PLEASE visit these boycott sites, learn about the boycotts and start boycotting!: Seattle Times article, France Boycotts Olympics in China over Darfur, SuperXtra.
Learn more about Sudan/Darfur Coalition for Darfur. Letter of protest, Boycott 2008 Olympics. Those who are supporting divestment in Sudan.
Fort Wayne issues.
The Indiana Senate, led by Fort Wayne’s own David Long, can surely do better than letting a divestment measure intended to support the people of Darfur fall victim to an ill-placed abortion amendment and a committee chairman’s misjudgment.
Indiana House Bill 1484 would require pension funds for teachers and for the state’s public employees to sell off holdings in any of a small number of foreign firms that do certain types of business with Sudan, the nation now most famous for sponsoring repeated massacres against people in Darfur. More than 200,000 have been killed, and about 2 million Darfuri have fled the country.
In Fort Wayne, we can be proud that 200 or more Darfuri have found a welcoming home among us. That continues at least a 60-year tradition in this city of embracing the oppressed and dispossessed from around the world and helping them create new lives here.
If only we could be as proud of the General Assembly as we are of the relief agencies, churches, employers and unsung good neighbors in Fort Wayne who’ve helped refugees from Darfur.
Admittedly, there are costs to scouring the state’s investments for businesses that have a hand in supporting the Sudanese government. The state’s Legislative Services Agency reports that implementing divestment might cost $2-$3 million, with an unknown financial impact from selling holdings in such companies. But those are costs backed by such a compelling moral argument that the U.S. government has already barred U.S. companies from doing business with Sudan.
Six other states have passed measures to divest assets in foreign companies engaged in some types of business with Sudan.
We’ve generally been skeptical about divestment as a foreign-policy strategy, because it so often harms unintended targets – sometimes the very innocents it is intended to help. But this Sudan divestment strives to exempt companies involved in providing humanitarian trade and focus on a small number of firms that help sustain the government in that country.
This measure came before the House backed by such a wide array of religious and secular groups, arguing such a clear moral point, that it was passed 97-0 by that body. If Reps. Randy Borror and Pat Bauer could both support this bill, along with every other Republican and Democrat in the House, it should have enjoyed similarly smooth progress through the Senate.
Two things happened to stall it last week.
First, several legislators told the Indianapolis Star that Sen. Mike Young, R-Indianapolis, tried to amend the bill to also require the state to divest any interests it holds in companies that manufacture abortion drugs. That’s the wrong approach. If legislators want to look for new ways to discourage women from having abortions, they ought to write separate bills instead of trying to piggyback a much more disputed measure on the Sudan divestment bill.
Second, Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, wouldn’t allow the Pensions and Labor Committee that he chairs to vote on the bill. He said he was worried about the precedent that would set for legislative tampering with and micromanaging state investments. That’s a reasonable concern to raise, but it’s better addressed in committee or full Senate debate. Instead, Kruse exercised his power to stop the Senate from even deliberating over this measure.
It’s this simple: A rarely assembled coalition of conservative, moderate and liberal legislators see the value in the state using its financial clout to help isolate Sudan from the world. Now Hoosiers who want to see more action on this front must pin their hopes on Long or other Senate leaders to insert the divestment measure somewhere else.
Only Monday, The New York Times published a story about refugees from the slaughter, the literal genocide, in Darfur who now live in Fort Wayne and northeastern Indiana. It provided a fresh look at neighborliness we take for granted.
As one of the first Darfuri to arrive here told the Times, “Cities like New York are not attractive for our beginners, too busy. This community welcomed us cheerfully and respectfully. They understand our people.”
The story noted that Darfuri who come to Fort Wayne find what seems to them astounding abundance and comfort even on low-wage, entry-level industrial work. They find more, too. They find networks of charities to help them adjust to America. Free clinics provide medical care. Volunteers help new arrivals learn English.
The New York Times couldn’t have paid Fort Wayne a greater compliment than showing us how we appear to new arrivals from a terribly oppressed region of Sudan. Read the story, available online at www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/us/02indiana.html. It will make you feel freshly blessed to be an American and especially proud to be part of Fort Wayne.
Now perhaps the Indiana Senate will rise to emulate Fort Wayne’s example and support a people whose lives in recent years have been more terrible than most nightmares.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment