NikkiSerapio.com

Originally published on OurPledge.org.

“Now Mr. Bashir is preparing to kill people en masse, not with machetes but by withholding the aid that keeps them alive.” – Nicholas Kristof, March 7, 2009

The words above were published about one month ago. We need to revisit them. Indeed, we’d do well to revisit Nick Kristof’s entire Op-Ed about the drastic endgame that Omar al-Bashir has imposed on more than one million displaced Darfuris.

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On one of our office walls, we’ve posted this reminder on a big drawing pad: “Always: Combine practical skills with moral imagination.” It’s a line that I read some time ago on the website of the Acumen Fund.

Now more than ever, we need to enlarge our moral imaginations in order to transform empathy and sympathy into advocacy for Sudan. That is, put yourself in their shoes:

- Your son has not eaten in so many days because the Sudanese government has decided to sever your only access to food.
- You’ve lost your mother and father already and now you face losing your entire family to an outbreak of disease.
- Your daughter was raped by the Sudanese government’s proxy militias. And now Khartoum has decided to let your daughter starve to death.

These are real-time descriptions: they capture in small part the inner and outer lives — the immense amount of suffering — that countless Darfuris bear today.

Faced with this, it’s of course easy to shunt our moral responsibilities. And when we turn a blind eye, we always have the luxury of an excuse: Nothing can be done. The political situation is impossible. Our leaders don’t care, especially since they have a world economy to save.

But these are excuses. When we use them, we forget the ordinary people who struggled before us and against the heaviest of odds. They fought against slavery and apartheid, and against the deepest and the widest of oppressions. They were eminently practical in their organizing — they were pragmatists of conscience, if you will — but in their worldliness they managed to create social movements on a global scale. And they changed the world.

We here at AADG/OurPledge.org are immensely grateful to the Sudan advocacy movement. This is a challenging time, and we know that it is difficult to ramp up now and inspire new engagement and re-engagement, six years into the Darfur genocide. But we must. We must speak out like never before. We must organize our communities like never before. And we must speak truth to power and always remember who we’re fighting for.

Reposting from OurPledge.org:

Today saw a flood of news analyses, press releases, editorials, blog posts, and action alerts in response to the International Criminal Court’s issuance of an arrest warrant against Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur.

What follows is our roundup of and our take on today’s developments.

GENOCIDE IN ONE OF ITS MOST CHARACTERISTIC FORMS

In response to the warrant, the Sudanese Government immediately revoked the aid licenses of a number of major humanitarian organizations operating in Sudan, including Oxfam, CARE, Mercy Corps, International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, MSF-Holland, Norwegian Refugee Council, and CHF International.

These are the organizations that do the majority of the lifesaving food distribution and medical work in Western Sudan.

Make no mistake about it: Millions of lives are at grave risk right now because of Khartoum’s blanket action. This is genocide in one of its most characteristic forms — genocide through forced starvation and disease.

Oxfam’s International Director has confirmed: “…[The Government of Sudan's decision] will affect more than 600,000 Sudanese people whom we provide with vital humanitarian and development aid, including clean water and sanitation on a daily basis. 400,000 of them are affected by the ongoing conflict in Darfur — where people continue to flee from violence and the humanitarian needs remain enormous.”

STOPPING GENOCIDE IMMEDIATELY

Ending the genocide in Darfur and bringing peace to all of Sudan are huge undertakings. These aren’t impossible tasks, however, namely because the U.S. and other powerful actors already know what to do in order to stop the dying and promote peace, protection, and accountability in Sudan. The policies below were first advocated at least two years ago — in some cases they were formulated and championed by Africa experts now in the Obama administration, including UN Ambassador Susan Rice.

1) Historically, the Khartoum regime has been sensitive to heavy economic pressure. Therefore, why not tighten the screws and impose targeted multilateral sanctions (including asset freezes and travel bans) against its top leaders?

2) Why not destroy Sudan’s military aircraft on the ground in Darfur? The U.S. can do this from its base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. Why not launch a full-court and aggressive diplomatic offensive within NATO and the United Nations in order to ensure that UNAMID has the resources it needs — including weaponry and attack helicopters — to protect Darfur effectively?

3) On the U.S. diplomatic front, why not appoint a full-time Presidential Envoy for Sudan? And why can’t President Obama himself issue a public warning to Sudan’s genocidaires, in order to send the strong signal that the U.S. will not allow genocide to continue?

HEARD AND WRITTEN ELSEWHERE

Human Rights Watch: “”The Security Council and concerned governments should impose targeted sanctions against Sudanese officials responsible for any retaliatory violence, and consider other measures such as further banking restrictions or a widening of the arms embargo,” said [Richard] Dicker, [HRW's International Justice Program Director].”

