Our Dream for Darfur event was a huge success, thanks to all who volunteered and participated! I would like to thank our Indy Save Darfur group for the countless hours of planning! Thank you to students at Lawrence Central, Broadripple, Brebeuf, Cathedral and Westfield High Schools, and to IU, Purdue and IUPUI.
This isn't the end though. Our group must continue to act!
I will post our next meeting time in the next week or so. We welcome new members. We would also like to help students get Save Darfur chapters started at their schools and continue to work with students who have groups going (Amnesty, STAND, etc).
Check out www.indystar.com to read about yesterday's event.
Nuvo will be posting a video of the event on You Tube in the coming week :)

Save Darfur Coalition cause on facebook.com is now making a lot of different and calling upon people to raise awarness about the on going Genocide in Darfur. Therefore, if any of you guys have facebook or want to join.. You can add the Save Darfur cause on your page and invite friends to it too..

here is hte link to cause and joining.

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/72?recruiter_id=1087068&h=ppn

Hey, everyone here.. Our friend Dean Jacobs the writter and founder of Travel for life is traveling to Sudan as part of his world wide Journey across the globe on a low budget..

While he's in Sudan he'll be studying situation there in Sudan.. Check out his latest adventures..

You can also support him by buying his new Book "Wondrous Journey"

Visit him and sign up for news letter.. or get more info about his Journey across the globe.


Here is the link

http://travel4life.org/

The Indianapolis group is in full gear planning the October 14th torch relay. We need people to reach out to their communities and realms of influence.
If you can serve as a point person at your work place, school, church, etc, please email me (carollynncollins@yahoo.com).
I will mail you information to pass out to the people you know regarding the October 14th event.
Thanks!
Carol

Hey, everyone now you can support Save Darfur and connect to all of your friends on Facebook.com..

here is the link for more information this is only if you have a facebook network account.

Link

Em

Facebook is really a great source to help educate million of peole about the current situation and raising awarness in Darfur.. There is a link to Darfur crisis on my page and SaveDarfur Coalition group on facebook.. So far many people are getting more informatin and taking action on behalf of situation that's going on right now in Darfur.. If you're welling to connect and get more information and stuff on Face..

here is my face book name..


Emmanuel Sansilous

Search it add it and you'll get connect to all the links..

Thank you..

To find out the what we have done in the past, what is going to happen in the future, or to get involved visit out Google Groups page at Link

Well, the plan B doesn't make any different at all according to Sudan goverment we need to push president bush to do more than that. They're sending us a clear message that the sanction won't stop killing in Darfur.






June 4, 2007 (KHARTOUM) -- Business leaders managing Sudan's economic boom predict the new U.S. sanctions imposed because of Darfur will have little impact on this country's oil-based economy, mostly because they avoid targeting key Chinese interests here.


Chinese President Hu Jintao shakes hands with his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir. (AFP)The US measures and the violence in Darfur are likely to be topics when the Group of Eight industrialised countries meet this week at a summit in Germany.

US President George Bush has directed American officials to meet with allies to try to draft a new United Nations Security Council resolution that would impose multilateral pressure on Sudan, in addition to the unilateral actions by the US.

But China has urged negotiations rather than sanctions as the best way to elicit co-operation from Sudan, and holds veto power in the Security Council.

That has again highlighted China's central role in the Darfur issue.

The US sanctions announced last week target 31 Sudanese companies and three individuals - the military intelligence chief, a cabinet minister and a rebel leader linked to the Darfur violence that has killed 200 000 people and forced 2,5 million from their homes.

The newly sanctioned companies join 132 other Sudanese firms already banned from doing business with any US company or bank.

But Abdul Rahim Hamdi, a former Sudanese finance minister who advises the Sudanese government on economic matters, said the US sanctions mostly avoid the most critical parts of Sudan's economy - oil and the oil sector's Chinese customers.

Last year, Sudan's economy grew by 12 percent, according to the International Monetary Fund. That growth was propelled by the estimated 500 000 barrels of oil produced each day - two-thirds of them bought by China.

Hamdi noted that only Sudanese oil-drilling companies are on the new US sanctions list, not Chinese or other foreign corporations - some of which pay huge royalties to the Sudanese government.

"The Chinese companies are the only big players, but the Americans have carefully avoided targeting them," Hamdi said.

US authorities have defended the new measures, saying they not only broaden the target list but also provide better methods to track down embargo evaders.

"Tougher new enforcement techniques," including "forensic accounting" have been used to select the newly targeted companies and to make sure all 163 now on the sanctions list are truly barred from the dollar economy, US embassy spokesperson Joel Maybury said.

US officials also dispute the idea that they are leery of disrupting Chinese relations over Darfur.

"We can very definitely say that the issue of Sudan is on the United States-China bilateral agenda," US under Secretary of State John Negroponte told reporters last week.

However, some Sudanese officials say privately that they believe the White House is unwilling to drive up world oil prices by targeting the shipping companies that export the country's oil production.

