"A Long Way Gone" was written in 2007 by Ishmael Beah when he was 26 years old. Ishmael Beah was born in Sierra Leone on November 23, 1980. Ishmael lived a happy life in Sierra Leone until he was captured and forced to be a child soldier. Ishmael Beah, the author of "A Long Way Gone" wrote this book to make the public aware of how children are the absolute victims of wars fought in Third world countries, including those children that have participated in the atrocities as soldiers. The book is a compelling account of the author's personal experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone. I think the author achieved his goals in writing this book, as it is an eye opening account of the tragedy of what is going on in the world today.
The book "A Long Way Gone" was organized chronologically, for the most part. The first chapter is a brief reflection of the author's life as a high school student in New York, after he left Sierra Leone. The book then flashes back to 1993 and the beginning of the tragic events in Sierra Leone that would eventually bring him to the United States. The story was told by the author in the first person perspective, which aided in my comprehension because it was as if he was actually telling me the story. If the story had been told differently, I don't think I would've understood the situation as he lived it.
Ishmael Beah's main point in writing the book "A Long Way Gone" is to let the world know that the increasing use of children as soldiers is extremely bad and must be stopped. He says that "war is hell" and supports this by relating to the reader horrors and tragedies that are almost unbelievable. For example in chapter 14 he says that "He takes turns as the guard posts around the village and becomes addicted to marijuana, cocaine and white capsules. When he first takes these drugs in combination, he acts in a more than bizarre manner, but eventually, he comes to feel only numbness to everything and so much energy that he can’t sleep for weeks".
Ishmael Beah's style of writing is not terribly developed and at times a bit rough to give the reader the sense that he was only a child when the events happened. This is more than compensated for by the fact that the story he has to tell is so mind-boggling. The type of word choice and sentence structure he uses is that he writes in first person and uses very appropriate grammatical sentences. He is showing that he is now an educated writer and we can tell that he wants to show this to people.
Because Ishmael Beah really was a child soldier and this is his story, we can trust that the book is factual because he was the one that lived it. After fleeing Sierra Leone in 1998, Ishamael Beah completed high school at the United Nations International School in New York. He then attended Oberlin College in Ohio and graduated in 2004. He is currently a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Advisory Committee and has spoken to the United Nations on several occasions about the issues of children affected by war.
The book "A Long Way Gone" was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book has received really good reviewsand has won some awards. "A Long Way Gone" was named one of the top ten Nonfiction books of 2007 by Time Magazine. Also "A Long Way Gone" was nominated for a Quill award in the Best Debut Author category in 2007. The Quill Award is a consumer driven award created to inspire reading while promoting literacy. The critics said that Ishmael Beah's story is one of the most important war stories of our generation. "A Long Way Gone" is a wrenching, beautiful and mesmerizing tale.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Movie Review: Blood Diamond
In the movie Blood Diamond was directed by Edward Zwick. The movie stars Leonardo Dicaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou. The movie got five academy awards which were best editing, best sound, best sound mixing, best actor, and best supporting actor. Leonardo Dicaprio got the award for the best actor and Djimon Hounsou got the award for best supporting actor. The movie is based on a true story and historical events.
In the movie i think it was very well done because there was some little bits and pieces i didn't know about but i do now. Also the movie makes you think alot about what people do just to get diamonds and how big of deal this really is.
The movie Blood Diamond is mainly about diamonds being found and sold to buyers like big diamond companies. Also theres alot of violence in the movie where people and kids being shot or either captured. If your a kid and you are captured, they brainwash you by giving lots of drugs so you wont remember who you are or where your from. They train you to be a child soldier by teaching you how to shoot an innocent human being and capturing and destroying other villages. The lead actor Leonardo Dicaprio meets a local man in jail which is the supporting actor Djimon Hounsou, and he hid a diamond that he found while he got captured hen the rebels destroyed his village. Leonardo wants the diamond, so they go on a long journey to find the diamond. They face a bunch of obstacles along the way.
In the movie i think it was very well done because there was some little bits and pieces i didn't know about but i do now. Also the movie makes you think alot about what people do just to get diamonds and how big of deal this really is.
