Five Stories You May Have Missed This Week

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.

Raven Rakia's beautiful essay, "Black Riot" eloquently captures the spirit of the Sudan protests, while also examing the muddied ways in which riots, and protests on the Continent are discussed in media. She writes, 

"The media’s method is clear with regards to African resistance: quietly declare the demonstrations “riots” and then move on to the next piece of news. No more than three paragraphs, if that. No nuance, no debate, no critical thinking so that it is an easy argument to make when the state puts rioters down like one would a rabid dog."

Samantha Power, the youngest ever U.S. ambassador to the U.N. has a unique career history. She threw herself into war reporting in Bosnia where her interest in America’s role in human rights atrocities was sparked. She later went to Harvard law, started the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, worked in various governmental positions, penned a Pulitzer Prize winning book about genocide, and visited Darfur with Enough’s John Prendergast. She is now known for asking the difficult questions in regards to past atrocities in discussions at the United Nations.

Since this summer, civilian security has taken a drastic turn in the Congo. The Force Intervention Brigade, a group of 3,000 soldiers from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi have been instructed by the U.N. Security Council to “neutralize armed groups” in the region of Eastern Congo.  With rare consensus among members of the Council, the initiative was meant to restore hope to Congolese but it’s success has also simultaneously reformed the image of U.N. peacekeepers.

Kakenya Ntaiya is one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2013. At 14 years old, she was part of a traditional female circumcision ceremony, of which she told her father that the only way she would go through with the painful ritual was if he allowed her to finish high school. She has since then completed high school, college, graduate school and received a doctorate in education. When she returned home to her Maasai village in Kenya, she opened up a school for girls where they could receive some of the same opportunities that she had.

Photographer Marcus Bleasdale and Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, traveled to the Central African Republic's regional captial, Bossangoa, to see the impact of the crisis in villages and the people for themselves. Bouckaert's account,“We Live and Die Here Like Animals” is accompanied by Bleasdale’s powerful photo essay.  Bouckeart writes, 

"If nothing is done, the CAR could descend into a deep, inter-communal religious conflict — with much greater bloodshed than even what we've seen thus far. In early November, the United Nations went so far as to warn that the current conflict is at risk of escalating into genocide."