WBUR On Point

One of my fellow bloggers from my online journalism class pointed out what I plan on discussing today. While driving the other day, Donna Roberson was listening to the 90.9 WBUR radio station in Boston. She heard a broadcast by Tom Ashbrook, the host, and several other guests, most impressively, “Eric Reeves, Professor of English at Smith College. He has spent eight years working as an independent Sudan researcher and analyst. His forthcoming book is, ‘A Long Day's Dying: Critical Moments in the Darfur Genocide’” The topic of discussion came as a surprise to me; China.

The broadcast apparently sparred a debate between Reeves and Shen Dingli, an Asian professor. Reeves was promoting the campaign to stop large business transactions between Darfur and China while Dingli was criticizing the campaign and saying that it would “fail.”

I think this is such an interesting topic, and definitely not one you think of at first when discussing Darfur. One of the most interesting statistics that I would never have guessed is that China buys 2/3 of Sudan’s oil. Imagine what the lack of that revenue would do to the Sudanese government. Assuming that no other country would pick up on buying what China stopped to buy, the Sudanese government would be forced to cooperate with the UN and other countries attempting to end the atrocities.

This was one of the quotes from host Ashbrook:
“Activists want to shame China into reining in Sudan. Their leverage: the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. China wants a showcase. Darfur advocates vow to brand them the "genocide Olympics" unless Beijing acts. But will this work?”

Another interesting piece of information.

To read some of the highlights from the broadcast, visit this site. I believe you can also listen to the actual broadcast, I have a MAC so I, unfortunately, was not able to get the audio to work on my computer. I will be using my roommates to listen later though, and I suggest everyone else to do the same! (not to use my roommate’s computer, but to listen to the broadcast)