Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Is there "Sudanese Genocide Attention Fatigue"?


While we did not get to discuss this fully the Sundanese conflicts are important current events that are stiloccurring  right now. The reason I bring this up is that we do not always get to hear about this part of the world or the injustices outside of Darfur. When there is a media explosion as there was with Joseph Kony and the Invisible children video, one can wonder what happened in the case of Sudan and why there is not much publicity centered on those poor people being killed. Sudan has many conflicts that have seemingly been averted and resolved but clearly this is not the case, "The UN issued a press statement that said attacks had declined 70 percent since late 2008" (realclearpolitics). The attacks have not stopped and there are many other wars that are now in swing. Among them is the conflicts in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, Sudan where the northern government has started to bully South Sudan like "mafia extortionists send the same message to a small business owner when thugs break a window then say next time they'll use a firebomb." The situation which the Sudanese people are facing is one that is truly terrible and if I were in there spots, I would be wondering where is the west on this issue? Why is there still no action being taken on my behalf considering that these are human rights violations? If Egypt's revolution began by facebook then where is my justice? considering that the bombing is still going on and we can do nothing about it. 


South Sudan acquired much of the oil rich land in the war against (northern) Sudan, thus they were able to charge high prices for it but the north reciprocated by charging outrageous fees for the pipeline transportation. Now what does this have to do with sociamedia? If you think about the circumstance, this happens all the time, a nation charges unfair prices to another to get back at them big deal. Then there came the attack on Abyei, the disputed border land territory, where the north threatened to capture the oil fields from the South. While the people in Khartoum are very mean to those who are in the south, the greatest question is stated  well in the article "Sudanese Genocide Attention Fatigue", "Where is the international outrage? Perhaps the world suffers from Sudanese genocide attention fatigue." According to the article there is a theory that our nation only cares when we have a Republican president and the leftists can accuse the president of not caring and racism. The truthfulness of this proposed theory I cannot attest to since I do not remember the vocal indignation of 2005 as compared to the silence now. For me there was always a silence, as long as there are more "important" things such as celebrities or events that are more newsworthy than things going on in other countries. If America was struggling for so long to try and end Darfur and stop in justices, why don't we put the same invigorated fervor for ending it into all outside countries? 
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/printpage/?url=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/09/28/sudanese_genocide_attention_fatigue_111500.html 

No comments: