More than 50, 000 children abducted
There have been more than 50, 000 children that have been abducted into the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. These children have been turned into child soldiers as young as 5 years old. They are tortured, forced to watch other children being murdered in front of them and are forced to kill others themselves. The LRA looks for children from ages 5-13 because they are the easiest to indoctrinate with their cause.
The tens of thousands of children in Uganda who have escaped this fate or who have not yet been captured but know the day will come soon flock to the inner city from their remote villages and sleep under awnings and in the sewers to hide from the rebels. My question is where is the international aid for this cause? The people of Uganda are begging for help to end this conflict that has been killing their people for 17 years, but there is none to be found.
We are busy sending our troops to Afghanistan to wage a war that has no rhyme or reason to it, only that the US wanted us to go. We stand idly by while thousands of people are being murdered and the children of Uganda are being stolen, tortured and forced to give up their childhood in order to preserve their lives.
When will we decide that human lives are more important than oil and money. If you are interested in this cause please go to www.invisiblechildren.com
Uganda's politics just aren't that simple.
What the rebel forces are doing is wrong but so is the Ugandan government's repression.
Uganda has been a hotbed of political intrigue, abuses, torture and power mongering for a long long time.
Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have been monitoring the situation there for some time...
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/02/13/uganda12669.htm
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/03/05/uganda15449.htm
http://countrystudies.us/uganda/53.htm
http://www.upcparty.net/memboard/us_20mar06.htm
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAFR590082004?open&of=ENG-385
http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/2471.cfm
http://www.landcoalition.org/pdf/06_news_ula.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4270819.stm
http://chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-09/30/content_482101.htm
http://www.newssafety.com/hotspots/countries/uganda/alertnet/uganda171106.htm
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/69685285-D442-48EA-B1D1-FE295AF0692E.htm
Now the question is...
If we do NOT have the right to interfere in the internal politics of Afghanistan--how can you then say we can interfere in the internal politics of Uganda? It was the WESTERN powers that put Idi Amin on the throne--these are the results.
We have to decide whether we are the policemen of the world or whether we need to have policies of "non-interference" whether we agree with what is happening or not.
It can't be decided on a whim, or for political expediency.
Politicians and the "rich and famous" who rule over the world and the entire human race, are the ones who should be the first to do what is right. But wordly power and wealth are won and kept over shedding of the innocent's blood. As long as they can balance what they consider as collateral losses, and still keep patriots voting for them, most of the really important guys don't give a dam...
Gilandgis
The sheer fact of the continued existence of child soldiers in this day & age is beyond disgusting, given our life spans are already so depressingly temporal and often exponentially disappointing. At the very least the early years of childhood ought to be universally free of the tainted morass called "reality". Not hard to opine "god" has much to answer for.
There is a legal 'standard of living' that this country maintains so it can write up nice broucheres for the tourists... what they don't tell them is that if the 'standards' are not lived up to people have their children stolen from them and they are persecuted and put in jails and mental hospitals.
It is illegal to raise a child in a house under a certain number of square feet.
It is illegal to raise a child without running water (I wonder if they think a river is running water.
Canada is a pile of horror after horror.
There is no maturity without both humility and courage.
There is no maturity without understanding why pride is a sin (because fate is real).
People don't assert their right to be free because they have never known freedom (beyond the times before they started using money... we think freedom is something we have to sacrifice when we grow up... we think that we can't be grown up until we lose our innocence. Wrong. The world is about to find out that there is a state where innocence and wisdom can reside in the same body- this is maturity.
love and peace... real peace... the kind that makes grown men cry,
David Arthur Johnston (AKA just another monkey)
I completely agree. When I wrote my blog is was merely a statement of what is happening, but obviously not the whole story. I realize there is much more to it and I also realize that the only way to fight the oppression that many African countries have felt is to rebel. That is not to say that I support the LRA, but that I can understand where a lot of this comes from. I definitely do not want to see the States or any other super powers colonize even more land and start to take over Africa but I do want to see some sort of assistance. There are tragedies all over Africa that no one is willing to help stop because it will not give them more money, or oil. This is the gauge by which we decide a crisis, and whether we offer assistance in the Western world. I don't believe it is okay so stand by and watch this happen. But as I say this, I sit in my comfortable home on my computer and do nothing about it either...
Yes,I'm so glad this came up(Invisible Children)I just wanted to mention that I went to a rally in Winnipeg M.B.after seeing the screening of "INvisible Children"the group went up to the Parilement Hill where we started our journey to the University of Manitoba which is exactly the same amount of miles those kids have to endure everysingle day.So yeah we walked all night and then slept at the University.It is really sad this is still happening...I agree with you Nat.about how the relief doesn't seem to come into play if no oil is being threaten or rich people's money.please anyone who hasn't seen the documentary go see it!!!
Respect.JH