June 20th is World Refugee Day.
The Olympics, titled by some The Genocide Olympics, finds sponsor Coca Cola conspicuously silent.
Coca Cola’s has been involved, their approach encompasses: immediate relief to those on the ground; investments to address water, one of the conflict’s underlying causes; and efforts to bring local and international stakeholders together to develop long-term solutions. Coca Cola Company Statement.
Yet to be silent, when to speak out is an option, is an unforgivable path for the company who wanted to teach the world to sing — in perfect harmony. Or maybe that makes sense. If we don’t say anything we can pretend it just isn’t happening. You see it’s not real harmony we are after, it is just a sense of harmony, a pretense of harmony.
Sshhh.…if we don’t talk about the over four years of violence, rape and murder, we can go on with this illusion that we are working for a harmonious world. We’re doing all we can .….you don’t really expect us to speak about the issue now do you?
Links for activities for June 20th, events related to world refugee day, as well as links to information on protests being held outside headquarters of Olympic corporate sponsors nationwide are listed at the Darfur blog: Dream For Darfur Protests Planned June 20th — World Refugee Day, where this post had been cross posted as an enhancement.
i know it’s not original, what jk rowling said in her commencement address at harvard, but she said it quite eloquently:
“…What is more, those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.”
i know i don’t want to enable real monsters through my apathy. neither should anyone.
I actually used this quote for another topic in high school, but I’ve never forgotten it:
So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.,
~Eleanor Roosevelt
I don’t drink Coke. Haven’t sipped it in over a year. Only so much High-fructose corn syrup the body needs which is actually zero in my opinion.
Coca Cola offers no nutritional substance simularly to their relief efforts.
I wish I could help them.
If I did own a multi-billion dollar company I suppose I would be happy to spit out financial stability guarding Darfur from such inhuman travesties , but I don’t so I can’t.
In keeping with quotes I leave you with this:
” All men are born with a nose and ten fingers, but no one was born with a knowledge of God. “-Voltaire
BTW, I’m sorry about my rude comments a few weeks ago. I blame it mostly on over dosing my caffeine intake. If you were offended, I am truly sorry.
I’m fairly strong I can take it, so don’t worry.
You’re right no one needs coke, it’s poison.
Ironic, that old song.
“Fools”, said I, “You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you“
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
That was good G.
I drink coke. If the closest we can get to solving the problem in Darfur is to punish the sponsor of olympic games in a country that does business with Sudan, it’s time to pause for better thinking and some refreshment.
As much as I don’t want to I must agree with Doug. The question then becomes what do we do that’s a true solution.
Sadly this country seems to be out of original thinkers and is so mired in filth
This is going to sound strange but i do believe an answer could be giving X amount of people in their 20’s y amount of money– for 18 months or so-modeled on the McCarthur awards to do nothing but thrash out problems as in Darfur, possible solutions, and then have them present these solutions to I’m not sure who – I guess the Bill Gates of the world who have money brains and power. I specifically think people in their 20’s as that’s when idealism and ideas are freshest and maybe in their purest form best. They would of course have to get past Doug who even in his 20’s was old
Better thinking I’m sure is welcome. We have done nothing but start to forget and I think that silence is complicity as it was in the holocaust and Rwanda.
The problems in Darfur are not as complicated as some would make them sound though even humanitarian agencies are having a hard time getting to places they need to get without encountering violence — more often than not because people want their supplies as opposed to anything else.
Khartoum itself is in some ways thriving…yea most who live there are silent as well. So let’s be silent.
Interesting piece in the WSJ by the Chairman of the Sudanese Liberation Movement, Abdel-Wahid al-Nur , ( Why We Won’t Talk to Sudan’s Islamo-Fascists) though written for an “American audience” which according to some Sudanese friends makes it slightly watered down and though sided toward his agenda ( which some also say is that of thugs with no plans for policy ) he contends the government that came to power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989 needs to go.
They are asking for only the things promised by the UN, support for the people who are suffering’s and African Union troops promised.
The silence, which is back, on the issue of Darfur certainly doesn’t help his cause.
Successful change most often, if not always, comes from within.
If not being silent helps Sudan get what they need then I’m all for noise — against Coke, Dell or whoever chooses to remain silent in the wake of genocide.
Excellent post! I wish more people would get involved in doing something for someone other than themselves…
That is hard to come by these days, or maybe it’s just too confusing for most people.
I’ll check out the links Cooper…oh and I’m not a fan of coke !!!
I don’t drink pop at all I’m more a water drinker anyway.
I feel ill informed most of the time regarding Darfur only in so much as I don’t know any more that anyone else what to do to stop it.
I am a big fan of speaking out.
I would like to see something else happen here, and I wish we could figure out exactly what has to be done to stop it. You would think the world would be better at figuring out these kind of things after a million years of man, and a few thousand of thinking man, “an instinctive being with intelligence my foot”.
I’m a Dr. pepper fan. That’s Pepsi right?
I’m not sure on that Pepsi thing. I don’t drink Dr Pepper either.
Thanks for this post and the links. It’s a rough issue to look squarely in the face, but it’s real and we have no choice. You’re right on point, as usual.
I unusually reserve these for the Darfur blog, but it was for World Refugee Day.
I love the use of that old coke song to punctuate this message.
It works well in light of it all that’s for sure.