Just now rounding up what has been a busy, busy day! Don't get me wrong- I'm not at all upset at the busyness, especially when this is exactly the reason that Jo Anne, Rollin, and myself are here.
Here's a brief rundown of our day:
8am-9am was our breakfast time. The hotel served the breakfast, which to say the least was extremely lavish. We enjoyed a slice of bread and a glass of water. Literally, that was it. To be fair the bread had either blueberries or poppy seeds in them, and were rather good tasting, but the fact remains that it wasn't terribly filling. After this, we listened to various speakers during the Sudan Plenary, including Jerry Fowler, the President of the Save Darfur Coalition, Mohammed Ahmed Abdallah, a Physician and Professor of Medicine at el-Fasher University in Darfur, and others. After this we attended various breakout sessions, including a "Congo 101" session which described the various dynamics of the conflict minerals of the Congo, a "Burma and the Pursuit of International Justice" session which detailed the campaign to establish a Security Council Commission of Inquiry into the Burmese regime's crimes against humanity, a Congo Plenary featuring John Prendergast, a "Peacemaking in Sudan" session, and an "ICC" session.
I would love to go into detail for all of these sessions, but I think to fit everything in a reasonable amount of space here would be very difficult! But I would like to point out a few of the statistics from my notes that I thought were rather striking.
One of these statistics was brought up in a recent World Health Organization report, which stated that of the roughly 8 million people in Southern Sudan, there are 10 qualified nurses. If this doesn't show the discrepancy from what the elite in Khartoum receive and what they give to those in Darfur and South Sudan, I don't know what will. The conditions these people live in are appalling and often unbearable- we can't let apathy keep us down! We may be tired of reading the same stories in the papers about what is going wrong in the places we are trying to help, but this should really just be a call that we should try to do more and reach out to others who will help us. Humanitarian efforts are a difficult process, sometimes they may even frustrate us or make us feel hopeless, but when we feel like we aren't making a difference we need to remind ourselves of the persistence that has helped those who came before us. Continued, energetic, and creative effort will yield positive results.
Some other interesting information that was brought up had to do with the various "proxy wars" throughout Africa. Without getting too into the details, this topic essentially pointed out the relationships between multiple conflicts throughout Africa; how they spill over into each other and also how African governments will support rebel groups to gain leverage over neighboring countries. These facts pointed out to me the importance of not only focusing on humanitarian aid, but also on creating alliances and agreements between these African nations as well. If these governments keep acting solely in their own interest, our efforts will never be able to prevail. These governments need to realize that peace and stability in their neighboring countries is beneficial for everyone and will lead to better and more legitimate trade, security for civilians, and stability in all governments. We cannot afford to have everyone pushing their own agenda without looking at the big picture- we need to push for multilateral efforts from the governments dealing with these issues on the ground.
Alright, this blog is getting a bit longer than normal- but I do think I'll go into the specifics of these conflicts at a later time. If you have any questions about these issues or anything like that, feel free to let me know! Tomorrow is our last day of learning sessions and training, and then on Monday we will lobby for 3 different bills, which I will explain tomorrow night. Thanks for reading and thanks again for your continued support and strength!
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Washington D.C. Day 1: Welcome to the Land of No Free Internet Access
Hey everybody! Before I begin talking about our adventures/misadventures in the short hours we've been here, let me extend another thanks to everyone who made this trip possible. My parents, Bill Stickney and Belinda Nickle, my brothers, Shane and Joshua Stickney, my Aunt Wendy, and my friends, Amber Hunter, Brody Carpenter, Omar Flores, Teddy Steinhorst, and anyone who has chipped in to any STAND activities prior to this one! Your support has been invaluable, especially considering we apparently have to pay 10 dollars a day to use internet here- aka the amount of money it would take to feed 10 starving children- aka students at Weber State University.
But beyond mild complaints about exorbitant fees, this place is actually really awesome! Our hotel is very nice and very huge, and we're only a few blocks away from the national mall, which I'm sure we'll explore extensively as soon as we get some free time. The people running the conference also gave us some free books and a free ticket to the Holocaust museum! Needless to say, we're pretty excited to get started.
Coming in here on Friday, though, there wasn't a lot we could do. We came in a bit late due to a layover in Dallas, so when we got here it was already pretty dark outside. We were all very hungry, so we went to the restaurant in the Hyatt to see what they had. The cheapest thing on the menu was a kid's meal priced at about 17.50, so we decided that whatever that restaurant had to offer wasn't exactly what we were looking for. We wanted to pay about that much for, well, all three of us! So after that we wandered around looking for food, finding only a few cool looking monuments (but too hungry to check them out) and running in to people muttering to themselves on the street (I imagine every big city needs one, or fifty thousand). So after we tried and failed to find food for 40 minutes, we came to the hotel to use the internet, which as mentioned costs ten dollars for a freakin' day! Hungry as we were, we purchased said internet and found a place to buy some really delicious burgers. All in all, a great success.
