Bravo, Steven Spielberg, For Acting on Darfur



Genocide. Once again, Modern Man finds Himself Frozen -- an Eternal Recurrence? Repetition-Compulsion? -- at the prospect of Political Action in the face of Genocide. Is there no one among our political leaders courageous enough to stand athwart the savage Janjaweed, financed by the Sudanese Government, in Darfur? How many milennia have human beings been creating "civilization," but in the case of the mega-evil of genocide, we remain firmly affixed in place. A NATO force of 2500 could easily install a no-fly zone, neutralizing the aerial advantage of the janjaweed (The Sudanese government supplies helecopters). Says Dr. Nile Gardiner of the conservative Heritage Foundation:

"...President Bush and Prime Minister Blair should call for an immediate meeting of key NATO allies in Washington or London to discuss the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Up to 400,000 people have been killed by Sudanese-backed Janjaweed militias in barbaric acts of ethnic cleansing. The United States and the United Kingdom should support the establishment of a NATO-enforced no-fly zone over Darfur, based on a coalition-of-the-willing strategy, in support of African Union peacekeepers. The West cannot rely upon an ineffective and morally ambivalent United Nations to take action over the biggest man-made humanitarian tragedy of the 21st century while tens of thousands of refugees face sustained attacks from Islamic militants. The U.N.’s track record in the face of genocide, from the killing fields of Rwanda to the 'safe haven' of Srebrenica, has been one of appalling weakness and callous indifference in the face of human suffering."

But, No. There is not enough internal domestic support (There COULD be if the President is willing to speak from the heart in soaring, Presidential rhetoric). Somalia. All the usual reasons for cowardice that allowed the Rwanda genocide to occur.

As The President, Condi Rice and Colin Powell -- who actually called the Darfur situation "genocide" -- all dither (No one expects Cheney, who opposed Mandela's freedom, to do anything on Africa), it is, amazingly, Steven Spielberg who is leveraging the power he has spent a lifetime achieving. If only the president were more courageous in his Christianity, and Powell were not so concerned with his speaking gigs. From Spielbergfilms.com:

"Steven Spielberg has released the text of a private letter he had sent to the President of China, Hu Jintao, condemning the genocide in Darfur and asking the Chinese government to use its influence in the region to bring an end to the suffering there. Additionally, he is asking for a meeting in Beijing with the Chinese president within the next 30 days.

"The full text of the original April 2nd letter is as follows:

"His Excellency Hu Jintao
President of the People's Republic of China
Zhongnanhai, Xichengqu, Beijing City
People's Republic of China

"April 2, 2007

"Your Excellency,

"I greatly value my association with the 2008 Beijing Olympics, an event meant to unify nations and people as well as to promote respect for universal moral principles. These first Olympic Games to be held in China also promise to be a fitting symbol of the important role that your nation will play in the affairs of the world in this new century.

My contributions as a filmmaker have led me to the Beijing Olympics. As important as film is to me, however, there is another aspect of my life's work that is both more personal and more significant.

"Among my proudest achievements has been the establishment of the USC Shoah Foundation Institute for Visual History and Education. The Institute has recorded the video testimonies of 52,000 survivors of the Holocaust from 56 countries in 32 languages. These remarkable documents have offered the world faces and voices of men and women who survived the genocide which, in Hebrew, we call the Shoah. These first-hand experiences have been preserved and made available for scholarship and education so that the genocide suffered by the Jews under the Nazis can never be forgotten.

"Even more important than the collection of the testimonies themselves is the mission of the Institute: to use those testimonies to overcome intolerance, prejudice, bigotry and the suffering they cause. We are doing that now in many countries around the world, and I hope that China will someday be one of them. I regard the creation of the Shoah Foundation Institute as the most important professional accomplishment of my life. It alerts me, and I hope others as well, to the importance of speaking out on behalf of those who are targeted by governments for murder."

Bravo, Steven Spielberg. The full letter here.