Google Shows What News Neglects

Right now, download Google Earth. Search "Darfur camps."

See the testimonials, the photos, the camps labeled "ok" or "destroyed" (see how the destroyed overwhelms the ok).

See the button for "how to help."

Yes, everyone knows about Darfur. But when a genocide is happening, right now, at this moment people dying or living in terror...we need to see more. We need more national news coverage on Darfur (perhaps in lieu of overcoverage of stories like the mysterious death of a certain actress, may God rest her soul). We need to see. What Google and the Holocaust Museum have done is admirable, even if we say we already "know." Because if we keep knowing, maybe we (yes, each of us) can move our government to do more. We know what can be done. I find it very hard to believe that the international community can't band together and force Omar al-Bashir to accept an intervention. The odds are in our favor. But right now, at this moment, odds do not favor Darfurians.

We mark the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide this month: 800,000 killed in 100 days, a country torn apart. We know the international community could have stopped it, but did nothing. Despite UN Commander Romeo Dallaire's fervent plea for an intervention, the United Nations (at the request of our own country) withdrew its forces in the middle of that April. We didn't act, and so we share the blame.

It's April again. Genocide is happening again. I have no power over policy. I don't pretend to know the best solution. But I do know that we, each of us, can see more and do more.