Thursday, August 11, 2005

Non-reading post

Regardless of whether you consider the horrors in Darfur to constitute genocide, there is clearly no excuse for them, and the U.S. truly ought to be doing more to protect the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africans. If interested, you can sign Africa Action's petition to President Bush here.

Also, the situation in Niger looks really bad. Read LA Times coverage of it here and here. To (misguidedly, I'm sure) connect it to reading, this situation is precisely what Cause Celeb's Rosie is trying to prevent. I mention this in part to again argue how deft Helen Fielding can be at mixing the very serious and the absurd. But more to the point to point out how often famine in Africa has periodically caught the attention of the West, and yet how we ignore the moves that could prevent it in the first place.

In Darfur and in Niger... we say "never again" far too often. It would be nice if we really meant it.

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