Niger RPCV Susan Bradley offers views on Sudan, Darfur region



Niger RPCV Susan Bradley offers views on Sudan, Darfur region

U.S. State Department official visits ECU
Bradley offers views on Sudan, Darfur region

story image 1
Chris Munier, Staff Writer
March 01, 2005

A government official visited ECU Saturday morning to give a presentation on the crisis concerning the distribution of wealth and resources taking place in Sudan and Darfur.

Susan Bradley, deputy chief of USAID/Office of Food for Peace's Emergency Division,

said the governance in Sudan is characterized by ethno-religious "exclusivism." All of the aid money that goes to Sudan gets invested into the capital city, Khartoum, a place dominated by an Arab elite, leaving the rest of the country with vast humanitarian problems.

The Darfur area has had very little rule of law during the last 20 years. Bradley said livestock is fought over quite often and the level of underdevelopment there is paralleled only in the south.

"Animals are basically wealth in Darfur," said Bradley.

She said the way they live virtually prehistoric.

"We're talking stones, wood, straws and that's it," Bradley said.

Bradley said part of the problem is a conflict of livelihoods in Sudan. People of urban, rural and nomadic lifestyles are competing for resources. There is also a high level of armament because of all the conflict.

These conflicts have caused people to flee from their homes and band into IDP camps for "internally displaced persons." Due to the chaos, an array of famine has inflicted many Sudanese people.

The United Nations has an interest in helping with the famine, but they have to act cautiously. The U.N. Security Coordinator constrains U.N. and NGO access to areas, but they do so in order to make things safer and more effective in the long run.

"This is a system we are going to need because we are trying to provide humanitarian aid in areas of conflict," Bradley said.

She said we need to act under a "do no harm" policy in which we help when we can and avoid making things worse. The example she gave was when aid trucks drive by herds of nomads in route to IDP camps. The nomads are likely to think they have been skipped over and do not deserve aid. If the U.N. gives this impression to those groups, conflict will only escalate.

Bradley said there are two opposing trends taking place in Sudan. There are those who think the peripheries should win representation at the center in order to obtain a fair share of resources. Likewise, there are separatists who want to break away and form new states or autonomous regions. She said the peripheries are emotionally drawn to separatism but material interests draw them to unification.

Bradley has worked in the Peace Corps and several non-governmental organizations in countries such as Rwanda, Kenya and Sudan. She has also served on the U.S. Agency for International Development teams in Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq, Sudan and Darfur.

This was the sixth Great Decisions event drawing one of the largest audiences yet.

Danielle Carr, junior political science and computer science major, said it was good to hear about Bradley's perspective especially since new stations are rather jaded and not as informative on subjects like this.

"I think it is awesome anytime we can get people who have actually experienced these things," said Carr.

This writer can be contacted at news@theeastcarolinian.com.

When this story was posted in March 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:

The Peace Corps Library Peace Corps Online is proud to announce that the Peace Corps Library is now available online. With over 30,000 index entries in over 500 categories, this is the largest collection of Peace Corps related reference material in the world. From Acting to Zucchini, you can use the Main Index to find hundreds of stories about RPCVs who have your same interests, who served in your Country of Service, or who serve in your state.

---

---

March 1: National Day of Action Tuesday, March 1, is the NPCA's National Day of Action. Please call your Senators and ask them to support the President's proposed $27 Million budget increase for the Peace Corps for FY2006 and ask them to oppose the elimination of Perkins loans that benefit Peace Corps volunteers from low-income backgrounds. Follow this link for step-by-step information on how to make your calls. Then take our poll and leave feedback on how the calls went.

Coates Redmon, Peace Corps Chronicler Coates Redmon, a staffer in Sargent Shriver's Peace Corps, died February 22 in Washington, DC. Her book "Come as You Are" is considered to be one of the finest (and most entertaining) recountings of the birth of the Peace Corps and how it was literally thrown together in a matter of weeks. If you want to know what it felt like to be young and idealistic in the 1960's, get an out-of-print copy. We honor her memory.

---

February 26, 2005: This Week's Top Stories Folk-Singer Steve Schuch releases "Trees of Life" 26 Feb Christopher Bartlett maintains Marine Protected Area 25 Feb Joseph Frey uses amputation experience to help others 25 Feb James McCann concerned by maize in Ethiopia 25 Feb Sen. Obama says PC can help improve diplomacy 24 Feb PCVs help remove batteries in Belize 24 Feb Jimmy Carter praises mother's PC service 24 Feb Craig D. Wandke's lunar passion began in Honduras 23 Feb Char Andrews discusses her experience with cancer 23 Feb Beverly Seckinger tells stories through film 23 Feb J. Tyler Dickovick: As Togo goes, so may go Africa 23 Feb Andres Hernandez searches for PCV for 40 years 23 Feb Bulgaria is now like second home to Aaron Wills 22 Feb Bernadette Roberts to serve as diplomat in Albania 22 Feb USA Freedom Corps downgraded at White House 22 Feb Tom Skeldon seeks to control pit bull trade 21 Feb Gabriela Lena Frank writes music on Dad's PCV service 21 Feb

---

Make a call for the Peace Corps PCOL is a strong supporter of the NPCA's National Day of Action and encourages every RPCV to spend ten minutes on Tuesday, March 1 making a call to your Representatives and ask them to support President Bush's budget proposal of $345 Million to expand the Peace Corps. Take our Poll: Click here to take our poll. We'll send out a reminder and have more details early next week.

Peace Corps Calendar: Tempest in a Teapot? Bulgarian writer Ognyan Georgiev has written a story which has made the front page of the newspaper "Telegraf" criticizing the photo selection for his country in the 2005 "Peace Corps Calendar" published by RPCVs of Madison, Wisconsin. RPCV Betsy Sergeant Snow, who submitted the photograph for the calendar, has published her reply. Read the stories and leave your comments.

WWII participants became RPCVs Read about two RPCVs who participated in World War II in very different ways long before there was a Peace Corps. Retired Rear Adm. Francis J. Thomas (RPCV Fiji), a decorated hero of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, died Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 at 100. Mary Smeltzer (RPCV Botswana), 89, followed her Japanese students into WWII internment camps. We honor both RPCVs for their service.

Bush's FY06 Budget for the Peace Corps The White House is proposing $345 Million for the Peace Corps for FY06 - a $27.7 Million (8.7%) increase that would allow at least two new posts and maintain the existing number of volunteers at approximately 7,700. Bush's 2002 proposal to double the Peace Corps to 14,000 volunteers appears to have been forgotten. The proposed budget still needs to be approved by Congress.

RPCVs mobilize support for Countries of Service RPCV Groups mobilize to support their Countries of Service. Over 200 RPCVS have already applied to the Crisis Corps to provide Tsunami Recovery aid, RPCVs have written a letter urging President Bush and Congress to aid Democracy in Ukraine, and RPCVs are writing NBC about a recent episode of the "West Wing" and asking them to get their facts right about Turkey.

Read the stories and leave your comments.