Beam Nauseated by Darfur Chic

Alex Beam gets nauseous from “Darfur Chic”, after attending a Darfur traveling photo show, lecture and celebrity concert at Boston’s Institute for Contemporary Art. He turns his nausea into a good column in today’s Boston Globe:

If the ongoing conflict in the Sudan isn't the most pressing international crisis, it is certainly the most precious. Earlier this year, the Sundance festival was atwitter with tales of the Darfur documentary, "The Devil Came on Horseback." The movement has the obligatory "I Care" wristband, this one green, with the words "Not on Our Watch." The Save Darfur campaign sells car ribbon magnets and of course those lawn signs you see in better communities everywhere.

Noting the frequent comparisons of Darfur to the Nazi Holocaust, but the unmentioned corollary that the Holocaust was ended by the largest and bloodiest war in history, Beam concludes by asking:

So which nation wants to sacrifice the lives of its young people to overthrow the al-Bashir government in the Sudan? None, of course. Until then, we'll make do with wristbands and fashion shows.

Sad, but very true.