I am in the midst of organizing a screening for the documentary Before the Music Dies at the University of Ottawa. You can check more about the documentary here.
I’ll issue out a date as soon as I’ve paid for the room, come this Monday the eleventh. There’ll be a $2/3 cover, to take care of the costs of renting the room, printing promo posters, shipping the DVD. All net proceeds will go to Ottawa’s non-profit radio station, CHUO.
Expect the screening early/mid January.
A professor of mine was talking about his days as a diplomat, and a trip he took to Kosovo following the mass exodus of people. He described a sea of plastic bags strewn to the sides of the roads. He explained that when the Albanians fled, they brought food in those bags. When they used up all they could, they simply left those bags behind.
Needless to say, that was powerful imagery. The professor then went on and shared some horrific accounts. That was Kosovo’s ethnic cleansing. But before that, there was Rwanda’s genocide. How many times have we heard politicians exclaim in a furor “never again”? Never, they say, shall we allow another genocide.
And yet that’s exactly what they’re doing in Darfur. They’re letting thousands of people die. Let’s look at some statistics briefly: since 2003, there have been over 300,000 killings in Darfur. Over 2 million others have become refugees. The stories are both horrific and yet so plentiful: refugee camps entirely devoid of adult men, women being raped on a regular basis as they exit these camps to obtain water.
Yet where are the politicians? They have forgotten. Because we, have forgotten. We have forgotten because we do not care. Africa does not resonate for us. Oh sure, there’s been action. Or at least promises of action. But when it comes down to it – we’re already past the point of no return. The UN has announced today that it is to support he AU some time in the future in its peace keeping efforts. The AU, which is by the way, severely short of equipment.
Canada has donated some equipment, but to be honest, its contributions were rather pathetic. I believed they consisted of a few outdated vehicles. And yes, Canada has attempted to push through resolutions with the UN. However, these are all insignificant steps. It’s the kind of step one does to say they’ve done it, when it reality it amounts to no tangibles.
These donations help. UN action helps. However, we could be doing so much more. Yes, it would cost more money. But who said stopping genocides was free? In any case, it all comes down to my innate cynicism of the system. There’s no action because no one, frankly, cares. If it was happening to Jews.. meh… maybe then we’d think about it. But Africans? What are their lives worth.
Something just came up; so I won’t make it to 2600. I won’t put up the posters as a consequence.
I never saw that one coming.
The diplomatic relationship between Canada and China are at the moment rather in poor shape. Stephen Harper, in a speech made last week, criticized the extent to which businesses and governments were able to dispose of their ethics for the sake of “the almighty dollar.” The current conservative government maintains that an increased emphasis on human rights violations is of the essence. This is contrary to the stance of the Liberals, who maintain that advancing China’s economy will invariably lead to a quasi-trickling-down effect, inducing greater freedom for its people.
In this week’s Maclean’s, a story was featured that was heavily critical of that Liberal perspective. The author interviewed a professor of politics that stated that that seemed a very likely evolution in the 80s. However, the professor went on to say, that that has turned out not to be the reality. Whatever the case may be, it is accurate to report that China has managed to create a robust economic platform, while sustaining the controlling nature of its regime.
However, the oppressiveness that’s associated with that control is seemingly overlooked by the media. Perhaps this is because China is so untypical of other oppressive regimes. For one, the Chinese are in large part not on the brink of any social disaster – be it famine, disease, or whatnot. For another, China embraces new technology, albeit manipulates it to its ends. The Westerners see those technological advancements, and thus assume a satisfied population. The truth is that only a small fraction of the Chinese are actually enjoying the benefits of new technologies, and of those that do have access – the technologies tend to only reinforce the government’s control. The Internet is heavily censored, and citizens are unable to view pro-democratic websites. Blogs have facilitated locating and jailing/killing political dissidents, thanks in large part to the cooperation afforded to the Chinese by the American blogging companies. Televisions/Radios only broadcast what the government wants its people to hear.
China is indisputably in the hands of an oppressive regime. Perhaps not so for Western capitalists, but that’s certainly the case for its general populace. This leads to a duality of treatment, and the video below displays just how these two opposing dynamics interact in such an environment.
Underground Video taken in China
You’ll see me talking alot about China. This is mostly because I am of the belief that it is inexcusable to promote governments that kills *peaceful* pro-rights protesters, single-handedly prevents UN action in Darfur, and carries out its own acts of cultural genocide. If China weren’t the economic goldmine it is today, Western nations would have a foreign policy that’s 180° of what they are now.
Naturally, bettering economies is an integral component of all government policy. However, one has to wonder as to the ultimate legacy that that will leave unto the world. If governments don’t coerce change, who will?
NGOs certainly don’t have any wielding power with self-sufficient China, and corporations are already going so far as to have Chinese citizens executed for more money. The Chinese government has found economic grandeur without the need to prop up rights further, and its citizens are powerless to express their discontent on a grand scale. It is up to the foreign governments then to stand up. If they won’t, no one will.
I’m not so naive as to believe that Canada’s actions could single-handedly instill change with concepts deeply entrenched in the Chinese political monoculture. However, the ball needs to get rolling somewhere, and inaction certainly won’t accumulate the momentum necessary to create tangible pressure for change.
Nor am I gullible enough to believe that the Western nations haven’t spent incredible resources into improving the conditions in China over the last decades. However, I am naive enough to believe that the current policies need a drastic change in direction.
China, one of the 5 members on the UN security council, has vetoed UN deployment in Darfur to stop the genocide. Their reason is quite simple: they want cheap Sudanese oil. We, the Westerners, consider this appaling. And yet, we hypocritically allow China to commit its own atrocities, because it satisfies our own economic gain. Tell me: how are we better?