An interesting year

So now 2 years have passed since I've tried to launch Komak at George Mason University. Our process has been halted a bit due to unforeseen difficulties on the approval end. We'll know before September where our work will be in the future. I haven't written on this blog a while, I know. We've waited to see what would happen.

On a positive note, many young people have come together and supported us throughout our work to raise funds for charitable causes pertaining to the Middle East. New allies have come to help Komak. A new committee will be finalized for George Mason's wing of Komak over the summer (hopefully) and begin raising funds for new causes.

Stay Tuned for more frequent Blogs and visit our website at www.komakus.com

Best,
Ali/Dean

Leadership, Friendship, and Goodwill

There are as many styles of leadership as there are leaders.
Some leaders emphasize certain traits more than others and it is always interesting to see the what cocktail of skills and experiences each leader brings to the table. Here's something I've noticed among a lot of successful leaders.

Empathy
When a leader feels empathy for his/her people, he/she will be better able to reach out and understand the person in need of understanding.

Goodwill
Giving people a general benefit of the doubt and giving them a chance to prove themselves over the long run rather than the short run has always been something that furthers the relationship between members of an organization of any kind. Imagine a parent who constantly doubts a child's honesty, whether the child is actually honest or dishonest. Arguably the outcome is the same: the child is used to being doubted and learns to act accordingly by a) becoming a terrific liar or b) learning to doubt him/herself constantly and question his/her own good intentions and capacity to do well.

Fairness
The aspect that one receives one's due fosters an important understanding and psychological contract between all people involved in an organization. Knowing what is expect of oneself makes a member of that organization more likely to hold oneself accountable rather than waiting for failure to remind him/her of his/her duties. In that way all within the organization know what is expected all over, and, given room for adjustment and error, the organization is run a lot more efficiently with positive vibes.

Loyalty
It imperative to give people a chance and to look at them with a balanced view regardless of wrongs or rights and look past their errors. It doesn't mean don't hold them accountable... what it does mean is that even while holding them accountable, encourage them to give their best shot as much as you can. Good leaders protect those with them especially if there is an established mutual loyalty. Loyalty does in fact go both ways. If you have given no loyalty, expect none back.

Strength... This one is one of the most all encompassing ideas. It is fortitude, righteousness, patience, motivation, and understanding all wrapped up in one. It is the fuel for most major principles. A good leader cannot exist without this sort of Strength.

What do you think from your past experience? When you think back you may find that at certain points in your life, you've likely enjoyed a feeling of empowerment which came from embodying one or more of these core characteristics...

Disaster in Darfur: How Many More Must Die?

A bloodied Sudanese woman, restrained by an armored man, screams in horror and panic, while people around her run in frenzy, many beaten or shot. A young man, no more than 28 years of age, kneels in silence, a few meters away from the screaming woman, with tears of fear pouring down his face. He is shot several times in the face and chest. The woman cries in anguish, as she holds her dead 3 year-old daughter in her arms. She has just witnessed the slaying of her husband.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been murdered and thousands of women raped in Sudan’s western region of Darfur by Sudanese government soldiers and members of the government-supported militia, the Janjaweed. About 2.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and their property stolen by the Sudanese military and the Janjaweed. Some of the victims have escaped to the neighboring country of Chad, but most are trapped inside Darfur. Thousands die each month from the effects of inadequate food, water, health care, and shelter. It is believed that anywhere from 100,000 to 400,000 civilians have died in Darfur.
The ethnic and racial basis of the violence has been acknowledged by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, independent human rights organizations, and international journalists. The Sudanese government has primarily targeted the civilian population of the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masaalit ethnic groups, as it fuels ethnic and racial violence by using the Janjaweed militia as proxies against Darfur insurgents, who launched a rebellion in early 2003. The Janjaweed are nomadic Arab tribes that have long been at odds with Darfur's settled African farmers. As one of the principal actors in the Darfur conflict, the Janjaweed have successfully pitted the nomadic Arab-identifying Muslim Sudanese against the sedentary non-Arab Muslim Sudanese population of the region, in a battle over resource and land allocation. Hundreds of thousands of helpless civilians, a large portion of the original population, now live in camps for internally displaced persons, also referred to as IDP camps, or in refugee camps across the border in Chad. The Janjaweed presence threatens to attack any IDP movement outside of the camps, making venturing outside extremely difficult, and return of the displaced population to their homes impossible. Rape is reported to be widespread and commonplace and a near certainty for women caught outside the camps. Men who leave the camps are often beaten and tortured, often killed. Even within camps, the Janjaweed continue to commit killings, rapes, beatings, and theft.
Inhumane acts cause havoc and devastation, as villages are torn apart in Darfur. The situation on the ground has worsened considerably over the past few months, with renewed violence, attacks, and aerial bombings by the government of Sudan's military. Thousands of girls and women have been raped and subjected to forms of sexual violence in Darfur, abuses amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Enslavement of women, though less usual than rape, is also a threat. Numerous women who had fled the IDP camps in Darfur reported that the Janjaweed took women to serve in their households and to be used at will.

