ME and Ophelia

WHERE WERE WE TEN YEARS AGO?
Asks a blogging reporter in Africa

A reporter for the Christian Science Monitor is travelling across Africa, including Sudan. See this post, dated February 12, 2004, of a Sudanese view: "Thank God for George Bush!"

Here's a copy, in full, of another post - dated April 6, 2004:

"...Perhaps never in history has Rwanda been filled with so many foreign journalists as in the past week. Some 500 of us from as far away as Japan descended on the country for the 10th anniversary of the genocide. One Rwandan reporter, observing the influx, said to me, “You should have been here in 1994. You’re more powerful than a whole battalion of UN peacekeepers. You could have stopped the genocide.”

As I arrived at one genocide site, a school where 50,000 people were killed and where preserved bones are still on display, my reaction was, “What am I doing here? I’m 10 years too late.”

So why weren’t all of us here 10 years ago? Well, I was still an intern at the Monitor. But people tell me one reason was that South Africa’s first democratic elections were going on at the same time. It was a rare case of the good news – Nelson Mandela’s ascendance to the presidency and the end of apartheid – overshadowing the bad. April 1994 was also the height of the O. J. Simpson trial. So the global media was otherwise occupied.

Even now, by being in Rwanda, we all may be missing a crucial story: "Ethnic cleansing" (as one UN official calls it) in western Sudan.

I’ve already asked my editors if I can go. They've agreed. So my next big trip will be to try to get a closer look at the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. If my colleagues join me, maybe we’ll be in the right place at the right time to help highlight a current conflict that needs the world’s attention..."

[via Passion of the Present via Dave Winer]
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Note: I am pinging a copy of this post - via Technorati - to the bloggers listed below, including Clive at The UK Today who wrote Sudan - A British Angle with links encouraging British bloggers to take action by faxing their MPs and raising awareness through blogging.

And to Counciller Bob Piper in England who thoughtfully posted: I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'

Blogborygmi - USA
We might as well dance - Australia
Allseasons - Canada
Conservative Propaganda - Washington DC
Tao of Pauly NYC
Hatamaran - USA
ChaiTeaLatte - USA
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REGISTER AND MEETUP TO STOP GENOCIDE
International Stop Genocide Day May 22

International Stop Genocide Day May 22, sponsored by Meetup.com group formed to stop genocide.
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SUDAN: THE PASSION OF THE PRESENT
Now becomes a "real" daily news blog

Note Jim Moore's update on latest links to the daily news blog Sudan: The Passion of the Present.