Forgotten Genocides Forgotten People
As widely reported for those who recall the genocide of Darfur beginning nearly 20 years ago now — the course of action taken in order to aid the 1.2 million to 2 million displaced people has indeed fallen tremendously short. In 2020 roughly 300,000 refugees are yet still residing in UNHRC refugee camps. In these camps as candidly shown in the 2016 Vice episode entitled “The Forgotten War” — funding and thus output of the most essential of necessities began it’s descent into half of what it once was. This was post the mid 2000's media and celebrity outcry. The mid 2000's was a very conscientious era. This was imparted to commemorations of grizzly human rights violations such as the Rwandan genocide of 1994, particularly when media and the celebrity realm took notice. Movements such as seeking the termination of Human Trafficking really began to gain traction as well — albeit as misinformed most often in it’s portrayal. The public began taking an avid interest in causes and human rights however as time passed and pop culture slowly began returning to it’s world of superficiality, the galvanization and one would dare say sensationalism began to subside thus also the funding for those most affected. When there is a genocide occurring the media and to some degree the public feel motivated to jump in to assist… this is not to mention how sometimes that “help” does more harm than good eventually however what happens after the genocide is over or rather the media coverage has moved on? What happens to the citizens?
It took survivor leaders such as Nadia Murad and her audacious attorney Amal Clooney an entirely unacceptable amount of time to garner the world’s as well as recognition from the UN as to the genocide of the Kurdish people. Now the fight surrounds provisions and the well being of the refugees who did manage to survive. The correlation between global measures pertaining to issues of genocide and human rights violations frequently brings to mind what former Representative Charlie Wilson once stated of his instrumental hand in ending the cold war against the Soviets — who at that time were slaughtering the Afghan people
“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world… and then we f__ up the end game.” — Charlie Wilson
“This is what we always do. We always go in with our ideals then we change the world then we leave we always leave but that ball keeps on bouncing.” Charlie Wilson
