Deadly Chores

By Jeninne Lee-St. John

Fetching water seems a mundane job--unless you're in the midst of a genocide. In a new online video game at DarfurIsDying.com players take the role of Darfuris and must complete basic tasks. Those who fail to do so learn what fate could befall them at the hands of Janjaweed militias: rape, kidnapping, murder. Susana Ruiz, a University of Southern California student who helped design the game, which is backed by college channel mtvU, hopes it will inspire players to take real-world action by writing President Bush or lobbying schools to divest holdings in firms that operate in Sudan, as the University of California system resolved to do in March: "We want to motivate people to do something right now."