http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20070919/wl_csm/okids I remember watching Blood Diamond and being touched much more deeply by the relationship between Huntsu and his son than the racial issue involving DeCaprio. The thought of innocent children being forced to fight and/or have sex is crushing. I am surprised that international watch groups haven't been more influential in this area - maybe b/c the area is so incredibly violent? Regardless, stories like this make me thankful to live in the comparative peace of the US.
I never stop being shocked over the things people can do in wars, and how little the international community seems do about it. Especially in Africa and regions where there apear to be no financial intrests involved. Because of the lack off responces from the world, theese are also the places where the worst crimes happens. If you want to know even more about some of the horrors of war, you can find a PDF file on the bottom this page http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70548 It's a 5Mb e-book about sexual violence to "women" in war (Warning some of the "women" are just little girls, and there are some, extremely upsetting pictures there). Here's one woman's story: As I said, it's extremely upsetting... I can recomend the download for everyone, but I won't be held responcible for anyones lack of sleep after they've read it...
I took my seminar last year in International Gender Issues and learned so much about the brutality and unequal treatment of women in so many countries. Women band together to fight for the right to vote and equal pay, yet for the women in third world countries the right to control and make choices about thier own bodies, to be seen as people not chattel, to have access to a judiciary system that is not form over substance would be tremendous. For these women the issue isn't equality, it's autonomy and safety.
The men who make those little boys fight and die should be tried as war criminals,but Africa is not important to the First World.
