I’ve been away so long!

Work is busier than ever, end of year, wrapping up some projects that are closing AND my boss had a baby boy on Thursday. It is a happy event, but then again what the both of us usually did now falls on me. Fun, right?

School: classes are OVER… I have a couple of papers due next week, then it’s done. I still have to write my thesis in January, but no more campus…not that I have anything against AU, but hey! Juggling between work and classes especially around exam time was excrutiatingly tiring. After this thursday exams and classes will be done, so I’m psyched!

What’s next? I dunno. What is sure is I’m tired of DC. So Dakar or Geneva… probably!

Other than that, I haven’t really followed on anything happening…haven’t had time… but I look forward to some free time and some me time.

I’m watching Christiane Amanpour’s “SCREAM BLOODY MURDER” on CNN. Though I’m not a big fan of Amanpour, given her not so unbiased reporting on “religion and faith”, I have to admit she delivered on this one. Basically, the documentary is about the gross human rights violations, genocides and civil wars that have gone unreported by the International community: in Cambodia, Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sudan. She reports on the people who stood for something at times it could cost one’s life, those who fought for what was right and took it to heart to alarm the international media and intl community. It’s like the world will never learn. One instance can be an accident but this many can only be a lack of interests. This december marks the 60th anniversary of the Genocide convention.

A French priest in Cambodia. An idealistic U.S. Senate staffer in Iraq. A Canadian general in Rwanda. Each one tried to focus the world’s attention on genocide. Each time, they were shunned, ignored or told it was someone else’s problem.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour traveled to the killing fields of Europe, Africa and Asia for "Scream Bloody Murder."

She interviewed Kagame and I have to say I’m such a big fan of his. I understand there are some mixed feelings about him, but I consider him a hero. Are his hands blood free? NO. But in the end, he was the only one to care enough to rescue his people. Like Kagame, I can only see the international community’s lack of will to intervene as a lack of desire, not having hands tied up as they so often pretend. This is why I regret the lack of pressure on China, especially during the Olympics.

What an Obama Administration will do for Africa and torn places in terms of Foreign policy?

Eventhough Obama’s victory was cause for celebration in Kenya and throughout Africa, Obama himself will not do anything for Africa, at least not more than any other president. Not that he doesn’t care, but let’s just say the man has a lot on his plate. He will and has to focus on domestic affairs. Now his administration can. He nominated Dr. Susan Rice as UN Ambassador. Nothing could be more of a good news for people like me who’ve been waiting for an intervention. Rice is a role model (at least for me). She was a fellow at the Brookings Institute, was under secretary for African affairs under Clinton. She was also Obama’s foreign Policy advisor during his campaign and this woman is a tough cookie. Intervention and stopping the genocide in Darfur was a mainstay of Obama’s campaign speeches.  And when he nominated Susan Rice to be the UN ambassador, she ticked off a list of priorities and challenges, including ending genocide. Also, a Clinton as secretary of state won’t hurt either. Hopefully, she doesn’t act like her husband when it comes to us and actually does something when she can.

 S. Rice’s stance: intervention, intervention and that’s what we want to hear.

 

 

Amanpour interviewed Michael Barnett: Eyewitness to a Genocide, which I read while in Geneva. Bartnett was a fellow at the UN at the time of the genocide. Read it if you get a chance.

 

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Peace out … and Happy Eid Al Adha to everyone!