Friday night we only had one conference-related event, which was a bit of a mingling period which regional schools. We met some interesting people and talked about our ideas, our successes, and what we could work on. This was a good time to get a few ideas going, but the greatest thing I took from that session was inspiration. In Utah, we don't have a lot of really active human rights groups, so I think sometimes it's easy to get demoralized or to feel like we're alone. But from this meeting, which was only a few groups from Western states, was more than enough to make me realize how universal our cause really is. We had people from Missouri to Alaska, and even a man from Costa Rica and another man from Sri Lanka. This is in a room with only a handful of the people at the conference!
Anyway, I need to get going to breakfast, but I will post some more updates and with any luck some pictures tonight. Thanks again for your support!
-Zach
But beyond mild complaints about exorbitant fees, this place is actually really awesome! Our hotel is very nice and very huge, and we're only a few blocks away from the national mall, which I'm sure we'll explore extensively as soon as we get some free time. The people running the conference also gave us some free books and a free ticket to the Holocaust museum! Needless to say, we're pretty excited to get started.
Coming in here on Friday, though, there wasn't a lot we could do. We came in a bit late due to a layover in Dallas, so when we got here it was already pretty dark outside. We were all very hungry, so we went to the restaurant in the Hyatt to see what they had. The cheapest thing on the menu was a kid's meal priced at about 17.50, so we decided that whatever that restaurant had to offer wasn't exactly what we were looking for. We wanted to pay about that much for, well, all three of us! So after that we wandered around looking for food, finding only a few cool looking monuments (but too hungry to check them out) and running in to people muttering to themselves on the street (I imagine every big city needs one, or fifty thousand). So after we tried and failed to find food for 40 minutes, we came to the hotel to use the internet, which as mentioned costs ten dollars for a freakin' day! Hungry as we were, we purchased said internet and found a place to buy some really delicious burgers. All in all, a great success.
Friday night we only had one conference-related event, which was a bit of a mingling period which regional schools. We met some interesting people and talked about our ideas, our successes, and what we could work on. This was a good time to get a few ideas going, but the greatest thing I took from that session was inspiration. In Utah, we don't have a lot of really active human rights groups, so I think sometimes it's easy to get demoralized or to feel like we're alone. But from this meeting, which was only a few groups from Western states, was more than enough to make me realize how universal our cause really is. We had people from Missouri to Alaska, and even a man from Costa Rica and another man from Sri Lanka. This is in a room with only a handful of the people at the conference!
Anyway, I need to get going to breakfast, but I will post some more updates and with any luck some pictures tonight. Thanks again for your support!
-Zach
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Solidarity, Not Sanctions
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has stated that the United States would pursue “crippling” sanctions against Iran if diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program fails. The only crippling that will occur should the United States pursue these sanctions is the crippling of the Iranian people and the crippling of the United States’ standing among them. Despite the hype surrounding the idea of sanctions, the civic strategy of solidarity with the Iranian people is the only strategy which will result in positive concessions from the Islamic Republic.
Since the hostage crisis of 1979 the United States has imposed multiple sanctions against Iran. The goal of these sanctions was to create dire economic conditions to pressure Iran’s fundamentalist leaders. But economic pressures do not always result in political changes. The ultimate goal of the sanctions- undermining support for Iran’s theocratic regime- has failed. In fact, the sanctions backfired and gave Iran’s ayatollahs more ammunition to justify their monopoly on Iranian politics and power. They also allowed the Iranian regime to fuel the Islamic Republic’s greatest myth- the myth that depicts the United States as the “Great Satan” and the American people as enemies of Islam.
Despite these past failings, many of our government officials are convinced that sanctions will prevail this time around. During a hearing of the Senate committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Charles Schumer described economic sanctions as “the preferred method of choking Iran’s nukes.” This myth of sanctions as a demoralizing agent needs to be debunked. Sanctions will choke ordinary people in Iran, not nuclear ambitions.
Regardless, the United States is in the process of developing multilateral sanctions against Iran. Two powerful allies, the United Kingdom and France, have voiced their support for the strategy if Tehran does not make acceptable concessions on its nuclear program. Yet two equally powerful countries, Russia and China, are much less enthusiastic. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently stated that sanctions “would not be creating favorable conditions” for resolving the nuclear issue. Similarly Jiang Yu, a Chinese foreign policy spokesperson, has voiced Chinese opposition as well: “We believe that sanctions and exerting pressure are not the way to solve problems and are not conducive to the current diplomatic efforts on the Iran issue.” With both China and Russia holding veto power in the United Nations Security Council, it seems unlikely that sanctions will work. But suppose we do come to an agreement and Russia and China back the sanctions fully. Wouldn’t that make the plan successful?
