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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Darfur Genocide on Google Earth

The burnt out relics of an unknown Darfur village after an attack by the Islamists Sudanese-backed Janjaweed militias.

Thanks and praise are due to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Google for the excellent Crisis in Darfur layer. When one opens Google Earth they will notice that the Darfur region of Sudan is outlined in orange with an icon in the middle. By clicking the icon one can load a collection of layers which provide a multimedia learning experience on Darfur.

Included are markers which one can zoom in on to see destroyed and damaged villages, refugee camps, and multimedia learning tools.

Use to these type of imagery data was reserved for the intelligence community and the power brokers. Now the private citizen who controls the power in a democracy can see and make opinions with the same data.

Now, if only things like this were done for the Kalash, North Koreans, Chinese political prisoners...

4 comments:

Dan tdaxp said...

Very nice.

Arthur C. Clarke predicted in the 1980s that once satellite data became generally available, genocide would become impossible.

Apparently not...

Anonymous said...

or New Orleans.

Catholicgauze said...

Actually Google has reverted back to the post-Katrina imagery.

Anonymous said...

Excellent way to rebut regime claims about airstrikes and bombings. The only problem now is the tragedy has been allowed to fester for so long that the rebel groups are now fighting amongst each other, as well as the Janjaweed tribes breaking apart.
Its great to see technology empowering human rights advocates, who can use all the tools they can get.