CAMP DARFUR REFLECTION

Overall, I think Camp Darfur was very successful. All together we were able to raise over 800 dollars and educate almost 500 people. In my eyes Camp Darfur was a great success. Everything turned out perfect, but I wished there were more people that we could of educated so the word could be spread even more.

The speaker I found most interesting was Majur Malou. He was very inspiring and he had great stories and experiences to share with us and because I already had previously had met with him because my group had set up an interview for our DVD chronicles of indifference.

Camp Darfur was a great experience that will have a lasting impression on me. In the beginning I had thought that this project was useless and nothing was going to get done. But actually hearing for the people of Sudan totally changed my mind. I honestly felt bad for the people of Sudan, and I wish we could do more to help. I heard about a teacher’s mom that actually cried during our presentation. She cried because of the impact one of the installations had on her. Seeing and hearing the impact it had on her, I wonder how many other people were deeply affected and what there going to do in order to stop genocide entirely.

In conclusion, Camp Darfur was a great success and it was fun too display all of our knowledge that we had accumulated throughout the year.

Not On Our Watch #2

Chapters 4-6 mainly focused on the causes and the perpetrators of the genocide in Darfur and the reasons why the United States have not done anything drastic so far. For some reason I felt it was a lot easier to read these chapters. The beginning quote in chapter 5 “If every member of the House and Senate has received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crisis was first developing, then the response would have been different.” –Senator Paul Simon really made me think of our letter writing campaigns. While I was reading and I came across this quote I was like “hey this sounds really familiar”. But the reality is, the genocide in Darfur has been going on for years and though people might think it’s still not too late, hundreds of thousands of people have already died.

Not On Our Watch

Not On Our Watch is a non-fiction is a book written by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast. This book is great for a number of reasons, if you skip past the preface it goes right into the action. Prendergast along with Cheadle visit Sudan and the camps in Chad. It gives detailed account's of what is really going on in the Sudanese region of Darfur. For example when they speak about the their first experience in the region and what the discover, they come across a pile of dead bodies all executed by the janjaweed. I mean, it’s sad to hear and read about these events but that’s what’s really going on at this very moment and this is why it is important to try and stop the genocide from further destruction . This book is great because it also outlines things that you can do to help prevent the genocide, such as raising awareness through spreading the word, writing to your local news station, and also plenty of other things. Though, this book has a lot of facts and may seem dry at some points it could only further my knowledge on a subject that is unknown to a lot of people.

Field Trip Reflection

Thursday’s field trip to Los Angeles was one of the greatest and most memorable experiences I have had in a while. After learning about genocide and the holocaust it was amazing to see up close what some of the victims had to go through. After 10 minutes of talking in that wagon it began to get really hot. I could only imagine what some of the Jewish people went through. I mean 2 weeks of sitting in cramped and dirty conditions, I’m really thankful I’ve never gone through that. It was also really sad to see the pictures of holocaust victims on the wall. Our museum guide was like; take a look at the wall these pictures were donated by family members of the dead. That wasn’t too exciting to hear about.

The Darfur event in the evening was great, I can’t wait to read the book that we got. I gained a lot of knowledge on top of the things I had already known about just by listening to what Cheadle and Prendergast had to say. It was cool to see so many people who wanted to make a huge difference in our world, without violence. The thing that surprised me was, I didn’t expect to see that many kids. In fact the majority of the audience was young adults. I thought that it was also really cool that kids our age were so heavily involved in the stopping of genocide especially in Darfur.

Overall the day was pretty chill, from the architecture museum, to the tar pits, to the holocaust memorial, and finally the Darfur event the day was pretty random. I’m sure I’ll never have another day like this only because of the variety of subjects and this is why I won’t forget about it anytime soon.

Dialetic Journal #2

“Blessed be the name of the Eternal!”

Why, but why should I bless him? In every fiber I rebelled. Because he had thousands of children burned in his pits? Because he kept six crematories working night and day, on Sundays and feast days. Because in His great might he created Auschwitz, Birkenau, Buna, and so many other factories of death? How could I say to him: “Blessed art Thou, Eternal, Master of the Universe, who chose us from the races to be tortured day and night, to see our fathers, mothers, brothers end in the crematory? Praised be Thy Holy Name, Thou who hast chosen us to be butchered on Thine altar.

This thought comes into Elies head right before the start of Rosh Hashanah the start of the Jewish year, a service was being held and they were saying a prayer. Elie blames god for all the trouble he has caused him and for all the trouble of the Jewish people. “I was the accuser and God was the accused” thought Elie. He envisioned a world without God, man, love, or mercy. This is probably one of the deepest quotes of the entire book, I mean to put a blame on a force such as God. Elie was at his breaking point and he had, had enough.He rebelled even more by not fasting when he was suppose too. “I no longer accepted God’s silence. As I swallowed my bowl of soup, I saw the gesture as a act of rebellion and protest against him.”

Night Journal

“How is it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world is kept silent, a nightmare perhaps? “

Elie and his father had just been separated into lines not knowing what their fate would be. For the first time, Elie and the others realize what is going on and that in some crazy way the lady screaming on the train was right about the fires. Elie see’s babies and children being tossed and the roasted in the fire. This creates a very graphic image in my head not to mention the smell it creates when someone says that the air “smells of burnt human flesh”. Elie was fifteen years old at the time and to have seen this was probably the most horrific experience of his life. But this just goes to show how bad things were back during WW2. In connection to modern day the quote from the book made me think about how the genocide in Darfur is going and still no is doing anything about it.

AQOTWF Final Discussion

What images of the novel are lingering in your mind? Explain why these images made a lasting impression on you.

So the image that made the most impression on me would be the one where Paul is sitting in a bomb hole and all of a sudden a man jumps into the hole. Paul stabs him 3 times in the chest. The image I saw in my head was quite gruesome I imagined a bloody knife and a guy with three gaping holes in his chest. Just reading this passage made me sick to my stomach.