Blogging a news story: Darfur

I said you could write about any kind of story for your own blog entries, but for my own I thought I'd write about an ongoing story that is simply horrific. The situation in Darfur is one of the world's worst conflict situations, and even threatens to spread outside Sudan to neighboring Chad. It is a situation that is now involving the UN Security Council, NATO, the African Union, the Arab League and other international organizations. There is supposed to be intervention to stop ongoing genocide, but the logistical and political problems are very serious.

According to Jennie Matthew writing from Khartoum:

The head of the UN peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region has highlighted an urgent need for helicopters, saying the global community must donate them or the entire mission must be reviewed.

The international force, set to number 26 000, will formally replace a small African Union mission on January 1, but still lacks six combat and 18 transport helicopters, vital to operate in a war-torn Sudanese area the size of Texas.

She quotes the head of the African Union force on the ground as saying:

"The international community has got its back to the wall and some are asking 'really is it impossible for the entire international community to mobilise 24 helicopters,'"

She also notes that the UN blamed the Sudanese government for the problems:

On Tuesday, the head of UN peacekeeping, Jean-Marie Guehenno, complained that Sudanese government red tape and lack of resources are delaying the deployment of the peacekeepers

But Reuters News said that the Sudanese government blamed the UN itself for the delays:

SUNA [Sudan's state news agency] quoted senior foreign ministry official Suraj el-Din Hamid as saying President Omar Hassan al-Bashir had already issued directives to allocate all the land the mission needed, and that the United Nations had delayed meetings in New York to discuss the deployment twice in two weeks.

"The problems in dealing with the United Nations on this peacekeeping operation reflects the ability of the peacekeeping unit to direct this mission," Hamid said.

Meanwhile China threatened one of the major rebel groups fighting the Sudanese government. The Justice and Equality Movement, an Islamist group fighting against Arab domination of the Sudan, had said that Chinese troops were only going to Sudan to protect Chinese investments, and said that they would specifically target Chinese troops among any United Nations forces.

According to a report on a South African website:

China on Wednesday fired back at a rebel group's threats against its peacekeepers in Darfur, saying Beijing was committed to stabilising the troubled Sudanese region and urged the opposition to join in peace talks.

. . .

Rebels in the Sudanese Justice and Equality Movement have warned that they could target Chinese troops because Beijing supplies military and economic support to Sudan's government.

The movement, which has boycotted peace talks, claims the Chinese were sent to protect Beijing's investments in the oil industry. Last month, its fighters attacked the Chinese-run Defra oil field in neighbouring Kordofan region and abducted two foreign workers.

I hope you will take an interest in this important, ongoing story and learn something of the background to this conflict. If Japan is really going to ask for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and take a more important role in international affairs, people will have to learn more about what is going on in the outside world.

More information is available at the Save Darfur website, among other places.

Iai Activity

On this past weekend, I was absorbed in taking lessons the Iai. Iai means drawing a sword. We probably learn samurai-soul through Iai. Although I don't know about samurai-soul clearly, I believe that we can get something important mind. The least I do... I do.

My Weekend

I watched 3 DVDs on saturday and Sunday. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" is the First one. I've been love its original story series since I was an elementary school child. So I really had wanted to go to cinema, but I couldn't. However, I enjoied the movie enough in my room and soon I hope to watch the next one. Next, I watched "OUTBREAK" for my report of biohazard measures class. It showed me terror of virus and terror of endless report. After that, I watched the last one, "The Great Dictator" which made by Charlie Chaplin. It was funny and interesting, but it made me think, and cry a little at last. Totally, I think I had a good time this weekend.

My weekend

I had a futsal game last week. All participation teams belong to Hirosaki university. Our team won the all league match. In second game in league match, I got a goal with nice pass from team mate. Although we were top in the league, we lost in second round in tournament.
Next week, futsal game is held in same place. We want to win all games by all means.

My job

I am making a dormitory document.It is written about introduction of each room,love survey,boarder's ranking and so on.Eight boarding students makes it and give it to graduates of university and dormitory.We divide the work among us eight.Sending survey of boarder's lanking is my job. It is so hard for me to collate the results of the survey.But making a dormitory document is one of the boarder's job.So,I do my best in order to get graduates of university and dormitory to delighted.

My weekend

November 24, I attended a wedding celemony to perform as a band.
I am on keyboards. The performance was a success. The bridal pair was deeply gratified by the performance of our band.
The two of them looked very happy.
It was a very happy day for me.

My holidays

I spent my holidays reading ''HANS ANDERSON'S FAILY TALES''. Andersenian stories are familiar to us, for example ''The Emperor's New Cloths'', ''Thumbelina'',''The Little Marmaid'' and so on. There are some difference between the original and Japanese version. So it was very interesting.

My three consecutive holidays

Three consecutive holidays was short for me because I had a part-time job in a preparatory school on Friday and Saturday. I usually teach junior high school students social studies or English. But sometimes I can't answer questions from students. So I want to be able to answer any question. And I had to clean my room and do a lot of washing on Sunday because my room was so much stuff scattered about that I couldn't find anywhere to sit. It took about half a day. That was my holidays.

weekend

I practiced the trumpet every day last weekend, because we have a concert next week. And I will practice this weekend. I practice very hard to do well the concert.