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Reporters Without Borders - ~ - GLOBAL DAY FOR DARFUR RALLY Darfur Alert showed the colors for Philadelphia once again, holding a rally at City Hall as part of the April 13 Global Day for Darfur events being held around the world. The photos here depict the sign-carrying crowd, which totaled about 100 people, and the many activities they undertook with gusto. The theme of this year's Global Day was children -- focusing on the grim fact that a generation of Darfuri children have been born into a world of war and displacement and may never know a normal life. The rally featured a Tent of Hope, on which Philadelphians wrote their wishes for a better future for Darfur. We also provided scores of fabric squares, destined for children in the camps. Rally-goers decorated the squares with art and words of encouragement in Arabic and English. This project was a particular hit with the children in the crowd. Public officials and our Darfuri leaders also exhorted us to action, noting over and over the world community's weak action on Darfur. State Rep. Babette Josephs, prime sponsor of a bill to have Pennsylvania's public pension funds shun genocide-tainted investments, urged pressure on the few state senators who are holding up the bill. City Controller Alan Butkovitz, who successfully championed divestment by Philadelphia, challenged people to not let Sudan wear down our will. Petitions were everywhere. Most prominent were a set of jumbo cards addressed to the holdout state senators. By the end of the day, each was filled with signatures. Dozens of signatures also were gathered on petitions to U.S. Sens. Specter and Casey, calling on them to back full funding for UN peacekeepers and relief operations in Darfur. Another petition was to the mutual funds, demanding that they divest from foreign companies that are enabling the genocide. Yet another called on Johnson & Johnson, based in New Jersey, to use its role as a sponsor of the Olympics to press China. Enthusiastic students canvassed the City Hall area with petitions and stood on street corners hailing cars and passersby. We thank our loyal volunteers for helping to organize and staff the event, and the supporters who came from across the area to raise their voices. >
DAC president Ali B. Ali-Dinar addresses the rally, accompanied by DAC's interim director, Jim Remsen. >
To show the urgency of the situation, rallygoers displayed signs bearing the names of some of the hundreds of villages that have been destroyed in Darfur. >
State Rep. Babette Josephs calls for continuing activism for her Sudan divestment bill, now in the Pennsylvania Senate. >
Emtithal Mahmoud reads one of her Darfur poems. Behind her is one of the six cards about divestment addressed to six key state senators. >
Children decorate and offer their well-wishes on fabric squares that DAC will deliver to children in IDP camps in Darfur.
- ~ - PENNSYLVANIA DIVESTMENT NEEDS YOUR HELP NOW !!Your action is urgently needed to help push through important Sudan divestment legislation that is stalled in the Pennsylvania Senate.
For more on what's at stake, which legislators to contact, and what to
say, read our action alert here:
See what the Darfur Alert Coalition is doing. |
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Jan 2008 |
