Rice Meets With Libyan Leader

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Friday with Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, marking the first trip to that country by a U.S. secretary of state in more than 50 years. The first thing he asked was for the latest news on the hurricanes plaguing U.S. coasts in recent weeks.

Upon her arrival, Rice met with the Libyan foreign minister and then toured the new U.S. Embassy. Afterward she said, "We are working on a trade and investment agreement, a framework, which will allow the improvement of the climate for investment, which I know very many American firms wish to do. She called the meeting a "good start" toward establishing a "positive relationship" with Libya.

Rice and Gadhafi met in a reception room at the Libyan Leader’s compound. Gadhafi was wearing a white robe and a black fez but not his trademark dark sunglasses. He shook the hands of the male members of Rice's staff but not Rice, instead offering the traditional greeting of his hand over his heart for her. Muslim men are prohibited from shaking hands with women to whom they are not related.

After their meeting, Rice joined Gadhafi, who once called her "Leeza ... my darling Black African woman," in a traditional Muslim evening meal breaking the fast during the holy month of Ramadan. Last year in an interview with Al-Jazeera, Gadhafi suggested Rice ran the Arab world with which he has sometimes had harsh differences. "I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders," he said. "I love her very much ... because she's a Black woman of African origin." The two are expected to meet in the leader's Bedouin tent he favors for high-profile meetings.

Rice's visit marks a 180-degree turn in relations between Washington and Tripoli, which for more than three decades have been marked by personal animosity and insults, Libyan terror attacks and U.S. airstrikes. Libya's transformation from being dubbed a "state sponsor of terrorism" to a member of the U.N. Security Council represents a rare foreign policy success for the Bush administration in its last months in office.

Rice acknowledged that Libya is a place that is changing. The United States restored relations with Tripoli in 2005, after Gadhafi's decision to abandon his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, renounce terrorism and compensate victims of the 1986 La Belle disco bombing in Berlin and the 1988 Pan Am 103 bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. It also dropped Libya from its State Sponsors of Terrorism list, the only country except for Iraq to have been removed. Since then, several U.S. officials have visited Tripoli and Rice has met several times with her Libyan counterpart. The United States opened its embassy in Tripoli in 2006.

The U.S. has praised Libya's cooperation in fighting terrorism in North Africa, where al Qaeda has been gaining a foothold. U.S. officials also say Gadhafi has prevented Libyan and other foreign fighters from traveling to Iraq to join insurgent movements. At the United Nations, Libya has also voted with the U.S, to crack down on Iran's nuclear program and has sought to play a helpful role in the crisis in Darfur.
Yet relations between the two countries face strains over Libya's poor human rights record and final settlement of claims from the La Belle and Lockerbie bombings.

The Bush administration has expressed their wishes to move forward with a new relationship with Libya. The deal paves the way for greater access by American companies to Libya's booming economy, in particular its vast oil reserves, the ninth largest in the world. European companies have had much greater access to Libya's energy sector, but Libyan officials say the improved relations with the United States will result in more deals with American oil companies, including exploring vast areas of the country that remain untapped. The country's growing banking, infrastructure and telecommunications sectors also offer enormous opportunities for American investors.

Secretary of State Rice will travel throughout North Africa after leaving Tripoli, stopping in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. But it is the visit to Libya that the State Department recognizes will be the most talked about.

Darfur Refugee Will Lead U.S. Olympic Team

Lopez Lomong will lead the U.S. Olympic team at opening ceremonies Friday night at Bird's Nest Stadium in Beijing. Lomong, one ot the "Lost Boys of Sudan" was selected Thursday as the flag bearer for the U.S. team. He won a vote of team captains to earn the honor at the Olympic opening ceremonies.

Lopez was born Lopepe Lomong, January 1, 1985 in Kimotong, Sudan. He was among roughly 3,800 refugees, dubbed the Lost Boys of Sudan by reporters and aid workers, who were resettled in cities across the United States. Nearly all were boys who had been separated from relatives during fighting in Sudan. They endured months of wandering during which thousands died of hunger, disease or attacks by bandits or wild animals.

Human rights groups have faulted China for doing too little to pressure Sudan, its trading partner, to halt continuous bloodshed in the Darfur region. An estimated 300,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been forced from their homes in a campaign of genocide in Darfur. Lomong was uprooted in 1991 by a grinding civil war in Sudan that pitted Black southerners who practiced Christianity and other religions against a government dominated by Arab Muslims from northern Sudan. The north-south war in Sudan killed 2 million people and displaced 4 million others before a 2005 peace deal ended the fighting. Yet violence still rages in the unrelated conflict that erupted in 2003 in the western region of Darfur. Lomong is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes committed to raising awareness about the violence in the Darfur.

The 23-year-old Lomong is a 1,500-meter runner. He was born in Sudan and separated from his family at the point of a gun by rebels, a fate shared by thousands of children in the Darfur, a western area of Sudan. After escaping from a rebel camp with the help of friends at age 6, he spent 10 years in a refugee camp in Kenya before arriving in Tully, New York in 2001 as part of a program to relocate lost children from war torn Sudan and becoming a U.S. citizen a year ago.

Lomong called the honor “the most exciting day ever in my life. It's more than a dream," Lomong said in an interview with the Associated Press moments after he got the news. "I keep saying, I'm not sure if this is true or not true. I'm making the team and now I'm the first guy coming to the stadium and the whole world will be watching me carry the flag. There are no words to describe it. I feel great," Lomong said. "I feel happy, honored. I'm feeling so blessed to get an opportunity to present the United States of America, to present the United States flag in front of my team."

