Thank you all for coming to our first general body meeting! It looks
to be the beginnings of a great year!!!

Our next meeting will be October 3 at 9pm in Marvin Center room 310
We will also be collecting $5 optional dues at this meeting.


Up Coming Events....

September 14th, 11am-2pm- Progressive Student Org. Fair
Stop by Kogan Plaza tomorrow afternoon to visit with a number of
different student organizations including GW STAND!!

September 14th, 1-2pm at the Preston Auditorium:NOTES OF HOPE FROM
DARFUR CONCERT : FLUTE RECITAL by Sudanese artist and composer Hafiz
Abdulrahman Mukhtar

Hafiz Abdulrahman is a well known Sudanese flautist and composer from
Darfur. He is currently in Washington on a US tour. His music
encompasses both the African and Arab traditions of Sudan and is
essentially the music of hope and peace. His concert at the Kennedy
Center can be heard at:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=HA\
FABDRAHM#

for information contact
Tara Sharafudeen
tsharafudeen@...
202.473.2373
September 17th - Voices Against Genocide: Save Darfur Now!
Come to the Save Darfur Rally in New York City
Need Transportation? Buses will leave (from a location TBD, but
between here and Georgetown) at 8am and begin their return from New
York at 6pm. They will be $25-$35 for students. If you would like to
come on the bus, e-mail Micaela at Micaela@... with your name,
e-mail and cell number, and look for updates in your e-mail about the
bus departure location!


Thursday, September 21 - UN Peace Day: Darfur Diaries Screening and
Peace Panel at Pangea Artisan Market and Cafe (located on the corner
of 21st & Pennsylvania Avenue)
The screening of Darfur Diaries will be from 12-2pm and the Peace
Panel will be held from 6-8.30pm. See the attachment for more details.

Sunday, September 24
Run or Walk For Congo Women!
Washington DC 2006

Rock Creek Park/ Carter Barron Picnic area 24

8 AM Start Time.

Join us to walk or run this 5 mile course in Rock Creek Park, as we
come together to support women in the war ravaged Congo! Followed by
a finish line celebration.
Co-hosted by Women for Women International, Friends of Congo, And COPPAC.

Suggested fundraising minimum is 1 woman's sponsorship for a year.
($27/ month + 30 set up fee=$354) A great goal is 1 woman sponsored
for every mile you run or walk! If the minimum seems prohibitive, all
we ask is your best effort at seeking sponsorships and raising awareness.

Registration is limited to 300, so please register early! No entry fee!
visit http://www.runforcongowomen.com
Or to donate online:
http://www.runforcongowomen.com/donatenow.html

Articles and Op-Eds worth reading...

Why Genocide Matters
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

When I spoke at Cornell University recently, a woman asked why I
always harp on Darfur.

It's a fair question. The number of people killed in Darfur so far is
modest in global terms: estimates range from 200,000 to more than 500,000.

In contrast, four million people have died since 1998 as a result of
the fighting in Congo, the most lethal conflict since World War II.
And malaria annually kills one million to three million people —
meaning that three years' deaths in Darfur are within the margin of
error of the annual global toll from malaria.

So, yes, you can make an argument that Darfur is simply one of many
tragedies and that it would be more cost-effective to save lives by
tackling diarrhea, measles and malaria.

But I don't buy that argument at all. We have a moral compass within
us, and its needle is moved not only by human suffering but also by
human evil. That's what makes genocide special — not just the number
of deaths but the government policy behind them. And that in turn is
why stopping genocide should be an even higher priority than saving
lives from AIDS or malaria.

Even the Holocaust amounted to only 10 percent of World War II
casualties and cost far fewer lives than the AIDS epidemic. But the
Holocaust evokes special revulsion because it wasn't just tragic but
also monstrous, and that's why we read Anne Frank and Elie Wiesel.
Teenage girls still die all the time, and little boys still starve and
lose their parents — but when this arises from genocide, the horror
resonates with all humans.

Or it should. But for whatever reason, Sudan's decision to kill people
on the basis of tribe and skin color has aroused mostly yawns around
the globe. Now Sudan is raising the stakes by starting a new military
offensive in Darfur — and by eliminating witnesses.

The government charged Paul Salopek, an ace Chicago Tribune
correspondent, with espionage in an effort to keep foreign reporters
away (on Saturday it released him after a month in prison). And even
African Union peacekeepers may be forced out of Darfur by the end of
this month.

Twelve aid workers have been killed since May — more than in the
previous three years. These killings are forcing aid groups to pull
back, and the U.N. warns that if the humanitarian operation collapses,
the result will be "hundreds of thousands of deaths." If all foreign
witnesses are pushed out, the calamity is barely imaginable.

We urgently need U.N. peacekeepers, even over Sudan's objections. (If
Sudan sees them coming, it will hurriedly consent.) The U.S. should
also impose a no-fly zone from Chad and work with France to keep Chad
and the Central African Republic from collapsing into this maelstrom.

President Bush showed an important flash of leadership on Darfur early
this year, but lately he has fallen quiet again. He should appoint a
special envoy for Darfur and use his bully pulpit to put genocide on
the international agenda — for starters, by employing his speech to
the U.N. General Assembly this month to remind the world of the
children being tossed onto bonfires in Sudan. He could also announce
that the U.S. will choose candidates to support for U.N. secretary
general based in part on their positions on the genocide.

You can see how your member of Congress does on Darfur at
www.darfurscores.org . Information about Darfur rallies next Sunday in
New York and other cities worldwide is at www.savedarfur.org.

If we don't act, the slaughter may end up claiming more than one
million lives, but this is about more than body count. This time the
teenagers are not named Anne and Elie, but Fatima and Ahmed, but the
horror is the same.

To stir up interest among young people in issues like Darfur and
global poverty, I held a contest in the spring to choose a university
student to take with me on a reporting trip to Africa. From 4,000
entries, I chose Casey Parks, a young woman from Mississippi who had
never been outside the U.S.

We're leaving tomorrow for Equatorial Guinea. It's a backwater that
has fascinated me since I first traveled through Africa in 1982 and my
Lonely Planet guidebook said about it: "We've never heard of any
travelers going there, so we have no details."

Casey and I then travel through remote parts of Cameroon and the
Central African Republic. You can follow our journey beginning
Wednesday with our daily blog entries at www.nytimes.com/kristof.
Rolling Stone article by DINAW MENGESTU
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/11546099/the_tragedy_of_darfur/1