Not On Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond *

By Don Cheadle and John Pendergast
Published by Hyperion
2007
272 pages

Luckily this book was read several months ago and I don't remember much or this rant would be much longer than it already is. But it did have some relatively small merits to reccomend it. I'll end this discussion with those merits. First I want to rant.

I really disliked this book. I felt tricked into reading it. I though I was getting the story of Darfur, which I knew nothing about and was curious to learn about. This is not really a book about Darfur. It is a book about how to be an activist. There probably wasn't more than a dozen pages describing what exactly was happening in Darfur. There was tale after tale of examples of people being successfull activists. How they were able to raise money for their cause. Or how they were able to meet politicians and lobby. Certainly, this is an important thing to discuss but that was not what i was looking for. And If I had known what this book was really about, then I wouldn't have read it. Not that that kind of information is not important, but really, it's so much less interesting than what I had hoped for. I want to spend my time reading books that are interesting. It felt like i was reading a large corporate brochure.

It seems that this book was preaching to the choir. The authors made the assumption that we all realized that the situation in Darfur was horrendous and therefore we wwould be ready for active participation. And anyone who is mildly alert and current with today's events know that there is something going very wrong over there. But the book keeps making the point that few people, becasue of the press and politics, know about the situation. I myself knew very little. The little that I did know made me want to find out more. It piqued my interest. This book did make me more interested in the situation. Ok, yes, I know that things are bad over there. You (the authors) need to tell me just how bad it is because there are a lot of things that need my attention, and I need to be convinced that Darfur is THE ONE most important thing and that I should spend my precious litte free time for this cause. Liike most people i havbe a very busy life and a variety of interests including my surviving and taking care of my own family. If you want me to take time out for "your' cause, then convince me that I need to get involved, don't take it for granted.

What this book needed to do if it wanted me to get mobilized was to tell me a story. Tell me a heartbreaking, well told story. The book mentions the movie Hotel Rwanda (another genocide in Africa that happened slightly previous to the one in Darfur) as a piece of art/literature that might get people interested in the casue. Give me a riviting fictional account or even a well written historical/political account of what is happening, and I might feel more dispensed to become active. The book fails to do that.

The book is way too repetative. I guess they are trying to drive their points home, but I got very tired of it. It states that one of the dealiest sins to the casue of activisim is to be boring. Ironically, that is exactly what this book is. It really is, overall, a boring book (though it did have a few moments acattered far and wide through out the book). It says not to be too self- righteous as it's a turn off to possible converts. This book is too self righteous.

There are some redeeming values (hence the 1 star). The information given here is good if you did want to get involved in activism. While the book overdoes the "testimonial" aspect of the success of activism, there is one section which describes these examples which is quite readable. There are some interesting anecdotes written by the actor Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda), who is also co-author of this book. And finally there is a nice appendix of information to use if you want to get involved and help. It does suggest some smaller things that one can do with out sacrificing your whole life.

This could be a valueable book if you cut it down to under 100 pages (lot's of repetition!) because it is a good reference. In fact, keep it short was another piece of advise they gave us which the authors failed to follow themselves. And it could be valuable if one was already interested in becoming an activist. What they should have done is attach this quality information to the appendix of a really riveting, best selling book. Get the people hooked first, then preach the activism. That is what Al Gore did with his movie An Inconvenient Truth. He presented rivieting information and followed it with a short "appendix" about what we the people could do to help.

It was also nice to see that so many Jewish - Americans are getting involved in this movement. I was beginning to think that after the hey day of the civil rights movements when Jews were very involved in activism. that the Jewish community had turneed inward and begin to be more concerned about the acquiring of material goods like the rest of America. There are several examples of Jewish leaders in this movement. To be sure the word genocide is partailly what attracts them to the cause, since Jews have went through similar events. I think that's a good thing.

I don't like that the book tried to make me feel guilty. Of course genocide is a horrible phenonema, and we should do all the things necessary to stop it. I would be willing to do some of the smaller activities suggested if I wasn't so irritated with the book that I forgot about it in a couple of weeks. In fact, I kind of did make a plan to do some things. But as time passed the urge grew weaker. A stronger book might have made that urge last longer.

This video might actually be more interesting than the book.