To the rhythm of the gunfire and the voices of concern

[venta]

Today, I was all set to fall down a rabbit hole. I had a nicely nasty narrative planned, of strange scritching sounds and tortures and people imprisoned in attics.

Then the BBC reminded me that today marks 60 years since Auschwitz was liberated. And suddenly tales of torture and imprisonment didn't seem so funny after all.

Today, the people who lived and died in Auschwitz deserve a thought. The other 364 days of the year, we can remember that we're still doing it.

Comments

[redcountess]

Hmmmm, not very well thought out (the date for the rabbit hole thing), was it?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, it made sense to do it on Lewis Carroll's birthday, really. And to be honest, I think the anniversary only made the news this year because it was the 60th. I certainly wouldn't have known the date off-hand.

(So when I said "reminded" up there, I actually meant "minded" :)

I wasn't suggesting people shouldn't be doing normal, funny, surreal or frivolous things today. Just that the particular thing I'd been planning seemed inappropriate when I'd just been reading articles about concentration camps.

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Well put :)

To some Auschwitz is a phenomena(sp?) confined to WW2. It's almost as if they can't draw parallels with what is happening in places like Zimbabwe, or closer to home, Yugoslavia, because that was then, and this is now. Or maybe they don't want to, because that would be uncomfortable ... Perhaps I'm being a bit harsh.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're being harsh. It's common to hear people say of the genocide in the 40's "we must never let it happen again", or "I don't understand how the world let it happen".

And yet these things are still happening - Kurds, Kashmiris, probably other people I don't know about because I'm not that hot on my current affairs are still having to face things like that and the world is letting it happen.

And I can't get that furious at people, because what am I doing to stop it ? I don't know what I can do.

One phenomenon, two phenomena, by the way.

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Well, harsh to the extent that I'm not doing anything to stop it either.

Though it is difficult to see what can be done on an individual basis. Supporting or joining organizations such as Amnesty International and other pressure groups to help raise awareness of the issues is one option.

One phenomenon, two phenomena Dear God! After all these years on this planet, I still haven't got that sorted! But I knew it was one or the other:)

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Probably the best organisations to monitor large-scale abuse are Médecins Sans Frontières and the Red Cross. It's not that Amnesty don't care about genocide, it's that their focus is on political oppression and prisoners of conscience. MSF and the Red Cross, along with other aid agencies like UNICEF, UNHCR, Oxfam or Christian Aid will have people on the ground in or as near as possible to places like Darfur (although I think not Chechnya at the moment, unfortunately), and if they have to leave a region because it's too difficult to operate, they'll say so.

Of course aid agencies tend to be carefully apolitical, which is good in that it gets them more access than Amnesty could possibly hope for, but potentially bad in that they'll report conditions as far as they can, but won't say anything that might look like an agenda.

[eostar.livejournal.com]

Yes, you're are absolutely right about the aid agencies.

On the other hand Amnesty have an agenda and will agitate to raise public awareness and try to put pressure on the government to take up human rights abuse. Chile under Pinochet comes immediately to mind. Amnesty in Oxford used local political organizations such as Trades Council and the Labour Party to raise issues of torture and the "disparus" and get them taken up in the broader political arena. I mention Amnesty as they're the organization I've experience with.