Olympic Athletes and Bloggers on Darfur

Last month, Yobachi, of Blackperspective.net and the Afrosphere Action Coalition held a conference call with Team Darfur co-founder and Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek, who is working hard to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur. I was supposed to be one of the participants, but due to work and technical difficulties, I didn’t get a word in until the very end, and I’m not sure I said or asked anything of import. Anyway, here’s the official press release and podcast of the event.

On July 9th, the Afrosphere Action Coalition hosted a conference call with Team Darfur co-founder and Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek about activist advocacy for ending genocide in Darfur Sudan; particularly as it relates to the Olympics and China’s role in Sudan. Team Darfur boast “360+” former and current international competitive athlete.

The podcast page for the conference call is located at www.utterz.com/u/utt/u-NTExODkxNQ#utt-NTExODkxNQ

Yet also, bloggers and website editors can post this podcast directly to ones own site, as can be seen here: www.blackperspective.net/index.php/afrosphere-action-coalition/aac-on- darfur-and-humanitarian-issues/ by posting the following embedded code just as with a youtube video or other embedded media:

Many bloggers participated in the call with 2006 Olympic speed skating gold medlist Joey Cheek; who donated his “$25,000 gold medal award from the U.S. Olympic Committee to refugees from Darfur.” – npr.org

Team Darfur world class distance runner Jon Rankin called in as well, though we were not able to get him into the conversation.

In Team Darfur we see athletes standing up for doing right in the world based on their values, passions, and convictions. Such an effort by those in the spot light should be lauded in view of the behaviors we often hear about our athletes.

Joey Cheek discussed with bloggers Team Darfur’s call for an Olympic Truce and how it is, base on the Olympic’s own charter, that such an issue does indeed belong in the discussion with the Olympics

From Olympic Truce letter: “In our common aspiration to realize the ideals of the Olympic Games, we, the undersigned, urge the international community to convince the Government of Sudan to observe an Olympic Truce for Darfur before, during, and after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Through this letter, we issue an urgent call to the conscience of the international community. The violence in Sudan has gone on for too long. We hope you will use the opportunity of the Olympic Truce to work to end it.” This is discussed starting about the 10:42 mark of the podcast.

Relevant websites: Afrosphere Action Coalition google site: sites.google.com/site/afrosphereactioncoalition/Home – Team Darfur: teamdarfur.org/

Afrosphere Action Coalition,

Coordinators:
Daz Wilson purplezoe.blogspot.com/ * Yobachi Boswell www.BlackPerespective.net * Francis L. Holland francislholland.blogspot.com/

April 13 in Solidarity: Global Day for Darfur

Danielle Vyas, of ModernMusings.com leads the charge:

The Mission is to build upon Amnesty International’s global efforts within the blogsphere.

The Strategy is to Educate, Motivate and Activate toward ending the genocide in Darfur.

Educate through analysis of reports and news materials, compilations of facts through viral multimedia like podcasts and videos posted on Youtube and linking to articles, blog posts, and viral media to expand public knowledge of the Darfuri genocide. Any and all aspects can be focused on; such as the root causes of the murder, who is behind it, and what the international community has done to promote the murder and to end it.

Motivate through the capacity within humanity for empathy. Motivate through love. Pull at heart strings, communicate the sameness of Darfuri families and your own, and share the simple, common fact that we are all the same and the suffering of the Darfuri people is felt within our hearts. Motivate through the anger for the greed, the murder, and the lack of action.

Activate through petitions, open letters, letters to all our elected officials as well as U.N., Sudanese and Chinese officials, and speaking out to the corporate sponsors of the Beijing Olympics as China plays a key role.

I will be adding some facts, links and viral media in the coming days which anyone can grab and use. I will also have some fact sheets and other materials to spread. Since we are building a movement, I will prominently display all participants’ contributions and continue with the link love.

I’ll be taking part on the 13th, along with

Blackperspective.net
Electronic Village
Eddie G. Griffin
Black Women Vote
The Jose Vilson
Musing of the Night
Trav’s Thoughts
Ultraviolet Underground
Vanessa Unplugged
A Political Season
Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth
Black and Missing but not Forgotten

and hopefully many more. If you’d like to participate, drop a line at ModernMusings so you can be added to the list of participants.

And check out this nifty slideshow she created.