Blog Posts in Peace
“There’s No Money in the Elections”
JUBA, Southern Sudan – Six kids to care for, husband’s left town so she’s on her own, it’s over 100 degrees Fahrenheit and at 10 a.m., it seems like it’s already been a long day for Stella, a southern Sudanese woman running a tea and coffee stand in a market on the outskirts of Juba.
As she roasts coffee beans over a charcoal stove, Stella responds with passion to my casual inquiries about Sudan’s upcoming elections, but as my friend Isa translates from Juba Arabic to English for me, I realize Stella is not voicing her enthusiasm for a particular candidate or political ideology; she is angry about her own situation as a single mother trying to make ends meet.
Stella says she wishes she could work for the Government of Southern Sudan, because from her perspective, the people who do work in government are the ones with money. (Isa explains that she probably is referring to work as a cleaner or a tea service person in a government office, given that she is not literate.) As for the elections, she says through my friend’s translation that “there’s no money in the elections.” From our short conversation, this statement seems perfectly logical to me. Her primary concern is supporting her family, and if participating in the elections could help her to do this, she would. I don’t think it is a stretch to posit that Stella’s personal experiences have not given her good reason to view the elections as a vehicle for political and practical change in her country.
I stopped for tea at Stella’s stand because I wanted to ask her about the large campaign poster hanging outside the market entrance. The sheet was painted with red and blue letters that read: “SPLM: New Sudan, Yes We Can.” When I first saw this poster, I was amused by the clever wordplay and reference to President Obama’s campaign. But after talking to Stella – and learning that she was not aware of the meaning of the campaign slogan because she cannot read and no one explained it to her – I better understood the disconnect between the complex arena of Sudanese politics and the basic yet monumental needs of ordinary Sudanese people. The conversation was a reminder of the space between the political wrangling that I often report about and the expectations and priorities of the majority of Sudanese people.
5 Best Stories You Might Have Missed This Week
Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
The International Rescue Committee created this short and catchy video to urge people to sign a petition calling on Congress to pass the International Violence Against Women Act. It’s very shareable, so pass it around in honor of International Women’s Day/Month.
Reporting from the Liberian capital of Monrovia, Doreen Carvajal of the New York Times highlighted the U.N. peacekeeping mission’s innovative approach to nation building in a post-conflict setting. At 14 percent, women peacekeepers in the Liberia mission represent the largest proportion of women in missions worldwide. Professor Gerard DeGroot, who has done extensive research on the influence of women in the military, explained the rationale:
“When female soldiers are present, the situation is closer to real life, and as a result the men tend to behave. Any conflict where you have an all-male army, it’s like a holiday from reality. If you inject women into that situation, they do have a civilizing effect.”
This State Department apology, covered by Foreign Policy, to the Libyan president is pretty funny. Mr. Crowley, we knew what you meant, but now that you mention it, your assessment of President Qaddafi’s performance at the U.N. General Assembly wasn’t so diplomatic.
Geoffrey York of the Globe and Mail blog Africa Diary offers an interesting discussion of the recent grenade attacks in Kigali, Rwanda through an interview with journalist Didas Gasana of the embattled weekly Umuseso. York describes one theory of the journalist:
Although he cannot prove it, [Gasana] believes there is a possibility that the grenade attacks were orchestrated by state intelligence agencies to justify a crackdown on electoral politics. It’s an uncomfortable question, but without the independent media in Rwanda there would be nobody to raise such questions.
Colum Lynch’s second edition of his new daily round-up over at Foreign Policy’s U.N. blog highlights a number of stories relevant to Enough, including coverage of the U.N.’s commemoration of International Women’s Day, Special Envoy Gration’s (distressing) suggestion that parties need to hustle through the Darfur peace process before full-time focus must be dedicated to Sudan’s elections, and a real zinger about my boss from the outgoing Sudanese ambassador to the U.N.
Technorati Tags: Africa Darfur and Southern Sudan Peace Protection United Nations Violence Against WomenNews Clips—Southern Sudan Edition
A definite advantage to being based in Juba for a researcher like me is having access to Sudanese news publications on a daily basis. There are a number of northern Sudanese papers available online in Arabic, in addition to a few popular online Sudan news sources in English (Sudantribune.com and Gurtong.net are good places to start, and see the blog Roving Bandit for some more links to mainly southern-focused sites).
However, the most widely read southern Sudanese papers are not available online. Reading these papers provides an excellent glimpse into the issues that southerners think are important. From op-eds to general news articles, papers like The Citizen (which is printed in Khartoum and flown down to Juba daily, because there is not yet a functioning printing press in Juba) present a southern perspective that is well worth paying attention to. Here are some clips from some local English language daily papers from the past week:
‘We as women, we are happy that [the] Government gave 25% [through the women’s party list procedure passed in the South Sudan Legislative Assembly]. However, still there are opportunities of upgrading it to 50% as long as the attainment of total peace is concerned in Southern Sudan and Sudan in general,’ said Mrs. Jennifer Babel, Chairlady for Women Union in Central Equatoria.
