Angelina Jolie's on a roll - Justice for Darfur

Angelina Jolie has done yet another amazing job at highlighting the plight of those who are less fortunate than her. She already donates one-third of her earnings to charity on an annual basis, but writing about these issues raises the awareness exponentially.

The only way she can do better is if she made a video diary, as she has done in the past, and aired it on MTV perhaps?

On a side note, the article implicitly gives two huge thumbs up to the work of the UN - its refugee agency and its new judicial mechanisms (ICC and ICJ) in particular.

Now if only we could get mainstream America on track as well. The liberals are already on board - where are the conservatives? I wish they realized that like climate change and environmental issues, this one is also not political; it's moral - just like Al Gore said at the Academy Awards.

It's about time we acted.

The Washington Post article is here.

The Bosnians propose, the ICJ disposes...

I havent read up enough on the recent International Court of Justice ruling that absolves the Serbians of state-sponsored genocide of the Bosnians (but says they did not prevent it either), but my initial thoughts are of disappointment and sadness.

If the ruling stated that the Serbians were responsible for the carnage and atrocities, the Bosnians were eligible for billions of dollars of assistance. While this horrific chapter finally approaches its conclusion, I would have been happy, but am not. I dont think living with the mere thought that the Serbians have been found guilty of being complicit in the crimes is enough.

Because of this complicity, and the lack of reparations they could have gotten, the Bosnians have lost faith in the world's justice system. The only court that could have given them justice, shied away from it when it had the opportunity to. The billions of dollars could have single-handedly raised living standards.

Instead, today, we see the Bosnians even more distraught, hopeless and saddened as they sit on the world's stage, the international community watching them as it smirks and giggles at them. What were they thinking? say onlookers and bystanders. Justice? What a joke...

I wonder who will have the last laugh in this story...