Tag Archives: africa

Headlines: Sudan Rejects ICC Arrest Warrant; Private Sector Lost 697,000 Jobs Last Month

Posted on March 5, 2009 by | Comments Off
Democracy Now Headlines: Sudan Rejects ICC Arrest Warrant; Private Sector Lost 697,000 Jobs Last Month

Headlines from DemocracyNow.org, a daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 650 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the US.

Obama Holds Health Care Summit, Agrees to Invite Single-Payer Backer Conyers

President Obama is convening a White House summit today on reforming the nation’s health care system. The Obama administration has asked some 120 lawmakers, insurers and doctors to attend. Obama finally gave a last minute invite to the House’s leading advocate for single-payer universal health care, Democratic Congressmember John Conyers of Michigan. Obama had reportedly refused to invite Conyers but relented after public outcry. Conyers is expected to be the lone single-payer advocate in attendance.

U.S. to Overhaul Government Contract Procurements

On Wednesday, President Obama announced a plan to overhaul contracting policies in all government departments. Singling out military contracts in Iraq, Obama said the new rule changes would save taxpayers $40 billion dollars a year.

President Obama: “And this wasteful spending has many sources. It comes from investments in unproven technologies. It comes from a lack of oversight. It comes from influence-peddling and indefensible no-bid contracts that have cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.”

Geithner: Admin Could Scrap Repeal of Tax Deductions for Wealthy

Obama meanwhile is facing opposition from members of his own party on a plan to reduce tax deductions for wealthy Americans. The plan would save around $318 billion dollars over 10 years. Under questioning from Senate Finance Committee chair Max Baucus Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the Obama administration would consider dropping the proposal.

Sudan Rejects ICC Arrest Warrant for Bashir

The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sudan’s Darfur region. Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be charged with war crimes.

Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo: “The government of Sudan is obliged by international law to execute the warrant of arrest on its territory. We are not calling for someone else to do it. If the government of Sudan does not execute the warrant of arrest, the UN security council will need to ensure compliance.”

Sudan has dismissed the warrant as a Western ploy. At the UN, Sudanese Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem said his government rejects the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction.

Sudanese Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem: “We condemn strongly this verdict, and for us ICC doesn’t exist. We are not bound by its decisions, and we are in no way going to cooperate with it.”

Abdelhaleem meanwhile said the mass killings in Darfur are largely the result of a local conflict over scarce resources.

Sudanese Ambassador Abdelmahmood Abdelhaleem: “Regarding our conflict, we have a conflict. We recognize the existence of the conflict, but it has been blown out of proportion. It is a conflict–traditional conflict–over meager resources, water, land, like many thousands of conflicts in the various corners of the world, so we are not an exception. It has been blown out of proportion to serve the agenda and interest of certain countries.”

Western human rights groups praised the arrest warrant for Bashir. Richard Dicker of Human Rights Watch said Bashir is guilty of war crimes.

Richard Dicker: “Certainly, it’s a momentous day for the International Criminal Court and more broadly the cause of justice and ending impunity for the most serious crimes under law: the mass murder of civilians, the use of rape as a weapon of intimidation or war. the forcible displacement of whole populations on the basis of their ethnicity. So this is a significant momentous day, and I would say the decision of the judges of the ICC that we heard this morning is really of seismic proportions.”

The Sudanese government has meanwhile carried through on warnings that an arrest warrant would further imperil Sudanese refugees. Within hours of the warrant’s announcement, Sudan expelled at least ten groups that provided aid to more than a million displaced people in western Darfur. The groups–including Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, and CARE International–account for 60 percent of humanitarian assistance in Darfur.

Clinton: Israeli House Demolitions “Unhelpful”

In Israel and the Occupied Territories, visiting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made some mild criticism of Israeli occupation policies in the West Bank and Gaza. Meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Clinton called Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes “unhelpful.” She also called for a partial lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “It is clearly a matter of deep concern to those who are directly affected, but the ramifications go far beyond the individuals and the families that had received the notices you referenced. So yes, this will be taken up with the Israeli government. We have obviously expressed concerns about the border crossings. We want humanitarian aid to get into Gaza in sufficient amounts to be able to alleviate the suffering of the people in Gaza.”

3 Palestinians Killed in Israeli Attack

Earlier today at least three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip. Israel says it targeted militants who fired at occupying Israeli troops across the Gaza border.

