Globe, they discovered that the Canadian paper had simply stolen the article. They were made to pay a penalty fee. But as for the censorship of the word "genocide", a female executive explained to The Independent that nothing could be done because the editor responsible had "since left the Globe and Mail".

Fisk concludes with:

It's the same old story, isn't it? Censor then whinge, then cut and run. No wonder the bloggers are winning.

Well, most bloggers anyway - those who don't need to pander to a party, group, organization, corporation or whoever's paying their bills.

Interesting that Canada's supposedly "left-wing" newspaper, the G&M, should willfully edit one of Fisk's articles (that they stole) to censor the word "genocide". Who or what are they afraid of? I suppose the truth is just too much for our mainstream media to handle.

Related: April, 2004 - Canadian Parliament recognizes Armenian genocide

Update: I see that Fisk also addressed the theft of his article during a talk he gave with Noam Chomsky in May, 2006. Oh well. It's news to me.