[wvns] Darfur and the Sudan ‘Hustle’
Darfur and the Sudan `Hustle'
Askia Muhammad
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=08632b26caf7cb2604d7de4a21edceab
Editor's note: Now that Darfur has gained notoriety if not prominence
as an international concern, the battle for who will define the issues
is sure to become more heated.
I confess that at first I was a little embarrassed that I did not join
the pack with my own full-throated condemnation of Sudan over Darfur.
So now, here comes President George W. (For "worst in history") Bush,
slapping more sanctions on Sudan, and the chorus screaming "genocide"
getting louder still. Uh-oh.
Recently I talked to several Black folks who visited Sudan, including
Darfur this Spring. More than one of them defended Sudan citing Paul
Joseph Goebbels, the German Minister of Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda during the Nazi regime, and his "Big Lie Technique."
To wit: "never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or
wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never
leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one
enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people
will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it
frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it." They said
someone is practicing "The Big Lie" against Sudan.
Hmmm, I thought.
That certainly was the case in the story of so-called "slavery" in
Sudan five or six years ago, when people–even well-meaning Black Civil
Rights leaders–insisted that the Arab-Muslim government in the North
of Sudan was practicing slavery against the Black-African-Christians
in the South of the country.
Some of my friends went to the region and even claimed to have
"bought" slaves and set them free. That was all a hoax. There never
was any "slavery" where people were bought and sold as chattel. There
was a decades-old civil war raging in Southern Sudan, and often the
various warring parties engaged in kidnapping and ransoming captured
members of opposing tribal groups, but people weren't being bought and
sold into slavery.
Someone was using The Big Lie Technique to influence Blacks in
America, knowing how sensitive we are to and unforgiving we would be
of anyone practicing "slavery." After all, if Black folks turn against
an African government, that government can't count on any friends in
the U.S. public opinion.
But Darfur is no "slavery hoax," although there are many similarities
to be found. There is a huge humanitarian crisis, compounded by years
of drought, and an old-fashioned "range war" where nomadic camel
herdsmen are competing for arable land and water to graze their
animals, with farmers trying to grow crops. It's a bloody fight, a
fight which neither side can win outright.
So that's the pretext and the context. A fight with the Arab-Muslim
government on one side, and Black Africans on the other.
And then, a "smoking gun" was revealed. The Save Darfur Coalition,
started to unravel from within. Questions were raised about whether or
not the now deposed executive director of the organization–David
Rubenstein–had wisely used a huge influx of cash from a few anonymous
donors, in an advertising blitz, which included full page ads in
metropolitan newspapers and in Black media. After Rubenstein walked
the plank, Save Darfur board member Ruth Messinger, whose day-job is
as president of the American Jewish World Service, said of him: "we
wish him the best in his search for new opportunities for public
service," according to a report in the June 2, 2007 edition of The New
York Times.
The Save Darfur Coalition, with its $15 million annual budget, wasn't
sending a dime to the refugee camps in Darfur or in neighboring Chad.
They were spending big bucks, waging war against Sudan's "radical
Islamic regime," composed of Arabs, obviously bent on "ethnic
cleansing" of Black Africans.
The only thing is, 99.9 percent of all the people of Darfur, are
Islamic. And as far as the Arab-government- business goes: they're all
Black! There's not one person in the Sudanese government, who looks
anything like your typical "Arab." Not President Omar al Bashir, nor
any of his cabinet, nor most of his country's ambassadors, could pass
the fabled "paper bag test." They're all too dark-skinned!
But we have heard, thanks to the Save Darfur "Big Lie Technique" ads,
that the Arab-Muslims have been practicing "genocide" against the
Black-Christian-Africans.
More sanctions they insist. Send in U.N. peace-keeping troops. Impose
a "no-fly zone" over Darfur. Why that's just what the U.S. did before
invading Iraq, in what is now a luckless war of aggression, which the
U.S. can never win.
Why is all of this going on? You might wonder. Oil. Huge un-developed
oil reserves.
That Islamic government in Khartoum just happens to preside over the
largest, and one of the most mineral rich countries on the African
continent. Did I say they have lots of oil?
That Islamic government has ports on the Red Sea, and includes the
head waters of the Nile River which can provide electricity all over
the country. It has rich agricultural potential, and it borders on
nine—count them—nine other African nations.
Sudan has the potential of being a bridge between Islamic Arab North
Africa and Bantu Black Sub-Saharan Africa. In my book, that makes
Sudan, an "enemy" of Western Imperialism, by simple definition.
I am not embarrassed any more to openly question the Save Darfur
movement, because it is just the same old anti-Sudan movement, just
dressed up in a different coat, a coat of many colors, including
well-meaning conservatives, liberals, and even Blacks, all of whom
have been duped by someone's anti-Sudan "Big Lie" which has also
proven to be a very profitable hustle.
Askia Muhammad is Editor of National Scene News Bureau, which provides
editorial, audio and photographic content for broadcast and print
clients, including The Final Call, National Public Radio, Soundprint,
WPFW-FM and this newspaper [The Washington Informer].
askia99 @ verizon.net
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