Not on Our Watch Read Online Free
Author: Don Cheadle, John Prendergast
sounds and simply send food and medicine to the victims. They believe that citizens around the world do not care enough to create a political cost for their inaction. These officials are allowed to remain bystanders because of complicit citizens who know about what is happening but do not speak out, giving the officials an excuse to do nothing.
On the other hand are a growing group of people, a ragtag band of citizen activists all over the world who want the phrase ‘Never Again’ to mean something. They want the first genocide of the 21st century, Darfur, to be the last. In the US these are led principally by Jewish, Christian, African-American, and student groups, they have slowly begun to organise. Yet far more needs to be done to overcome the institutional inertia in US policy circles. These groups are joined by an even smaller but determined core of citizen activists in other countries who are trying to build a global civil society alliance to confront crimes against humanity.
Who wins this battle will determine the fate of millions of people in Darfur and other killing fields.
That is our mission.
A Citizens’ Movement to Confront Mass Atrocity Crimes
Our friend Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has written about a ‘citizens’ army fighting to save’ millions of lives in Darfur. After describing some of the extraordinary efforts of ordinary citizens around the US, including fund-raising by young American kids, Nick wrote, ‘I don’t know whether to be sad or inspired that we can turn for moral guidance to 12-year-olds.’ [7]
Well, we are inspired.
Samantha Power has written about the ‘bystanders’ who do nothing when genocide occurs and the ‘upstanders’ who act or speak out in an effort to stop the atrocities from continuing. Her book highlights the ‘upstanders’ and ‘bystanders’ of the last century. We all have the capacity to be ‘upstanders.’ The more of us there are, the better the chances that these kinds of crimes will not be allowed to occur in the 21st century.
It is up to us.
For us, Don first got interested in these issues through the movie he made, then through connecting up with John, who had gone through his own process of growing awareness and discovering a whole universe of Americans who are getting involved and trying to make a difference. We want to show that it is possible to care enough to change things. We want to remove all excuses and impediments to individual action, because such actions—collectively—do make a difference.
Throughout American history, social movements have helped shape our government’s policy on a variety of issues. Often in the beginning, their appearance was not widely recognised as much of a movement. We believe we are witnessing the birth of a small but significant grassroots movement to confront genocide and—we hope, over time—all crimes against humanity wherever they occur. A campaign like ENOUGH is but one manifestation of that effort, and we describe many others later in the book.
The ENOUGH Project was founded by a small group of friends and colleagues who had grown weary of watching the world reinvent the wheel every time mass atrocities lurched onto the world’s television screens. There is no reason that we collectively cannot do far better and save countless thousands of lives in the process. ENOUGH seeks to strengthen the efforts of grassroots activists, policy makers, advocates, concerned journalists, and others by giving them up-to-date information from on the ground in countries of concern and offering practical pressure points to end the violence. The initial efforts focus on a trio of countries: Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the situation in northern Uganda. To learn more go to www.enoughproject.org.
Student groups are forming on hundreds of college campuses (and hundreds more schools) in the US, specifically to raise awareness and undertake activities in response to the genocide. Synagogues
On the other hand are a growing group of people, a ragtag band of citizen activists all over the world who want the phrase ‘Never Again’ to mean something. They want the first genocide of the 21st century, Darfur, to be the last. In the US these are led principally by Jewish, Christian, African-American, and student groups, they have slowly begun to organise. Yet far more needs to be done to overcome the institutional inertia in US policy circles. These groups are joined by an even smaller but determined core of citizen activists in other countries who are trying to build a global civil society alliance to confront crimes against humanity.
Who wins this battle will determine the fate of millions of people in Darfur and other killing fields.
That is our mission.
A Citizens’ Movement to Confront Mass Atrocity Crimes
Our friend Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has written about a ‘citizens’ army fighting to save’ millions of lives in Darfur. After describing some of the extraordinary efforts of ordinary citizens around the US, including fund-raising by young American kids, Nick wrote, ‘I don’t know whether to be sad or inspired that we can turn for moral guidance to 12-year-olds.’ [7]
Well, we are inspired.
Samantha Power has written about the ‘bystanders’ who do nothing when genocide occurs and the ‘upstanders’ who act or speak out in an effort to stop the atrocities from continuing. Her book highlights the ‘upstanders’ and ‘bystanders’ of the last century. We all have the capacity to be ‘upstanders.’ The more of us there are, the better the chances that these kinds of crimes will not be allowed to occur in the 21st century.
It is up to us.
For us, Don first got interested in these issues through the movie he made, then through connecting up with John, who had gone through his own process of growing awareness and discovering a whole universe of Americans who are getting involved and trying to make a difference. We want to show that it is possible to care enough to change things. We want to remove all excuses and impediments to individual action, because such actions—collectively—do make a difference.
Throughout American history, social movements have helped shape our government’s policy on a variety of issues. Often in the beginning, their appearance was not widely recognised as much of a movement. We believe we are witnessing the birth of a small but significant grassroots movement to confront genocide and—we hope, over time—all crimes against humanity wherever they occur. A campaign like ENOUGH is but one manifestation of that effort, and we describe many others later in the book.
The ENOUGH Project was founded by a small group of friends and colleagues who had grown weary of watching the world reinvent the wheel every time mass atrocities lurched onto the world’s television screens. There is no reason that we collectively cannot do far better and save countless thousands of lives in the process. ENOUGH seeks to strengthen the efforts of grassroots activists, policy makers, advocates, concerned journalists, and others by giving them up-to-date information from on the ground in countries of concern and offering practical pressure points to end the violence. The initial efforts focus on a trio of countries: Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the situation in northern Uganda. To learn more go to www.enoughproject.org.
Student groups are forming on hundreds of college campuses (and hundreds more schools) in the US, specifically to raise awareness and undertake activities in response to the genocide. Synagogues
Readers choose
Julia Talbot
Catherine Asaro
Kaitlyn Dunnett
Lee Weeks
Steve Almond
Parker Kincade
P. J. Belden
Christopher Stasheff
Brian Delaney