The Sky Wept Stars: Thoughts on A Long Way Gone

Uganda provides one of the most glaring examples of the use of child soldiers in the world today. But it neither the first place to do so, nor will it be the last, unfortunately.

During the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone, many children were abducted and brainwashed in much the same way as they are in Uganda. One survivor of this tragedy, Ishmael Beah, now lives in the United States and has published his story as A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.

Beah did not start out as a child soldier, but instead as a permanent version of a night commuter. He spent a long time in the wilderness, trying to avoid the rebels who destroyed his village, and hoping to find his family again.

In the Sierra Leone civil war, both the government's army and the rebel Revolutionary United Front militia utilized abducted children as soldiers. Beah was "protected" and later conscripted by the government as a child soldier. Through the use of drugs, violent movies, and training drills, the children were desensitized and indoctrinated, joining the war effort to defeat the RUF militiamen.

Beah was eventually rescued and put back in school. Through the help of the caring staff, and especially one counselor in particular, Beah was able to go to live with some extended family members. The war eventually found its way back to Beah, who fled to the United States, where he still lives today.

Beah, who now works for the liberation of child soldiers and slaves, working with Human Rights Watch and many US government agencies and NGOs.

Beah's story puts yet another human face to this tragedy. Like Invisible Children's documentaries, A Long Way Gone helps to turn statistics and numbers about child soldiers into children with faces and stories to tell. And so it is that we at UGA join with students across America and the world, and with Beah and others telling their stories, to put a human face on such violations of rights and crimes against humanity.

Join us. Do Something.

Shalom,
Drew

Post Script (added 3 Feb 2009): For more on the war in Sierra Leone and the use of child soldiers, the fictional account presented in Blood Diamond (Warner Brothers, 2006) is worth viewing.

New Features and Other Admnistrative Matters

Look to your right. Do you see a poll?

Good.

Now go and answer it (you can select multiple answers).

This will help us see which documentaries people haven't seen.

And are you tired of reading my rambling style of writing? Do you think you can write a better article or provide a better summary of the weekly updates? Or have you written something about Invisible Children and want the world to see it? Well, you can. Just come see me (Drew) after a meeting on Tuesday or send me an email at rocksalive777@gmail.com and I will send you a digital invitation to be a IC@UGA contributor.

Finally, we are looking for outside voices. Does your campus minister support Invisible Children? Or someone in your fraternity/sorority? What about your parents? Or professors? If so, see if they want to write a short piece on how they found out about the problems in Uganda and how they think others can get involved. Have them send it to me at rocksalive777@gmail.com or to the ICU email address (icuatuga@gmail.com).

Shalom.

And the Winner Is...

If you weren't at the meeting on Tuesday, you missed free cake and coffee. And it was good.

But there was more excitement than just the free food. We know who will be representing us in Uganda this summer.

And the winner is...

Wait. This needs more drama. Drum roll please...


The winner is: Meredith Jones.

Meredith is serving her third semester as our fearless leader and one of the hardest working people I know. I can think of no one more deserving or who would do a better job representing us in Uganda.

Congratulations, Meredith.

Shalom.

More LRA Violence in Congo

I'll provide an update on what happened at the first meeting of the semester, but first some more serious news.

There are reports that the LRA attacked and burned another Congolese church on Saturday. Details are limited.
Read the full story from the Associated Press here.

As for Tuesday night's meeting, we briefly discussed the news (the recent violence in Congo).

We also gave nominations for the lucky club member who'll be going to Uganda this summer. We will vote for the nominees at the meeting tomorrow night, so be there.

Shalom.

Bands Speak Up For Invisible Children

I found out about Invisible Children because of the band Thrice, and was ecstatic when mewithoutYou promoted IC at their concert in Athens.

Both bands have a tremendous history of political activism, and Thrice has demonstrated a tremendous commitment to the problems faced on the African continent.

Recently, lead singers Dustin Kensrue (Thrice) and Aaron Weiss (mewithoutYou), along with Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Chris Conley (Saves the Day), and Jim Ward (Sleepercar) were interviewed by IC before a benefit concert.

Check it out.



Shalom.

New Violence in Uganda

Recently, the governments of Congo, Sudan, and Uganda have launched an offensive against the Lord's Resistance Army.

In response, the LRA attacked a church in Congo the day after Christmas. Reports are fuzzy, but witnesses point out that the attackers spoke the Acholi language, wore their hair dreaded, and had a large number of young boys among their ranks as evidence that the attackers were indeed members of the LRA. Between 30 and 150 civilians are reported to have been murdered.

See the full story here.

We have about a week and a half left in the winter break, so why not take some of your free time and write to your congressmen and some members of the incoming administration?

I know we ask you to do this a lot, but it does make a difference, and with the new surge of violence, now it is more important than ever to make sure that we cry out for the victims in this war.

Shalom.

Happy Christmas

It's the morning of Christmas Eve in South Korea, where I will once again be spending my Christmas holiday.

From this war zone to the war zone in Uganda, let us strive for peace.

Happy Christmas.



And good news everybody! The results are in for Schools 4 Schools - all told, IC raised over a million dollars this semester, and ICU@UGA raised more money than anybody else in our region!

Shalom.

Post Script: I apologize for the size of the video and its interference with the lay-out of my blog. I tried to manipulate the size of the video, but to shrink the frame is to cut off a rather large chunk of the video itself. So, until I add a few more posts, you're just going to have to guess your way around the blocked links.