Despite international outrage over the human rights crisis in Darfur, not a single person responsible for war crimes or crimes against humanity has been brought to justice. In violation of international humanitarian law principles, attacks by the Sudanese government make little or no distinction between combatants and civilians. Attacks, such as the aerial bombardment of innocent civilians, demonstrate disproportionate and indiscriminate use of force, and often intentionally targeted civilians. Though several humanitarian organizations had attempted to take action within Darfur, the increased fighting and danger has resulted in the total withdrawal of humanitarian aid in some areas. Many fear that if the fighting spreads, the entire Darfur aid operation would have to be terminated.

Unfortunately, the Sudanese police, as agents of the state, are unable or unwilling to take action in response to reports of crimes by the Janjaweed in and around the IDP camps. Even where individual attackers have been identified, only ineffective and superficial steps have been taken to bring to justice those responsible. Police officers are reported as protesting that they have no power to take on the Janjaweed, and that orders from above prevent them from taking effective action. However, refugees and IDPs have told Amnesty International that members of the Janjaweed had been incorporated into the police force in some cases, and that police officers were sometimes implicated in Janjaweed crimes.

In eastern Chad, directly across the border from West Darfur, cross-border attacks have been taking place since late 2005, in which the Janjaweed have targeted, killed, and forcibly displaced civilians on the basis of their ethnic origin. The attackers have carried out mass killings of civilians, looted the wealth of whole communities, and forced thousands to flee the border region. The massive displacement of people has depopulated a vast strip of eastern Chad along the border with Sudan. While many people have moved away from the border to urban areas, others have been unable or unwilling to move far from their homes and are still under immediate threat of attack. Since Chadian armed opposition groups based in West Darfur and supported by Sudan have become more active, Chad has been increasingly involved in the Darfur conflict. The Chadian authorities have taken no steps to protect civilians. Rather, their unwillingness or incapacity to deploy troops in response to the killing and displacement of Chadian civilians has contributed to the continuation of the Janjaweed attacks. There is also the risk of conflict spreading within Chad and potentially into the Central African Republic.

The situation in Darfur is intensifying by day. The conflict has led to some of the worst human rights abuses imaginable, including organized and widespread killing, rape, abduction, and displacement. Sudanese government-sponsored actions include the inflaming of the ethnic conflict, the impediment of international humanitarian access to areas within Darfur, resulting in deadly conditions of life for displaced civilians, the bombings of civilians with aircraft, and the murdering and raping of civilians. Many humanitarian efforts have had to be terminated because of such dangers, and actions taken on behalf of the United Nations and other international organizations have only failed. Human rights violations and war crimes continue in Darfur without effective opposition by the international community. The crisis in Darfur is one the international community needs to address. Governments and organizations must communicate and take action to stop the situation, as this issue cannot remain so insignificant and unacknowledged by the world.

Additional Links: USHMM.org, SaveDarfur.org, Amnesty International

A New Strategic Partnership!

George Mason's Komak has formed an Strategic Partnership with the Middle East Awareness Alliance! Using combined resources and manpower, the two groups intend to form a speaker series that helps raise awareness and understanding among the students and community about Middle Eastern and South Asian culture, politics, and quality of life! Sign up to be a team member of the Speaker Series organization staff by sending an email to sjafarza@gmu.edu

Komak in a Nutshell

To the Graduating Classes of UVA and Mason

Soon you graduating guys are going to be alumni (or you're already one). Remember those times when it was tough to get through?

1. You didn't know where to find a good adviser or advice on courses
2. Didn't know where to get a good job while you studied that was good with your schedule
   
3. Weren't sure what field of study you wanted to get into?
4. Just needed a little bit of encouragement?
5. Etc...?

Well, I'll admit that I did and it could have been a lot easier for me and for you. That's why one of our projects in Komak is mentorship of students by way of upperclassmen and alumni.

In fact, it's one of our core principles. We want to make life easier for each other, because adjusting to the college curriculum isn't always a walk in the park. Everyone needs a little help every now and then :)

If you're interested, please contact us at adastva1@gmu.edu for Komak's Northern Va. Chapter. Mention that you're in Charlottesville in your email so that we can transfer you over to the UVA chapter :)

Best,
Dean/Ali D

Welcome to Komak

Dear People,

A lot of you whom we've talked to said you were interested in the project known as Komak. Well here is the beginning of something new:

Komak is the Persian word for help, and that is precisely what this organization is meant to do.

We help our officers train for leadership by giving them hands on experience and problem solving as well as credentials to help them get their foot in the door wherever they need to go.

We help nonprofit organizations become more effective in their niches and helping them build effective alliances with viable partners.

We help students by advising and mentoring them using innovative, creative, unique, and reliable techniques.

And finally, as one of our most important duties, we help the world through our charitable projects and consulting of other goodwill organizations.

That's us in a nutshell:)
Currently we have a wonderful team in the University of Virginia, and every month the number grows, each person bringing in fresh ideas and talent to this
project and help it grow. In the end, the more you help Komak, the more Komak helps you back and in better ways.

-Dean/Ali