Amnisty International Darfur Benefit Concert

Tonight I attended the Human Rights Benefit Concert held by Amnisty International and "Darfur Fast" which is a part of Genocide Intervention Network. It was held from 6 PM to 11 PM at Old Brick Community Center, 26 East Market Street at the corner of Market and Clinton Streets, Iowa City, Iowa.

I went there dressed entirely in Green (except for my gloves, socks and boots), wearing my straw stetson painted green with my Green Party, Code Pink and Sierra Club buttons, and I wore my orange ACLU armband that proclaims we need to shut Guantanamo down. I paid the suggested donation of $5, on my limited poverty budget, and although I already ate dinner, I could not pass up the donated food that came later.

The money collected at the door (well, collected casually at a table just inside the main hall upstairs) went to Amnesty International's Denounce Torture Campaign adn to "Darfur Fast", which is a program run by Genocide Intervention Network.

Set up at the tables around the room were:
University of Iowa Anti-war Committee-CAN (I did not ask what "CAN" means)
Iowa United Nations Association (this group was not listed in the U of I Student organization
directory, but I know they are active on campus!)
Peace Iowa
Invisible Children - Iowa City
Persian Student Organization
Amnesty International
American Friends Service Committee

Due to the loud talking going on in the room, and the echo in the room from the amplified speakers, it was very hard for me to hear what was being said in the opening remarks at 6:30 PM, so I did not copy anything that was said. Sadly, the Old Brick Community Center was not designed for modern amplified sound.

Then the Sudanese band began playing some really great music and singing. Of course, I have always enjoyed African music, having listened to it every weekend when I lived in Las Vegas Nevada for three years (two hours every Saturday morning on KUNV-FM, right after the Hawaiian music program! I was SPOILED with music in Las Vegas, and in Saint Louis !!!
I noted: "I don't go to events to have a good time, but I really enjoyed the entertainment!")

At about 7PM, the donated food arrived. A wide variety of free pizzas donated by Pappa Johns, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Pizza Lovers, The Wedge Pizza, and The Pizza Ranch came in, and I mean dozens of boxes and boxes of pizzas arrived! Purified water in gallon jugs were provided by Crystal Clear. And bags of large, round, frozen chocolate-coated vanila bars on sticks were provided by Dairy Queen. I will not say which pizza was the one I liked the best, but I had two slices of it, and the other two different pizza slices were very good too! Boxes and boxes of pizza, oh my! More than enough for one whole pizza for each person there!

At 7:15 PM a group of ten guys sang a-capella African songs in GREAT harmony and rhythm, making their vocal accustic percussion. These a-capella guys sounded great in this building, and they stood back from the up-raised mics.

At 7:30 PM we had our first presented speech, I think it was by the leader of the band. I could not hear very well again, due to all of the talking, but I caught a few phrases about why this event was being held and what was happening in Darfur and Sudan:
"... under the watch of the international community..." I could only think to myself how it is so amazing that people from Sudan who witnessed the genocide there are here in Iowa City, right in Old Brick, as he continued speaking through the crowd's voices which eventually died down to a respectful quiet as everyone stood near the stage, but it was still hard to hear over all of the talking and the echo of the sound system blurring his words:
"The United Nations two years ago explored the idea of helping...." "Now the UN again is underequipped..." "...we have to do something..." "Some people do not like the word genocide, it is just a word -- what is happening on the ground is what is happening: people are being killed, women are being raped, villages are being burned..." More audience talking!

At 7:45 PM another speaker took to the stage, a very tall Sudanese man. I presume he was billed as "Abdalla Abdalla", a former journalist from Sudan. He mentioned a "CPA" several times, but I could not hear what it was. He mentioned what I think was CPA, or his group, or something: "... what we did was started communicating with people -- if not for the organizations the genocide would not have stopped." "This thing is very complicated..." "...Unfortunately, the peace agreement was only signed between the north and the south..." "...and it left a lot of people out of the agreement..." "...But other parts were forgotten, like the east and the west. Now people are fighting to get their fair share because everything was divided between north and south..." "The Chinese government came in and set up their embassy there..." "...for the oil..." "The Chinese government did not do its part to play its role in peace negotiations..." "... (some organization I think) understands the importance of killng innocent people, understand the importance of genocide, understand the importance of unity..."

The program went back to more music, so at 8 PM I left the benefit, as I think I got about all of the productive notes I could. I lost track of where the speakers went to, they may have gone back in the Community Center kitchen or something, but the sound system people were set up there so I just put my coat on and left the venue.

Overall, there were a lot of people there, but not as many as could be. There is an old bit of advice I have used several times: the impartial reporter only goes as if he or she was never there at all, and only reports what he or she sees and hears without interfering, to be only as a historic witness. I see John Deeth doing that all the time. I admire the wisdom in that advice. So my end analysis is, pretending I was not there but just witnessing it never-the-less, it is truly amazing that even this many people showed to this event, right in little Iowa City! The attendees were what made this worthwhile for the bands and speakers, and I am proud to be an Iowan and a Iowa Citian because of that. As one of the speakers said, we all could have simply stayed at home in this blustery cold night, rather than coming to attend this event! But, they did not do that, they came anyway!

Libris Fidelis