Copyright by John T. Reed

There is much hand-wringing at present about genocide in Darfur.

Merry Minuet
In 1959, there was a Kingston Trio song called The Merry Minuet with the lyric:

They’re rioting in Africa.

You can see all the lyrics at http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiRIOTAFR.html. Indeed, the lyrics, which were written in 1953, sound like they were written yesterday.

The meaning of the lyrics was that they are always rioting in Africa so why get upset about it. The 1953 lyrics also refer to assorted other disasters like hurricanes in Florida and strife in Iran.

The First Sudanese Civil War lasted from 1955 to 1972 and killed half a million people. The second was in 1983. The current Sudanese civil war is their third since they became independent of European colonial powers. Where is Darfur? In the Sudan.

In fact, other than the media and politicians, the public sees it the same as the song. Ask a man on the street if he is concerned about genocide in Darfur and he will say he is. Ask him what he’s going to do about it, and he will shrug. Push him on whether he would serve in the military there or send his child to serve in the military there and he will say no. Ask if he wants his taxes raised to pay for some sort of help to Darfur and he will probably react negatively.

Although the American people are willing to pay lip service about such things, the bottom line fact is that they really do not care enough to support any action. The same is true of the rest of the world.

Holocaust
In World War II, our troops liberated people in Nazi death camps, but that was not our intention. The troops were surprised to find them. President Roosevelt knew about the camps, but did not want them publicized for fear that it would lessen support for the war. How so? Many American back then were openly anti-Semitic and they would not want to fight in a war that was perceived as for the benefit of the Jews.

In 1938, Hitler loaded the S.S. St. Louis, a German ship, with Jews who wanted to leave Germany. To prove that the rest of the world hated Jews, too, he publicized the departure and predicted that no country would accept them. He was almost right. All countries, including Canada and the U.S., refused to let the passengers debark in their countries. Finally, as the ship was returning to Europe, four countries—England, Holland, France, and Belgium—agree to divvy the passengers up roughly among them. The negotiations were somewhat difficult because no country wanted to accept more than its share. See http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/stlouis.html for details. Unfortunately for the Jewish passengers, three of those countries were invaded and occupied by the Nazis a couple of years later.

No doubt American of today would seek to rescue Jews from the SS St. Louis or the death camps, although I am not sure they would go to war with a superpower like Germany was then to do so.

Would we really do anything differently if we had it to do over?
But lip service notwithstanding, I do not believe that Americans would actually do anything differently with regard to the following genocides or mass murders if they had it to do over.

• Stalin’s murder of tens of millions
• Turkish genocide of Armenians
• The Killing Fields of Cambodia after the Vietnam war
• The atrocities that motivated millions of South Vietnamese to become Boat People after the Vietnam war
• Rwanda

I am sure I have overlooked some. Please remind me and I will add them.

In early 2008, it was rioting in Kenya, the native land of the late Barack Obama, Sr., Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama’s biological father.

We did stop genocide of muslims by Serbs in Bosnia and continue to occupy that area for that purpose. And we helped the Iraqi Kurds, but only after we started having wars with Saddam Hussein.

No one cares enough to do anything
But generally, actions speak louder than words and there is little evidence to indicate that Americans or anyone else in the world are much interested in stopping genocide or mass murder or mass life-style-related disease like the African AIDs epidemic, especially when the victims are African or Asian. Even other African and Asian countries show little interest.

I expect their motives are also racist. Asians do not see themselves as Asian. That is an American perspective. Rather, they see themselves as Japanese or Chinese or Thai. To them, Cambodians are another race. Africans see themselves as members of a tribe, not a skin color. There are African-Americans who identify themselves with a continent, but no one who lives on that continent does. They are not worried about Tutsis unless they are themselves Tutsi.

One reader says I overstate the lack of residents of Africa identifying themselves with other Africans who are not members of their tribe and refers me to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism. I did not feel that article refuted me. It seems to say that Africans have a bit of common identity from being a continent that was the target of slave traders and apartheid. But almost by definition, the Hutus, Tutsis, Darfurians, and so forth are not victims of slave traders. Being victims of slave traders is an African-American perspective.

There are some African troops trying to help in some African civil wars. But actions speak louder that Pan-African words and the very low level of concrete help by other African countries in Darfur and elsewhere suggests little sympathy from fellow Africans.

Go over there and volunteer to help
It should be noted that many Americans volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War (Abraham Lincoln Brigade) and against the Germans and Japanese before America entered World War II. Many Americans including non-Jews fought for Israel in its war of independence in 1948. The movie Cast a Giant Shadow was about an American Jew who fought there.

The minority leaders who claim lack of U.S. intervention in Darfur is racist, which it arguably is, are welcome to volunteer to go to Darfur and fight for the blacks who are losing that war against the blacks who are winning it. So are the various bleeding hearts who believe our non-intervention is morally wrong. As far as I know, no such person has done any such thing nor are any giving the slightest thought to it. Not one out of the 300,000,000 U.S. population.

Should Americans care that they are, once again, rioting in Africa? It’s a big world. We have done more than any other nation by far when it comes to helping people in foreign countries. Probably we have done too much. We probably should not have participated in the Spanish-American War (which liberated the Philippines and Cuba and started because of the erroneous notion that the Spanish blew up the battleship Maine), World War I (which started because the German torpedoed the Lusitania which was violating neutrality by secretly carrying ammunition to the British), or Vietnam (which started because of a later doubted report that North Vietnamese patrol boats attacked U.S. Navy ships in the Gulf of Tonkin).

Bottomless pit of need
Ultimately, it’s a moot point. Yes, they are rioting in Africa. They have always been rioting in Africa. There is every indication that they always will be rioting in Africa. Neither the rest of Africa nor the rest of the world much cares. A good argument can be made that they should not.

All people have the ability to improve their situation. The various developed countries have. The other countries are addicted to centuries-old feuds, belligerent religious teachings, and/or addiction to promiscuous, unprotected sex with prostitutes.

Time or one of those magazines did a cover story about the African AIDs epidemic and put the words, “We dare you not to care” on the cover. I read the article and learned that the African people themselves, who are infected with AIDS or who are in immminent danger of being infected refuse to stop their murderous/suicidal promiscuous unprotected sex practices. If even they do not care, how are the rest of us supposed to get excited about it? When it comes to needing help, there is every indication that underdeveloped countries are a bottomless pit of need.

The Lord helps those who help themselves. The American people have done the same and more regarding helping others.

It has been said that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. Neither is our well earned reputation for generosity to foreign citizens in need.

They’re rioting in Africa. They ought to stop doing that.

I appreciate informed, well-thought-out constructive criticism and suggestions.

John T. Reed