Abroad in Moscow: Living in the State of Denial

Originally published January 9, 2009.

I thought I knew what to expect. The dozens of articles, interviews, and books I had read about Russia had painted a picture in my mind of a land where “honest policeman” is an oxymoron, half of the population is paralyzed by AIDS or tuberculosis, and racism has seen a resurgence so epic that every minority trembles in fear at the mere thought of walking the streets at night. I was soon to learn that the situation on the ground was slightly more nuanced, to say the least. Granted, I spent most of my time in Moscow (which, according to most Russians, is “not Russia”), but nevertheless I feel that my three months in that city left me with a decent understanding of the Russian Federation’s present situation and general mindset.

Genocide in the First Person: An Interview with Simon Deng

Originally published February 28, 2008

This article won The Stanford Review’s “Best Features Article” award for Volume XL.

The Review recently had the opportunity to interview Simon Deng, a Sudanese Christian abducted and forced into slavery at the age of nine by a northern Sudanese Arab.

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Q: What do you think should be done? Whose responsibility is it to take action? The United Nations? The United States? The Arab countries?

A: The UN cannot do anything. The UN is a failed organization. They failed miserably. And anybody who tells me that the UN is the right place to go, he has to tell me which UN they are talking about. Is it the UN that I know? The UN that walked away from Rwanda, after telling the Rwandans, “we will protect you, we will give you safety”? And anyone who, in their right mind, thinks that UN is the right place to go, let’s go to Rwanda and ask all those skeleton bones, “do you believe in the UN?” If there is no answer from them, what should make you and me believe in the UN today?