10 Killed in Iraq Bombing

In Iraq, at least ten people have been killed and more than forty wounded in a bombing near the city of Hilla. The attack targeted a busy cattle market.

UN General Assembly President Calls for Iraq Human Rights Probe

UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann is calling for an independent probe into human rights violations as a result of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On Tuesday, D’Escoto appeared before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann: “Independent experts estimate that over one million Iraqis have lost their lives as a direct result of the illegal invasion of their country. The various UN human rights monitors have prepared report after report documenting the unending litany of violations from crimes of war, rights of children and women, social rights, collective punishment and treatment of prisoners of war and illegal detention of civilians. These must be addressed to bring an end to the scandalous present impunity.”

3 Canadian Troops Killed in Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, three Canadian troops have been killed in a roadside bombing near Kandahar. The attack came as three civilian contractors for a U.S. company were injured in a car bombing at Bagram, the main U.S. air base in Afghanistan.

Afghan Election Commission Rebuffs Karzai on Vote Date

In other Afghan news, an independent election commission has rejected President Hamid Karzai’s attempt to move up national elections to April. The commission has set August 20th as election day. Opposition leaders have accused Karzai of trying to rush the vote to help secure his re-election.

Murtha: 600,000 Troops Needed in Afghanistan

Meanwhile Democratic Congressmember John Murtha of Pennsylvania is predicting it will take some 600,000 troops to defeat Afghan insurgents. Murtha is the influential chair of the House Armed Services Committee. The 600,000 figure is more than seven times the peak number of NATO troops expected in Afghanistan this summer. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Brussels today for talks on the Afghan occupation with NATO allies.

Miers, Rove to Testify in Attorney Probe

Former Bush administration aides Harriet Miers and Karl Rove have agreed to testify on the firing of nine U.S. attorneys three years ago. The agreement ends a long-running dispute over the reach of executive power to shield administration officials from testifying. Attorneys for former President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives and the Obama administration brokered the deal. Rove and Miers will provide depositions and sworn public testimony. But they won’t be asked about their discussions with President Bush or other Bush administration officials. Despite the conditions, House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers declared victory, saying: “We have finally broken through the Bush administration’s claims of absolute immunity. This is a victory for the separation of powers and congressional oversight.”

Chavez Seizes U.S. Subsidary in Rice Dispute

In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has seized a local subsidiary of the American food giant Cargill in a dispute over the market cost of rice. Chavez says Cargill and other companies are evading price controls and selling rice at inflated costs. Chavez is also threatening to nationalize Venezuela’s largest private company, Polar, in the rice dispute.

U.S. Private Sector Shed 697,000 Jobs in Feb.

New figures show the U.S. private sector lost 697,000 jobs last month. The services sector was the hardest hit, shedding 359,000 workers.

Study: Illegal Firings Linked to Union Votes

A new study has found an increased rate of illegal firings when workplaces vote on joining unions. The Center for Economic and Policy Research says more than one-fourth of union-representation elections held this decade have been marred with an illegal firing of a pro-union worker. Pro-union workers were fired in 26 percent of union election campaigns, up from 16 percent in the last half of the 1990s. Labor unions are currently seeking passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to join unions. President Obama said this week he supports the measure.

Merrill Lynch Execs Subpoenaed in Bonuses Probe

Here in New York, state attorney general Andrew Cuomo has subpoenaed several top Merrill Lynch executives who were each paid more than $10 million in cash and stock last year. Overall, Merrill Lynch handed out over $3 billion in bonuses just before the company sold to Bank of America in a government-backed deal. The bonuses were handed out despite a $27.6 billion dollar company loss on the year. Cuomo is investigating whether the payments violated securities laws.

New York Assembly Scales Back Rockefeller Drug Laws

In other New York news, the state assembly has approved a measure to partially reform the draconian Rockefeller drug laws and give judges more discretion in sentencing. The bill would allow judges to send drug offenders to substance-abuse treatment instead of prison. Prisoners jailed for nonviolent drug offenses would also be eligible to have their sentences reduced or commuted. Critics fear that because it’s only a partial reform most prisoners won’t see any reprieve. Wednesday’s vote was approved by a margin of 96 to 46. The bill now goes to the New York state Senate.

