Refection on Camp Darfur

My action plan was to do the Holocaust tent with some people. The tent turned out very good. Nelson had done a time line for the tent. Elena did the Board about resistance and brought pictures. I made a board about the lack and given international response from international organizations and America. Brian and Carly didn’t contribute much to the tent but I can’t really blame them since they had to do the T-shirts for everyone. Elena brought in some Yiddish resistance music to the tent for the audio part of our tent and that helped out a lot with the theme of our tent. Many people who came into our tent were interested in the lack of help the U.S gave to Holocaust victims before and during the war. I enjoyed explaining the Holocaust and being engaged with people who visited the tent.
At the China tent it was a bit harder to explain it to the people because the gendercide is not being perpetrated by a rebel group or government but an entity made up of parents that want a boy baby instead of a girl. I am glad that my international response was in the tent. I didn’t like being in the China tent as much as the Holocaust tent because the China tent was kind of out of the way and didn’t get many visitors besides people trying to get extra credit while the Holocaust tent was near the entrance of the tent and I could build on some ground because many people know about the Holocaust. Also for the China tent I had to explain a whole new thing while at the Holocaust tent I was telling the people stuff that they didn’t know about such as the international response to the Holocaust. My favorite speaker that came to camp Darfur was Eric Engleman who spoke about Divestment because I didnt know that much about it.
Overall I liked camp Darfur and was glad that people walked away with more information on present and pasted genocides.

Not on Our Watch final journel

“I’m on a writing deadline for a television version of the movie crash””

This quote comes from Don Cheadle near the end of the book. This has nothing to do with Darfur like most of this book. The majority of Not on Our Watch is about Don Cheadle’s celebrity life style with him talking about Gucci shoes, I pods, his sister and Hotel Rwanda. I think anything even related to Darfur in this book was done by John Prendergast. About maybe 4-5 chapters is actually about Darfur. The ending of the book is no different while Don Cheadle talks about writing a script for Crash and wearing Gucci shoes. I greatly dislike this book and I am disgusted with Don Cheadle. If anything this book has made me feel that activism is even more futile. In the book it talks about a huge letter writing campaign that produces no results. That has made me realize how futile our class sending letters to politicians is. If anything Not on Our Watch has made me feel that activism cant solves anything.

Second journel on Not on our watch

I felt that Chapters four though six were about the same as chapters one through three. For the most part chapters four through six talk about hotel Rwanda, the international response and why Africa is so poor and war torn. I don’t like it how Don Cheadle can not go through a chapter without comparing Rwanda to Darfur. I don’t know if by constantly comparing them and talking about him on the set of Hotel Rwanda he is advertising his movie or trying to make a point. A main reason I don’t like these comparison is because of how Donald Rumsfeild and George Bush compared Saddam Hussein killing his own to people to the Holocaust. I think this is in inefficient tactic to get approval. I think that people should not have to compare Darfur to a past genocide to know that the genocide in Darfur has to be stopped.

First journel on Not on our watch

“If U.S citizens and their government increased their activism and work to build an international coalition to stop atrocities, major changes are possible.” I disagree with this quote entirely an international coalition was already made and it was called the League of Nations and later the United Nations. There hasn’t really been any international coalitions that have been successful. Neither Nato nor the UN hasn’t had much success. Nato couldn’t even really stop the Bosnia genocide when it was in their backyard and had to get aid from the American air force. The UN has not even helped in wars that it previously stated that it would such as the Korean War in witch aid was had been promised to the South. International coalitions are usually corrupted and someone at the top hordes all the money. I don’t see how this coalition mentioned in Not on our watch will stop the Darfurian genocide. Every genocide that has been stopped happened when the leader was out of power or overthrown through a war or revolt. International coalitions may hold trials and such but had no real hand in stopping these genocides. Another thing that I don’t agree with is the statement made at the rally we went to in L.A about how the genocide can end without a shot being fired. Like stated above the leader and tyrant that causes the genocide has to be in a weak position or over throne to end the genocide. With the Sudanese government allied with China it is pretty safe to assume that the West and America wont interfere with Sudan fearing a war between China which is the second Strongest Superpower in the World. I don’t know how the Darfur genocide can solved beside military force. I do however someone can find a way to stop this genocide before an ethnic group is wiped off the face of the earth.
Discussion
In our discussion we talked about the book and what we liked and dislike about the book. I generally disliked the book but did like chapter three. Many people liked the book but didnt like the part about ipods and oscar's. The dicussion mainly circled aroundhow the book was written and if it was ok to put in jokes and talk of awards. Our discussion went pretty well and I was glad to get a chance to dicuss about the book.

