Update: Oreo, Dog Thrown Off Building, Was Euthanized
Access-A-Ride Renders Bike Lane Inaccessible
The UWS Gets Its Very Own Apple Store
Emily and Sarah Kunstler, Filmmakers
Video: Close Encounters Above Central Park?
Donning blue UN "peace keeper" hats and protest signs, an estimated 20,000 people gathered in Central Park yesterday to demand the end to the genocide in Darfur. A large percentage of those present were college students who traveled in bus loads to attend. Timed to coincide with this week's opening of the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations. the rally was a part of the Global Day for Darfur, a day of assemblies in cities across the world, including Phnom Penh, Nairobi, and London. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Actress Mira Sorvino, and Country music stars Big and Rich addressed the crowd, among many others.
Yesterday, many of those same college students and young professionals met for a Global Young Leaders Summit, hosted by Americans for Informed Democracy, a non-partisan organization whose mission is to "Bring the World Home." The nearly two hundred attendees of that summit heard from Mark Hanis, 24, Executive Director of Genocide Intervention Network and Erin Mazursky, 21, Executive Director, Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND), two young people whose actions helped organize the students activism at today's rally. Besides addressing Darfur, the summit heard from Varun Gauri, Senior Economist at The World Bank who announced the publication of its 2007 World Development Report. This year's report addresses "Development and the Next Generation." His advice for the students was to lobby for change for the conditions of their peers around the world. The turnout of young people at the rally certainly seems to indicate they are on track to do just that and more.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
I thought ever since the Republican National Convention, you couldn't get a permit for a large gathering, rally or protest in Central Park. What's the deal?
Everybody wants the U.S. help but then everybody wants to critize. Bunch of hypocrits.
The situation in Darfur is horrendous. Mass genocide has no place on this planet.
This problem isn't just in Darfur. It also was taking place in Iraq under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
So please people...remember that when you are bashing the US for going to Iraq with one side of your face and begging for the US to take a stand against the tyrants in the Sudan with your other side.
uh, mm, the u.s. supposedly went to war because saddam was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction to use against us, remember? he was actively seeking to build a nuclear bomb to use against us, remember? people are against iraq because of the bogus rationale(s) used for going to war. darfur is a totally different story.
The protests during the convention were supposed to number in the hundreds of thousands. According to this the Darfur rally was about 20,000. That alone is probably reason enough for getting a permit. Another reason is because the city didn't give a permit in 2004: they don't want a repeat of the same bad press.
This is an opportune time for Madeleine Albright to be concerned about genocide considering that she turned a blind eye when she actually was in a position to something during the Rawanda genocide. I would agree that something should be done about Darfur but say no thanks to phony P.R. rallies in the park.
firstly, it's spelled "rwanda" and secondly, madeleine albright isn't a part of the government anymore. thirdly, you obviously know nothing about the situation in rwanda and contemporary politican events.
Glad to see folks my age organizing for something other than Facebook privacy issues.
1) This isn't just a concern of the US, this should be a global issue.
2) Similarly, any discontent with Saddam Hussein's human rights record was a matter of international concern, and the US had no right whatsoever to invade that country.
3) Furthermore, the presence (or as we all knew then) absence of WMDs is not reason enough to invade a sovereign country. You confused, morally repugnant Republican apologists didn't learn thing one from the cold war, did you?
His advice for the students was to lobby for change for the conditions of their peers around the world. The turnout of young people at the rally certainly seems to indicate they are on track to do just that and more.
Great! Now if they could all just figure out the names of the people who represent them in Congress, I'm sure they'll get somewhere with it.
(again, this was nothing but a concert. And it just seems like a silly way to try to actually fix the problem, since however entertaining it may have been it will have accomplished almost nothing productive. Sure, everyone "demands" an end to genocide, but I get the feeling that when the concert was over, everyone went home.)
This isn't just a concern of the US, because there is not vast oil reserves.
We have no reason to go there. Let some other country take care of it. Or here is an idea, how about the citizens of that country actually try to fix their own country? Oh my god, now that is a good idea. No more hand outs to countries, fix your own damn problems.
BrianVan, were you actually there? From your description I seriously doubt it. I know it's easier and much more fashionable to be a cynical, cooler-than-thou hipster than to actually get off your ass and do something to make a difference in the world; but really, if you don't even know what you're talking about then please do us all a favor and STFU.
ethos - someone should have told Madeleine Albright to get off her ass during the Rwanda genocide. She doesn't seem to have a problem with "taking action" as long as there's live entertainment, hobnobbing with mira sorvino and refreshments served.
Anonymass and Pumpkin, first off get the hatred out your hearts before you end just another bitter, wanna-be know-it-all liberal like your parents. Oh wait, too late. Never mind.
Do you, and you ilk, actually listen to other views or just hate all that is Bush-related or offered-up. Ever heard of intelligence reasoning? But Bush is the monkey-faced moron, I forgot. Then why does he keep trumping the likes of you?
Stay classy. And remeber you are alwas right, not matter the backdrop or story for which you don't understand or are not familiar with...
"the u.s. supposedly went to war because saddam was manufacturing weapons of mass destruction to use against us, remember? he was actively seeking to build a nuclear bomb to use against us, remember? people are against iraq because of the bogus rationale(s) used for going to war."
