Stopwatch Ticking For Darfur
By David Morse
10 March, 2006
Countercurrents.orgJoey Cheek broke more than one record in the Winter Olympic Games at Turin, Italy. The first can be measured by a stopwatch. The 26-year-old speedskater from Greensboro, N.C. shattered the world's record, when he streaked through the men's 500-meter race in 34 seconds.But when he stood up to receive his gold medal, Cheek accomplished something just as extraordinary. He broke the silence surrounding the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. That second victory was not measurable by any stopwatch, but by simple decency.
Cheek seized the opportunity at the podium to announce he would donate his $25,000 bonus from the U.S. Olympic Committee to a nonprofit group called Right to Play, which helps refugee children, mostly in Africa. In particular he cited the suffering of the children of Darfur.
This is a Wheaties champion worth cheering - off the ice, as well as on. Cheek embodies some of the best and most legendary traits of the American character - our competitiveness and our generosity. In breaking the barrier of silence that surrounds the horror taking place in Darfur, he was reminding us of our best selves. The silence he broke surely represents us at our worst. As many as 400,000 black Africans may have been killed in Darfur by Sudan's Islamist government, based in Khartoum, or by its brutal proxy militias. Some 2.5 million Darfurians now live at risk, driven from their homes and wholly dependent on outside aid. The situation has deteriorated sharply in the past three months, as militia attacks extend into Chad and threaten relief convoys. Yet Darfur receives a tiny fraction of the attention devoted by the media to the rich and famous.
The U.S. government has been slow to respond. Congress, after acknowledging the genocide, dawdled for a year before passing the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, which provides modest funding and a broader mandate for the under-funded, under-equipped, and under-sized African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur.
The White House has broken its silence only occasionally, to send painfully mixed signals - on the one hand acknowledging the genocide, but on the other hand declaring that the U.S. has no strategic interests at stake in that part of Africa. The Bush administration infuriated human rights advocates last spring by making friendly overtures toward Khartoum under the rubric of sharing intelligence on terrorism. The C.I.A. went so far as to send one of its own Lear jets to Khartoum to ferry Sudan intelligence head, Salah Abdala Gosh, to Washington D.C. for high-level talks. Gosh's was among the 17 names recently leaked from a UN panel of experts asked to identify those who might be charged as war criminals.
So it was a stunning departure from his previous course when President Bush declared on February 17 that international peacekeeping forces in Darfur should be doubled, and that NATO should assist. Can it be any accident that Bush's declaration came shortly after Joey Cheek's announcement hit the news on Monday, February 13?
Other things were happening, it's true. Later on that same Monday, Bush had met with Kofi Annan, who urged an increase in troops in light of the failure of the African Union presence to stem the new tide of violence in Darfur. But it was Cheek's mention of Darfur that had made the subject suddenly newsworthy. Actions under consideration for weeks or months in state legislatures and college campuses suddenly took on new life. In particular, the groundswell divestment movement - designed to hit Khartoum in its pocketbook - took a leap forward.Two days after Cheek's announcement made headlines, Yale University declared it would rid its investment portfolio of firms doing business in Sudan, in response to pressure from students and labor unions on campus. Much of this was thanks to STAND (Students Taking Action Now for Darfur), which has been organizing on campuses around the nation.
Three days after the Cheek announcement, television anchor Jim Lehrer hosted Senators Sam Brownback and Barak Obama, a conservative Republican and a progressive Democrat respectively, on his News Hour. Both men spoke eloquently about the urgency of stopping the genocide.
Nine days after, Connecticut state Treasurer Denise Nappier proposed a bill that would thrust her state into the front ranks of states divesting from companies doing business with Sudan. "Connecticut must stand up and be counted," Nappier declared at a press conference.
Eleven days after, Brown University president Ruth Simmons announced that her board had voted to divest from Sudan.People make a difference. The lesson from Joey Cheek? Sure, fame helps. But also, what you say to your friends, co-workers, and fellow students can make a difference. Cheek, after all, had gotten his idea two days before the race, from retired skater Johann Olav Koss - who, after winning five medals, had gone on to work with refugee children.
Cheek knew that he wanted to do something special, "Make it meaningful,'' as he told reporters, "think of someone else.'' It was Koss who pioneered the way.What we say and do can make a difference.Like Joey Cheek, the whole country has a golden opportunity to stand up and be counted. We can't all be gold medal winners, but what we do can what's right.
For the people of Darfur, the stopwatch is ticking.
David Morse has written widely about Darfur, and has recently returned from Sudan. He can be contacted at his web-site,: www.david-morse.com. This article appeared, with some changes, in The New Haven Register.
