Burma Report
I know Burma isn’t in Africa, but I just realized I didn’t have all my Breaking News articles and this was the only recent thing I could find.
Burma army is recruiting thousands of child soldiers in its armies. The recruiters are desperate because they are losing so many other officers and despite the salary, people refuse to join the military because of the mistreatment given. Children are therefore the easiest targets. If children cannot keep up in the army, they are severely beaten and some die from this abuse. Human Rights Watch was able to talk to some children who were forced to be soldiers. In one interview, they spoke with a boy who escaped from the army once and was forced back in again.
Interestingly, it is illegal for the Burmese government to recruit child soldiers according to their laws. Not much outside action has taken place.
Reasons for Child Soldiers
There is a great article on amnesty.org about the purposes and effects of child soldiers. In this article, they give an explanation as to why child soldiers are so readily used. Children are obedient, easy to manipulate, and cheap. Because of this they are usually sent to preform the most dangerous or brutal missions. More often than not, children are kidnapped rather than recruited and families are threatened. In order to prevent the use of child soldiers, the UN issued a contract for African nations to agree to eliminate the use of child soldiers. 43 of 53 African countries have at least signed the agreement. Of the few that have not, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, and Uganda are the forerunners of child soldier violence.
Also interesting here are the personal statements of child soldiers.
Girl Soldiers Ignored
November 3, 2007
This article is quite opinionated, though it does have some good points. Girls are used in several regions of the world as sex objects posing as child soldiers, thought this is often hidden. In Uganda however, they no longer bother trying to hide this from the people. There is therefore no more excuse for the United Nations ignoring these acts, yet they have done practically nothing to stop them. They rarely enforce any penalties so the guilty parties are not really threatened. This article points out the harsh theory that the reason for this is because young children, especially young women, are unable to vote and therefore are valueless to the governments of the world. It also gets into a racial argument that Africans are worthless and easily ignored by the US (practically quoted from the film Hotel Rwanda). In some aspects I see where this opinion comes from, as our government does focus so little of its attention on African affairs, but this also does seem rather harsh.
http://www.stolenchildhood.net/entry/children-whom-the-world-forgot-uganda-and-the-un/
Will Bush Say Something?
That’s always an interesting question to me. Will President Bush make important political observations when he meets President Museveni of Uganda tomorrow, October 30? Sometimes I am curious as to whether or not he is aware that things aren’t going so well in places outside of Iraq. I personally haven’t heard him speak much about Africa and I have never heard him even mention Uganda. Still, the Human Rights Organisation has requested he talk to the Ugandan President about human rights issues in Uganda and the atrocities of the Ugandan soldiers. As mentioned earlier in my posts, Uganda is one of the nations in Africa with child soldiers. I hope that with this plea, Bush will be able to focus on these important issues in his talks.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2007/10/29/uganda17197.htm
I wrote on Kellsey’s Blog!
See! I told you I did!
U.S. Forgives Costa Rican Debt to Help Environment
October 22, 2007 at 11:29 pm · Filed under Breaking News http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/world/americas/17costa.html?_r=1&oref=sloginThe U.S. has agreed to forgive the 26 million dollar debt as part of a debt-nature exchange that will protect some of Costa Rica’s most threatened tropical forests. The U.S. government will contribute 12.6 million dollars to finance the deal. Two environmental organizations will also contribute money, Conservation International and Nature Conservancy will each contribute 1.26 million to the cause as well. That money along with the interest that builds up will completely eliminate Costa Rica 26 million dollar debt over the next 16 years. This is the largest debt forgiven under the Tropical Conservation Act.
HERE’S WHERE I WRITE SOMETHING:
This is awesome. I didn’t know the US government cared about the environment. Learn something new every day. Now we just have to take that initiative and apply it to our own environment. I truly hope something can be done about the rain forest too. The destruction is becoming somewhat ridiculous.
I wrote on Tiffany’s blog!!!
October 22nd, 2007 spiffytiffysue
This is a list of some of the companies that have already been established as having sweatshops:
Apple
Nike
Disney
Coca-Cola
Burberry
Starbucks
The Gap
Wal-Mart
Are you surprised by some of the names? I bet you have been to nearly all of these companies’ stores, did you know that they use sweatshops to manufacture your goods? Now that you know, what are you gonna do about it?www.nosweat.org.ukEntry Filed under: Breaking New
MY COMMENT:
I actually did know that those places had sweatshops. It makes sense if you think about it though. It’s an economic thing actually. That’s why those places are monumental. They don’t have to spend a lot of paying people to make their stuff. Although I generally dislike sweat shops in theory, they are getting safer and honestly, they provide jobs for people that will have no other means of income. I mean, they suck, but they have their uses as well.
I wrote on Megan’s blog!
EVIDENCE:
Abortion Banned in Nicaragua: November 2006
Almost a year ago, Nicaraguan legislation unnanimously to ban abortion, even if the woman’s life was in danger. This was following the example of other the highly-Catholic countries in South America, like Chile and El Salvador. Bans such as the one in Nicaragua have only increased the number of back-alley abortions in South America. An article by the Boston Globe estimates that 32,o00 women suffer injury from these unclean abortions every year. Poverty and limited access to contraception are to blame for the high number of unwanted pregnancies. Approximately 3.9 million women in South America have abortions each year.
