Chicago Has Been Rescued

Oprah Winfrey will be featuring the Invisible Children documentary makers on her film today, officially rescuing the Chicago protesters.

For more than five days, people from every other city have been going to Chicago to help out, combining their food, and refusing to leave until they were noticed.

Congratulations, guys.

The Rescue Update

Since Saturday, ninety-eight of one hundred cities have been Rescued.

The two remaining cities are

1. Richmond, VA
2. Chicago, IL

Hundreds of people from other rallies are heading to the two locations to provide support.

To see how you can help or to stay tuned for updates, visit this site.

Rock on.

Edit: Musician Gavin DeGraw rescued Richmond, leaving Chicago.

The Rescue

Saturday was the national Invisible Children event The Rescue (of Joseph Kony's Child Soldiers).

The basic idea was that in one hundred cities across the world, people would gather and not leave until they were "rescued" by a celebrity and the media. For Atlanta, this meant a visit from comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who delivered a letter from Governor Sonny Perdue, an aide representing Senator Johnny Isakson, Representative John Lewis, who flew from Washington, D.C. to attend the event, and media coverage from the local Fox affiliate.

As the event drew to a close, "Rescue Riders" piled into cars and vans to head towards the nearest city not to be rescued, which was Charleston, South Carolina. Several people have vowed not to return home until all cities have been rescued (at posting, seven cities, including Charleston, await rescue -- to find out how you can support these protests, follow the link).

The Rescue Riders take their inspiration from the Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights movement, to include Representative Lewis.

On a related note, Rep. Lewis and five other members of Congress were arrested at a protest in support of the Save Darfur Coalition. The congressmen crossed a police line at the Sudanese embassy and refused to move.

Rock on.

A Breif History of the Violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo has become the center of nearly every civil war in the Great Lakes region in central Africa.

If you are unfamiliar with the history of the region, I prepared a short piece for the UGA Invisible Children blog.

Rock on.

Jan Willis: "Do Something"

I've started working on the blog for UGA's Invisible Children chapter, so expect a few posts from there. Here's one on Jan Willis' visit to UGA.

On Wednesday, Dr. Jan Willis, professor of Relgion at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, was the guest lecturer for my Religion in Literature class, and later that evening, gave a presentation titled “Buddhism, Nonviolence, and Dr. King”.

Dr. Willis is an amazing woman - an accomplished author, but also an accomplished human being. When she was in the tenth grade, she marched with Dr. King in Alabama. Several years later, she traveled to India, looking for answers, and studied under Tibetan lama Thubten Yeshe.

I had the opportunity to ask her a question after her lecture to my class and, trying - and very likely failing - to not make a fool of myself, asked something along the lines of, “What was it like to grow up in such a troubled time, and especially to be traveling abroad as the US tried to tear itself apart?” An average question to be sure, her answer was more poetic than I ever could have hoped for.

She said, in short, that there was a general feeling of hope. Even though the sixties saw, within five years, the assasinations of JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Bobby Kennedy, she said, there was a great sense that things would get better. Even as she discussed the Vietnam War, she was quick to point out that her generation, the college kids, were working for the world they wanted to live in. She mentioned that she is asked to give lectures to people her own age, people who have seen the world slowly stop to care, and she gives them this advice: “Do something. Build a house with Habitat, do anything. Do something.”

In the later lecture, Dr. Willis devoted a lot of time to what she discussed earlier in the day. She mentioned the great leaders of her time, all devoted to civil rights, but all devoted to peace, too. And then she mentioned Ghandi’s now-famous quote, used as the motto for “Step Up”: Become the change that you want to see in the world.

Our club has an incredible opportunity. We are at a major university with the resources to reach the entire world. We have the professors to guide us, the students to support us, and the world to challenge us. I look at Sanford Stadium on a game day and ask myself, “What would the world be like if those 90,000 people devoted themselves to something other than the Bulldog Nation?

And I say it’s about time we find out. [Originally posted at: Turning Apathy into Activism]

Rock on.

Peace Within Reach In Northern Uganda

While the Balkans may once again be walking down the long, dark path to war and the future of Cuba is on unsure footing, there is good news coming out of Africa.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and Ugandan government have signed a permanent ceasefire in the longest-lasting civil war on the African continent. The war is not over yet, but this offers great hope.

Here's the text of the letter sent out by Resolve Uganda:

I know it's a Saturday, but I thought you would want to hear the news coming out of the Juba peace process as soon as we did. Today, the Ugandan government and LRA negotiators signed yet another landmark agreement, establishing a permanent ceasefire!

Since resuming last Monday, the peace talks have made rapid progress. Now that the ceasefire has been established, only one item remains to be discussed in the negotiations. We could see a final peace agreement between the warring parties as early as next week.

We can all celebrate this historic step toward ending this 22-year war. Our minds and spirits are with the people of northern Uganda, as we hope together that this may truly be the beginning of the end.

However, significant challenges do remain, and we can't get ahead of ourselves. There is no guarantee that rebel leader Joseph Kony will abide by the agreement and come out of the bush. Without Kony’s compliance, peace will remain a dream deferred for northern Ugandans.

