Blog Crossing Day
Hello all! Today is as promised the blog-crossing day. Therefore I am writing in Hery's blog and someone else would hopefully lol write in mine. Before I start writing I just want to warn you that the following is not Hery's opinion it is mine I am just taking this opportunity to inform you and show my opinion because I am sure Hery's blog is largely visited. So have you heard the news lately?
Did you keep yourself updated with the global media? I am sure you still hear the exact same thing: war in Iraq, Bush blabla, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes having Tom Cruise's baby, etc But did you know that there is an act of genocide happening in this world right now? Did you know that more than forty thousands of children and some of them even infants are fleeing every night to not get killed, raped or enslaved, brutally tortured and also did you know there is a war an almost never ending war that killed more than 10 million people and is still going on torturing, killing, terrorizing people and in the goal of cleaning or wiping out a whole entire race. I am sure you are a bit confused saying what on earth is she talking about now?
Oh yes I am talking about the 'forgotten' war, terrorism and act of genocide happening in Uganda and Sudan respectively. From the word of George Clooney who is doing humanity work with his father in southern Sudan 'I believe that we are almost do not get touched or moved anymore by violence because of the media (we get used to it so much) and also entertainment (violent movies and games)' I truly agree with that statement, it is hard for us nowadays to get moved by war or violence on TV. But this one is real, it has been happening for a while. It desperately needs our attention and I also believe this is a true act of terrorism that we need to fight against. I saw maybe several (2 or 4) documentaries about the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) led by Joseph Kony on TV. I have been meaning to talk about it or to do something about and I did but now I have decided that as much as I can I am going to spread this because of course it needs all the media attention that it could get. It breaks my heart that very few media care about this atrocity! Have you seen an ad on google or yahoo saying please fight against the genocide in Sudan or save the children in Uganda? All you can see is the please save the hurricane Katrina victims, support the troops in Iraq, etc I am not saying those do not need support. Oh yes they do, but come on there is an act of genocide the third one in this century. It deserves tons of media coverage!!! Remember Hitler? I consider the terrorism in Sudan and Uganda the same as the genocide done by Hitler! So yeah maybe that came too strong but you see my point here.
I saw one lengthy documentary about Uganda this week. It is absolutely heart breaking. There are so many kids fleeing every night and as I said above at one point it reached about 40, 000. Can you imagine? So when you tuck your kids to bed at night, think about that there are innocent kids in this world fighting for their own life! Of course that is despicable. It is not right as a human and as a kid. The saddest part was they did an interview so several women and kids but this one really made me cry. A boy was kidnapped like so many thousands of them to join the LRA movement. He was forced to kill his own brother and mother by mortar and then eat them. He cried and said he just want to die during the interview, this is a 16-year-old boy. There are many many cases like this such as the 14-year-old girl raped by 8 men and then they forced her to drink 2 buckets of hot water and if she didn't they would kill her. If that is not terrorism for you then I don't know what is.
This brings me to a point that a lot of people who are aware of these wars are blaming the American or specifically Bush for not participating in the saving these people. They also blame the UN for not doing the same. As far as I am concerned this is not America's problem, it is the world's problem. There is also a law stating in the UN that they are not allowed to step into a domestic dispute of a nation. But they say they would come in if they have enough political power. This is where the maximum media coverage is needed so that people would be aware and nations would come together and ask the UN or give them political power to save Sudan and Uganda. My point is this is where I do not agree with the war in Iraq. Howcome it is ok to just barge in Iraq and save the people and not Sudan and Uganda, howcome also the UN let Bush do that??? I think this post is getting way too long and getting too political so I will stop here and this is something for you to think about. Here are some very informative websites that you can check out about the LRA in Uganda and the war in Sudan: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/lra.htm http://eatthestate.org/07-07/SudansUnseenWar.htm If you want to help (remember a little means a lot http://www.savesudan.org http://www.oprah.com
PS: I choose to talk about this because it took me a long while to think of what I should write in Hery's blog 'I was thinking hey he is a journalist so why not? This is about journalism and it needs our attention.
Hevitra