Successful sanctions, though uncommon, are not outside the realm of possibility. But the result that is more likely is a continuation of failures that could potentially escalate into something nobody desires: a war with Iran. As with the “Oil for Food” sanctions against Iraq a decade ago, sanctions against Iran will reward smugglers, enrich those in power, and stifle civil society. With the Revolutionary Guard already in control of the majority of the Iranian economy, small businesses will be undercut and the average Iranian will suffer. With these conditions in place, Iran’s hard-liners will frame the sanctions as “proof” that Americans are using the hardship of the Iranian people for the furtherance of their own interests. Uncontested control over Iran means Ahmadinejad will remain the Middle East’s provocateur and could feasibly trigger a war with the United States or Israel. It is precisely this endgame that we should try to avoid.
Instead of playing its regular tough guy role, the United States should pursue a different strategy. America shouldn’t feel the need to de-legitimize Ahmadinejad even further- he can take care of that himself. America should instead use a power that has always been its major advantage over dictatorial regimes everywhere. This isn’t our power to kill or cause harm- this is our power to offer a brighter future to the Iranian people. President Obama has already extended the hand of friendship to Iran and promised that changes in our relationship will be “grounded in mutual respect” –not threats. Promoting human rights in Iran isn’t just doing what is best for the Iranian people; it is also the best security strategy the United States can invest in.
Since the hostage crisis of 1979 the United States has imposed multiple sanctions against Iran. The goal of these sanctions was to create dire economic conditions to pressure Iran’s fundamentalist leaders. But economic pressures do not always result in political changes. The ultimate goal of the sanctions- undermining support for Iran’s theocratic regime- has failed. In fact, the sanctions backfired and gave Iran’s ayatollahs more ammunition to justify their monopoly on Iranian politics and power. They also allowed the Iranian regime to fuel the Islamic Republic’s greatest myth- the myth that depicts the United States as the “Great Satan” and the American people as enemies of Islam.
Despite these past failings, many of our government officials are convinced that sanctions will prevail this time around. During a hearing of the Senate committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Senator Charles Schumer described economic sanctions as “the preferred method of choking Iran’s nukes.” This myth of sanctions as a demoralizing agent needs to be debunked. Sanctions will choke ordinary people in Iran, not nuclear ambitions.
Regardless, the United States is in the process of developing multilateral sanctions against Iran. Two powerful allies, the United Kingdom and France, have voiced their support for the strategy if Tehran does not make acceptable concessions on its nuclear program. Yet two equally powerful countries, Russia and China, are much less enthusiastic. Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently stated that sanctions “would not be creating favorable conditions” for resolving the nuclear issue. Similarly Jiang Yu, a Chinese foreign policy spokesperson, has voiced Chinese opposition as well: “We believe that sanctions and exerting pressure are not the way to solve problems and are not conducive to the current diplomatic efforts on the Iran issue.” With both China and Russia holding veto power in the United Nations Security Council, it seems unlikely that sanctions will work. But suppose we do come to an agreement and Russia and China back the sanctions fully. Wouldn’t that make the plan successful?
Successful sanctions, though uncommon, are not outside the realm of possibility. But the result that is more likely is a continuation of failures that could potentially escalate into something nobody desires: a war with Iran. As with the “Oil for Food” sanctions against Iraq a decade ago, sanctions against Iran will reward smugglers, enrich those in power, and stifle civil society. With the Revolutionary Guard already in control of the majority of the Iranian economy, small businesses will be undercut and the average Iranian will suffer. With these conditions in place, Iran’s hard-liners will frame the sanctions as “proof” that Americans are using the hardship of the Iranian people for the furtherance of their own interests. Uncontested control over Iran means Ahmadinejad will remain the Middle East’s provocateur and could feasibly trigger a war with the United States or Israel. It is precisely this endgame that we should try to avoid.
Instead of playing its regular tough guy role, the United States should pursue a different strategy. America shouldn’t feel the need to de-legitimize Ahmadinejad even further- he can take care of that himself. America should instead use a power that has always been its major advantage over dictatorial regimes everywhere. This isn’t our power to kill or cause harm- this is our power to offer a brighter future to the Iranian people. President Obama has already extended the hand of friendship to Iran and promised that changes in our relationship will be “grounded in mutual respect” –not threats. Promoting human rights in Iran isn’t just doing what is best for the Iranian people; it is also the best security strategy the United States can invest in.
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