The movie Blood Diamond is mainly about diamonds being found and sold to buyers like big diamond companies. Also theres alot of violence in the movie where people and kids being shot or either captured. If your a kid and you are captured, they brainwash you by giving lots of drugs so you wont remember who you are or where your from. They train you to be a child soldier by teaching you how to shoot an innocent human being and capturing and destroying other villages. The lead actor Leonardo Dicaprio meets a local man in jail which is the supporting actor Djimon Hounsou, and he hid a diamond that he found while he got captured hen the rebels destroyed his village. Leonardo wants the diamond, so they go on a long journey to find the diamond. They face a bunch of obstacles along the way.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Stats on Child Soldiers
In the chart I found about child soldiers is that it says how many children in the world have been involved with child soldiers. Also in red, it has children under the age of 15 have been child soldiers and in pink it has children under the age of 18 have been child soldiers. There are 31 countries have armed conflicts and 87% of children are deployed to go fight. 71% are deployed when there under the age of 15.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Child Soldiers
When I chose blogging about Child Soldiers i didn't know i would learn so much. I learned that Child Soldier is going on everywhere and that most children don't have a choice when they become a Child Soldier. Also I learned that there are over 300,000 children currently fighting in the world today. When i first started blogging about child soldiers, I didn't realize how big a deal this is. I didn't know there were so many children that lost their families because of the violence going on in different countries.
Im still wondering when this whole thing is going to end. I think that there should be no child under a certain age should be forced to fight in wars. In this one article i read it said that there should be no child under a certain should be able to fight in armed conflicts. I certainly agree with that. I also agree that kids should not be punished for what they have done, there only just kids being forced what to do.
During the second quarter i want to find out more about what are people doing to fix this situation. I'm not really finding a lot on that certain topic and that's what i want to go into deeper research on.
Im still wondering when this whole thing is going to end. I think that there should be no child under a certain age should be forced to fight in wars. In this one article i read it said that there should be no child under a certain should be able to fight in armed conflicts. I certainly agree with that. I also agree that kids should not be punished for what they have done, there only just kids being forced what to do.
During the second quarter i want to find out more about what are people doing to fix this situation. I'm not really finding a lot on that certain topic and that's what i want to go into deeper research on.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Child Soldiers: Are they responsible for for their actions?
According to a U.S. State Department survey, an estimated quarter of a million children, some as young as 6 years old, have been enlisted as soldiers in many different armed conflicts around the world. These children have been used in armed insurgencies like the Khmer Rouge, the Shining Path and Palestinian liberation groups, which are fought in conflicts against the government and people of thieir countries, as well as in the regular armies of some countries such as Cambodia, Colombia, Peru, Uganda, Angola and Sudan. Children under the age of 18 should not be involved in hostilities, as this violates the universal rule that children should have no part in warfare. International law, however, states that countries shall not recruit anyone under the age 15 into the armed services and that age 16 is the minimum age for involvement in combat. International Law should recognize 18 years as the minimum age for recruitment (compulsary or voluntary) into any kind of armed forces and armed groups and for any kind of participation in hostilities, and should sanction countries who do not comply.
Child soldiers are currently being used combatants in the most of the armed conflicts going on around the world. This fact has not been widely publicized because the issue of the child soldier is primarily an invisble one. Most countires violating International Law by using child soldiers deny their existence, falsify their ages and numbers and keep these children away from the public view and media exposure by sending them to remote conflict zones. As a child soldier grows older, the "child" in the soldier disappears and the adult soldier takes the place of the former child soldier.
Child soldiers are generally recruited, or forced into military service because their are not enough adults available or willing to serve as soldiers. Many children are kidnapped or forced to join in order to prevent harm to their families. Armed conflict generally contributes to an increase in the number of childre in the military. War disrupts normal life and causes educational options to shrink or disappear. This results in miltary recruits getting younger and younger. For example, in Afghanistan, 90 percent of children lost access to schooling during the 1990's. As a result, the Afghanistan military is now made up of approximately 45% children. Many of these children, below the age of 14, have been sent into armed conflicts. In other countries, such as Sierra Leone, poverty sends the children voluntarily into the military. This is one way ot obtain regular meals, clothing and medical attention. According to one recent study, "many mothers have remarked on the joy of seeing their ten-year-old dressed in a brand new military attire carrying an AK-47. For some families the looted property that child soldiers brought home further convinced them of the need to send more children to the war front to augment scarce income."
But children do not really have the ability to fully understand the reality of military service and involvement in armed conflict. They are influenced by their parents, peer groups, schools, religous communities and their devlopmental processes. Many children have witnessed executions,massacres and the destruction of their home and death of their families. Revenge is one very strong motivation to join the military. Adults in these countries that use child soldiers forget that most children lack the capacity to judge what is in their best interest, so that a child's "decision" to join can be rejected as an excuse by those adults who would like to use the children for their own gain. Even if a child is recruited for a support position and not for use in armed conflict, the child cannot escape the risks and hardships primarily associated with combat. Children often serve as porters carrying heavy loads, or are used as messengers or lookouts. While these roles may seem less dangerous that combat, the fact that children are used in these roles makes all children suspicious and has been the excuse for killing young children in a community.