Strong public pressure will also be needed to make sure the Government of Uganda lives up to its promises, and invests in the rehabilitation and development of war-affected areas. Communities displaced by this war need water, schools, and jobs.

That means our task is clear. To encourage implementation of any agreement signed, the U.S. and international community need to commit political support and financial resources toward implementing a signed peace agreement, including assistance in the task of rebuilding areas devastated by the war. That's the message 1,000 of us are will take to Congress as part of the Lobby Days for Northern Uganda on Tuesday. Even if you won’t be with us, you can join our lobbying push by calling your Senators that day.

We'll keep you up to date if more breaking developments come out of the talks. As today’s news attests, we are making a difference and change is happening!

Peter Quaranto
Resolve Uganda Senior Researcher

Of course, there is much to be done. Schools and towns need to be rebuilt, there must be some reconciliation between the government, the rebels, and the people, and services must be improved - health care, housing, water, you name it - go to the Invisible Children website for ways to be a part of the rebuilding process.

Shalom.
Rock on.

Blood Diamond and the New Breed of Action Movies

This weekend, Blood Diamond is showing at the campus theater. Having nothing better - well, more entertaining - to do, I checked it out. While it certainly contains the average action movie fare of the past however many years - explosions, romance, gun fights, and car chases - it also had something much more important. As many know, Leonardo DiCaprio, the pretty boy of Titanic (and to my sister, no, he is not the something more), in it. To my surprise, he was not the protagonist. He didn't even become a "good" guy until the last few scenes of the movie. There were really only three "good guys" in the entire movie: the protagonist, a local fisherman named Solomon (played by Djimon Hounsou) who's only goal is to survive and save his family; an American reporter (Jennifer Connelly) attempting to stop a bloody civil war by exposing the blood diamond trade financing it; and a local teacher working to save child soldiers from their captors, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)

Based loosely on the civil war in Sierra Leone between the government and RUF, Blood Diamond presents villains who, much like the latest Bond villain in Casino Royale, are trying to get rich, not take over the world. The movie also attempts and, in my mind, succeeds at exposing the horrors of the many African civil wars. Child soldiers (see: Invisible Children), the targeting of civilians, the refugee slums, the apathy of the outside world, and western concerns for resources over human lives, are all major themes of the movie.

I highly recommend it and hope that it signals a new era for action movies, movies that have points to make rather than dollars.

Rock on.

mewithoutYou In Concert

There are a few reasons I came to UGA. Not least among them is the Athens music scene. Home to great acts such as the B-52s and REM and rising acts like the local (and increasingly, national) hit Modern Skirts, Athens is among the most varied college towns in the world. It's a very simple equation: Students from all over = Music all over.

It may come to a shock to some that all of last semester, I didn't make one show at the famed 40 Watt Club. Well, tonight, I made up for that, and then some. The 40 Watt is a small club for one of such fame. As I walked up, I saw mwY's famed bio-diesel-powered tour bus with band members having their traditional dinner out in the parking lot. Once I got into the club itself, I noticed that the stage is only two feet higher than the rest of the club (which, given it's size, isn't much of a problem) and provides a very cool "I'm with the band" feeling.

The first act, Aloha, played a stunning thirty minute set. The drummer was amazing - his arms really were a blur. The keyboardist also played the xylophone - not very often seen in any form of rock. The bassist and vocalist, while nothing special, were still very enjoyable.

The second band, Sparta, was one that I had heard of, but not heard. That soon changed. Suffice it to say that their albums will be added to my wishlist. Soon.

The third and final group was the reason I went: mewithoutYou. I enjoyed their first album, [A->B] Life, drooled over their second album, Catch for Us the Foxes, and for the second time ever, went out to purchase their third record, Brother, Sister, on its release date. I have heard very good things about their live shows and was not let down. If anything, I was actually blown away. Vocalist (he really speaks and yells more than sings) Aaron Weiss is the most chaotic frontman I have ever seen. But he plays it off well and it fits in with the style of music (somewhere between "post-hardcore" and bipolar). They played most of their greatest hits and I found myself singing along with every song. Their lyrics are easy to relate to and very creative. Be sure to check out the link on my side bar under "Listen".

The best part is that Invisible Children (listed in the side bar under "Give") was at the show, getting shout outs from both Sparta and mwY as part of the new Natinonal Tour.

Now, having been on my feet sincwe 7:30, I'm off to bed.

Invisible Children

My school is a so-called "Channel One" school meaning that we get a daily news broadcast called (what else) Channel One. Most days, I watch the news segments, tune out the commericials, and talk during their cheesy wonder-teen and health bits. But today something was different.

Now, they have had special episodes before, focusing on everything from cliques to the Sudan (my favorite), but today, something spectacular happened. They devoted the entire show to Invisible Children (see link on sidebar). I've been following this charity organization most of the year and own the documentary, and have been deeply moved by it. I was thrilled to see that Channel One showed clips of the documentary and at the end, interviewed a few of the film-makers. Hopefully, it will move all who saw it to get involved.

Rock on.