The situation in Darfur continues to get worse and George Clooney spoke to the U.N. Security Council today about the problems and to urge help.
Clooney: So after September 30th, you won’t need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and head stones.
God bless George Clooney and his dedication to this crisis. The right likes to attack "liberal Hollywood" for speaking out on political matters but isn't that their right and responsibility as Americans? As fellow members of the human race? Clooney (and every other person on the face of this earth) has that right and responsibility to do their part in trying to bring an end to preventable mass killing and suffering.
(H/T Mike for the post)
here's some of the transcript
Clooney: It’s not getting better. It’s getting much, much worse, and it is only the international community that can help us. Now, I know there are members of you here that, for what I’m sure are sensible reasons, uhhh, have failed to use leverage at times to keep the — to get the peacekeepers on the ground. Well, we now have a date.
The date is September 30th. The 1st of October we’ll leave these people with nothing. Whatever the reason, it’s not good enough. On October 1, it won’t just be the Janjaweed murdering and raping with impunity or the SLA slaughtering the tribes. With no protection, all the aid workers will leave immediately and the two and a half million refugees who depend on that aid will die. Jan Egeland estimates 100,000 a month. So after September 30th, you won’t need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and head stones.
In many ways it’s unfair, but it is nevertheless true, that this genocide will be on your watch. How you deal with it will be your legacy --our Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz. We were brought up to believe that UN was formed to ensure that the Holocaust could never happen again. We believe in you so strongly. We need you so badly. We've come so far. We are one “yes” away from ending this. And if not the U.N., then who? Time is of the essence!