In Genocide, Jane Springer starts by examining the mass murder of Africans in Darfur by the janjaweed (the armed Arabic horsemen, hired mercenaries of the Sudanese government, paid to exterminate the African people). Springer describes in vivid detail the plight of the African people, their hopelessness, and how the outside world barely seems to notice what is going on—the media only intermittently covering the genocide in Darfur.[footnoteRef:2] From there Springer pulls back from the micro and examines the macro—the history of human rights in the West, and where our present regard for human rights comes from—i.e., the ideals of the French and American Revolutions—the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness; equality, fraternity, liberty.[footnoteRef:3] Springer takes note of several of the defining moments and works of the 18th and 19th centuries that advocated or pushed for equal rights, whether for all people or for women—including Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women. [2: Jane Springer, Genoicide (Toronto, Ontario: Groundwood Books, 2009), 9.] [3: Ibid 16.]
Once having set this historical context for why we should be upset about genocide, she then goes on to describe the Jewish Holocaust of WWII and how the UN reacted to that with its new “crimes against humanity” charge.[footnoteRef:4] She describes the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights, essentially a two hundred year belated response to Rousseau’s charge that “Man is born free—and everywhere he is in chains.”[footnoteRef:5] The Genocide Convention was established thereafter, which Springer regards as a “high point in the history of human rights.”[footnoteRef:6] Springer then jumps back in time again, going Biblical to show how genocide has been depicted throughout history, before touching on other genocides throughout history—the Armenian genocide, the Carthaginians, and others. She discusses what it means to be a victim of genocide, how to prevent, and why nothing is being done about the genocide in Darfur: “to date, no government or group of governments has adequately confronted the ongoing genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. There is no ‘political will’—no commitment by governments to devote the needed efforts and resources”[footnoteRef:7]—in other words, in spite of the UN declaration, nothing of any significance is being...
It is as though the world were silently backing the Sudanese government, and indeed with China supplying them with weapons it does appear to be the case.[footnoteRef:8] [4: Ibid 19.] [5: Jean Jacques Rousseau, Social Contract (1762), 1.] [6: Springer, Genocide, 26.] [7: Ibid 100.] [8: Hilary Andersson, “China is fueling war in Darfur,” BBC, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7503428.stm]
The main points Springer makes are that in spite of the West’s history of having personally experienced genocide, and its high-minded UN declaration, it still does little to get directly involved in issues like the Darfur region. Indeed, Springer notes that Genocide Watch identifies 20 different regions where genocide is occurring, from Chad to Chechnya, and nothing is getting done to address these instances. It is as though the UN were merely paying lip service to the idea of opposing genocide but no more. Springer shows...…spread the word and raise awareness about what is really going on. The more people who know, the more that positive action is likely to take place. People also feed of off one another’s positive energy, so by raising awareness, it may happen that I might a kindred spirit who feels the same and together we get something going that we can use to make a difference. I would like to get in touch with Congress and organize people to lobby Congress to stop supporting a war in Syria especially, because we have got to get out of the Middle East. Once we are out of there we can begin to focus on ending genocide in other parts of the world by getting more people linked together using social media to disseminate information and get people involved. YouTube can be a great way to spread information far and wide and make new contacts. I would like to start a YouTube channel and maybe even a podcast that can focus specifically on sharing information about genocide in the world so that listeners can obtain the best information out there. By inviting excellent speakers to be guests on the podcast, we could really raise awareness.
The pages from the book that helped me answer the required questions were: 9, 16, 19, 26, 31, 100, 101, 102, and 108. Those pages contained the main points that I took from the book and gave me the most important information regarding the questions for this paper.
Bibliography
Andersson, Hilary.…
