Mythbusting this election...

Black and White

While in the camps this week I took this picture below, the baby looked so completely content and comfortable and oblivious to all that was going on around him in these restless times in the South Darfur camps. To me his face was just pure peace and it made me smile. And feel hope.

He also reminded me of a funny story my safari guide in Namibia once told me while we were tracking our elusive black desert rhino (we found him eventually, picture from my hiding place is below). When I asked him what were the major differences between the Black and White African rhinos he explained it had nothing to do with colour and was only the shape of the mouth that really differed them ('White' apparently mistakenly being born from 'Wyd' in Afrikaans - meaning wide, referring to their mouths).  But then he told me about the mothers and I really loved the story - he said the best way to remember was that the White Rhino's keep their babies running just in front of them while the Black Rhinos keep there babies running just behind them. He told me I could remember this easily as white women push their babies in front of them in prams while black women carry their babies behind them on their backs. Made me smile.

Darfur, 2010

Lesotho, 2010

Namibia, 2010

Oh Franti...

I wanted to share with you..

..what I'm listening to...

One of my old favourites from the beautiful soul that is Xavier Rudd. I am posting 'Messages'  because it always provokes thoughts for me on what is happening in my country.. like our current politicians, battling for power in this election, with their priorities so irrelevant and alarmingly out of place. 

So now come sit down

Will you talk with me now

Let me see through your eyes

Where there is so much light

We are biding our time

For these myths to unwind

For these changes we will confront..

For this sacred land

It has seen many hands

It has wealth and gold

Yet it is fragile and old

And all the greedy souls

Just don't care to know

Of the changes it will confront..

So speak out loud

Of the things you are proud

And if you love this coast

Then keep it clean as it hopes

'Cause the way that it shines

May just dwindle with time

With the changes it will confront..

So hold nice and close

the ones who get to your soul

So that when it is cold

you won't feel so alone

'Cause the roads that you take

may just crack and break

With the changes you will confront..

Well I know you are strong

May your Journey be long

And now I wish you the best of luck.

The Lucky Country

So I am trying to keep up with this thing called Australian politics.
Never thought I'd be saying this - but I kind of dig these words from old Hawkey - "We are all bloody boat people".. It is truth. It is succinct and I think it reminds us of what we are talking about here - people seeking refuge and a new life in a big, wide, open land. Just like my Anglo-Saxon ancestors hoped for and did, arriving by, you guessed it -boats.  Human Rights Watch recently wrote to the major parties urging them to remember international human rights in the upcoming election . And just today, one of my best friends here, who's from Eritrea, sent me this article about the desperation her people are facing and the price they will pay for a chance at a better life. So you see, for me, this issue has irrevocably evolved into an emotional one. I am currently surrounded by people living in the most desperate circumstances- political and social oppression, a land that lacks democracy, employment, basic human rights and food. Not that Sudanese would hunker down in a boat for the journey to Australian shores,  but they would in their dreams if they could.

From what I can gather is going on back home (please do correct me if I'm wrong), the Liberals (no surprises there) are more hardlined on asylum seekers, stating they will focus on "stopping the boats" (so articulate Abbott). A Liberal government would also reopen Nauru detention center (the shame!!) but then are Labor much better with a East Timor "regional processing center" ?? And they have also rejected the idea of temporary protection visas for asylum seekers.

I sometimes wish I could take certain Australian politicians and bring them here to this desert, (or a village in Acheh, or an Afghan windy hilltop) and have them live with these people for just one single day. Live in the dirt and hopelessness that so many have as a daily reality. Be told that they cannot vote because they are worthless. That there is no school for their kids, no hospital for their wife in labor. That tonight, they will go hungry.

I am gutted that I cannot vote in the federal election this week. I am too far from polling booths out here in this desert. My mind and heart are there though, with the other Australians that have a voice for climate change action (finally) and to see a democratically elected female prime minitser in power for the first time in our young, (albeit white), history. So do enjoy it and drop me a line on your thoughts some time.

And for me here in my rainy desert, well, I actually feel very fortunate to have had an opportunity to understand what it means for people to flee their beloved countries/religion/language in search of something safe.  I have seen the desire in peoples eyes when I respond "I come from Australia".  I now truly understand the lottery of birth and that I indeed won that lottery 30 years ago.

Standing at the limit of an endless ocean
stranded like a runaway, lost at sea

Sitting on a rainy day down in the harbour,
watching as the grey clouds shadow the bay

Looking everywhere 'cause I had to find you,
this is not the way that I remember it here

Anyone will tell you it’s a prison island,
hidden in the summer for a million years..

Iva Davies – ‘Great Southern Land’

In the News...

You may have read about recent events related to Kalma Camp - one of our biggest IDP camps that has erupted in violence and is now blocked off from humanitarian Aid. It's worrying. And it is political and simple and complex and unjust, all at once.  For me sitting here, for all of us out here unable to do our work in the camp, it is frustrating and it is a destroyer of hope for the future notion of peace of Darfur. 

Girl in Kalma plays with old USAID oil tin. 

" 'Cos if you're not angry, then you're just stupid, or you don't care. 

How else can you react 

when you know something so unfair?

When the men of the hour can kill half the world in war,

make them slaves to a super power and then die poor.."

'Out of Range' - Ani diFranco

Dark Darfurian Days...

It has been three months since I arrived here in South Darfur.

And it has probably had more of a profound impact on me than an entire year I spent living and working in our head office in Khartoum. But I think thats probably natural. And it is appreciated. In abundance.

But I will not say that it is easy. This month particularly has been flooded with real challenges: A changing political context, deterioration of the ongoing Darfur Peace talks being held in Doha, insecurity in the camps, inaccessiblity to the people who need us, and, most worryingly, targeted attacks at our own staff.

The consequences?

Heated pollitical debate at all levels - including right here in our offices. All resulting in a frustrating lack of action and acountabilty. Humanitarian actors are being backed into corners or simply hung out to dry... My colleagues and I are trying to avoid being put in this position - but we need to stand together, with the other agencies, as a body of strength and conviction. But sadly for some of those agencies, it appears it is not so easy to stand by their mandates when the pressure is on and without the them - we may fail.

There has been much targeting of humanitarian workers in Darfur in recent years. But when one of those involved in a violent attack is a colleague, a close friend, it awakens a new form of anger deep in my soul. One I am not used to feeling. 

I know the innocent should not be punished for these senseless attacks, the hungry women and children of Darfur. But when we come here to help, leaving our family and loved ones and cultural comforts of home,  and are then treated so poorly, with such malicious intent - it eventually reaches a point where you become what you always feared - angry and disheartened. Where you think of taking away the most precious thing in these peoples lives - their food. The food we deliver. The greatest form of punishment you could ever deliver to a person in desperate need.

I do not know what will happen here, in this place, to these people. But some days I really do lose my hope for them ever finding that illustrious, sought after goal so many of us take for granted - Peace. Hundreds of years of fighting have imprinted this land to its core and I do not even know if the children I see playing in the camps will ever see a life without loss and suffering...

"I would dig a hole all the way to China, unless of course, I was there, then I'd dig my way home, if by digging I could steal the wind from the sails of the greedy men who rule the world.."

'Dream Girl' - Dave Matthews Band