Albright was (somewhat) right

When former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced the creation of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, it was fairly easy to disregard. Recent remarks from a Brazilian singer, however, seem to bring it back to mind.

In an interview to a magazine in the country, celebrated singer Nana Caymmi – the daughter of one of the staples of Brazilian popular music, Dorival Caymmi – complained about the many problems she had had with her son, which she stated was a drug user, and suffering consequences of a recent bike fall. It wasn't so much her personal admission to the media, but the admission that followed that shocked the local media.

"I keep asking myself why I need to suffer so much. I'm not Jewish, I didn't crucify Jesus!," Ms. Caymmi vented.

It's an unusual place for such remark. Since the end of colonial times, when most of the Indian population in the country was exterminated, and the end of slavery in the late 1800s, Brazil has been widely known to be the true melting pot the U.S. always wanted to be. It's the place where every flavor flourishes, instead of becoming blend.

And, despite the nation's 73.6 percent Catholic and 53.7 percent white population, the country never had a true problem with discrimination.

Even during the dictatorship period, there was never the need for a Martin Luther King Jr.-like figure to rise.

While I hope these words will turn out to be meaningless and soon forgotten, the remarks of Ms. Caymmi make one wonder if the same is not being said in other places, by other people who will eventually act on it. History has proven to us the power words have, including hateful words, or those interpreted in wrongful ways.

But, in a way, it also validates the efforts of something like the Genocide Prevention Task Force, where the official goal as its original press release reads is to "respond to emerging threats of
genocide and mass atrocities."

Since its conception, however, this task force seems doomed for its inductive approach.

Made mainly of former government officials not holding any official positions at the moment, including the co-chairs – Ms. Albright and William Cohen, former Secretary of Defense – the group contains only American figures, and state its main strength is to influence the American government to act on possible genocides happening around the world.

Instead of using its political influence to attack the source of the problem, the task force devoted itself to try and influence a single national government. A government that not only will probably have no direct relationship with any possible threat in Darfur or anywhere else, but is entangled in too many foreign causes and spending too much money that Congress of which doesn't approve to care about anything else.

While the intentions of the Genocide Prevention Task Force are commendable, its dependence solely on the American government itself to prevail may be its major birth defect. In special its key figures are American Democrats from the Clinton government. And, even though John Danforth – a former Missouri senator and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations – is part of the task force, the group doesn't seem to have an international reach that'll be good enough to do what it promises.

Being genocide such a worldwide topic, it makes no sense why the group only includes American figures, and focuses only on a government, and a single government while at it.