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Here we are in the 21st century, an era of high-speed communication and round the clock news, and information about the genocide in Darfur and the millions of refugees left in its wake is a crisis we just don’t hear about. But NOT ON OUR WATCH is a book that I recommend all of us read to gain some valuable knowledge and true perspective as to what is really going on in Darfur, Sudan that our news media is not being up front with us about!

For the first time in US history, Secretary of State Colin Powell testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2004 that genocide was indeed being committed in Darfur by the Government of Sudan and the Janjuweed Militia. As Martin Shaw stated in his book, WHAT IS GENOCIDE?, “this was the first time a sovereign nation accused another sovereign nation of active genocide under the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.”

But as important as Powell’s testimony was, the Bush Administration simply referred it to the UN for follow up and sends large amounts of aid—but nothing more. The invasion of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and to win the war against terrorism is "the watch" the Bush Administration is interested in. To this day we know, with certainty, that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as reported, and as far as terrorism goes, isn’t genocide just as important? You bet it is and that fact is what fueled Don Cheadle and John Prendergast to pen this empowering book which gives activists first-person accounts as to what has gone on in Darfur since Colin Powell’s testimony and a variety of paths we all can take to action.

After reading this novel and discovering that Zora Neale Hurston was the recipient of 2 Guggenheims, the author of 4 novels, 12 short stories, 12 essays, 2 musicals, and 2 black mythologies, I could not help wondering how this literary giant disappeared from us for nearly 3 decades. To my disappointment I learned that her disappearance was due to her peers (mainly Richard Wright) criticizing her openly and publicly for not writing about the so-called "serious social trends" of the time.

Read more: http://www.thegritsbookclub.com/Reviews/TheirEyes.html