California Supreme Court Takes Up Gay Marriage Ban

And in California, the state Supreme Court will take up a case today seeking to overturn the voter-approved gay marriage ban. Gay marriage advocates want the court to declare Proposition Eight unconstitutional. The proceedings will be broadcast on giant television screens around San Francisco. Thousands of protesters marched around San Francisco on Wednesday ahead of today’s hearing.

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March Calls for Solidarity With Women in the Congo

Posted on August 25, 2008 by | Comments Off

About 100 people gathered Saturday in Grand Rapids to participate in a rally and march in support of women and girls in the Congo. A “Walk Against Violence for Women & Children” was organized by the African Center of West Michigan. Organizers said that they hope to raise awareness about the brutality that women and girls are suffering in the Congo and to raise money to support projects to help heal those who have been raped.

Systemic rape of women in the Congo has been well documented in recent years and has been carried out by both the government military forces and armed militias. There has been an organized campaign to stop the rape of Congelese women and girls for several years, campaigns like the one organized by the international group V-Day. The march in Grand Rapids was a local action that is part of this larger international effort.

A few opening remarks were made by one of the organizers, a refugee from the Congo, Mr. Yaka Kamungi. He spoke in English and Swahili, his native language, especially since half the crowd were refugees from the Congo, Kenya, Somalia, and Burundi. After the opening comments the crowd marched towards downtown on Wealthy Street and made a loop back on Cherry. Those driving by in cars, sitting on porches, and walking by showed tremendous support for the marches who carried signs that had statements like “End rape in the Congo.”

The marches gathered back at the rally site to hear comments from a local African minister, a representative of the YWCA, and Jeannette Kabanda, a Congelese woman who has been part of several human rights trips to her home country. Jeannette said that what Congelese women have suffered begins for many of them when they are girls. Sometimes the soldiers for mothers to have sex with their sons, only to beat and murder the entire family afterwards. The speaker also stated that if women resist being raped they will be mutilated. Jeannette said that the US needs to pressure the government of the Congo to investigate these crimes and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

The funds that were raised at the rally will be used for programs that will provide “basic needs, trauma counseling, job training and health education to the women who have been victimized.” Several of the speakers mentioned that one of the many consequences of rape in the Congo is that a large number of women have become infected with HIV/AIDS, which further isolates these women from their communities.

If anyone is interested in supporting the work of the African Community Center to raise funds for the women of the Congo, they are welcomed to stop by their office at 1019 Wealthy SE, in Grand Rapids.

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G8 Meeting Ends in Germany with Weak Promises on Climate Change and Africa

Posted on June 11, 2007 by | Comments Off

photo of protests at 2007 g8 meeting

Largely echoing the 2005 G8 (Group of 8) Summit in Scotland in 2005, the annual G8 summit has ended with a series of meaningless statements on “climate change” and aid to Africa. The summit, described by many observers as the most divided in the G8′s 32-year existence (http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/06/372876.html), failed to accomplish its pre-summit goals on climate change and has received widespread criticism from NGOs.

Despite a “compromise” deal on climate change that overcame some opposition from the United States and recognized the danger of global warming, the G8 has been criticized by environmental groups for failing to take serious steps to address global warming. The United States and Russia agreed only to “consider” steps being taken by other nations and made no pledge to reduce their emissions. The six remaining G8 nations pledged to reduce emissions, although the G8′s statements are non-binding. Greenpeace rejected the G8′s actions, summarizing them with the statement “G8 to act on climate change, later… maybe,” as did Friends of the Earth.

On aid to Africa, the G8′s actions were similar. Despite the G8′s continued statements that they will live up to previous promises of aid to Africa, Oxfam criticized the G8 for breaking their 2005 promise on aid to Africa. While the summit pledged “new” aid to Africa, Oxfam pointed out that this at most amount to $3 billion in aid or $27 billion short of the $30 billion promised in 2005. Aid for HIV prevention in Africa will also fall short of the 2005 goal, reaching only $23 billion of the $50 billion by 2010. The announcements of new aid were described by NGOs as “smokescreens” designed to hide the dismal failure of the G8 on Africa.

