March 28, 2024

Rob Crilly: The Analysis is the Problem

Rob Crilly is a British journalist I met in Nairobi. He has spent the past five years covering Darfur, and has his first book coming out later this year, entitled Saving Darfur: Everyone’s Favourite African War. He and I disagree on several things (the value of the ICC for instance) and he, like many, has […]

Tim Nonn: Civil disobedience

To start us off, here is Tim Nonn’s piece – unabashedly focused on the question of what advocates can do to strengthen the movement and increase political will, it does not attempt to come up with policy solutions. Engaging with this within those parameters: I recall some discussions of civil disobedience for Darfur a few […]

What next?

Alex de Waal and Nick Kristof come from relatively different ends of the Darfur advocacy spectrum. Yet last week de Waal’s Making Sense of Darfur piece asked “Can Sudan Activism Transform Itself for the Obama Era?”  and last month Kristof’s On The Ground blog began by saying “The Save Darfur movement seems to be losing […]

Regarding the SDAC post

I don’t want to be drawn into the personal attacks that I have criticized others for getting into, so I’ll try to keep this to a few substantive points that I should probably correct for the record. 1. SDAC says: “the root of the problem [with my research] is the apparent lack of diversity of […]

To the “Save Darfur Accountability Project”

I’m interested in hearing all perspectives, so we should set up an interview.  You can use the submit a question tab on my website to get in touch – your contact details go straight to my inbox (no one else will see it, so if confidentiality is a concern, I can agree not to disclose […]

Who says the Chinese government isn’t susceptible to pressure?

Drafting my section of the Genocide Olympics campaign, I am dealing with two competing views summarized beautifully in this NYT op ed today by HRW’s Phelim Kine. Kine writes:

Activism under Obama

Where does one end a book about Darfur and advocacy? I have this very nice proposal which concludes neatly with the expectations around the incoming Obama Administration.  But – unfortunately for my timeline and budget –  the events  since Obama came into office make it just too interesting to stop the story there. Related to […]

“Gration Must Go” – a distraction

“Gration Must Go” is the call that has just been put out by some U.S.-based Darfur advocates – including people that, I should disclose, I respect the work of. They are sincere people, genuinely committed to improving the lives of people in Darfur. And yet I think that in making this call they are setting […]

Worth reading: ‘Beyond Janjaweed’ Understanding the militias of Darfur

This report, released this month by the Small Arms Survey, on the people who were recruited as proxy militias by the Sudanese government in Darfur, is well worth the read. Its author is Julie Flint (who wrote Darfur: A Short History of a Long War with Alex de Waal), and while I don’t agree with […]

Questions for the advocacy community: Q3 – Sam Bell

Q3 – What are the costs/benefits of single issue advocacy? Does the focus on a single issue crowd out the potential to focus on structural changes that would be required to deal with both the single issue and other related issues? Sam Bell: It seems to me that policy-making is a “single-issue”* enterprise. Candidates campaign […]