Involving children as soldiers has been made easier by the use of inexpensive light weapons. As recently as a generation ago battlefield weapons were still heavy and bulky. Modern guns are so light that children can easily use them and so simple that they can be stripped and reassembled by a ten year old. While the majority of child recruits are boys, girls are also used as combatants and may be forced to provide sexual services or, as in Uganda, are "married off" to rebel leadres. This makes it impossible for the girl to return to thier communities, as their families may be unable to accept the treatment they sexual mistreatment they have undergone. Without any other alternatives, many girls end up as prostitutes or die of sexually transmitted diseases. For both boys and girls, the most severe lon term consequence of serving as a child soldier is on their moral development. Their morals are dominated by fear and violence, and they have a distorted view of right and wrong. It is difficult for them to return to a normal life when the fighting ends.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child requires that every child is entitled to receive protection and care necessary for his or her well being. Children must be protected from all forms of mental and physical violence and abuse. Each country is responsible for ensuring "to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child." If simple human decency is not enough to compel governments to care for thier children, they should consider that the inability of the children to integrate back into society will contribute to more future conflicts. Clearly, the most obvious action a government should take would be to outlaw the recruitment of childre under the age of 18. Child soldiers currently serving in armed forces should be demobilized and helped to re-integrate into society.
Child soldiers are currently being used combatants in the most of the armed conflicts going on around the world. This fact has not been widely publicized because the issue of the child soldier is primarily an invisble one. Most countires violating International Law by using child soldiers deny their existence, falsify their ages and numbers and keep these children away from the public view and media exposure by sending them to remote conflict zones. As a child soldier grows older, the "child" in the soldier disappears and the adult soldier takes the place of the former child soldier.
Child soldiers are generally recruited, or forced into military service because their are not enough adults available or willing to serve as soldiers. Many children are kidnapped or forced to join in order to prevent harm to their families. Armed conflict generally contributes to an increase in the number of childre in the military. War disrupts normal life and causes educational options to shrink or disappear. This results in miltary recruits getting younger and younger. For example, in Afghanistan, 90 percent of children lost access to schooling during the 1990's. As a result, the Afghanistan military is now made up of approximately 45% children. Many of these children, below the age of 14, have been sent into armed conflicts. In other countries, such as Sierra Leone, poverty sends the children voluntarily into the military. This is one way ot obtain regular meals, clothing and medical attention. According to one recent study, "many mothers have remarked on the joy of seeing their ten-year-old dressed in a brand new military attire carrying an AK-47. For some families the looted property that child soldiers brought home further convinced them of the need to send more children to the war front to augment scarce income."
But children do not really have the ability to fully understand the reality of military service and involvement in armed conflict. They are influenced by their parents, peer groups, schools, religous communities and their devlopmental processes. Many children have witnessed executions,massacres and the destruction of their home and death of their families. Revenge is one very strong motivation to join the military. Adults in these countries that use child soldiers forget that most children lack the capacity to judge what is in their best interest, so that a child's "decision" to join can be rejected as an excuse by those adults who would like to use the children for their own gain. Even if a child is recruited for a support position and not for use in armed conflict, the child cannot escape the risks and hardships primarily associated with combat. Children often serve as porters carrying heavy loads, or are used as messengers or lookouts. While these roles may seem less dangerous that combat, the fact that children are used in these roles makes all children suspicious and has been the excuse for killing young children in a community.
Involving children as soldiers has been made easier by the use of inexpensive light weapons. As recently as a generation ago battlefield weapons were still heavy and bulky. Modern guns are so light that children can easily use them and so simple that they can be stripped and reassembled by a ten year old. While the majority of child recruits are boys, girls are also used as combatants and may be forced to provide sexual services or, as in Uganda, are "married off" to rebel leadres. This makes it impossible for the girl to return to thier communities, as their families may be unable to accept the treatment they sexual mistreatment they have undergone. Without any other alternatives, many girls end up as prostitutes or die of sexually transmitted diseases. For both boys and girls, the most severe lon term consequence of serving as a child soldier is on their moral development. Their morals are dominated by fear and violence, and they have a distorted view of right and wrong. It is difficult for them to return to a normal life when the fighting ends.
