Jane Keats

Many of us feel that the world is getting smaller and more open. We can connect to fellow earthlings from countries, indeed continents, that we’ve never been to! We can converse with old and young, male and female, rich and poor…

While others get further and further away.

Consider the Chinese families whose homes were knocked down by bulldozers to make room for the Olympic Games, the Games of peace.

And what about Australia’s own denial of our aboriginal history? A story only now beginning to be recognised in it’s entirety and attempts being made at reconciliation.

Most atrocities are found out, opened up and publicised, eventually at least. The perpetrators are consequently stopped either by their own people (in the case of a “free” country) or by International forces.

So, how is it that in a world as open and connected as ours has become… How is it that there is a whole country that has become so disconnected because of an oppressive regime and our blind eye?

As you flick through the possibilities of which country I’m referring to, remember:-
The Western world jumped into an Iraq war to overthrow Sadam Hussain. Was it done for the right reasons? Probably not. Was it the wrong thing to do? I don’t know that it was. The fact is, hundreds of thousands of families were suffering profoundly under his regime. Although many still suffer after the messy intervention from armies belonging to countries that just didn’t understand the Middle Eastern way of life. (Not such a small world yet, after all).

But to return to the country of my concern, haven’t we all forgotten Sudan these days? The military regime fighting for absolute power of Sudan has been responsible for more than two million deaths over the last twenty years. In the last five years alone, more than two million people have been displaced from their property by way of looting, rape, torture and burning homes because they are not Arab Islamic.

Please understand, this is not a reason to go about degrading or marginalising Muslim or Arab people. The Muslim religion is no better or worse than any other in my opinion. People have committed atrocities in the name of almost every religion known to man!

But herein lies the problem, the world won’t get involved in Sudan because of the stupid way that people reacted to Iraq. And so, the Southern Sudanese go on running from death and torture at the hands of the tyrants who call themselves their leaders!

Please use the connections in your world, our world, to publicise Sudan. Open it up again. Point your finger!

Something must be done, I don’t know what, but it won’t be done if we continue to sweep it under the carpet.