"Not On Our Watch": Chapters 3-4

In these chapters, the authors go into detail on what led to the genocide and what the situation is like in Darfur. I can see that the Darfur genocide is not that different from what has been happening in Sudan all along - it is really just a continuation of the same nightmare. Don, John, and many others have reported horrible things that are happening there today. Children are thrown into fires, women and girls raped/gang raped, men killed, complete villages burned, bodies thrown in water wells, and many others. Many people have had their families killed, leaving them with no one, no home, no food and water, and severe injuries.

What is really even more sad about this is that all history is a continuation of what has happened. Darfur is a continuation of the past, and we keep on responding the same way. As a whole, our thought systems are the same as they've ever been, and this explains why the same thing still happens again and again. Fear is our basic emotion instead of love, and that's why these negative things keep on happening. If we aren't always experiencing love through our days, weeks, months, and years, then we will not be awake. We will be immersed in situations like Darfur, where we see hell instead of a bad dream.

By action, we are stopping Darfur. By thought, we allow it to be written in our future. People will be just as frightened in a couple decades about another genocide the same way that we are frightened now with Darfur.

"Not On Our Watch": Chapters 1-2

I think that these two men are great, considering that they are motivated to do something that can help people (temporarily.) However, they aren't really my role models. Don't get me wrong, though; I think that the effort to resolve the Darfur conflict is something that I am motivated to do. I also belive that we can do it. Don Cheadle and John Prendergast propose solutions to this problem. But, even if we do end the conflict and Darfur, it is not going to stop all genocides to happen. This "Never Again" idea is only a hope. The world is still addicted to these habits, and John unfortunately shows that he is addicted to it, too. He openly states that he is angry with this situation and that the US isn't doing anything about it. What's ironic about this is that anger is what causes genocide. We can easily say that genocide resembles darkness, so anger is as well. In order to get rid of darkness, we need light. Anger is obviously not light, no matter how it's used. Bringing darkness into darkness does nothing. So, John and Don have to us how to act for this situation, but not how to think. So if we want peace, we can't bring an angry attitude. Our minds are still stuck in the world of change, which means that peace in the world won't be permanent. Our situation will be a pattern of "bad" and "good" repeating into the future, as it has been in the past. The subtitle "The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond" shouldn't have the "and Beyond" part in it, since the book isn't focused on keeping peace in the long run. If we would like genocide to be stopped once and for all, we must bring unconditional love and peace to the whole universe, including the attackers and the indifferent.