G. Clooney and Darfur

You really have to admire George Clooney for his work in calling attention to the crisis in Darfur. He just outdid himself with the recent news that, in coordination with several actors including the UN and Harvard, he'll be launching private satellites to watch for any kind of increasing conflict in the Sudan as the referendum approaches between the north and south.

The Satellite Sentinel Project will launch on Dec 30, with the website going live right about now. It's nice to have deep pockets, connections, and a brand name to make things happen! Clooney is spending $750,000 to launch the effort, which will monitor troop movements with the images being uploaded to the satsentinel.org website within 24 hours for all the world to see what may or may not be happening in the lead up to the vote for succession. How's that for revolutionizing genocide prevention?

Clooney makes a great point when he makes note of how one can imagine the impact if this were 1943 and we were able to detect through pictures what was happening at Auschwitz. No one would be able to say they didn't know, and the deniers would be denied after the fact. Why hasn't anyone else thought of this? Kudos to George Clooney and his passion for the cause.

South Sudan Recent Photos

A representative from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum recently took a trip to Sudan to look into South Sudan and its January 2011 referendum for independence from the north. As noted in the caption under the first photo, the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended the two decade long civil war between the north and south stipulates that the vote on independence be held. The pictures here were taken in the last month or so.

All eyes will be on Sudan in early January to see how the vote turns out and most importantly, to see to what extent violence will break out leading up to and following the referendum.