Lopez Lomong began running shortly after the 2000 Olympics. He walked about 5 miles from the Kenyan camp and spent his earnings of a few cents from a landscaping job to pay to watch the Sydney Games on TV.

Lomong attended Tully High School in Upstate New York where he helped lead the cross country and track teams to sectional and state titles, and later competed for Northern Arizona University. In 2007, Lomong was the division I NCAA indoor champion at 3000 meters and the outdoor champion at 1500 meters. He finished third in the distance at the Olympic trials. All three Americans in the 1,500 are naturalized citizens — Lomong, Bernard Lagat (Kenya) and Leo Manzano (Mexico).

After his success at the collegiate level, Lopez signed a contract with Nike and now competes professionally. He specializes in the 1500m run but is a serious contender in every mid-distance race from 800m up to and including the 5k. Lomong is a member of Team Darfur, a group of athletes urging China to exert pressure on Sudan's government to address the violent conflict in Sudan's Darfur.

He is the son of foster parents Robert and Barbara Rogers. Lomong enjoys listening to music. One of his favorite artists is 2Pac Shakur. He plans on majoring in hotel and restaurant management and hopes to have a partnership with a well known hotel like Marriot. His goal is to build a hotel in Africa in order to bring tourists to his birth home and create more of a peaceful environment there. He'd love nothing more than to give people the opportunity to visit the country and interact with the people before prejudging what it may be like there.

NBA Star Works to Stop Darfur Killings

The Chicago Bulls’ Luol Deng knows the stakes in the Sudan all too well; He was born there, and he and his family ended up fleeing the African nation for their lives. The refugee-turned-NBA star drew on that personal history recently to appeal for help to stop the bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur region, where civil strife has left more than 200,000 dead. “We all need to put a stop to this and do whatever we can to stop this”, he told a crowd at a downtown Chicago rally. “I just hope more people will get involved. The 22 year old Deng briefly told how he had left for Egypt at 5 years old.


Other speakers called on China, one of Sudan’s closest allies, to use its influence to end the crisis that has also displaced 2.5 million people. Some activists have even called for boycotts of this year’s Olympics, to be held in Beijing, unless China acts.


Fighting in Darfur began in 2003 when rebels from Black African tribes took up arms, after years of oppression by Sudan’s Arab-dominated government. The government has been accused of unleashing Arab tribal militias against civilians in a campaign of murder, rape and arson.


Deng and his family settled in England when he was ten. “As a refugee, life was tough, but I know it was a lot better than what I would have had if we had never left the Sudan,” said Deng. The six foot nine inch tall Deng is a member of the Dinka tribe that produces many of the tallest people in the world. His father, Aldo, served in the Sudanese parliament and became the country’s Minister of Transportation before escaping to Egypt to avoid Sudan’s civil war. While in Egypt, he was taught basketball by former NBA player Manute Bol, who is also a member of the Dinka tribe. In 1993, Deng’s father was granted political asylum in England.


Deng, who played college basketball at Duke, and is also a member of the Great Britain national team, has been active in several programs providing aid to Africa. Luol is one of nine children; His older brother plays professional basketball in England; another brother, Ajou, played college basketball at Fairfield and Connecticut and his sister, Arek, played college basketball at Delaware. He is very active in the Bulls’ charitable efforts; member of the Bulls’ All-Star Reading Team and participated in the team’s Read To Achieve program; awarded the Charles Lubin Award in October of 2006 for his dedication to community service; coordinated the 2nd Annual Luol Deng Thanksgiving Dinner at the Pacific Garden’s Mission Gospel League Home; made a personal donation to the Bulls’ Holiday Food Drive and Spring Food Drive; attended event honoring the Lost Boys of Sudan and Sudanese Heritage Event in January of 2007; serves as spokesperson for the World Food Program and also for the Nothing But Nets initiative, a grassroots effort to prevent malaria by delivering long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets; received the NBA’s Community Assist Award in April of 2007; during the past three off seasons he has organized a summer basketball camp sponsored by Nike in London, England for NBA hopefuls; received the 2006-07 NBA Sportsmanship Award; was a part of the NBA’s Basketball Without Borders tour to Africa in the summer of 2006 and to Europe and Asia in 2007.


Why is it that we only hear about professional athletes in trouble with the law and all the other negative media hype when many more are doing great things similar to these? It is because this does not sell newspapers, magazines and TV commercial time.

Don Cheadle Receives Peace Award

Actors Don Cheadle and George Clooney recently received peace awards for their efforts to raise awareness about the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region. Both actors were presented with bronze statues at a ceremony marking the opening of a yearly meeting of Nobel Peace Prize laureates organized by a foundation headed by former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Cheadle remarked, “these people need help and protection, but they do have hope”. He started in Hotel Rwando, a movie with similar circumstances as the situation in Darfur, as well as Crash and Talk to Me. He is also the executive producer of the recently released documentary Darfur Now.

Cheadle and Clooney, who co-starred in the movies Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12, and Ocean’s 13, co-founded the humanitarian organization Not On Our Watch (NOOW) together with other stars, to focus global attention on the plight of Darfur’s people. More than 200,000 have lost their lives and 2.5 million people have been uprooted from their homes since 2003.

This country has committed troops and resources all over the world in the fight against terrorism and helping people in need. Darfur seems to meet both of the conditions and I don’t see us lifting a finger. Sudan’s Arab-dominated government is systematically committing genocide against the people of the Darfur region.

NOOW has raised more than $9.3 million for humanitarian efforts in the region. However that is private money. We as a country spend more than that each day in Iraq. Maybe it’s because there is no oil in Darfur…just Black people.