Protests at the summit received substantial media coverage early on following clashes between police and protestors the weekend before the summit began. Throughout the week, there were a series of protests targeting both the G8 and capitalism, and addressing issues ranging from migration to agriculture. Once the summit began, protestors effectively blockaded the summit for two days, turning away delegates and forcing them to be brought in via helicopter. Protests were held outside of Germany as well, with solidarity demonstrations taking place in a variety of cities including Portland, Chicago, and San Francisco in the United States and around the world St. Petersburg, Santiago, and Thessaloniki.

Throughout the summit, the corporate media’s coverage downplayed the reasons why people were opposed to the G8, highlighted protestor “violence,” and favorably reported on the G8′s “action” on climate change and Africa. Aside from the excellent coverage of the protests provided by the Indymedia network–in particular the Germany and UK sites–protestors also focused on deconstructing the corporate media and public relations “spin” surrounding the protest. The Unspin the G8 website features an archive of corporate media coverage of the summit and analyses of how the coverage frames messages about the G8 and the protestors.

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New Report Details Starbucks “Social Irresponsibility”

Posted on March 27, 2007 by | Comments Off

In conjunction with protests at Starbucks’ annual shareholders meeting, organizers with the Starbucks Workers Union have released a “Starbucks 2006 Corporate IRRESPONSIBILITY Report” that examines the actions of Starbucks and debunks the idea that they are a socially responsible company (as a contrast, see the Starbucks Corporate Social Responsibility Report). The report focuses on the treatment of farmers growing coffee for Starbucks, its treatment of its baristas in the United States, and its anti-union activities. The issues are at the core of an organizing effort undertaken by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to improve the conditions of employees throughout Starbucks’ supply chain.

As part of their ongoing organizing efforts, members of the Star Bucks Workers Union recently met with coffee farmers at the Fero Co-Op who grow beans for one of Starbucks “Black Apron Exclusives”–the company’s most expensive coffees. Starbucks has touted this deal as a “partnership” between farmers and Starbucks, with farmers growing a coffee that has been branded “Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo” and is a product of what Starbucks has described as “a lot of training, time and commitment” over the course of three years. Starbucks sells this coffee $13 per half pound and in 2005 and 2006 bought a total of 2,400 bags from the cooperative, selling the coffee for a total of $8,236,800. However, Starbucks paid the growers less than $3 Birr per kilo along with a $0.2 Birr per kilo dividend at the end of the season, for a total of $181,000 ($0.57 per pound). This translates to only 2.2% of the retail price. These low prices have put many coffee farmers in extreme poverty while also forcing many families to send their children to work in the fields rather than to school.

Farmers cited in the report want Starbucks to pay a fair price for their coffee, and according to the report, Starbucks can afford to pay fair prices but chooses not to in order to maximize profits. The report asserts that if Starbucks were to pay $5.32 per kilo instead of the current average of $3.12 per kilo, Starbucks’ cost would increase from 5.3% of its total revenue to 9.1%. The 3.8% increase “roughly estimates” the cost of “social fairness” to the twenty-four countries that grow coffee for Starbucks. Starbucks could easily pay this price, as coffee prices have doubled in the past five years yet Starbucks has continued to make a considerable profit with earnings per share increasing from $0.26 in 2002 to $0.71 in 2006, its free cash flow increasing from $478M to $1,132M, and its return on equity growing from 13.87% to 26.06%.

Like the treatment of coffee farmers in Ethiopia, the financial reality for employees working at Starbucks is significantly different than what is portrayed by the company. Rather than being “partners” paid equally, Starbucks baristas are paid a starting wage as low as $6.25 per hour with wage caps ranging from $8 to $11 depending on the part of the country where one works. Making it more difficult to earn enough money to support oneself or their family on a Starbucks wage is the fact that 100% of Starbucks’ retail employees are part time and scheduling fluctuates greatly from week to week with no guarantee of a minimum number of hours. Employees also have little access to health care, with Starbucks insuring only 42% of its workforce, a number that is less than Wal-Mart’s 47%. Employees face difficulties both in securing the minimum number of hours required to enter the program and in affording the co-pays and deductibles.

The Starbucks Workers Union (http://www.starbucksunion.org) has been organizing to demand a living wage, secure work schedules, appropriate staffing, and respect on the job since May of 2004 according to the “Irresponsibility” report’s review of union activity. The report touts gains made by the union from increased wages and improved scheduling for union members to improving unsanitary working conditions. However, these gains have been met by “illegal and relentless anti-union reprisals” according to the report. It asserts that Starbucks “systematically violates the right of employees to unionize” despite National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) actions criticizing Starbucks or reinstating illegally fired workers. Nevertheless, Starbucks continues to take illegal anti-union action and has fired five baristas since a March 2006 settlement in which Starbucks had to reinstate to baristas, end its policy of banning union pins and literature distribution, and stop spying on, threatening, and bribing workers to prevent them from joining the union.

