News: The Ripple Effect

• Sudan/Darfur: New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff warns in his blog that the international community’s failure to end the conflict in Darfur could lead a resumption of the North-South civil war. Kristoff also calls Bush out on “disingenuous” comments about the US role in Darfur.
• Somalia: Ethiopian soldiers killed at least 12 civilians in an apparent revenge attack after a second lethal bomb attack against Ethiopian troops. Ethiopia deployed soldiers to Somalia in 2006 to help support the weak transitional government against Islamist insurgents. Adding to the country’s woes, drought and the high inflation of food prices could soon lead to widespread starvation, resulting in a more dire humanitarian crisis that will exacerbate other conflicts playing out in the country.
• Southern Africa: A report released by Save the Children describes the hardships and horrors faced by child migrants traveling alone in the region, including beatings, forced labor, and sexual abuse. In addition to the moral and ethical imperatives of protecting children from abuse and exploitation, I think that we also need to address the issue in consideration of long-term goals for peace and stability in Africa, as these experiences in childhood will impact their adulthood. It’s a ripple effect: I once listened to a former member of the youth paramilitary wing of the Pan-African Congress in South Africa explain that he and his comrades spent their formative years as insurgents, and were given no assistance or training to adapt to life as a peaceful civilian. He partially attributed, with individual examples, South Africa’s high crime rate to the fact that many of these young men know no other way of life.
• The Holocaust: Tomorrow is Holocaust Remembrance Day. Here’s a great story from the New York Times about the recovery of a Torah scroll, part of which was buried to avoid destruction in a Nazi raid, and part of which was carried to Auschwitz.