Peace loving American activist Jay McGinley calls for 20,000-30,000 peacekeepers in Darfur

American activist Jay McGinley has published a blog entry calling for 20,000 - 30,000 peacekeepers (preferably African Union and non-Western UN) to be on the ground in Darfur, beginning October 1. Jay concludes by saying:

"I am open to any appropriate way to go to nonviolent war as long as it equates to fighting to win and doing the very best that we can do."

Note, in the blog entry, Jay quotes the late great Mahatma Gandhi. Wish I could find a piece I'd read about Gandhi's thoughts on Africa: he'd said something like "there can only be African solutions to African problems".

The current AU Mission in Darfur costs $1 billion per year. A donors conference is due to take place soon in Belgium to raise more funds for AU peacekeeepers in Darfur.

Surely peace is in the hands of the Sudanese people and rebels. I'd like to see the Sudanese people who left their country to receive an education in the West, return home to share knowledge, skills and expertise and pull together to get drinking water flowing across the Sudan. Water is key to Sudan's future and survival.



"My life is my message" - M.K.Gandhi

Sep 30 2004 M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence - First Annual Gandhian Nonviolence Conference October 8-9, 2004

"Open Letters to the President of Sudan"

Here's an excerpt from a blog entry I wrote here at Sudan Watch 22 April 2005:

... A few days ago, I was on the verge of giving up blogging about Darfur. Posting nearly every day for one year seemed pointless and too disheartening. So many rubbish news reports and propaganda around. Politicians and bloggers don't have much to say. It was sickening seeing Darfur news reports churned out again like a repeat from last year ... shortage of food ... short of funds ... rainy season coming ... janjaweed still attacking. Out of frustration, I experimented with starting up a blog to post "Open Letters to the President of Sudan" in a lateral thinking effort to gain some understanding of what is really going on and why peace is taking so long. I even toyed with the idea of sending President Bashir a copy of Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography "The Story of My Experiments With Truth" via Amazon.com. But within 24 hours, I deleted the whole thing after realising what a complete waste of time and energy it would be trying to make contact with someone who doesn't even care to understand his own people, nevermind us. ...



Found on the Internet - source unknown

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community."

Over and over, he stressed separating the doer from the deed. He believed this was a crucial element to nonviolent struggle not only because of the moral obligation to love our enemies, but because he knew that part of the "truth-force" that Gandhi taught was to understand that men are neither gods nor devils to be falsely exalted by either praise or scorn. A beloved community relies upon honesty and equality, which are both endangered when anyone is given the powerful and illusive label of "bad guy."