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Wangari Maathai at Fountain Street Church

Posted on January 30, 2007 by | Comments Off

“Every one of us needs ten trees to take care of the carbon dioxide we breathe out. We should know where our ten trees are. Or, are you using somebody else’s trees?” Wangari Maathai

2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Wangari Maathai opened her lecture with observations on the biblical creation story as told in the book of Genesis. She noted that every day, after making another aspect of the environment, the creator commented, “It is good,” except for the last day, the day humanity was created. “We have convinced ourselves we are more important than the rest of creation,” Maathai said. “But, we cannot live without trees. They can live without us.”

Maathai believes that because we have higher intelligence, we have a moral responsibility to ensure that other species survive. She applied that belief in Kenya, where as a young biologist she was studying the tic’s role in East Coast Fever, a fatal epidemic killing hybrid cattle. Her fieldwork led her to observe that Kenya’s environment had been degraded. Because of deforestation upstream, fertile topsoil was filling the rivers as silt; rainwaters were washing away into lakes and the ocean instead of returning to groundwater reservoirs; and, rivers were beginning to dry up.

“This was much more dangerous than the tics,” she said.

Then, in 1975, her work with the National Council of Women of Kenya opened her eyes to the serious issues facing Kenya’s women: they did not have enough wood for household energy; they did not have clean drinking water; they did not have nutritious food; they had no ways to generate income. Maathai’s solution “Let us plant trees.”

“We went to the foresters and asked, ‘Can you teach us how to plant trees?’ This is difficult when the people are illiterate and a professional tried to teach you. To cut a long story short, we teach ourselves, use our common sense, our woman sense. Forget the foresters. We started teaching ourselves how to grow trees.”

Much of Kenya had been clear-cut; the British had introduced pines and eucalyptus that drank too much water and dried out the land. “We wanted to restore indigenous vegetation, biodiversity. It’s a campaign we are till carrying out,” she shared.

Maathai encouraged groups of women to plant trees “whichever way.” The women collected native seeds, planted them in all sorts of cast-off containers and nurtured the seedlings till transplanting them. The women earned money for each seedling planted, generating income for themselves. The new forests help provide wood for energy and stifle the erosion that has robbed farms of topsoil and rivers of clean water. The women taught other women how to be “Foresters without Diplomas.” Today, Kenya has more than 7,000 tree nurseries run by these women.

Though more than 30 million trees have been planted in Kenya, Maathai’s work is not done. When she began in the ’70s, 30% of Kenya was covered by forests. Only 2% is today. However, her work with the women became a catalyst for another change. As the women empowered themselves, and the people found their voices, many spoke out against Kenya’s dictatorial regime.

“If you do not live in a society that is democratic, that allows a minority voice to be heard, it is difficult to protect the environment,” Maathai said. “The freedom of movement. The freedom of assembly. The freedom of expression. The freedom of the press. You have all these freedoms. In a society like yours, you take for granted. When you are at their (the government’s) mercy, they are very pleasant. When you are free, you become troublesome.”

“To cut a long story short,” Kenya became a democracy in 2002; Maathai serves in parliament and as Assistant Minister for the Environment. But, she does not advise people to wait on their governments to take care of the environment.

“We can plant trees. Anybody can dig a hole. Plant a tree in that hole. Water it. Make sure it survives,” she said. “The government is the custodian of the environment. If the custodian is not doing his job, you fire him during elections.”

Today in Kenya, Maathai has undertaken a campaign to reduce the proliferation of plastic bags and packaging that is polluting Kenya’s cities, impacting its wildlife and creating an untold number of breeding puddles for malaria-infected mosquitoes. She is also working with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as Goodwill Ambassador for the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem project–the goal, to plant one billion trees. She invited the audience to visit the Web site and get involved in the project. The Conga Forest, Amazon Forest and the South East Asian Forest are an important defense against the climate change that impacts all of us.

