Over at The Promise of Engagement my good friend Bec Hamilton, who is researching a book on Darfur, kicks off a debate on the future of advocacy...
Alex de Waal and Nick Kristof come from relatively different ends of the Darfur advocacy spectrum. Yet last week de Waal’s Making Sense of Darfur piece asked “Can Sudan Activism Transform Itself for the Obama Era?“ and last month Kristof’s On The Ground blog began by saying “The Save Darfur movement seems to be losing steam. It is riven by internal debate, it is being ignored by the Obama administration, and it suffered a frontal attack from Mahmood Mamdani . . . "
She is looking for contributors to answer the question, what next? Readers of this blog (and its predecessor) will know that much of the discussion on this blog has centred on what I have seen as the failures of the Save Darfur Coalition to understand Sudan and its complexities, leading advocates to push for the wrong kind of solutions. I've already submitted my thoughts and look forward to an interesting debate.
Rob, did you see this week's column by Kristoff on some rich dude in NYC who is doing charity work on water? The IHT picked it up. I am starting to realize that K is a total fluke...you were right!