Child Soldiers and Kony 2012

It's been over a month since I shared a new blog post with the internet world. That would qualify as an utter failure on my post once a week goal from January. I got caught up trying to reinvent the wheel so to speak, wanting to change everything to make my blog more appealing and I think lost interest all together somewhere along the way. That coupled with the fact late February & early March does not spark a lot of excitement in my life so I was seriously lacking in stories worth sharing.

I do have something rather serious I want to weigh in on, which is related to my lack of posting as I've been obsessing about getting this perfect. In early March the internet exploded with the Kony2012 videos, first with great support and then with a tonne of criticism. I don't have the desire to debate the legitimacy of the project, I think in terms of awareness it has been successful but would agree with the critics that it is kind of a sugar-coated over-simplified version of events.

What I want to talk about isn't that video specifically, but the suffering of children being forced to act as soldiers in the developing world. In pure coincidence, just before the video was released I finished Romeo Dallaire's Shake Hands With the Devil about his experiences during the Rwandan Genocide (1993-1994) and was starting on his second book, They Fight Like Soldiers They Die Like Children.

It is amazing to me that these issues go unreported despite the pervasiveness of the media in our lives. News can be accessed any number of ways but stories that really matter, that deserve to be told only garner attention once they make it to Facebook. Genocide, famine, civil war, child soldiers, sexual slavery, these are all real issues facing people in countries around the world, and yet much of the time there is no mention to be found in mainstream media.

To say that those books opened my eyes would be an understatement. I consider myself educated and well read but I was blissfully unaware of the scope of human suffering and child soldiering worldwide. I watch the news and read the paper daily and may have been vaguely aware that children were being used as soldiers but I had no idea of the magnitude of the problem.

I don't want to preach or force information upon you, because I am still processing what I've learned over the past month. I am by no means an expert, but I do want to encourage you to look into Child Soldiering and similar issues and to think critically about what you are seeing.

Critical thinking is not my strongest point. I want to see the best in everything, I watched the Kony2012 video and fell hook, line and sinker. In the following days many questions were raised about the project and I began to feel discouraged by the growing negative public opinion. In the end I think the campaign was already successful in at least creating interest and bringing Joseph Kony and child soldiers to the forefront of peoples minds.

If you were intrigued by the Kony2012 project I encourage you to take a few minutes to check out the Child Soldier's Initiative which was founded by Romeo Dallaire. It provides a great deal of information about Child Soldiering and other ways you can get involved. You can visit the website here:  Child Soldiers Initiative.

I also highly recommend reading They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children when you have a chance. Although the subject matter is heavy, it's not a particularly difficult read and I real do feel like it's an issue that deserves at least a second look.

I do not intend to preach or force my ideas on you, but I couldn't help but share them. I would be greatly interested if anyone knows of any further resources on the subject that I should look into. Please don't be afraid to share your thoughts on this, or any other issues that you think deserve attention.

It seems trivial to follow this blog up with stories of my perfectly contented life, so for today I think I will sign off. I promise to make a stronger effort to blog regularly and do apologize for my lengthy absence from your screens.

Keep Smiling :)