A couple of nights ago I wrote about how what happened in New Orleans was not a tragedy. Tonight I watched a documentary about a real tragedy occurring in Uganda that is not widely known about and even less is being done about. Over 12,000 children have been abducted and forced to join the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Coerced by fear and actual violence, they are brainwashed into killing machines. Typically they look for children between the ages of 5 and 12 because they younger they are the easier they are to indoctrinate.
Every day all they see is violence. All they learn about is violence. Insubordination is never allowed. To speak up is to be killed. And it's not just boys that are forced into the army. Girls are abducted too. Rape is a given for any young women. Of the escaped females, almost all have some form of sexually transmitted disease including HIV.
The children forced into the LRA are not alone in the suffering. Tens of thousand of children flee to the city's to sleep in shelters to avoid capture. Staying at home is far too dangerous. Conditions in these shelters are horrible. Packed right on top of each other they sleep like discarded trash surrounded by filth and disease. There no way they can go to school. Schools are the LRA's favorite targets. It is estimated that 80% of the population has been affected by this.
I hope by now you are wondering what you can do. First is to be aware. Now that you are aware find out more. Let others know about what is going on. Be active. Let our government know that something must be done. We spend way too much effort trying to solve the world's problems and this is one problem that needs to be solved.
Thank you for paying attention to what I have to say about this horrible tragedy.
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4 comments:
Hi, Lenny.
Nice post. However , your country does not try to solve other countries problems. If they did, those thing you just described wouldn't have happened. Your country just goes after OIL. That is not solving other countries problems.
I agree. America pretends that it cares about what goes on in the world but the only problems our leaders see fit addressing are the ones that benefit America.
The situation you described is certainly one worth doing something about, but writing a post about it on your blog and then forgetting about it 3 days later is not caring. People write these kinds of posts all the time about things they think people should take action on, BUT THEY NEVER ACTUALLY GET OFF THEIR BUTTS AND TAKE ACTION. If you don't actually DO anything (organize a clothing/blanket drive for the children, raise money to send medical supplies . . . SOMETHING) other than complain on the internet, then you really might as well have said nothing. People like you just say "yeah, someone should do something about that," and then pass all the responsibility onto other people and a government that has already established they aren't going to do anything (as the last guy said, no American financial interests involved, so they don't care). You forget that you are someone and can make a difference. Don't forget that. Do something.
I disagree with Morgan. I think the fact that you are writing about it shows that you care. Sometimes there is only so much one can do.
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