Hate…
“Maus” was an interesting “read” to say the least. I don’t know one man that does not like to have pictures along with his stories; I believe it is because men are more of visual learners. With “Maus” though I was forgetting that I was really reading a comic, it captivated me and brought me into the story side of it. It is such a compelling story of the travesties that happened during that time period, it is hard to look at it like a cartoon. We have similar events that have happened in our world today, which after what happened with the ethnic cleansing in WWII we thought we would never see again. For example the genocide that had happened in Rwanda, that was going on and there did not seem to be a lot of effort being put forth by the Americans because we have little invested in that region. Darfur is the reincarnation of the horrible events that happened in the “Maus” book.
“Since 2003, at least 200,000 people are believed to have died from violence, hunger and disease as the Sudanese government, often using militias as proxies, sought to suppress a rebellion in the region. Some Darfur activists have put the toll as high as 450,000. The Sudanese government says 5,000 have died.”
What strikes me as odd is that the Sudanese government claims they have only slaughtered five thousand people, as if it is not that big of a deal. It is like what the Germans were saying; we heard during some movies in class them only accounting for a couple hundred thousand of them. These governments act like what they are doing is not as bad as people make it out to be, yet killing of 1 innocent person should be an outrage.
The reality of what happened in “Maus” is undeniable, it has been told by many people time and time again yet some people try to discount what has happened. Darfur is just another instance of that, almost the whole world over is sure that there is genocide happening in Darfur, yet the country that is committing all of these offenses does not see it as others do.
“The Darfur disaster has established, once again, that every democratic country in the world opposes slaughtering large numbers of civilians and, at the same time, that no country in the world will take action to stop such slaughter if it entails any significant risk, burden or price.”
It is sad that many people had to suffer the ultimate consequences of other peoples hate. We ( and when I say we I mean every country in the world with the resources to stop these actions) have intervened too late at the cost of many lives. There is still being judgments handed down against those who have committed offenses against the people of Darfur, yet there is nothing that can be done to bring back the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost by the ethnic cleansing in Darfur or in Europe during WWII. I hope there will not be a next time, but if there is I hope that there will be swift and certain action taken at the first sign of these atrocities.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/08/11/EDG9OE5ELM1.DTL
Art Spiegelman “Maus”
I really like the points you make in your post. Genocide is most certainly occurring in Darfur, just like it has in many other places over the years. The Holocaust is of course a prime example (and it was brought to a halt by military means), but instances of genocide also occurred in Cambodia, Rwanda, etc.
The point you make about the Sudanese government claiming “only 5000 people have been killed” is also very interesting to me. It does seem an odd qualification to make… ONLY 5000 people. I guess that makes it all okay. Like you said, even if one person were killed, it isn’t “okay.”
I’m reminded of the genocide in Rwanda in the mid-90s. There was an effort made to call the events there a “civil war” rather than genocide, in order to justify not intervening. That’s where Darfur is a bit different; at least there’s a conscious effort to call it what it is… genocide. The U.S. public seems to have a better understanding of what’s going on in Darfur. This all serves to make the Darfur genocide worse. We call it what it is, yet we do not intervene militarily. I do not see how we can condemn the Nazis for the Holocaust and do practically nothing about Rwanda or Darfur.
Drew C. - March 23, 2009 at 11:00 pm |
I do not believe Americans know enough about Darfur to be outraged about it, which almost makes the entire situation even more outrageous. I rarely see any extensive news coverage on the subject, nor do I read anything about it unless I search for it myself. I think such subjects are put on the back burner (sadly) when things like the economy are going bad. Americans do not have time to feel bad for anyone else, let alone people on another continent, when they are so busy feeling sorry for themselves. Sometimes I feel as though the human race is doomed to live in ignorance and apathy forever. We let people in our own country starve while we spend billions on a war. We let genocide take place on our planet while we fret about the housing market and the latest diet trends.
As pessimistic as I am, I do believe good can be done if people put their minds to it. I think if the media coverage turned its attention away from things like the economy and towards civilian casualties in Afghanistan or Iraq or onto what is happening in Darfur more people would be outraged and perhaps inclined to do something about it. Anger is a great motivator and people cannot get angry about things they don’t know.
klynchmorin - March 24, 2009 at 6:06 pm |
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