Students must maintain global awareness

Evan Hannay Staff Writer

It would be hard to argue that the majority of Vassar students are acutely aware of world events and frequently take active moral responsibility in helping to solve any crises that arise. After Hurricane Katrina, various student organizations helped raise money for relief efforts, and forums were organized to discuss the issues surrounding the American tragedy. Students have held discussions and protests in response to the war in Iraq and the genocidal conflicts underway in the Darfur region of Sudan.

However, as time passes and the initial visceral reactions fade from memory, students get embroiled in handling the stresses of daily life and the issues become less important and are eventually forgotten. Excluding the occasional reminder, which usually elicits a response of “Oh yeah…what is going on in Darfur, Iraq, etc.? I haven’t heard anything in a while,” students generally do not display the time, energy or desire to maintain vigilance on world issues.

It would be a safe assumption that many of the “worst,” or at least well-publicized, world events/crises that have arisen in the past five years have actually increased considerably. In Iraq, almost all of the high-ranking U.S. military officials have admitted that the sectarian violence between the Sunni and Shiites has evolved into outright civil war. The special police forces that were supposed to have established order and given the Iraq government a measure of autonomy have been marred by corruption and lack of training. The Department of Defense has reported that 2,764 American servicemen and servicewomen have died since the start of the Iraq War, and October 2006 was expected to be ranked third in terms of casualties for U.S. forces since the war started.

To exacerbate the situation, there appears to be little hope for progress in the near future, and the president has made it emphatically clear that he has no plans for even modest troop withdrawals in the near future. Despite the deteriorating situation, the public outcry that was strong two years ago has waned, and the nation, including Vassar students, has settled into a resigned complacency.

In Darfur, the conflict between the rebel alliance known as the National Redemption Front and the Arab janjaweed backed by the Sudanese government has taken what The New York Times has characterized as a “grim new turn.” Two hundred thousand Sudanese people have died since early 2003 and countless others have been displaced into refugee camps. Now the conflict is threatening to evolve into a region-wide conflagration in the heart of Africa as the fighting has begun to spread into the neighboring nations of Chad and Eritrea. As with Iraq, the initial emotional reaction to the tragedy in Darfur has seemingly faded into oblivion.

It is important for idealistic, well-educated college students with a lot of energy to maintain as much moral vigilance as possible. It is, of course, difficult to balance the demands of everyday life and the demanding coursework Vassar requires with a constant concern for world issues, but when those who are capable of speaking out do not, atrocities are continually perpetuated and change is impossible.