Wonderland or Not

A rare cross pos­ting from Dar­fur: An Unfor­gi­va­ble Hell on Earth.

There is clearly a debate as to whether all publi­city is good publi­city. We won’t get into that here, but I lean on the side of usually, with excep­tions. “Silence is Not Gol­den”. As I’ve writ­ten about the situa­tion in the Congo here many times I’m going to stand on what’s been writ­ten. I am howe­ver going to pass on a ini­tia­tive soa­ring throughout the blo­gesphere, in what appears to be mostly science blogs. The “oh wow rape is occu­rring everywhere maybe we should tell someone about it” ini­tia­tive called Silence is the Enemy.

For those who cared enough over the last 4 years to delve into some of the indi­vi­dual situa­tions where con­flict rape is occu­rring and have taken up the cause, by dona­ting time, money, or words, don’t move on yet. Many of the par­ti­ci­pa­ting blogs are reve­nue pro­du­cing blogs, and they are dona­ting their June pro­ceeds to Doc­tors Without Bor­ders. The reve­nue is from clicks so it would be a nice thing for you to mosey on over via the links and give some of those blogs on that list some click thru.

We should not look at the Congo, or simi­lar pla­ces where bru­tal con­flict rape occurs, and think OMG how can this hap­pen, without first exa­mi­ning what hap­pens here in a deve­lo­ped, tech­no­lo­gi­cally advan­ced, highly edu­ca­ted and well fed country, and how our own atti­tu­des and poli­cies regar­ding rape con­tri­bute to what has been a very slow, at times see­mingly use­less, cam­paign by those such as the Uni­ted Nations. We should be bothe­red by it. With that in mind, and remem­be­ring that in many of the coun­tries in the world where con­flict rape occurs the foreign policy in regards to the offen­ding country is always about secu­ring either the busi­ness inte­rests, other best inte­rests, or secu­rity of the country from which the policy comes, and this is often a dete­rrent to any change. We also shouldn’t for­get that poverty, lack of oppor­tu­nity and edu­ca­tion, and the resul­tant lack of power, is a sig­ni­fi­cant part of the pro­blem. To that end, after wor­king to pro­vide basic health care, food and the neces­si­ties for exis­tence, we need to work to pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for sus­tai­na­ble living, edu­ca­tion, i.e. oppor­tu­nity for socioe­co­no­mic growth to those who suf­fer most, and to those who want nothing more than to help them­sel­ves, as this is likely the best way to fight this scourge.

So go do some clic­king, Doc­tors Without Bor­ders does some fine work.

Feel free to spread the word too.

Also of pos­si­ble of interest:

You can also read the recent report by Phy­si­cians for Human Rights, in part­nership with the Har­vard Huma­ni­ta­rian Ini­tia­tive, the report docu­ments “the ongoing abuse of women who fled the civil war in Dar­fur but con­ti­nue to face the threat of rape as resi­dents of refu­gee camps in neigh­bo­ring Chad”. The report can be found at Dar­furi Women dot Org in Nowhere to Turn: Fai­lure to Pro­tect, Sup­port and Assure Jus­tice for Dar­furi Women.

You can read more about it in James F. Smiths pie­ces at the Bos­ton Globe, and Bos­ton dot com.
Trac­king the war on women in Dar­fur
Bos­ton team pro­du­ces Dar­fur rape study

You can also view a video inter­view with Dr Son­dra Cosby, medi­cal ser­vi­ces direc­tor for the Bos­ton Cen­ter for Refu­gee Health and Human Rights at Bos­ton Medi­cal Cen­ter, she tra­ve­led to Dar­fur with the Cam­bridge based Phy­si­cians for Human Rights.

New! TEN REASONS WHY Eas­tern Congo is the Most Dan­ge­rous Place on Earth for Women

War on Women in the Congo — Eve Ensler

Should you just want just to donate without clic­king … some suggestions:

IRC/Congo
IRC/Chad
Women for Women
Doc­tors Without Bor­ders
Hea­ling Trauma in DR Congo
Heal Africa

Once again a com­ments off, for your infor­ma­tion posting.

Tags: Conflict Rape, human rights, Rape, violence against women, War, Women

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm and is filed under Blogging, Links, Sexism, Society, Women, activism, human rights, liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.