+Lobbying in Washington for Sudan
I’ve been away from my blog for over a week because I was so busy in DC. On the 20th I arrived in DC with my kids in tow to start a three day stint lobbying for Poker and Sudan with a DC vacation planned after I was done. The first two days I was lobbying the poker issue (I’ll get to that in my next blog). The last day of lobbying was spent on Sudan, in specific The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South Sudan and what can be done about Darfur. I lobbied with representatives from both Refugees International and The Enough Project. It was an amazing day. I was moved by the passion that the representatives of both of these organizations have for the issue. Melanie Teff spoke on behalf of Refugees International and Omer Ismail and Maggie Flick spoke on behave of Enough Project. Omer also on the executive staff of Darfur Peace and Development Organization, an NGO that Ante Up for Africa gives funds to. All of these individuals are remarkable and passionate.
Matt Dillion created this moving video on the issues facing South Sudan. The video really shows why the CPA is not working right now and the challenges that South Sudan is facing.
The issue, as Omer so eloquently put it, is that Sudan cannot be approchaed piecemeal, trying to solve Darfur while ignoring the South or focusing back on the South while ignoring Darfur. If Sudan isn’t approached as a whole, the conflict will never be resolved and if Sudan collapses into conflict then the whole of East Africa is at risk. Omer Ismail, of course, talks much more eloquently on the topic than I could ever hope to.
I wrote a blog for Enough on my experience. You can read that here. Omer and I also shot some video recapping the experience.
Would love to see you add these videos to a playlist
on your YouTube Channel
You may also be able to create a customzied video player which would put all the videos on one interactive
screen in this post.
I would also love to win a million dollars playing poker!
http://www.ratherbelucky.com