The Justice for Darfur Campaign: “The UN Security Council should make clear to Sudanese authorities that threats or attacks against UN peacekeepers, humanitarian workers, or civilians in Darfur or elsewhere in Sudan in retaliation for the ICC’s decision to issue an arrest warrant are not acceptable.” (This quote is taken from a statement signed by Americans Against the Darfur Genocide and a number of other NGOs, including Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, and Amnesty International.)

Congressman Donald Payne: “For far too long we have allowed Khartoum to get away with state-sanctioned genocide. This move by the ICC gives hope that the world will no longer look away…I hope the Obama administration uses this opportunity to push for justice and peace in Sudan.”

The Save Darfur Coalition: “First and foremost, the United States, other Security Council members, and regional world leaders must address the Khartoum regime’s recent threats of retaliatory violence as well as reports of possible military escalation by other parties to the conflict. World leaders must condemn these threats and make clear that such actions will be met with swift and severe consequences.”

Michelle at Change.org: “We cannot let Bashir own the board — to put it quite simply, he’s gotten away with murder for far too long now, and he’s pushing the envelope again, taking his chances that the world’s warnings of consequences and accountability will once again prove empty.”

John Norris, Executive Director of the Enough Project: “I hope other tyrants and warlords around the globe are taking note. Slobodan Milosevic, Charles Taylor, and now, President Bashir were only willing to learn the hard way. There are now millions of activists around the United States that expect the Obama administration to make both peace and justice a priority in Sudan.”

A CONCRETE PLAN OF ACTION FOR PRESIDENT OBAMA

The Enough Project has specified some crucial next steps for President Obama:

- Work with the U.N. Security Council to support targeted sanctions against those most responsible for violence in Sudan and impose a comprehensive arms embargo against the Government of Sudan;
- Make UNAMID effective with a robust force on the ground in Darfur with a competent lead nation and a clear command-and-control structure;
- Work closely with interested parties with leverage in Sudan and the region, especially China, the United Kingdom, France, and key African countries, to coordinate efforts on peace efforts, the protection of civilians, and accountability;
- Counter continued violations by Sudan on the UN ban on offensive military flights in Darfur; and
- Appoint a senior Special Envoy to not only address the situation in Darfur, but Sudan’s multiple conflicts and their regional dimensions.

WHAT YOU CAN DO RIGHT NOW

Call the White House Hotline at 202-456-1111 and deliver the message below to the person at the other end. Email 5 of your friends and ask them to call as well.

“President Obama, please use all means necessary to impose targeted multilateral sanctions against the Government of Sudan’s senior leaders. These perpetrators of genocide have revoked the aid licenses of almost every major humanitarian organization working in Sudan. Because of this, millions of lives are now at grave risk. This must not stand. We can’t allow genocide to continue on our watch. Thank you.”

Some months ago Avaaz.org emailed me a climate change petition. And this is how the primary petition call-to-action was presented:

I had never seen this specific form of one-click e-advocacy before. No need to enter in your name or email address on an external page. No request to add a personal appeal to a default message. Simply click a “yes” or “no” button, and you’re done.

I won’t discuss here the effectiveness of such a presentation. (Don’t get me wrong — Avaaz does some great work.) Rather, what’s interesting to me is the long-term use-value of this type of activism.

At Americans Against the Darfur Genocide (AADG), we’ve tried to craft Sudan e-advocacy in such a way that it serves as a hook for more robust kinds of action. Admittedly, sometimes it’s very hard to generate this movement up the enagement ladder, since we’re constantly fighting against the perceptions of folks who are acutely sensitive of their own time. (”I deeply care about this issue, but because of work and family and Y and Z, I can only devote ten minutes to it each week.”)

The things that AADG really wants its supporters to do — visit their Senators’ district offices, organize Darfur house parties, etc. — are the things that require considerable personal and community investment (relatively speaking) from all involved. Usually, our coordinators can’t immediately ask *new* listserv sign-ups to do these tasks. Because more often than not, we’ll first need to show (or reconfirm) our knowledge of the issues as well as our earnest commitment through our website, emails, and other channels. And then, we’ll need to gain constituent trust through one-on-one outreach. And then, we’ll need to convey again the value of our mission and programs while being forthright about their limitations. Only after all of this (usually) can we start asking for some substantial offline follow-up on behalf of the people of Sudan.

So, ultimately the problem here is one of scale: our small team at AADG can’t do one-on-ones with all of our constituents, but we desperately need to help build a strong anti-genocide movement.