-- “Women call for peace building through gender equity,” (Juba Post, March 11-15)
…raising the problem of the Nile water with countries that share the water should be approached in a quiet and rational manner that takes into account the interest of all parties without discrimination and under the principle that negotiations are the best avenue no matter how great the problems are.
-- “The Nile Water predicament,” (The Ciitzen, March 8)
[In Central Equatoria] 50% in Juba expected Kiir to win because, according to them, power, the army and everything is in the hands of SPLM [the ruling party in the South]. The also believed that Kiir would be President of GoSS with or without elections.
--Selected results from public opinion poll conducted by Vision Center for Public Opinion Studies on prospects of candidates for the Presidency of the GoSS [360 people were polled in Upper Nile, Western Bahr-al-Ghazal, Jonglei and Central Equatoria states] (The Citizen, March 3)
Some people and political parties are continuously calling for the delay of the coming elections for more preparation and for the participation of the Darfur region. I also ask why not delay the elections if there is the possibility of the participation of Darfur! I also prefer the delay of the elections, but there needs doubling [of] the political efforts to solve the Darfur crisis during that period.
--“New Dawn” column by Ahmed Adam titled “Current political issues,” (Khartoum Monitor, March 6)
A magazine called The Parliamentarian provides yet another perspective. Its Editor-in-Chief is Dr. Julia Aker Duany, a respected southern Sudanese scholar and current under-secretary of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs in the Government of Southern Sudan. In her “Editor’s Notes” from the January edition of the magazine, Dr. Duany writes:
One item that I can unequivocally state is that in the Sudan there is never a dull moment…Unlike all of the political punditry online, local, and international media have stated, Sudan has not fallen back into a chaotic war, residing into the depths of a failed state. We are not perfect, by any means, but we are managing our delicate relationship in this experiment called the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
As the elections approach and the campaign season continues at full swing, I’ll try to post clips from local papers from time to time to highlight the array of opinions from southern Sudanese media on the polls.
Photo: Journalist Nhial Deng at the Juba office of the newspaper The Citizen (Enough/Laura Heaton)
Worth Doing Darfur Right
An interesting piece on Bloomberg today featured U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Scott Gration discussing the ongoing Darfur peace talks in the context of upcoming national elections scheduled for April. As Gration put it, “We have this little window where we really need to get the framework solidified,” said Gration.
Gration is correct that the national election will demand a great deal of time and attention from both the international community and the Sudanese government, and that there are “going to be a lot of things that are keeping us from focusing on Darfur.” Key international actors will also be increasingly eager to put Darfur on a back burner as we get closer to the independence referendum for South Sudan in January 2011.
Yet previous attempts to reach a peace deal for Darfur suggest that the most important thing is to strike a comprehensive peace agreement that can be practically implemented and effectively monitored. This remains a far more important over-arching goal than trying to shoe horn in an agreement before the April election or trying to throw a quick deal together that will not stand the test of time. A lasting peace for Darfur involves lots of complicated issues: refugee and displaced returns, compensation for victims; accountability, what to do with rebel weapons and government militias, power-sharing, and more. It is important to remember that at the end of the day, elections are part of the peace process – not the other way around.
We hope to have some more insights into the ongoing talks between the government of Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement in the next several days, so stay tuned.
Join Us on the Bridge – It’s International Women’s Day!
UPDATE: A large, energetic crowd turned out today for Washington, D.C.'s Join Me on the Bridge event. All over the world, women and men commemorated International Women's Day by gathering on bridges to send the message that we must join together and work collectively to end global violence against women. Here are some photos from our event on D.C.'s Memorial Bridge, with more to come tomorrow.
9:30 a.m. -- It’s a beautiful morning in Washington, D.C., with temperatures predicted to be near 60˚ by the time we gather on Memorial Bridge to celebrate International Women’s Day today at noon. Join Me on the Bridge is a global event organized by Women for Women International to honor the resilience of millions of women survivors of war around the world.
Enough’s RAISE Hope for Congo campaign teamed up with Women for Women International to host the D.C. event, which will highlight the victories and the challenges women face in Congo. Featured speakers will include:
Sylvie Maunga Mbanga, Congolese human rights lawyer
Jimmie Briggs, Executive Director, Man Up Campaign: Stop Violence Against Women
Candice Knezevic, RAISE Hope for Congo Campaign Manager, Enough Project
Andrée Simon, President and COO, Women for Women International
Seema Jalan, Director of Global Development Policy, Women Thrive Worldwide
We’ll meet at noon at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at the end of Memorial Drive on the Virginia side of the bridge (Click here for a map and more details.) The closest metro stop is Arlington Cemetery on the blue line. We will walk across the Memorial Bridge to the Watergate Steps at the base of the Lincoln Memorial, where our speakers will provide remarks. The event should finish around 1:30.
Please come and walk in solidarity with women around the world. If there isn’t a Bridge event taking place near you, here are some ideas of other ways to commemorate International Women’s Day. We’ll update this space this afternoon with photos from the event.
