Lack of awareness of Darfur and the genocide in Sudan: Can we do more? Can the blogosphere help?

Lack of awareness is an issue

Over the past few days I have had many many conversations about why we can't do more about the genocide in Sudan. Almost everyone I talk to who knows about the situation--right or left--Christian, Jew, Muslim, Atheist or New Age, hawk or dove, recognizes both the tragedy on the ground and the denial reflected in the world's lack of effective response.

But most people are simply not aware of the situation, or have only a vague perception of a problem "somewhere." There is a profound lack of general public awareness of the genocide in Sudan, and this makes it hard to get the issue addressed in the political sphere. I believe the US government is poised to take effective action, but is hesitant to go forward without broader public support.

Now Eugene Oregon today quotes a poll from the University of Maryland Program on International Policy Attitudes that quantifies this profound lack of knowledge:

As you may know, in a province of Sudan called Darfur there is a conflict between the local black African Darfur is and the central government, dominated by Arabs. How much have you heard about this situation?

A lot................................3%
Some...............................11
Not very much.....................28
Nothing at all.....................56
(No answer)........................3

As Oregon says, "So there you go. Of the 892 people PIPA polled about the situation in Darfur, less than 27 knew a lot about it. I'm assuming the 11% who said they had heard 'some' about it probably vaguely recall hearing it mentioned somewhere and most likely couldn't find Sudan on a map of Sudan."

What more can we do?

The newspapers have been very active and helpful on the issue. Newspapers in a vast range of cities have run editorials and stories on Sudan. But so far there seems to have been little public impact.

The blogosphere has been somewhat active, and is becoming more so. We could do more. We can work together more intensely. We can add more focus. We can join together on specific concrete actions, such as contacting Congress in the US, and elected officials around the world. And we can do collective actions. E.g. we might adopt a death counter, based on both Eric Reeves' figures--which I believe--as well as the lower but still tragic UN death numbers

Television?

Finally, there is our sometimes nemesis, TV. One perhaps obvious hypothesis: What has been missing in regard to the genocide in Sudan is television coverage. For better or worse, national television matters profoundly in terms of gettting a situation into the public consciousness. Television determines our shared "sensorium" -- how we "experience" our wider world. If it does not appear on TV, the collective mind--in contrast to your or my individual mind--just does not experience something. If its not on TV, its not "real."

Is there some way to get the genocide in Sudan on TV? Anybody know anybody influential in programming at Fox--or MTV? By the way, a lot of newspapers own TV stations. Do any of you at newspapers know friends you could call at your sister TV stations, to bring attention to this story?

There is talk of building a giant LED screen, with numbers of dead in Sudan, and mounting is somewhere visible to TV. Anybody know someone at Sony who could run something like this in Times Square, right behind the morning show studios?

And finally, can the blogosphere in part substitute for TV, if we rethink our strategies creatively enough? Can we use RSS to substitute for TV? Can we deliver images that will change the consciousness of the nation? I'd love to get Rebecca McKinnon and Adam Curry and Dave Winer and Andrew Grumet and Armando Stettner, for example, working on this one.

PS: Oregon has a good current summary of the situation in regard to Darfur and Sudan.

Oregon also relays a vivid, full-scale version of the photo of a dying child that graced--and I use this word with intent--the cover of The New York Times Sunday.

Comments

[Arjun Singh]

I am thinking on the same wavelength as you about the blogosphere being a catalyst of some sort. I have a few tenuous contacts with Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and know other bloggers in Canada who likely have more.

I also mentioned this at my Rotary Club yesterday and could try and get my Rotary district (58 clubs) information about how they could help.

I am here to help. I do believe we need military action, but am not hardline about it. Whatever is doable must be done.

[Michael]

I wrote an article about the genocide and impact of the gutting of the Sudan Peace Act by the Bush Administration in 2002. No one seems to talk about putting pressure on Sudan where it will hurt the most since Bush killed very a effective method of embargo in that bill. It seems that the oil companies involved in development and exploration in Sudan have effectively buried the strongest tool we have to stop the killing.

http://dean4az.blogspot.com/2004/07/powells-sudanese-farce_01.html

[Linkmeister]

It made it onto PBS "The News Hour" tonight, with the guy who's head of Doctors Without Borders and a doctor from a different NGO.

[gottaB]

Dr. Jennifer Leaning of Physicians for Human Rights. She's been a guest before.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec04/sudan_07-20.html

I watch News Hour and the bbc, and have seen several stories about Darfur. What's the market share for public television news?

[th]

It is late April 2005. Systematic rape and humanitarian crisis continues in Sudan, regions south of Darfur and in refugee camps.

Having a difficult time getting up to date info on Sudan.

Last night on a US television talk/comedy program" Real Time with Bill Mahrer, it was mentioned the U.S. prefers the Sudan governments genocide actions in exchange for its assistance with Al Queda information.

How do I get more information on this?