Wisconsin and Sudan

BadgerFems has posted a call to awareness and action (that I couldn't agree with more) concerning Wisconsin and divestment from companies that support the Sudanese government.

The Wisconsin State Senate passed SR28 this past Thursday 3/13, the same day that Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir signed a border peace agreement with President Idriss Déby of Chad aimed at stabilizing and containing the conflict in Darfur. SR28 is Wisconsin’s first major attempt at divestiture from companies funding the Sudanese government, which is complicit in sponsoring the genocide and mass atrocities carried out by the Janjaweed against the people of Darfur, repressing evidence of the crimes by obstructing and arresting journalists and killing witnesses, and even presiding over the public rape of Sudanese women and young girls by the Janjaweed without enforcing Sudanese law against it.

For me, there is a great deal of shame in knowing that our country has spent so much time, money and effort on an unprovoked, lied-about war in Iraq, while doing so little to stop the atrocities being committed in places like Sudan. These are the types of situations that a powerful, democratic country, in conjunction with international bodies like the UN, should be stepping in to help stop. But our priorities are extremely out of whack, focused almost exclusively on our perceived economic and political interests as opposed to defense of basic human rights and a little thing I like to call the greater good. Sickening.

So it is extremely important that there be a groundswell of support for divestiture programs like these, both at the state and national level. It's the least we can do.

Badger Fems on Assembly shenanigans

I just stumbled onto the Badger Fems blog, and an insightful and well-written post about the proceedings in the Assembly surrounding passage of the Compassionate Care for Rape Victims bill. It's great to see this kind of observation and thoughtfulness. Give it a read, it's well worth it.

Badger Fems appears to be a new blog, with a focus on covering issues of women's rights and gender politics (near as I can figure--feel free to correct me). So far, they seem to be doing this with a well-reasoned, firm and interesting voice, and I wish them all the best in their continued coverage. It's a noisy, often irrational internet out there, so it's refreshing to come across something like this from time to time.

And now, if I might make a small plug: Wis-Kino, your local independent film-making collaborative (full disclosure: you could say I'm pretty involved in the group), will be throwing their end of the year retrospective screening tomorrow night, Dec. 15th, at 8:00pm at the Mercury Lounge. We'll be showing all the best short films from the 2007 Wis-Kino season, followed by a faaabulous after party, featuring beats from DJ Angelfire and DJ Xenophile (that'd be yours truly). It's absolutely free, so come out for some fun film, good music, and superb company. For more, check out the event listing on TDP, or go to www.wis-kino.com.