What a crazy day! We all got up around 2 AM to make it to the bus at 3. Check that. Most of us never went to bed having spent the night at the Leadership Lockin. This made for a quiet bus ride to Logan. We got through Logan fine and got our DD. Then we boarded on time for the hour flight to BWI.
Arrived BWI at 8 and were loaded up with our van driver Tess by 8:30. Strolled into the Hyatt at 9 just as the first plenary on Sudan was starting.
We listened to several speakers, including MA’s own Rep. Jim McGovern – who was excellent – “It doesn’t take a gun to commit genocide, germs will work just as well” if we leave people malnourished and without health care in refugee camps. Also, “The world will not get better on its own.” Michelle Gavin, from the NSC, urged us to 1) focus on not just what must be stopped, but what must be built, 2) help us multilateralize, and 3) hold us (the administration) accountable. Dr. Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, of el-Fasher, Darfur, expressed that people in Darfur are disappointed. People are still raped, killed, left homeless – nothing has changed. We must keep up the pressure on our government to DO something about it – the only people who should feel “Darfur fatigue” are the Darfuris!
At this point, 10:30, most of us retired to the rooms for a badly needed morning nap. I attended a fascinating breakout session on the Congo. We got a quick review of the origins of the conflict – starting in the late 90’s as Rwanda supported a force to battle the remnants of the Interhamwe from the Rwandan genocide, leading to the fall of Mubutu, and the rise of Kabila. Since then, changing alliances and the absence of any real Congo army has created deepening instability and an infestation of forces using rape and mass murder to control areas and exploit the spiraling price of minerals fond in Congo that are critical to modern electronic devices – Conflict Minerals. This conflict has left approx. 5,000,000 dead in the last decade or so. Learned some of the actors – FDLR – bad guys (everyone with guns pretty much are mass killers, including the “army” – the horrid Kimea II campaign this year). Also got a primer on the brutal LRA that has migrated from N.Uganda/S.Sudan to NE Congo. Overall, you get the picture of a failed state with vast remote ungoverned territory leaving local populations exposed to these mass atrocities.
I also attended a really informative and depressing session on the elections in Sudan. Folks from the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute (not partisan groups, but agencies doing the work on the ground trying to help fledgling democracies around the world) described the work they are doing learning from and informing citizens about the elections. My takeaway is that we are heading for a train wreck. The presidential election in 2010 will not be “free and fair” or even likely “good enough”. They are in the middle of supposedly registering the entire country – which there isn’t the infrastructure to do. But despite the sham, the South Sudanese will want the election to go forward since this a step toward the referendum on independence for S, Sudan in 2011. But the 2010 election will “legitimize” and embolden Bashir, who will probably sabotage the 2011 referendum. Whether he cancels or rigs or ignores the referendum, it seems certain to trigger violence that will kill thousands, probably hundreds of thousands.
The gang reemerged for lunch at 1, as we listened to a plenary on the Congo. It started with a dynamic “positive rapper” Omekongo Dibinga, who inspired us:
Knowledge is power,
Ignorance is bliss
I will do what I can,
To end this crisis.
He decried the media that seems to only be able to pay attention to one conflict per decade. He reminded us of the history of our activism against the exploitation of the Congo to Mark Twain and W.E.B. DuBois who spoke out on the issue of rubber exploitations. He encouraged us to take actions, such as to have a cell-out, where we turn our cellphones off for a day but leave a message explaining that we do this to bring their attention to issue of conflict minerals in Congo. As he put it “We are Consuming Congo”. The second speaker was a Congolese woman talking about sexual violence there, but people were too loud eating lunch to follow what she said. The final speaker was John Prendergast (!), who urged us to take action by 1) pressuring Congress, 2) Demanding conflict free products form major electronic companies like Apple (go to raisehopeforcongo.org) and 3) push for our schools to call for conflict free products. He reminded us that in a decade or so, we reversed the effects of “blood diamonds” in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Angola and we can do the same in Congo. We need to get more active on Congo!
After this we took a walk – to the Capitol then down the mall to the National Archives and back – too long a line there, so we stopped at the National Gallery East Wing. We came back to a session on Global Advocacy in Sudan. Again, I left feeling pretty depressed on what will happen in 2011 especially.
We then walked to Union Station, and went to the food court there for dinner – my favorite food court anywhere – dozens of local vendors, no chains. We then came back for one more session on video advocacy, which was outstanding. Gave us some great ideas on producing a video to advocate and pressure our legislators – remember to focus on goal, message, messengers. Examples at 350.org, videoforchange.wordpress.com.
Also do a search on youtube for “Walldemart” – a hilarious Harry Potter spoof.
Back up to our rooms around 8, I gave them (and me) the rest of the evening to relax and go to bed early – 10:00 curfew. Back at it bright and early – breakfast at 8!
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