For now, the only Sudanese company that truly risks being affected by the US measures, Hamdi contends, is Sudatel, Sudan's largest cellphone provider, because it is listed on the stock exchange in the United Arab Emirates and is largely owned by foreign investors.

After a decade of American sanctions, Sudan has few commercial ties to the United States at this point, meaning the effect of US sanctions is fairly limited, both Hamdi and outside analysts say.

Nearly three-quarters of Sudan's trade is with Arab and Asian nations, Hamdi said.

"We have learned years ago to avoid the American banking system. I don't think anybody will be hurt by this," he said.

A prominent Khartoum financier, who asked not be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue, said Sudanese firms know how to steer clear of dollar transactions by using the euro currency instead.

Sudanese firms operate through foreign holding companies or joint ventures to evade restrictions, the financier said.

Analysts like Alex Vines, the head of the Africa programme at the British think tank Chatham House, also predicted the US sanctions will have little actual effect on Sudan's economy.

"It's more of a political signal," Vines said.

You can sell any item on ebay and donate whatever portion you want to the coalition to save darfur. And...   Read More »

Plan A has miserably failed, we need to let President Bush know that it is time to put Plan B into action. Please go to the home page to sign the petition urging him to fulfill his promise to the people of Darfur !!! It's times like these we can let our voices be heard. We need to be the mosquito that can't be swatted away! Thank you everyone!!
Sheila

www.sudanreeves.org - please go check out this massive wealth of information !!
Professor Eric Reeves has devoted over nine years - fulltime, to research, writings, and strong activism on the atrocities in Darfur and South Sudan. This has literally become his life's passion.
He is currently battling leukemia, and has since 2003 - yet his international fight continues amidst his internal fight with this disease.
Please check out this wonderful man's work/articles - he is an acclaimed author and has testified many times before Congress on the genocide ongoing.
He has been so kind in responding to many emails and has given us a personal statement to be read at our rally (I will save it until then).
Please pray for his health and continued work for the people of Sudan.

Sir John Holmes, UN humanitarian officer, talked to guest host Susan Page this morning - I caught this on WBOI. It was great to hear from Suliman Giddo in Fort Wayne, and later from another Indiana listener - which caused Susan to ask why all the interest in Darfur in Indiana. I hadn't heard about a move to divest Indiana public funds from Chinese and Russian oil concerns, and I'm not sure where to look beyond hoping this post will bring me some direction from members. If you missed the broadcast check out Link

It's a shame that it takes celebrities to move the leaders in situations like this, but whatever it takes to stop the killing - go for it!
Here's an article I read this morning. Take a moment to read it... in times like these, I say "GO HOLLYWOOD"!! If there's anyway we could publicly thank them, let me know, and I'll do it! Sheila

Darfur Rally is April 15th...   Read More »

If you are reading this, I'm impressed, since there hasn't beem much activitiy on this blog. Hopefully soon we will have more to post and use this feature as a tool to keep each other informed.
For now, I'm just testing the feature.

I'm posting a copy of a letter to the editor I submitted to the Indystar and that was published Sunday, November 19th. If you are reading this, you are already motivated to take action to help alleviate the suffering in Darfur. Thank you. Please consider writing your own letter to a local publication. The more press Darfur receives, and the greater awareness we create, the greater we will be able to make a difference.

"Can we get together and do something about Darfur?


The genocide in Darfur that Nicholas Kristof dishearteningly writes about reminds me of another similar time and place (Bandages aren't adequate," Nov. 14).

Another African genocide occurred 10 years ago in Rwanda. Almost 1 million people were killed, many others tortured and displaced, all the while United Nations forces retreated to leave the combatants to themselves. In the true to life movie "Hotel Rwanda,'' a video-journalist filming the atrocities bursts the bubble of those who think help will soon be on the way. I think if people see this footage, they'll say, "That's horrible.'' And then they'll go on eating their dinners. How apropos for the present situation in Darfur.
We just finished another divisive election season. Wouldn't it be grand if liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, centrists and extremists, could all agree on one issue? Why not Darfur? Surely all of us would agree we can't allow this genocide to continue, especially when we each can do something. We can write our senators, our representatives, even the president and urge them to take action. We can visit www.savedarfur.com and stay informed of what is happening. We can make a donation to CARE or the World Food Program and assist the 3.5 million people living on international aid for their survival. In only a moment, with only the slightest effort, we can make a difference. Or will we simply say, "that's horrible" and go on eating our dinner?"
Jeff Davenport
Indianapolis

So why am I here on a Friday night perusing a site about Darfur? Am I wasting my time? Does it matter, or what do I hope to accomplish? I'm not sure what one person can accomplish with so much suffering. But I know there are millions of people suffering greatly in Sudan and I can't sit by and do nothing. So I will blog, I will email friends, I will write my legislators and give to relief efforts, I will stay informed and increase awareness with others about this important task, all in the hope that it will somehow, someway, alleviate suffering for even one person in Darfur. Will you join me?