The Apology Heard Around the World: Is Sudan Listening?

Wednesday, after 60 years of strained race relations Australia apologized to its black people for its "genocidal policies". It shouldn't have to take another 60 years to recognize similar effects elsewhere so I commend Steven Spielberg who on the same day quit his role with the Beijing Olympics because Hu Jintao won't quit Sudan.

These are two recent developments in international news that I find loosely connected. I'd learned of the Australian apology last week while listening to NPR in the morning and then I read the cover story of TIME Magazine's South Pacific edition. TIME writer Lisa Clausen reports that new Labor Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, speaking on behalf of all of Australia's authorities Wednesday morning in Canberra, instituted his government's first parliamentary act by formally apologizing to Aboriginal people for its acknowledged "genocidal policies" of the past.

Over the course of more than 60 years, between 1910 and the 1970s some 50,000 children, most mixed black and white, were stolen away from their families by military police on direct orders from governmnet leaders. If you haven't seen it yet you should rent Rabbit Proof Fence. The government of the time aimed to assimilate any half-white children, convinced that these children were, as Clausen reports, "neglected, abused, or shunned because their white descent deprived them of tribal identity. Others were living seminomadic lives in what officials saw as dire poverty."

So last Wednesday, after generations of strained race relations in the country, the government officially apologized and the people responded well. Still, the leader of the outgoing party, Brendan Nelson, remarked afterwards that "Our generation does not own these actions, nor should it feel guilt for what was done in many, but not all cases, with the best of intentions." Then added "But in saying we are sorry - and deeply so - we remind ourselves that each generation lives in ignorance of the long-term consequences of its decisions and actions."

To me that last statement speaks to ignorance and consequences of the "genocidal policies" happenig elsewhere. So I really commend filmmaker Steven Spielberg who in the same day quit his role as creative consultant for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' opening and closing ceremonies because Hu Jintao's government won't divest in Sudan. In Darfur, fighting between rebel groups, the government and government-backed militias has caused more than 400,000 people to die and 2.5 million people to be displaced, and in this case, all of this has happened in just the past few years. Spielberg and other Darfur activists recognize that it shouldn't have to take another 60 years to see the situation's ruinous effects.

Read "Beijing's Spielberg Problem" by Austin Ramzy.