...is that it's depressing. When you choose a topic like Darfur for your dissertation, and after 2 years of writing, it still hasn't resolved yet, it's hard to get excited about writing. Every day I have to read news articles and stories from advocates about the rape, murder, torture, mutilation, destruction, devastation and it's a little hard to take day after day.
Today we went to the library and Jordan did computer games and picked out books while I worked for a couple of hours. On the way home she asked me to tell her a story - a fairly common request - but all I could think about was the story of the 4-year old girl who was found taking care of her 13 month old brother because their parents were dead. Or the woman who was raped next to her two sisters and then watched one be murdered because she cried, and the other cut up just for the fun of it. Or the story of the boy who was shot in the back, and then found his brother who had been shot in the face and was more damaged, so the one shot in the back helped carry his brother miles and miles through the desert - at night because during the day the Janjaweed are out, and not near any wells or watering spots because that's where the Janjaweed hang out - and finally dragged both of them to a refugee camp. These are not stories that a 9-year old wants to hear, but when I told her I only had sad stories in my head, she asked me tell her one, so I watered one down a little bit, not a lot because there's not much to them to water down, and told her. She was very serious and sad for a while and then she asked me what we could do, so I thought about it and here's what I told her.
The Government of Sudan is like a child and the United Nations is the parent. Now we all know that if you want a child to behave, you need to give them boundaries and punishment if they don't behave. So, to this point, the UN has warned the GoS that what they've done is naughty and they need to stop it. The GoS looks sadly at the UN and says I'm sorry, I'll do better next time and so the UN goes away satisfied that they've proven their point. So the GoS is naughty again, and again the UN says, bad boy GoS, you've been naughty and we might have to punish you if you don't stop. Again the GoS apologizes but again they are warned not to do it again, but not punished. There needs to be a punishment if the GoS is going to behave. The problem is, the UN needs the ability to punish, and that means something needs to be taken away. One of the things that might be taken away is oil revenue, but China won't stop buying oil, so that doesn't work. Another things is other revenue, but countries haven't stopped buying things, in fact, the UK has doubled its imports of Sudanese goods since the Darfur conflict started. The only other option is to give Sudan a good spanking, but the U.S. is too busy spanking Iraq right now to get to the other problem child, so we're left with warnings and no actions.
Because of this, and no end in sight, I need to finish my dissertation so, unlike the people in the refugee camps, I can walk away.
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