“It is the rich nations who really have to understand that, although the resources look like a lot around you, they are coming from people who are impoverished,” Maathai said. “Sooner or later, there will be conflict and it will affect us.”

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Students Raise Awareness of Child Soldiers in Ugandan Conflict

Posted on April 30, 2006 by | Comments Off

Last night, nearly 1,000 young people—primarily students from local colleges and high schools—marched to and slept in Rosa Parks Circle in downtown Grand Rapids as part of the Global Night Commute designed to raise awareness about the abduction of children in Uganda and their subsequent forced participation in an ongoing military conflict in the country. The nearly twenty-year-old conflict began in 1986 and has displaced some 1.7 million people and kills an estimated 130 people per day. However, it is the war’s toll on children that was highlighted by the event, with an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 children being abducted by rebel forces to fight as soldiers in the past ten years of the conflict. In response to these abductions, Ugandan children began “night commuting” whereby they moved from their villages where many children were abducted out of their homes into the Ugandan cities where the children sleep collectively in order to prevent abduction. According to many NGOs, the situation in Uganda is one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, yet it has received scant attention in both the corporate and independent media.

The event was organized as part of the outgrowth in interest that the film Invisible Children has directed on the issue and as part of the filmmakers desire to encourage people to act on the emotions raised by the film. Aside from raising awareness about the situation in Uganda—the Global Night Commute gained coverage locally in the Grand Rapids Press and on WXMI Fox 17—the event also encouraged people to take political action aimed at ending the conflict. To that end, participants were encouraged to hand write letters to President George W. Bush and one of Michigan’s two Senators encouraging them to press the United Nations and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to end the conflict and protect the civilians in Northern Uganda and ensure adequate humanitarian assistance to the “Invisible Children.” (Letters can also be emailed online). Participants were also encouraged to work on a collaborative art project where a Polaroid photo was to be attached to a blank piece of paper with art responding to one of four questions—what does America stand for, what does the Global Night Commute mean to you, how can you change the world, and what is your story, why do you care—with the art being compiled into a book that “will express what the night is about” and be sold online as a yearbook so that participants can find themselves (copies will also be sent to “our country’s most influential people”).

After nightfall, the film Invisible Children was screened for those who had not yet seen it and an estimated 200 people watched the film as it was broadcast on the side of an RV. The film does an exceptional job of drawing out an emotional response to the situation in Uganda and convincing viewers that the situation must be dramatically changed, but it does a poor job of providing a background on the conflict or providing the contextual information that is necessary to understand the conflict. Instead of giving a detailed history of how and why the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) began its rebellion against the government, viewers are told that the conflict had its origins with a spiritual woman that simply “wanted to overthrow the government” rather than attempting to provide a history of the conflict in Uganda that looks at the war as a legacy of colonialism or discusses the role of outside entities—such as Sudan or the United States—in the war. Similarly, there is no examination of the politics of the current Ugandan regime and its crimes against Northern Ugandan civilians or the military aid that it is getting from the United States government. Such a discussion may have complicated the film, but it needs to take place if people are to understand what is happening and are to advocate for solutions that include asking the United States government to put an end to the war.

While the event and film have been successful in raising awareness about the conflict, there are legitimate questions to be asked about the way in which the film is encouraging a form of activism based on the notion of “white man’s burden.” One student at Calvin College criticized the Global Night Commute for encouraging a “paternal attitude” towards Africa where white Americans—in this case middle and upper middle class college students—are seen as the “saviors” of Africa. This criticism seemed particularly applicable when organizers thanked participants for “spending a night in the cold” for “the children” in Uganda when participants were sheltered from the cold in a variety of semi-expensive sleeping bags and in many cases were drinking warm coffee and eating food that their privileged position in the world allowed them to purchase while a “musical” produced by the filmmakers conveyed the idea that it was only the white American students portrayed in the musical that had the power to “change the world.” For the most part, both the children engaging in “night commuting” and the Ugandan people as a whole were portrayed without agency throughout the evening and were instead portrayed to be objects in need of white sympathy. Questions about the role of white America in intervening in the conflict are furthered when one considers that the campaign is seeking the United States to intervene to solve the problem rather than by strengthening Ugandan NGOs or empowering Ugandans to bring an end to the conflict.

For ongoing news about what is happening on the ground in Uganda, visit Uganda Watch or visit the Uganda Conflict Action Network for additional information on the conflict.

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