The humanitarian reason was always one of the reasons. Read Bush's speech to the UN in 2002. All the reasons subsequently given are in there. It's a lie that he invented that reason later.
In fact, Saddam was planning to restart his weapons program after sanctions fell apart, according to the Iraq Survey Group report. and Saddam was bribing everyone in sight to ignore the sanctions, that's what the Oil for Food scandal is about.
This rally isn't serious for a couple of reasons. It's in Central Park not in front of the UN. And if people think UN peacekeepers are going to stop anything they are deluded. Peacekeepers will either start a child sex ring, or be herded into a compound by the janjaweed and kept there while the Janjaweed goes on killing. That's the track record of UN peacekeepers.
If people are wandering around Central Park in blue helmets listening to Madeleine Albright then this is just a feel-good exercise.
Nothing will stop the genocide but a war. Like the Balkans war. And everyone is waiting for the US to do it. Well, other nations have armies, and the US is busy right now, and if they think it is important enough they can do it. But peacekeepers are bullshit.
ethos: It was a concert, not a mass volunteer aid gathering. There is no cynicism in that statement. There is only a deep personal sadness for society that I have when people attend a free concert in the park and think that they are addressing the world's problems.
It's only a "Save Darfur" concert because music performers, promoters, and fans have egos three times outsize the average of normal people. There is an exhaustive list of musicians and bands who have put on "cause" concerts where maybe 1% of the people in attendance actually continued after the concert to effect a change in the world in accordance with that cause.
I'm sure it was a good concert, though. Certainly more entertaining than watching some college student scream about President Bush at 14th and Broadway for 3 hours.
Wow, it's really obvious to me now that BrianVan was nowhere near the rally yesterday.
For those of you who want the truth of what went down yesterday, I WAS there and these are the facts: Of the few scant acts that performed I only recognized by name Lupe Fiasco (who didn't show due to illness and no one really cared anyway because WE WEREN"T THERE FOR A CONCERT.) One of the bands even declined to give their name to the announcer because in their words,"We're not here to promote ourselves, we're here to spread the word about Darfur."
There were indeed a few media whores (though no more than the alligator tear-crying assclowns at Ground Zero last Monday), but anyone who gets their panties in a knot over Madeline Albright's or Mira Sorvino's ulterior motives needs to go back and read Politics 101 and get over it.
Most of the speakers had firsthand experience with the atrocities in Darfur, including (yes) politicians, journalists, and also victims -- most notably Simon Deng, an ex-slave who has been at the forefront of the cause from the beginning.
For those of you who couldn't attend the rally but would like more info I encourage you to visit to visit www.savedarfur.org or check out Amnesty International's website.
Of course, if you want to dress up and play Disaffected Hipster and pooh-pooh the whole thing that's cool too, it's Monday and we all need a good laugh.
"It's working so well"...
It's difficult not to be disdainful of ignorance, and worse, willful ignorance. This is increasingly the American way, courtesy of the Republican party and it bothers me as much from a pride perspective as a "How is this country ever going to survive on its current path?" perspective. We are becoming dumber and lazier as a nation and if there is any doubt about our collective inability to innovate and even compete in the global marketplace I suggest you wake the fuck up.
Yes, I called out YOUR party - the party of creationism, the anti-science party, the party of massive hypocrisy and lies whose poster child is, I am convinced, not only the dimmest president ever to have served, but the least aware of the world around him.
What is totally inexcusable is that a man of his means - with a father who served as president and who traveled the world many times over - could end up so unendingly ignorant of seemingly everything. I never would have thought 4 years ago that this country would be capable of hitting new lows, but this ignoramus never fails to astound me and other educated patriotic Americans.
My parents are conservative, so it's not as if I'm carrying on a family legacy. I make a decent (6-figure) income, so it's also not the case that my motivations are financial. I'm fairly private - or more accurately, anonymous- in my political views, so my views are furthermore not motivated by cliquishness.
So rather than try to guess at the source of my anger with your armchair psychology, you should give another thought as to why someone like me might hate this administration and its minions.
I'm all for fiscal conservativism, but your stupid-ass party can't even do THAT right. Take a look at the DEFICIT lately? Or the national debt? Who do you think will be paying for that whole mess? You're not the "tax and spend" party, you're just the "spend and spend" party. No, you get to keep that extra 2% of your income so that you can pay for it in spades in 25 years.
So, while your party is fucking the long-term national economy straight up the ass, they are eroding our educational system, our historical love and trust of scientific princple and reason, and - there's that word again - WILLFULLY neglecting what is shaping up to be a global environmental crisis. That, plus, the irony of all ironies, a bunch of combat-dodging pussies who wouldn't ever send their own off to war are more than happy to drop someone else's - everyone else's - kids into the middle of hell under-equipped with no compelling rationale whatsoever.
Name ONE thing that this administration and these crony hack selfish lazy right-wing sellouts are doing right.
And you wonder why I'm angry.
I have a question for those who went to the rally. What is it you want the UN to do? Yes the UN could pass a resolution against genocide in Darfur, but Sudan will just ignore it. Sanctions? I think China would block any since CNOOC is prospecting for oil in Sudan.
Do you expect the UN to invade Sudan? Please don't try to claim it will be just another peacekeeping mission. Sudan has clearly stated they don't want UN troops there, and threatened to attack any that enter.
Is there another option I'm not seeing? I'd like someone to explain it to me.