by Lisa Pires

“You have the power to change the world.”

We, as young people, hear that phrase all the time from our parents, teachers and mentors.

Most of you probably shrug off the notion – sure, you could probably help improve the lives of the people around you by volunteering at a food bank or donating your used clothes to the Salvation Army, but no one person could possibly positively affect people around the world.

Well, I’m writing this blog to tell you that actually, you already have a very powerful and effective tool in front of you; one that you use every day, and one that has the ability to change lives. It’s a little phenomenon us communication nerds call “social media.”

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A tense excitement spread over Cote D’Ivoire, with crowds of voters already lining up at many of the twenty-thousand polling stations around the country as early as 5am on Sunday, October 31st.

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In my last posting I wrote about the Friends of UNAMID, of which Canada is the co-chair with the U.S. The Friends are a group of interested countries – all Western – set up to support the UNAMID mission in Darfur and to coordinate donor assistance to ensure gaps are filled, and to eliminate overlap.

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Post by regular Stand contributor, Alexa Huffman

The New York Times are reporting that “Obama Drops Plans to Isolate Sudan Leaders”

Originally in Obama’s campaign, he promised to have a tough crackdown on Sudan, isolating the government and introducing tougher sanctions, which would pressure Sudan to end the crisis in Darfur. Now Obama has decided to go for a softer approach. The new plan is to offer more incentives to work at normalizing relations with President Omar al-Bashir, who has been charged with war crimes over the conflict in Darfur. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, US Ambassador Susan Rice, and Major General Scott Gration, Obama’s special envoy to Sudan will reveal the plan on Monday.

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USA Today reports that President Bashir is now kicking out every aid group in Sudan within the next year.

I guess once you start, it’s difficult to stop. I worry that this is a slippery slippery slope. And with the entire world caught up in debates over financial stimulus measures, Bashir has a free pass to do what he would like.

This cannot continue. What am I going to do about it? Write a letter, send an email and make a phone call.

What are you going to do about it?

Let me know in the Comments section so that other people can do it too.