Fieldtrip to L.A

The Field trip to L.A was pretty fun. On this trip we visited the Holocaust museum and the Darfur rally. At the Museum we saw artifacts from the Holocaust. We also got to see a lot of the Nazi propaganda from that time. I thought the museum was pretty interesting but I thought near the ending it became very vague. It kind of jumped from the Holocaust to the finding of Israel. Also for the Israel section there was no map of were Israel is despite there is enough room for a map.
The second part of the field trip was to visit a Darfur rally like event. I liked the event but on alot of the points I totally disagree. During the rally Don Cheadle and John Predergast talked about Darfur and how the genocide has to end. They think it can be stopped with out one shot being fired. I disagree. The Sudanese government has allied itself with China and become self sufficient from the West and America. They think some how the international community will do something about it and the international community hasn’t even classified the Darfur genocide as a genocide. Also during the rally they made fun of George Bush which I thought was wrong because stopping a genocide should not depend on your view of politics. I think this because if there are Bush supporters in the crowd and see the rally they might not help if there political views are being stepped all over by the head activists. Despite the mistakes that George Bush has made he is trying to help end the Darfur genocide and at this point I think the only country that will do anything about Darfur is America.

3nd journel on Night

“They must have taken him away before dawn and carried him to the crematory. He may still have been breathing.”
In my view this is the saddest part of the book. Eliezer’s father is very sick and asks Eliezer to get water for him. Eliezer’s father will only drink water and not eat soup or bread. Eliezer tries to explain that just drinking water will kill him if he doesn’t eat. Elieze’s father wont listen to this and keeps asking for water. An SS guard walks by and hears him asking and Eliezer keeps asking Eliezer for water. The guard then takes his club and smashes Eliezer fathers skull. Later Eliezer returns and some one else is in his father’s bed and this is when Eliezer says the quote. Eliezer then thinks he has nothing left to live for after his father died. Eliezer had lost his faith, family and still he lives on. I don’t know why he decides to live if after his father dies he says he doesn’t have any reason to live. I don’t know why he decided to change his mind and kept living. I think he decided to live for the sake of living. I don’t think that I can ever comprehend why he kept living because I haven’t experience the inhumanity that Eliezer has endured.

2nd journel on Night

“A-7713!” I came down”

This is an interesting part of the book because Eliezer had been renamed by the SS running the camp. This is sad because he starts to get his humanity taken away. If it wasn’t for his father he might have forgotten his name. Eliezer and his father survive many obstacles around this part of the book such as the selection witch is when people who are considered unfit are killed by The SS. I thought that Eliezer’s father would have died in the selection but he manage to pass the selection and live.

“Blessed be the name of The Eternal” Why, but why should I bless him?”

This is a very interesting quote in the book because Eliezer questions why do we worship God if he let the holocaust happen. He rebels against everything he was taught about religion because of the inhumanity he has witnessed and has been a victim of. It is this point in the book that Eliezer starts to run out of reasons to live. From here on in the book he has to find reasons to keep living. The main reason he thinks he should live is to take care of his father and keep him alive. I believe that Eliezer starts to become like that religious man that was in his village that lost faith and just tried to warn everyone about the Nazis.