"And it's true we are immune, when fact is fiction and TV reality, and today the millions cry, we eat and drink while tomorrow they die..."

While earning my Poli Sci degree it has become clear to me that there are topics like the genocide in Rwanda that continue to keep fostering huge problems even though we just marked the 10 year anniversary of that tragedy. I read about these things, I get angry and want justice, I write an essay.

When I was doing some research for Dr. Knight last summer I read some papers on the fallout of the Rwandian genocide and how the orphans, ten years later, are still caught in a terrible trap. They have nowhere to turn now so they turn to crime. Then they end up in jail and they are brutalized and raped and then returned to the streets in a cycle of violence and there seems to be no hope for these orphans. AIDS claims 6,500 Sub-Saharan Africans each day and the orphans (estimated to be 40 million by the end of the decade) left behind will grow up with no hope for a better future.

Now, even though many countries and the UN have pledged to never ever let it happen again, they are using the "G" word to describe the actions of the National Islamic Front and Janjaweed, its Arab militia allies, in Sudan.

25 June ~ At a press conference, Mr. Annan says he will use his upcoming trip to Sudan to press Khartoum to meet its obligations to protect its civilians and to disarm the Janjaweed. He says the international community must keep up the pressure on Sudan and urges donors to step up their aid. Mr. Annan says the people of Darfur are suffering a catastrophe and terrible crimes have been committed against them. Asked whether it is genocide or ethnic cleansing, he says we don't need a label to propel us to act.

So let me be an arrogant westerner (not Albertan, I mean from the first world) here and just use some labels. WE, the west, continue to stand around bickering back and forth about terminology like is it 'genocide' or 'ethnic cleansing' and wonder what it is we are supposed to do. Have we learned nothing? Apparently.

Will Africa forever be the continent of lost souls and war? Can/should the First world intervene? We have the ability but not the will. I sit here a million miles away from the conflict in Africa wondering what I can do. Write an essay?

There is this huge gap between my life here as a student and the lives of those living in Africa. So here I sit, at my cozy desk typing this and I sit here thinking about what a pain in the ass it is that my stupid cell phone is not working. Oh poor me. A crime against humanity is being committed and I am thinking about my cell phone. Where do I find the balance between those two worlds?

Can I continue to buy my groceries, shop at Walmart, because I am living from paycheque to paycheque, and save enough money to get by (and buy an education) and still try to care about people half a world away? How do we find some balance?

I wrote Paul Martin another letter. I feel frustrated today.