Spring Break
STAND march targets China's role in Darfur
by Ariel Wittenberg
News | 10/9/07
Posted online at 3:56 AM EST on 10/9/07
The beating African drum echoed off the walls of a lower Usdan packed with hungry students Saturday afternoon, calling them to look up and watch the procession through the cafeteria. Eyes lifted from wraps, burgers and salads, perplexed as the group of about 50 students marched past them in sync with the beat. Most students stared, trying to make sense of what was going on.
While some students reacted with either passivity or confusion to this Dream for Darfur Olympic March, the event's student organizers, members of Brandeis' chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, were simply aiming to catch their attention and raise their awareness.
The event was one of hundreds of similar marches that took place this past summer and are occuring this fall as part of a national and international effort to shed light on China's connection to genocide in Darfur and how that issue will be highlighted at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"Brandeis is known as being a really politically and socially aware campus, but for [STAND], aware means that students know that people are dying in Darfur," said Daniel Millenson '09, president of STAND Brandeis. "But they don't know about the China connection. That's what this march is for."
China is one of Sudan's main trading partners, according to STAND and the Dream for Darfur Web sites. Sudan sells China oil and China sells weapons to the Sudanese government. Millenson explained that if China were to "starve the Sudanese government economically," it could put enough pressure on the government to end the genocide.
Dream for Darfur is the initative that is helping to organize the relays. The campaign hopes to use the 2008 Olympics as a way of combating genocide by making the event a stage to bring the issue to the forefront of international consciousness.
"[China] wants to put its best face forward for the world [at the Olympics], and they don't want to be seen as a dictatorship that supports genocide or as the regime that ran students over with tanks at Tiananmen Square, and we're going to ruin that for them unless they change their policies," Millenson said during the march.
While some students reacted with either passivity or confusion to this Dream for Darfur Olympic March, the event's student organizers, members of Brandeis' chapter of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, were simply aiming to catch their attention and raise their awareness.
The event was one of hundreds of similar marches that took place this past summer and are occuring this fall as part of a national and international effort to shed light on China's connection to genocide in Darfur and how that issue will be highlighted at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
"Brandeis is known as being a really politically and socially aware campus, but for [STAND], aware means that students know that people are dying in Darfur," said Daniel Millenson '09, president of STAND Brandeis. "But they don't know about the China connection. That's what this march is for."
China is one of Sudan's main trading partners, according to STAND and the Dream for Darfur Web sites. Sudan sells China oil and China sells weapons to the Sudanese government. Millenson explained that if China were to "starve the Sudanese government economically," it could put enough pressure on the government to end the genocide.
Dream for Darfur is the initative that is helping to organize the relays. The campaign hopes to use the 2008 Olympics as a way of combating genocide by making the event a stage to bring the issue to the forefront of international consciousness.
"[China] wants to put its best face forward for the world [at the Olympics], and they don't want to be seen as a dictatorship that supports genocide or as the regime that ran students over with tanks at Tiananmen Square, and we're going to ruin that for them unless they change their policies," Millenson said during the march.
Be the first to comment on this story