Thousands of people being killed, and for what? Useless desert and some oil, political control over a garbage country. These people are suffering horribly by the hundreds of thousands. We must pay attention to them.
But... face it: "protesting" against the "genocide in Darfur" has become fashionable, all the cool kids are doing it. What makes the suffering in Darfur any more special than the suffering of EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD? This is not an isolated incident. What does it take, sheer numbers to get people to pay attention? And really, it's not paying attention, it's hopping on the fucking bandwagon. If the majority of the people "involved" reallyknew what the fuck was going on, they wouldn't have just started to pay attention to .00001% of the real fucking world, nevermind the 99.9999% of the world that is completely ignored. What, do we think that just because so many people are saying "Oh jeez, that's so terrible, we need to do this and this and this and this" means that "this and this" are viable solutions, just because they seemingly solve one problem? Let's start at the top:
The main goal of people is to write Congress, Governors, etc., to increase pressure to solve the problem and stop the deaths. Seems reasonable, right? Yeah.... right up until you look and see that the US has been outstandingly the most providing country, allocating more than $1 billion to relief. Relief for some symptoms.
From what I've seen, and I beg those who REALLY care to correct me, is that's where it stops, the bandaid. No real solutions. Because no one REALLY cares. It's easy to write a letter saying "Oh this is bad, fix it" and give some money. It's even marginally easy to hold rallies and raise awareness. But in brutal reality, results matter, and telling people bad things are happening doesn't make those bad things go away. Which is actually what some of the less retarded and more devoted people use as an argument for stronger action, and I applaud that. However, some things are still being blatantly ignored.
Like the fact that the UN, the pillar of modern society, has consistently procrastinated, along with all the other "Unions." That all across the world there are people suffering just as badly, and have been for longer periods of time. That right now, there are people that want to get rid of the western infidels, and that right now, we're a bit entangled in trying to solve that issue.
More to the brutal point is that fact that Sudan has no value to the United States as a country and a government. It's a useless sandpit with some oil in the south. And why is all this shit happening there anyway? Because of hateful people? And if we just go in there, it'll stop all the hating? What are the real underlying causes is the real question, and how these causes can be addressed is the real answer. Darfur is hemorrhaging gash right around the aorta of the damn country, and we're stuffing it with gauze! What the fuck does that do? And here we are, the brilliant Americans, stuffing in more fucking gauze with our awareness groups and fundraising. Where are the god damn surgeons?
Now chill out, I do not want the gauze stuffing to stop. In fact I strongly urge everyone to keep going; the more gauze, the slower the bleeding. But I want to emphasize the fact that the god damn battle doesn't just stop there. People walk for an afternoon, people sign checks, people write on message boards, all in support of Darfur, ignoring pretty much everything else and neglecting to take in the big picture. We have to KEEP PUSHING. Don't focus on one fucking part of the world, focus on the whole thing! Don't fight suffering in one place, fight it EVERYWHERE. Think of the people on this planet, not just in Sudan, but in Haiti, and North Korea, and Iraq, and the Eastern Block, and in our own damn country, who do not have our easy lives. Look at the big picture, and think: how best can these be solved? Macromanagement or micromanagement, and how well-suited am I at each? Am I suited at all? Don't join the fucking bandwagon, become aware of EVERYTHING, and choose YOUR OWN battle. The widespread suffering of a region is no worse than the suffering of the starving or diseased in any other part of the world, so why point the spotlight on just the one region that everyone else is?
This close-mindedness is not good focus or making a difference, it is escapism. We are escaping from our responsibilities by saying "Oh I pay attention to Darfur, so my quota is met." But when everyone else is paying attention too, it makes it fucking easy.
And nevermind the fact that while we're throwing our money into Darfur, education is in the shitter in this country, and social security is too. Everyone has fucking lost their minds in the government, with pork and civil suits and Iraq and campaign bullshit, and we're taking the easy way out of our responsibilities. Disaster is everywhere, and has been for a long fucking time, and people are pouring money into a HUGE problem that not only would take a bazillion dollars to solve RIGHT NOW like everyone wants. But hey...
Congratulations, you care. You can now ignore the world.
