Over at Teekay’s

How odd that headlines like

UN urges Darfur war crimes trials
BBC News, 1 February 2005

or

UN panel: Darfur abuses `systematic,’ not genocide
Chicago Tribune, 1 February 2005 (subscription required)

would be considered good news by the Arab chauvinists in Khartoum, but they are. Here’s why:

UN panel clears Sudan of genocide in Darfur
Aljazeera.com, 1 February 2005

In other words, it’s all right to systematically kill your own citizens as long as the UN thinks it’s not genocide.

Because in the callous times we live in, large-scale violence has to be genocide for anyone to be moved. (Perhaps not anyone. Check out the indefatigable Eric Reeve’s website, and Mallaby’s column about Reeves in yesterday’s Post.) Or more importantly, it has to be declared a genocide in order for anyone to be moved. How come we’re so hung up about legal niceties? Isn’t that for the lawyers to figure out? Shouldn’t we focus less on what this is properly called and more on what can be done about it?

Tom Cargill, Africa expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London, said he believed the debate over whether genocide took place in Darfur had “distracted from taking measures to actually stop the fighting.”

UN Mistaken in Failing to Find Genocide - Darfur Rebels
NY Times Online News Report (Reuters), 1 February 2005

This was taken on Saturday, on a little walk we took. Today’s Tuesday, and it’s still snowing…