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Sender: American Memory Fellows <AMFELLOWS@RS8.LOC.GOV>
Poster: Ron Stoloff <rstoloff@MAIL.PHILA.K12.PA.US>
Subject: Re: Re(3): Kosovo teach-in
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At 05:33 AM 4/30/1999 +0100, you wrote:
>One of our fourth grade teachers has been very involved in learning about
>Kosovo with her students. They wanted to do something so she contacted the
>International Rescue Committee. A staffer I knew came and spoke
>beautifully at an assembly for our fourth and fifth graders. What I liked
>about her talk was that it focused on the plight of refugees throughout
>the world, especially in the places the media doesn't go to as much like
>Africa. She suggested that the children write letters and cards to fellow
>children in refugee camps. The teacher has now organized a walkathon to
>raise funds for Kosovo refugees next week in which all fourth and fifth
>grades are participating.
>
>I must comment however that I've had mixed feelings about all of this.
>Several months ago Sierra Leone (where I was in the Peace Corps) was in
>horrific straits. There was even some media attention because it was so
>horrible. However, there certainly was never the Western interest there
>now is in Kosovo. I just listened to Carol Bellamy, director of UNICEF
>(former Peace Corps volunteer and Peace Corps director whom I met a few
>times) who commented on this very issue. Don't get me wrong, I think
>Kosovo is horrible and Bosnia was too. However, as Carol noted (on the
>BBC) there just doesn't seem to be the interest in Europe or the US either
>in these other conflicts and the same interest in helping. UNICEF is not
>getting donor money for the other refugees on the level of that they are
>receiving for Kosovo. The staffer from the International Rescue Committee
>(someone I have known for a long time) felt the same way and tried to
>address it in her talk. She suggested to me that maybe next year I could
>work with the children on the issue of child soldiers. I had considered it
>when Freetown was being attached, however the images and stories are so
>awful I felt they weren't appropriate for this age group. I tried to get
>some teachers of older children interested without success.
>
>So, I'd just like to see attention paid to many wars and refugee
>crisisgoing on. Kosovo may be hard to understand but how about Rwanda?
>Sudan? Sierra Leone? Guatemala? They are equally horrible in my opinion.
>
>Okay, I relinquish the soap box to someone else.
>
>Monica,
There has always been that feeling that the US - and Europe - only freaks
out when white folk are getting it.
However, the problem seems to be how much publicity it gets - usually how
close to the bases of the newspeople who *really* decide who gets the
coverage.
When Somalia drew us in, it certainly wasn't because of white people, the
reverse for Rawanda. In West Africa we haven't been too involved because
Africans were taking 'care' of the situation, themselves.
Then there is the theory that we have only so many tears (or
money/time/resources) to spend and we have to be very selective.
It still beats me how we make the decision or do we just fall into situations?
Ron Stoloff
If the gods had intended Man to fly, they wouldn't have given us railroads!
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