Last weekend the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns the Buffalo News, drew more than 27,000 shareholders to Omaha, Nebraska, home to the company’s headquarters and to its chief, Warren Buffett, middle America’s favorite billionaire. This year’s meeting—traditionally a self-congratulatory affair celebrating Buffett’s folksy, no-nonsense shrewdness and thrift—was interrupted by a lengthy debate over a shareholder-sponsored resolution asking Berkshire Hathaway to withdraw its investment in PetroChina, an oil company that does business with the Sudanese government, and which therefore indirectly supports the horrific, government-sponsored genocide in Darfur. The resolution was defeated, but the fact that Buffett allowed the debate to proceed at all indicates how serious the situation remains in Darfur, even if it has fallen into the back pages of US newspapers: A campaign of systematic rape and murder has left more than 400,000 dead and forced millions more from their homes and farms, leaving them without adequate food, water and medicine. On Monday, Buffalo for Africa offers an opportunity for you to join a global movement to stop the genocide in Darfur. Come down to Niagara Square after work, listen to speakers and live music, watch dancers and a release of balloons. Stand up and say something.

Monday, May 14 from 5-6:30pm. Niagara Square, Downtown Buffalo (buffaloforafrica.org). FREE