DOWNLOAD Genocide in Our Time - NewFoundations

experiences often produce feelings of despair orcynicism or both for readers.The purpose of creating a Genocide Early WarningSystem Foundation is to help to develop a center thatnot only will receive, house, and make available ona continuous basis information of ongoing massacresin the world, but also that will be an internationalagency on behalf of human society as it speaks for theintention of humankind to care about and protect humanlife. The informations to be delivered to society by theearly warning system are not only to maintain updatedfactual information, but also to convey the presenceof an internationalagency that represents the evolutionof a humane society which intends to keep a spotlighton the wrongdoings of mass murder. Sadly, themillions of words written about genocides to daterepresent essentially crying after th'e task is over. Thereal purpose of early warnings of genocide is to helpthe world develop new energies and new forms forattacking mass murder long before the murderers havecompleted their horrible task.The Genocide Early Warning System we haveplanned is built on a conceptual structure that assemblesinformation over a long term about the basic processesin each society which support human life and thosewhich are moving towards the destruction of humanlife. Both processes are known to be present in allsocieties. An equal balance of these processes favorsthe protection of human life as the desired hallmarkof a society which will be unavailable to engage in massmurder. Clearly, in some societies long before anymass murder has been executed, the balance in somesocieties is very much tipped towards destruction ofhuman life.The Genocide Early Warning System identifiesongoing processes as differentiated from criticalincidents, which are also recorded; the first refers to,for instance, the degree of protection of free speech,or the degree of discriminationof minorities, while thesecond refers to dramatic events such as a major turnin policy as a result of the emergence of a new leader,the impact of going to war, or economic breakdown.Another level of analysis assembles informationsabout societal processes as a whole such as previouslydescribed in the way of a free press, or the role of law,along with the roles of leadership or the major deci-sions and implementations by presidents, prime ministers,dictators, church leaders, and heads of states orcultures.These levels of information are studied along atime continuum that begins with the ongoing situationin a culture long before there may have developed whatwe call the genocidal fantasy or ideology. The monitoringcontinues by tracking when an idea of genocidebegins to be widely proposed and approved in a society,and gains political support of groups of people whoactually try to organize to implement the genocidalplan. Thus, when Hitler speaks of destroying the Jewslong before actual Holocaust events have come intoreality, these moments are tracked by the GenocideEarly Warning System as dangerous moments thatalready go beyond underlying historic patterns ofantisemitism in the society. When even in the greatAmerican democracy, an ethnic religious leader suchas Louis Farrakhan openly celebrates with his blackcommunity the burning of Jews in the ovens, this isa category of information that signals increased dangerin the Genocide Early Warning System. The earlywarning system is responsive to any ideas that referto keeping other groups of people "in their" places,"kicking out" an ethnic, national, or religious groupfrom the society, and certainly any ideas about eliminatingthem in a "final solution. " Even in a society undersiege from its obvious enemies, such as Israel whichis surrounded by several Arab states that have a longhistory of intention and have never given up the ideaof destroying the Jewish state, plans that are proposedin the Israeli society for getting rid of the Arabs in aforced migration or "transfer" will be registered in theearly warning system as a formulation of a genocidalfantasy or ideology that has to be watched carefully."The Genocide Early Warning System continuesby observing any events in a society which can becometriggers or precipitants for further escalations of thedestructive trends and genocidal fantasies present inthat society. Often these involve rumors of terroristevents that have been directed at one's people whichunderstandably fan the retaliatory instincts of thepopulation. This is the classic prescription of pogromsthroughout history; for example, rumors that Jewskilled a Christian sparked many pogroms or violentmassacre of Jews. What are natural feelings of revengeare taken as a basis for unleashing the virulent genocidalmentality that has been awaiting in the society — asultimately it awaits in all human societies at this pointin our evolution as a species.Finally, the Genocide Early Warning Systemtracks those situations and events where actual legalizationand institutionalization of genocide in a givensociety begin to take place: the military give orders tokill the targeted group; the legal system justifies thosewho do the killing; the church system ignores or trainsstudents to applaud the killing. In this manner thevarious institutions of society are coopted and corruptedas supporters of genocide.As the accompanying typology shows, the GenocideEarly Warning System has identified ten majorearly warning processes which are studied along theaxes described above.Early Warning, Intervention, and Prevention of Genocide 153