Week 3 Blog 5 Child Labor Exploitation

Triangle:

This triangle is simple: 30,000 invisible child soldiers, torture, brainwash and mutilation, and last a resolution that seems impossible.  It is amazing that three boys Jason, Laren and Bobby can become so involved in a movement that they become front runners in the ground breaking for communications.  What is hard is to see how much they accomplished and what they did in their film making to just end in the same resolutions as the past.  Each time Joseph Koney the leader of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) begins negotiations in peace it ends with him storming the grounds of villages and stealing family’s children in the night, mutilating and killing without regard in the process.

A moving point in the film Invisible Child was the number of children that had to be counted as invisible; taking into account the number of children stated to be in the LRA, then the number of children that have been massacred, cross that with the number of children that have been reported stolen you come up with thousands of children that have disappeared into thin air.  One is only left to assume that they were killed in the process of becoming a LRA soldier.

Square:

How does a nation or international community go up against a modern day Hitler?  Is it possible that Joseph Koney will stand trial against his crimes of humanity?  Watching the video footage of Christmas day and the disturbing attack of genocide that took place one really wonders if justice will ever be served for someone who has committed so many crimes and been at the heart of so much pain.  You think of how communities feel when they suffer the loss of a great police officer, or someone who did a substantial amount for the community, how do 5 countries recover from the magnitude of pain that one man has put them through.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to live a life of fear, wondering if you will be able to watch your children grow up, and if you do will it is because they are forever mutilated by a monster who did not find them worthy of capture. 

Circle:

If we liberate the children of Northern Uganda, are we prepared to help these children reintegrate back into a normal life?  Is a normal life possible for them?  While I do not think that there is any other option then to continue in the process of shutting down the LRA and bringing Joseph Koney to justice, one has to be honest that the children of Northern Uganda whether physical or not will forever be changed by the fear of the LRA.  It is going to take generations of recovery to not only close the LRA down, but to reestablish a common ground with these small people who know nothing else but murder.  While it is comparable to think of Joseph Koney as a modern day Hitler, you cannot think of the soldiers the same because they are just children.  They will have many years to live if they are ever liberated, something that our nation and the world alike needs to think about is what everyone will be willing to do be there for the children of Northern Uganda.

Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2006, April 7) Invisible Children [Google video]. Retrieved June 18, 2010 from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2008) The Rescue: Full [vimeo]. Retrieved June 18, 2011 from http://vimeo.com/3400420