The Darfur Wall

Darfur, Sudan is the site of the world's most dire crisis. Since 2003, over 400,000 people have died at the hands of the Sudanese government and Janjaweed militias. Millions have been forced from their homes. We the international community have done little to stop the evident genocide.

The Darfur Wall is a grid of the numbers 1 through to 400,000
covering the 40 panels of The Darfur Wall website. Each number represents a person killed in Darfur. By donating $1 or more you can light up your chosen number or a randomly generated number, turning it from dark grey to brilliant white. Your light will acknowledge the importance of each life lost, and express your support for action to be taken for people caught up in this tragedy.

One hundred percent of the proceeds from The Darfur Wall are donated, in equal parts, to these four organisations working in Darfur:
• Doctors Without Borders
• Save the Children
• Save Darfur
• Sudan Aid Fund / Eric Reeves

The Darfur wall was conceived and developed by Dan, Jonah, and Matt Burke, a father and two sons, two software engineers and a psychologist. Together they are the Directors of The Darfur Foundation, which is a newly formed non-profit based in Seattle. The Foundation's sole aim is to raise money to support peace in Darfur. The three Burkes pay the Foundation's expenses from their own pockets so that the Foundation can donate the full amount of the money given.

Why not donate a dollar, and light up a number?

For more information on The Darfur Foundation, visit www.darfurfoundation.org. To confirm we are a legitimate non-profit corporation, please visit the Washington Secretary of State's web site.

For more information about the Darfur conflict, go to http://sudanreeves.org

Billboards from Hell

CHRISTINE GALE writes:

I don’t know about you, but I’m fed up with being bombarded by advertisements and campaigns all the time, even when we’re driving we have radio commercials, advertising on buses and billboards. This may be annoying enough, but now, you are accosted while driving on the roads and motorways, to find yourself at the side of an enormous mobile billboard doing eighty miles an hour.

Yes that’s right, these are the trucks you see being driven through the streets where you live and work, with an enormous advertising hoarding on the back. I’ve even seen a car pulling a tall trailer with an advertising hoarding. Where do they come from? Why don’t they leave us alone with the already plentiful advertisement that exists?

The distractions of such mobile billboards must contribute to crashes on our roads. Since their aim is to travel as fast as possible, so as many people can see whatever they are advertising. This aim alone is a dangerous one, it may be a good way of getting business for car body repairs and car insurance by causing crashes. Is this a conspiracy of theirs?

There is good environmental grounds to stop these moving monsters, a Canadian company called "Downtown Montreal has over 30 billboard truck each day, travelling 2.34 million kilometres a year, burning over 400,000 litres of fuel and emitting 940,000 kg of carbon dioxide." That’s just one company.

What do you do if you see one, you can’t really miss them, or you shouldn’t be driving. It’s like those adverts you get through your e-mail for viagra and sex aids, you ignore the advertisement, well I hope you do. Here’s an action list.

1. Don’t buy from any company that advertises on mobile billboards. Don’t vote for any political party that uses mobile billboards.

2. Write to the company to complain telling them you won’t buy their product if they don’t stop it.

Let consumer power commence, and get rid of a bit of unnecessary traffic.

Need inspiration go to: www3.sympatico.ca/alwaysweb/mobile_billboards.html

One less vehicle on our roads, every little bit helps.

If you have an idea or an issue you would like to raise, send it to
norton@civa.org.uk