November 4, 2007

Bring The Olympic Dream to Darfur - Anheuser Busch

Villagers understand that it is important for us to stand up for one another all throughout the diaspora. This includes our brothers and sisters in Alkebulan. We are concerned about the ongoing genocide in Darfur. One of the levers of change is China. The Chinese government has immense influence with the Sudanese government. We want China to overtly use their influence to end the genocide.

How do we move China? The same way that we move anyone ... through their pocketbook. We need to deal directly with the sponsors of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. We need to encourage the sponsors to urge Chinese government to use their influence to end the genocide in Darfur. As such, I joined with a number of progressive bloggers to write the sponsors listed at the bottom of this post.

I received my second corporate response. The first came a few days ago from Staples. The second response came from Anheuser-Busch and read as follows:
Dear Wayne,

Thank you for contacting Anheuser-Busch. For nearly 25 years, Anheuser-Busch has been a proud sponsor of the Olympic Games. Over that time period, many organizations have used the high profile nature of this world-wide event to raise awareness for their causes. We respect the rights of these organizations to voice their concerns and appreciate your comments as well.

Our association with the Olympic Games is to support the athletes who bring the world together in the spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

Sincerely,
Anheuser-Busch
Anheuser-Busch appreciates my concerns but doesn't even mention Darfur in the response. Ah well, the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step as they say in Chinese folklore.

1 comment:

Danielle said...

In my quest to learn more, China is playing a larger hand in Darfur than I initially realized. Sudan is home to the largest Chinese overseas oil projects and to protect that oil China is Sudan's largest arms supplier. 80% of Sudan's oil revenue goes toward buying arms.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21143-2004Dec22.html

To save face they have called their military who are in Sudan to protect the oil fields naming them peacekeepers.

I am ready for a full blown citizen consumer boycott of all things made in China.

Wishing you all the best my friend.