Here at Enough, we often swap emails with interesting articles and feature stories that we come across in our favorite publications and on our favorite websites. We wanted to share some of these stories with you as part of our effort to keep you up to date on what you need to know in the world of anti-genocide and crimes against humanity work.
The same week one of the International Criminal Court’s most notorious suspects, Congolese General Bosco Ntaganda, turned himself in, ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda weighs in on the controversial peace versus justice debate in an op-ed for the International Herald Tribune. She makes the point that sidelining justice initiatives in hopes of achieving peace will most often fall short in the long haul, because peace will not be sustainable. Bensouda writes:
The debate about peace versus justice or peace over justice is a patently false choice. Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin. The road to peace should be seen as running via justice, and thus peace and justice can be pursued simultaneously.
In the Science section of The New York Times John Tierney highlights the findings of a new study that challenges the established expectation that bad news will be the most popular. Social media, it seems, is changing not just the way but also the type of story that spreads, to positive effect and with implications for effective advocacy too. As social psychologist Jonah Berger, quoted in the piece, explains:
The ‘if it bleeds’ rule works for mass media that just want you to tune in. They want your eyeballs and don’t care how you’re feeling. But when you share a story with your friends and peers, you care a lot more how they react. You don’t want them to think of you as a Debbie Downer.
Aly Verjee recaps the latest round of talks between Sudan and South Sudan on African Arguments and highlights the patterns of failure that should serve as a word of warning to anyone who sees the recent agreements as a true “breakthrough.” But he notes, “We celebrate the [implementation] matrix, because even modest progress is better than the alternative.”
The Washington Post reports that the FBI searched the Watergate condo of Robert “Bud” McFarlane, of Iran-Contra infamy, as part of its investigation into McFarlane’s alleged lobbying activities on behalf of the Sudanese government through a $1.3 million contract fronted by the Qatari government.