Daily Breeze (CA): Situation in Sudan soon may be impossible to ignore

[question everything]

In 1994, some 800,000 people were massacred in Rwanda, in central Africa, and much of the civilized world later promised never to allow a repeat of that kind of slaughter. Right now, events in Sudan, another African country in the throes of war, are testing whether the post-Rwanda resolve of the United States and other countries was real or merely rhetorical.

Some 15 months of fighting in a western region of Sudan called Darfur have killed up to 30,000 people, most of them black villagers; displaced more than 1 million; and left more than 2 million in need of food or medical attention. Earlier this summer, the U.S. Agency for International Development warned that 300,000 people or more were likely to die there by the end of the year. If a catastrophe of this size were to occur in Europe or even parts of the Middle East, the outcry in this country would be deafening and the official response quick and strong. But Sudan -- and sub-Saharan Africa generally -- does not have a political constituency in the United States. Absent political constituencies to exert pressure, governments tend not to act.

It is easy for people to shrug their shoulders at death and misery in faraway Sudan. But in an era of globalism, over-the-horizon events can swiftly become close-to-home emergencies.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/content/opinion/3325342.html

[reorg]

1. ominous prediction

"in an era of globalism, over-the-horizon events can swiftly become close-to-home emergencies" ???

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

How did the millions of deaths in Sudan throughout the last 20 years, or the millions of deaths in recent years in Congo become "close-to-home emergencies"? In this "era of globalisation"?

Heck, even the million of deaths due to the first Iraq war and subsequent sanctions did not become "close-to-home emergencies" in the US, not until US servicemen were sent over there and died.