“According to the World Health Organization, South America is the continent with the highest rate of unsafe, clandestine abortions,” and it estimated that up to 21 percent of maternal deaths are related to these abortions.
Doctors and patients accused of giving and receiving abortions will now face up to eight years in prison. Fear of punishment has resulted in doctors refusing to perform treatments of any kind involving pregnany, even removing an already deceased fetus from the uterus, which often causes deadly infections. In one such case, doctors refused to operate on a mother who had an infection from a miscarriage, causing her to eventually die and leave her already exisintg child an orphan. Failure to give treatment of any kind to pregnant women has resulted in even more unnecessary deaths and motherless children.
Wow. I didn’t know about the banned abortion in Nicaragua. I guess it’s good they tried it out first then. It clearly doesn’t work to have it completely banned. That’s also quite sad that pregnant women can’t have dead babies removed from them. It’s disgusting too, if you think about it. Perhaps they should consider…you know…not being so strict…I certainly don’t understand why a woman who will die if she has a baby can’t have an abortion. Doesn’t it kind of defeat the purpose of saving a life if someone will certainly die anyway?
Technological Rant
Commense Rant:
I don’t know what the deal is, but my computer lately has been freezing up on me. It’s annoying to the extreme, especially when I’m in the middle of writing something and suddenly everything slows down and then stops. It’s suspenseful too–like you get the sense of foreboding, but you still think the computer could save itself–then all optimism is destroyed as the program goes blank and the event your pessimism transpires. When I ask my friends how to solve this I receive the following responses: Mac users say it’s because I have a Sony, Sony users say it’s because I have Vista, and people with Vista say it’s probably something I did. Not only are these technology jokes completely worn of any humor, but they do not particularly help my problem now do they?
On another, more important issue, why is it so hard to find recent information on child soldiers? It shouldn’t be so difficult. It’s kind of a huge deal after all. Right?!? I understand that there’s a limit to how often reporters can sneak onto the scene of battle to report on this stuff, but you think there would be some recent articles somewhere! Sure I found a few, but there’s more current information on Brittany Spears’ drama than on Uganda or Chad combined. It’s crazy!
Rant Ended.
This Has Nothing to do with My Blog Topic
This issue is, as the title hints, completely unrelated to my blog topic, but it must be said. I am a huge Harry Potter fan and also a supporter of Gay rights. That is why it is my greatest pleasure to announce that Professor Albus Dumbledore of the Harry Potter series has recently been outed by JK Rowling. That’s right, the most well liked and intelligent character of the Harry Potter novels is a homosexual. Congratulations gay community for your newest addition. Dumbledore is a great catch. And thanks JK Rowling for still keeping things interesting!
Classroom Ties
Last year I took a class called Comparative Government. Unlike the usual one semester U.S. government requirement, Comparative government lasted an entire school year. There was only one class period comprised of less than thirty students. With a senior class of well over 700 kids, this is somewhat depressing. The purpose of this class was clearly stated in the title: we compared governments. We didn’t simply sit around and analyze the effectiveness of foreign regimes in comparison to the U.S. government, rather we talked about several governments, as time provided, and discovered how each government was related, how they differed, why they were efficient for the place they governed, etc. There was no “Us vs. Them” mentality yet there was an even split of conservative, moderate, and liberal students. This did not cause argument as one would expect. Instead, it provoked conversation and led to a greater understanding of the viewpoints of others.
It was a lot of work, it was more government than required for our school, and it was challenging. But everyone had a curiosity for international affairs. That is why the class was successful and that is why we were able to learn so much.
Our teacher constantly persuaded us to attend lectures outside of class, and for students who were usually busy, some very interesting in-class presentations were arranged. One of the most memorable events was a visit from a film crew and 15 year old girl called “Madeleine.”
Madeleine was not the girl’s real name. It was a sort of code name to protect her family from possible government repercussions. She is a former child soldier from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) who is working with AJEDI-Ka/Projet Enfants Soldats. AJEDI-Ka is an organization based in the South Kiva province of in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that tries to prevent the use child soldiers and reintegrate them into society after they are rescued. Madeleine spoke to our class about the hardships of being a child soldier—about what they do to the girls and boys and the trauma that they have to face at such an early age. We then watched a short part of the documentary the AJEDI-Ka crew put together. What we learned was eye-opening.
The children are recruited at a very early age and are often manipulated to believe they are invincible. They are provided “lucky charms” or “protective amulets” that are said to contain magical powers that prevent them from injury. So that they will not fear fighting on the lines, they provide the children with drugs and assault rifles—obviously the two are not a great combination. Girls are usually used as sex objects and are horribly abused. The victimization of these children is tragic and inexcusable.
When the children come out of the service, it is difficult for them to adapt to normal lives. Some of them are addicted to drugs, some will have children to care for, and some will have altered realities. One main goal of AJEDI-Ka is to help rehabilitate these children so that they can function in regular society again and go to school or get jobs. Before this visit, I had no idea what some of these children had to go through. I had heard of genocide, infanticide, poverty, abuse, and neglect, but the idea of children fighting in wars was unknown to me. To think that children were forced to do something that even adults have serious emotional issues with was inconceivable.
That is why I chose this topic and I hope that my project may inform others of the cruelties that some children have to face and inspire them to find some way to help fight this injustice.
For more information on AJEDI-Ka go to this website:
