Demand Change from the United Nations with "24 Hours for Darfur"

24 Hours for Darfur is a brilliant new campaign to connect activists with people in power. The aim is to show an entire day of video with crusaders asking, questioning, and demanding the United Nations and others to make a difference in Darfur. On September 16, the group will screen each video at a rally directly in front on the UN headquarters in New York. The footage will also be sent to members of congress.

Darfur, a region in western Sudan, is an area rife with genocidal conflict. Since 2003, at least 200,000 people have died in the warfare. Powerful countries have been slow to intervene in the crisis, with the United Nations doing very little to fix it, but still the only ones really doing anything. Recently, they've green-lighted a 20,000 strong military force to intervene in the dispute, but many people are worried that the actual capabilities of the unit will not be up to par.

If the UN and others are ever going to put real effort into resolving the conflict, it is essential that they see how many people are interested in change. That's where 24 Hours for Darfur comes in. Twenty-four hours of footage at approximately forty-five seconds per video, comes out to over 2,000 people using their voices for a difference.

That is, if over 2,000 people actually did it. At it's current state, there is little more than eight hours of footage. Just a third of what is needed. If this project is going to succeed, much more people will have to help. To that end, I have decided to do something about it, rather than whine and let it pass me by. If this initiative were ever going to happen by September 16th, large parties would be the answer. Large parties at parties. If I set up a camcorder at the next get-together or concert I go to, it would take only a minute to get people's views on the situation. I could get at least fifty people, and inch the campaign along to it's goal.

But, it doesn't have to stop with me. Anyone with a camcorder or web-cam could do what I'm doing. No matter what technical difficulty that arises, the staff and website are there to help. I encountered three problems when I submitted my video, and they were remedied in less than twenty minutes with a thoughtful personal message. That's a rarity on the web these days. We are so used to automated replies.

I have faith in 24 Hours for Darfur and how they are trying to help end the conflict. I only hope that they succeed, because the UN said genocide was supposed to never happen again after the Holocaust. It's already happening, and I only hope they fix it.

Sources:

24 Hours for Darfur- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

Wikipedia Entry on Darfur- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict