President Bush would probably say, “Support Genocide in Sudan,” but what he would be speaking about is this new CD featuring System of a Down, Thievery Corporation, Gorillaz, Jurassic 5, Jill Scott, Bad Religion and others (21 Tracks in all) called Genocide in Sudan. (The CD is scheduled to ship on Oct. 15, but you can order it now.)
If you haven’t been reading about what’s been going on in the Darfur region of this African country, you should definitely check out Samantha Power’s story “Dying in Darfur: Can the ethnic cleansing in Sudan be stopped?” from the New Yorker a couple weeks back (as always, via greg.org) which provides a pretty good overview of this continuing problem. To their minimal credit, the Bush Administration has not completely ignored Sudan nor Darfur, but they haven’t done enough either, and because of other international stories like the Iraq War and the Palestinian Intifada, as always, the continuing crises in Africa get virtually no attention in the American press.
The bands involved donated their songs to this album so that all proceeds can go to the United Nations Relief Agency and UNICEF. If you want to read more about the issue and the album, you can go to this website from Waxploitation Records.
Out of Focus 