The Harry Potter Alliance

By Andrew Slack

July 8, 2008

Can We Get 5,000 Signatures For Darfur?

Summary: Take action for Darfur here!

BACKGROUND                                                                                                                                                     
Jo Rowling recently said in a speech at Harvard that “those who choose not to empathise may enable real monsters. For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we collude with it, through our own apathy.”

So here’s a question: The government of China continues to provide Sudan with the money and weapons to kill tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Darfur. If you had the chance to tell the government of China that this is wrong, and you knew that they would listen to you, would you empathise with the people of Darfur and speak up or would you remain silent?

Tragically, our world’s most popular brand names that are sponsoring the Olympics in China — companies who have influence over the Chinese government’s decisions — are choosing not to empathise, choosing to remain silent, choosing to collude with the evil of genocide. They have been asked repeatedly over the last year to admit publicly or even privately that it’s wrong for China to be funding the genocide in Darfur, yet they continue to remain silent. 

TAKING ACTION
Now the question becomes: Will we, a Dumbledore’s Army for the real world, remain silent as well? Or will we tell these companies that until they choose to break from their apathetic silence, when their commercials come on during the Olympics we will Switch Over to watch Mia Farrow reporting from a Darfurian refugee camp?

NOT A BOYCOTT In pledging to do this, we are not disrespecting the Chinese people’s many rich cultures — and we are not boycotting the Olympics or the products of the corporate sponsors. We are simply honoring the slogan for this summer’s Olympics, “One World, One Dream.”

Please take action by signing this pledge today!

TRIWIZARD TORUNAMENT
We in the Dumbledore’s Army for the real world remember the TriWizard Tournament: an ancient athletic competition where representatives of great talent are chosen to represent their foreign lands in order to promote the ideal of “One World, One Dream.”

We won’t stand back and watch the “One World, One Dream” ideal of the Olympics get hijacked the way the Ministry stood back as Lord Voldemort hijacked the “One World, One Dream” ideal of the TriWizard Tournament.

THE CHALLENGE
The HP Alliance and Harry Potter community recently moved mountains in obtaining nearly 8,000 signatures to get the UN Security Council to do more about Darfur and we know we can do more! Do you think we can get 5000 signatures for this? Maybe more? We will not remain silent, we will not collude with the evil of genocide, and we will pledge to do whatever we can to get these corporate sponsors to choose what is right over what is easy and use their influence to stop China from funding the genocide in Darfur.

Let your voice be heard: sign this pledge today!