Oct. 13, 2006 - 20:37

SMOGANESE

Don't know what I did wrong, but have been feeling rocky all day. Had an entry all typed out and Poof - - - - 'twas gone.

There is an article that appeared in the Sunday The Denver Post on October 8, 2006 that still hurts to think about. It is by Alfred de Montesquiou of the Associated Press. Quoted in full here:

80 TOTS A DAY DIE IN DARFUR STRIFE, U.N. SAYS

With even more violence driving away aid workers in western Sudan, the malnutrition, disease and poor conditions that foment death are likely to worsen

MELLIT, SUDAN -- "Myriam Ibrahim does not like to talk about her daughter Fawzia."

"The smallest of triplet girls born in May, the infant died last month in Darfur."

"Now the 29-year-old mother has just a week of powdered milk for her two remaining babies -- and no idea of how she will feed them afterward."

"Fawzia started having fever, then diarrhea, and then she died. It was a month ago," Ibrahim said with the soft, sad smile so common to Darfurian women as they recount their survival."

"Each day in Darfur, 80 children under age 5 die because of malnutrition, disease and generally poor living conditions created by VIOLENCE in this barren region of western Sudan, the U.N. Children's Fund estimates."

"When Ibrahim gave birth to her triplets in May, stress and lack of food left her with no milk of her own for her daughters."

"Fawzia weighed barely 3 pounds and was being fed liquid protein through a tube in her nose when an Associated Press reporter met with the family in June at a hospital in El Fasher, North Darfur's capital."

"After emergency care at the hospital, the triplets and their mother went back to their hometown of Mellit, about 30 miles north."

"But when Ibrqahim, who has three other children, returned to Mellit, the violence in the region had driven off aid workers, and she was among some 350,000 people who were deprived of any medical or food aid. Thirteen humanitarian workers were killed over the summer because of rebel infighting and a large government offensive."

"Lack of access and the humanitarian pullout likely means that child mortality is going to go up again rapidly," said Jonathan Vietch, the UNICEF emergency chief for Sudan."

"More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in three years of fighting between the government and rebels in Darfur."

"An ill-equipped and understaffed African Union peacekeeping force has tried without success to quell the violence. Meanwhile, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has repeatedly rejected allowing a stronger U.N. peacekeeping force to replace the AU troops."

"Ibrahim depends on aid to feed her family. She said she cannot cultivate her fields because she fears militiamen may assault her as she walks out of town.

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It keeps bugging me, what if these were my children, my grandchildren, my great grandchildren ? ? ? ? ? ?

We are warring in Afghanistan and pre-emptive-warring in Iraq, but fail to devote the time, money, materiel and manpower to bring some aid to the starving people in Sudan. Is it because there is no oil there ? ? ? ? ? ? Are we doing enough to support the U.N. ? ? ? ? ? ? Are the bulk of our folks even paying attention ? ? ? ? ? ?

Like the murky cloud over our cities, seems like the Babeltower language here is SMOGANESE . . . . . . .

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