Product Description

An Academy Award-nominated actor and a renowned human rights activist team up to change the tragic course of history in the Sudan -- with readers' help

While Don Cheadle was filming Hotel Rwanda, a new crisis had already erupted in Darfur, in nearby Sudan. In September 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell termed the atrocities being committed there "genocide" -- and yet two years later things have only gotten worse. 3.5 million Sudanese are going hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced by violence, and 400,000 have died in Darfur to date.

Both shocked and energized by this ongoing tragedy, Cheadle teamed up with leading activist John Prendergast to focus the world's attention. Not on Our Watch, their empowering book, offers six strategies readers themselves can implement: Raise Awareness, Raise Funds, Write a Letter, Call for Divestment, Start an Organization, and Lobby the Government. Each of these small actions can make a huge difference in the fate of a nation, and a people -- not only in Darfur, but in other crisis zones such as Somalia, Congo, and northern Uganda.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #31354 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Released on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Over the past five years, youth groups, religious organizations, politicians and individuals have responded to the crisis in Sudan in increased numbers. This book is a guide for these already involved, as well as those who are interested in taking action, or speaking out against the mass killings that continue to occur in the country's Darfur region. Coauthored by Cheadle, actor and star of the film Hotel Rwanda, and Prendergast, senior adviser of the International Crisis Group, the book is a pastiche of practical information, instructions, memoir and history. As a handbook for budding activists, it's informative and, at times, inspiring. The combination of charts, lists and first-person accounts create a simple and reasonable path to action. But as a source for information about the conflict in Sudan, the book falters. The history is neither clear nor succinct, and there is not much of it. Furthermore, although Cheadle and Prendergast's personal anecdotes are entertaining, they overshadow the few anecdotes about the Sudanese living through the crisis. The book's most interesting moment, besides the useful advice on how to get involved, is its delving into the government's excuses for inaction. (May 1)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Famous for his Academy Award-nominated performance in Hotel Rwanda, Cheadle teamed with human rights activist Prendergast to plead for greater awareness of the horrors of genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and issue a call to action. After a brief history of the tensions behind the genocide, Cheadle and Prendergast detail how they each got involved in the campaign to end genocide in Darfur. They offer profiles of individuals who have mounted efforts to end the genocide as well as suggestions for how all of us can get involved, including writing letters, joining activist organizations, raising funds and awareness, and lobbying the government. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"A persuasive and authoritative call for action with an engaging personal touch." -- Kirkus

"Don and John are two of the great champions of ending this genocide. With this book they remind us that the individual can change the world for the better. And they also remind us that we all bear responsibility in this crime against humanity. I'm proud to call them my friends." -- George Clooney

"The book is a pastiche of practical information, instructions, memoir, and history." -- Publishers Weekly

Customer Reviews

DARFUR and PALESTINE: VICTIMS of GENOCIDE.
Read and be very upset, just like reading about the atrocities being committed against the helpless Palestinians. What is this world coming to? Read the book to be aware and speak out about the truth you read here.

The futility of compassion
This book will stir your outrage and fuel within you a tremendous desire to help. To do something! It is well-written to engage you and it evokes powerful emotions -- disgust, horror, hope.

But in the end, what a let-down!

The course of action recommended? The community of nations should come together to end this. Hasn't all this useless talking been going on for decades?

There is more to this story.

Sudan is an Islamic nation that has spent two decades ELIMINATING in evil and horrendous ways its Christian and non-Muslim populations. People get a real taste for it, after a whole generation. So now the various Muslim factions are turning against one another, sort of a Muslim-purity civil war, if you will. And the atrocities, the inhumanity, the disgusting, animalistic, sickening actions of these factions are finally getting a little attention.

But the U.N. is not going to do a thing about it. And the Sudanese are not likely to be convinced by chatter.

To end this horror in Darfur, you'd better put together an elite coalition of American, British, and Australian forces and go in there to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. Declare martial law and shut the place down. Permanently.

Because if you are going to declare "Not on our Watch," you had best take steps to ensure that it isn't just useless talk.

call to action
Well now I know where Darfur is, not to mention Chad, Congo, Uganda, Kenya etc....this book does a pretty good job of explaining the conflict. But their main purpose is to get the reader to ACT. Which I am doing... if only to allay the deep sense of trajedy one gets from reading of the terror going on there...and here, as we turn our backs on the situation. At first I was put off by the seeming light-heartedness of the authors but now I realize they, and you, as the reader, have to put up some kind of boundry in order to not be swept away by dispair.