The Convention of the Rights of the Child requires that every child is entitled to receive protection and care necessary for his or her well being. Children must be protected from all forms of mental and physical violence and abuse. Each country is responsible for ensuring "to the maximum extent possible the survival and development of the child." If simple human decency is not enough to compel governments to care for thier children, they should consider that the inability of the children to integrate back into society will contribute to more future conflicts. Clearly, the most obvious action a government should take would be to outlaw the recruitment of childre under the age of 18. Child soldiers currently serving in armed forces should be demobilized and helped to re-integrate into society.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Survey
The question i asked people that what country you think child soldiers are mostly in. The countries were Africa, Europe, Antarctica, and Australia. I asked this question because i thought it was a good question to ask. Also I thought a lot of people didn't know a lot of details about child soldiers, so i decided to ask that specific question. There were only nine people that voted. Seven people Said that Africa had the most child soldiers. Two people said Europe and nobody said that Australia or Antarctica had the most.
The number came out this way because the people i asked knew what child soldiers were and where it was happening, which is Africa. People might be influenced by that they might know a little about child soldiers and where it's happening. Thats maybe why they answered the way they did. There answers didn't surprise me because my answers were pretty straight forward. Also one of my answers were Antarctica and i knew nobody was going to answer for that one. They answered the way i knew they would.
In he next few weeks i might research a bigger question that people might know the answer to. For example i might ask people what they think about child soldiers being prosecuted for what they did. Like killing and raping innocent civilians. Those are kids under the age of eighteen. Thats what i might research for the next few weeks.
The number came out this way because the people i asked knew what child soldiers were and where it was happening, which is Africa. People might be influenced by that they might know a little about child soldiers and where it's happening. Thats maybe why they answered the way they did. There answers didn't surprise me because my answers were pretty straight forward. Also one of my answers were Antarctica and i knew nobody was going to answer for that one. They answered the way i knew they would.
In he next few weeks i might research a bigger question that people might know the answer to. For example i might ask people what they think about child soldiers being prosecuted for what they did. Like killing and raping innocent civilians. Those are kids under the age of eighteen. Thats what i might research for the next few weeks.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Debate on Child Soldiers
Child Soldiers are used throughout the world in both conflicts between states and civil war. International law prohibits the use and recruitment under the age of 15 years old. It also says that if your between the age 15 and 18 you should not be in these hostilities. It's estimated that there are 300,000 child soldiers currently fighting in the wrld. Should these children be held responsible for their actions or should they be considered children in the eyes of international law?
One opinion is that Child Soldiers are no different from Child Criminals. They have been charged with the most brutal assaults in wartime. In sierra leone child soldiers commited acts of rape and killing civilians. Another opinion is that Child Soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions, they are usually forced to do what there supposed to do. The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and it would make them commit acts that would not do if they weren't under the influence.
Most children are forcibly recruited and when they enlist they may not have thought carefully about their decision. The child thought it may have been the safe route then dying of hunger or getting shot. However many children occupy command posistions and ordering grown ups what to do.
One argument is that children should not be punished but should be rehibiitated. on the other hand, if child soldiers are not punished for war crimes and crimes against hmanity, a message is sent to the community that these perpretrators will not be held responsible for their acts.
If the world does not hold child soldiers responsible for their actions, would this encourage these countries to use children to commit war crimes? Perhaps the world should hold these countries responsible for breaking inernational law by using child soldiers in the first place.
One opinion is that Child Soldiers are no different from Child Criminals. They have been charged with the most brutal assaults in wartime. In sierra leone child soldiers commited acts of rape and killing civilians. Another opinion is that Child Soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions, they are usually forced to do what there supposed to do. The recruiters of child soldiers also use drugs and alcohol to make children more compliant and it would make them commit acts that would not do if they weren't under the influence.
Most children are forcibly recruited and when they enlist they may not have thought carefully about their decision. The child thought it may have been the safe route then dying of hunger or getting shot. However many children occupy command posistions and ordering grown ups what to do.
One argument is that children should not be punished but should be rehibiitated. on the other hand, if child soldiers are not punished for war crimes and crimes against hmanity, a message is sent to the community that these perpretrators will not be held responsible for their acts.
If the world does not hold child soldiers responsible for their actions, would this encourage these countries to use children to commit war crimes? Perhaps the world should hold these countries responsible for breaking inernational law by using child soldiers in the first place.
Grogan, Rose. "Child Soldiers, Prosecution: Debatabase - Debate Topics and Debate Motions." IDEA: International Debate Education Association - Debate Resources & Debate Tools. 05 Sept. 2009. Web. 07 Nov. 2010. <http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=924>.
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