Google zeroes in on Darfur
p2pnet.net news:- Google has found a clever, and innovative, way to quite literally focus attention on the devastated Darfur region in the Sudan.
Darfur is, “already identified by the UN as the “world’s worst humanitarian disaster” and it’s “teetering on the brink of a genocidal catastrophe,” says the Children’s Hunger Relief Fund Sudan relief effort.
“Some 3.6 million innocent Darfuri civilians – including 1.8 million children – have been victimized by the government-supported Janjaweed militias,” it states.
“These ruthless bands, whose name means ‘devils on horseback’, have forced millions of Darfuris to flee their homes for crowded refugee camps, where they continue to suffer extreme deprivation, disease and continued violent attacks.”
Google has teamed up with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) to give people using Google Earth, “a bird’s eye view of the aftermath of four years of fighting between the East African nation’s Arab-dominated government and the largely black residents of the Darfur region,” says the San Francisco Chronicle, going on:
“Elliot Schrage, Google’s vice president of global communications and public affairs, said the new high-resolution images are intended to encourage individuals to act against what he – along with U.S. officials and many human rights groups – describe as genocide.”
Clicking on flame icons brings up village names, images and statistics on the extent of the destruction.
“Crisis in Darfur is the first project of the Museum’s Genocide Prevention Mapping Initiative that will over time include information on potential genocides allowing citizens, governments, and institutions to access information on atrocities in their nascent stages and respond,” says USHMM director Sara J. Bloomfield.
“Educating today’s generation about the atrocities of the past and present can be enhanced by technologies such as Google Earth. When it comes to responding to genocide, the world’s record is terrible. We hope this important initiative with Google will make it that much harder for the world to ignore those who need us the most.”
Also See:
San Francisco Chronicle – Google Earth zooms in on Darfur carnage, April 11, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