This is where online activism comes in. Building campaigns, building leadership around these campaigns, and building community to sustain these campaigns — these are the objectives of the hand-shaking, barnstorming organizer. But perhaps online tools can somehow help fulfill these objectives. At the end, this is the problem that we need to solve: How can organizers and nonprofits of all shapes and sizes turn e-advocacy into a powerful long-term tool for generating offline advocacy?

Reposting from OurPledge.org:

A Retuers article published earlier this week discusses some of the difficulties with the recent agreement between Khartoum and the rebel Justice and Equality Movement. The big issue is that, at this point, the Sudanese government can’t be expected to honor the document meaningfully. Countless broken ceasefires and the failed 2006 Darfur Peace Agreement prove that Omar al-Bashir’s ruling regime uses these pieces of paper in order to buy more time for its divide-and-destroy campaign in Darfur.

This “Agreement of Good Will and Confidence Building For the Settlement of the Problem in Darfur” does not speak for the vast majority of internally displaced persons, Darfuri refugees, and Sudanese civil society members who deserve to have a voice at the table. And it doesn’t do anything to strengthen the peacemaking hand of the Obama administration, which confronts the huge (yet doable) tasks of ending Khartoum’s genocidal war and bringing peace to all of Sudan.

For more analysis on this measure, please read this excellent blog post from Enough. The key quote from Enough’s analysis: “After more than five years of broken agreements, this accord ought not be hailed as a major breakthrough until we see tangible results on the ground.”

If the Sudanese government is really going to stop its bombing and disarm its proxy militias, then the international community needs to use some of the sticks in its pocket. Ultimately, a peace for Darfur and all of Sudan must be hammered out. That said, it’s vital that the United States and other actors catalyze and sustain a viable peace process from a position of strength. And this means — as a start — imposing targeted sanctions (asset freezes, travel bans, etc.) against Khartoum’s senior leaders. Only considerable economic and military pressure can force Khartoum’s genocidaires to correct their behavior and make good on their promises.

Wufoo is an awesome tool for building rich web forms.

The Wufoo folks really know how to design great user interfaces. One proof point: It made for a small joy, but I was nonetheless happy to see this notification window recently (click the image below for a full screenshot):

There’s a lot of text here, but the density challenge is solved through a nice — and tasteful — use of color. And extra points need to be given for the amusing window title (”Since You’ve Been Gone”).

Another angle, another human cost. From the article:

“But with high rents, lagging federal aid and now a recession that is drying up entry-level work, the transition has become harder than ever, refugee workers say. Overwhelming housing costs are its starkest symptom. Many new arrivals spend 90 percent or more of their income on rent and utilities, leaving them virtually no disposable income and creating enormous hardships.”

The swearing-in and Inaugural Address of the 44th President of the United States of America (I was there!):

Reposting from OurPledge.org:

Hope all of you are enjoying the Holidays!

If you have a few spare minutes today, check out and bookmark the Enough Project’s brand-new website. Of special note is the organization’s new blog, Enough Said. Expect some great commentary to be posted there.

Enough is helping to build a permanent constituency to prevent genocide and crimes against humanity. In many ways, they are the “Intel chip” of the Sudan movement, providing advocates with a backbone of expert analysis and news from the field.

I’m been thinking about the ideal and in-practice connections between online and offline organizing. I wanted to quote the following, taken from this interesting analysis of the Obama campaign’s field structures [the emphases are mine]:

[Obama Field Director] Jackie wrote:

“When we identify a volunteer or a potential volunteer we always hold a one on one meeting. Movements aren’t built on individual people — they are built on relationships. Then we ask our volunteers to make deeper commitments. We coach new volunteers and facilitate the process for folks who are old hat at this stuff through an organizing activity. Usually the organizing activity is hosting a house meeting but it can be hosting a community meeting or a faith forum or recruiting seven plus new volunteers to take the first step and come to our office. Once someone has succeeded at an organizing activity we ask them to try their hand at leading a voter contact activity. Mostly we are interested in how well they train fellow volunteers to make phone calls or knock on doors. Training is a huge part of quality control and we need our leaders to be good trainers. If a potential leader is a successful trainer then we meet with them again to ask them to take that next step and become a Team Coordinator or Team Leader. If at any moment in this process a volunteer isn’t successful our organizers are trained to spend time coaching them through getting better. We are an inclusive team here and our goal is always to make people better.”

Following up on my last post, here’s a new report from the Enough Project:

“Beyond Crisis Management in Eastern Congo”

Outlines some important next steps for the policy world, including establishing a viable counterinsurgency strategy to remove the FDLR from Eastern Congo. When you’re done reading the report, please check out this related brief for activists:

Activist Brief: Beyond Crisis Management in Eastern Congo