Posted by Benjamin on: 02.28.2007 /
A nearly miraculous 6 month ceasefire between the Lord’s Resistance Army and the government of Uganda is set to expire Wednesday, February 28th (that is, today). This is enormously heartbreaking, as it means that a situation has been *so* bad for so long for so many children, and which looked to be getting better, may now be getting worse again.
If I think about this too much, I start crying.
Does god hate africa more than he hates the rest of us?
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Comment by: Jim
1 02/28/07 10:16 AM | Comment Link |Thank you both for keeping this in our face. Sometimes it is difficult to know which crisis to pay the most attention to.
What have you two learned about how to cope with all the needs and them where to focus your efforts knowing that in doing so you are ignoring some other critical need.
It is as if our lives are in full time Triage mode since we now “know” what it happening and can’t always bury our heads in the sand.
I heard an interview with a guy who wrote a book about someone named Dr Farmer who took a one on one approach in Haiti- Do you know anything about him?
Comment by: Helen
2 02/28/07 1:12 PM | Comment Link |Benjamin wrote:
I really hope not. :(
I heard Fresh Air last week when a young man was on talking about his experiences as a boy soldier:
Ishmael Beah’s Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
It’s not easy to listen to but it’s a good way to hear first hand what it does to a child to be forcibly recruited into an army.
Comment by: Benjamin
3 02/28/07 1:44 PM | Comment Link |Jim,
–not much, really. There is a sort of background hope that … keeping aware of all this stuff will somehow (magically) translate into me being less of a selfish, self centered bastard. And I think that this is true at some level, since I can see a sort of correlation between growing increasingly aware of the suffering in the world and (the relatively tiny) progress I’ve made in the selfishness dept.
Dr. Allender (and can I just highly recommend anything he’s ever written–they’re the sort to enrage/overwhelm one with dizzying, terrifying, glorious truth) talks about … studying yourself and your own story, within community (since of course we’re generally crap at solo introspection, so we need some mirrors/friends) enough so that you start to figure out what your “no” is and what your “yes” is. So I’ve started to get a decent handle on my “no”, but my “yes” still seems to be somewhat mysterious.
Comment by: Benjamin
4 02/28/07 1:56 PM | Comment Link |Yeah that would have been an interview with Tracy Kidder, who spoke yesterday at UW, about the book you speak of: Mountains Beyond Mountains.
Dr. Farmer spoke at UW back in November, and Meg and I got to attend. You can watch that here
The book is a great read. Paul Farmer is now very involved in lots of high brow, high powered sorts of things at the UN and internationally trying to, as he puts it, create and “O for the P”, or option for the poor. In spite of all this, as you said, he still insists on doing clinical work, which means spending a whole day trekking through rural haiti to find and visit and follow up on one tuberculosis patient–is he getting the drugs and nutrition and so forth that he needs? The point being twofold: A. we can’t eliminate tuberculosis in an area without eliminating tuberculosis in an area and B. Paul seems to *like* interacting with and helping individuals possibly *more* than he likes doing all that high powered stuff which, perhaps, accomplishes more at some level.
Paul Farmer’s organization is called Partners in Health
Comment by: joe
5 02/28/07 3:16 PM | Comment Link |No, it isn’t God who hates Africa, it is us. Where did they get the weapons, how did they pay for them?
That isn’t to say that some people haven’t done some appalling things in Africa, but quite often it is us who put the guns in the kids’ hands.
Shame on us.
Comment by: Rachel
6 02/28/07 4:35 PM | Comment Link |Excellent point, Joe!
Comment by: Benjamin
7 02/28/07 4:37 PM | Comment Link |what joe–you think because we (that is the United States) export half a billion dollars worth of arms every year we should bear some responsibility for the evil things that other people may or may or may not eventually do with those arms?
Looks like our arms sales exceed those of the next 14 biggest arms exporters combined.
Here’s what I want to know. Is there any connection between people making a ton of money from the arms industry and George Bush being elected by the Supreme Court. No, surely not. (oh dear, I don’t mean to sound radical or anything)
Joe–what can we *do* to get rid of the shame you mention? Would love to hear your ideas.
The Freedom Clothing Project looks really really kewl.
Comment by: Rachel
8 02/28/07 6:58 PM | Comment Link |Well, I have to say that I am an optimist by nature so I seem to be able to to take in a lot of information about the suffering and injustice in the world and not feel depressed or hopeless. I think part of that is my faith, part of it is just my personality, part of it is that I have a really good life myself, something I have come to more fully understand and appreciate as I learn about the global realities. Also - I take in a lot of positive information in addition to the negative. Two magazines that I subscribe to and highly recommend are Sojourners and Prism. Both magazines feature lots of stories about people making a difference in their context, doing unique, concrete and meaningful work on the micro level. I think it is important to focus on the good news as well as the bad.
As far as knowing how to focus my efforts, when I learn about an issue I try to respond in some way, even if it is small. Not necessarily make that thing my number one passion, but respond. Something I do fairly frequently is to call the offices of my Senators and my Representative. It is one of the actions I can take which has the “most bang for the buck.” Usually it takes me a total of 3-4 minutes to make my 3 phone calls and it has a significant impact because so few people actually call that each phone call is assumed to represent a large number of people. Most of my calls are triggered by emails I receive from the ONE Campaign or Bread for the World with specific legislative information. But sometimes I just call to say “I’m happy that the Senator did such and so” or “I’m very upset about this or that.” I think everybody should be doing this on a regular basis. It’s cheap, it’s easy, it’s fast and it has an impact.
On the Darfur issue for example, we went to a rally and donated two blankets and I made a few minutes of phone calls. And I sent away for some free informational brochures and postcards for people to send to the President. Then I put stamps on the postcards and distributed them to a dozen or so people I knew who would actually send them in. I didn’t make Darfur my number one focus or spend tons of time or money on it but I did respond. I think a big thing is recognizing what we are able to do and doing that, looking at it on the micro level. Because if we just say that is too huge and I can’t make a difference, then we do nothing.
Comment by: joe
9 03/1/07 2:50 AM | Comment Link |Hi Ben -
First we must learn and relearn the notion of repentance. I’m sorry if that sounds terribly old-hat and religious, but ultimately we are responsible to a greater or lesser extent for many of the problems in the world.
Repentance implies three actions - an aknowledgement of our guilt and responsibility coupled with a complete turning from those actions and a commitment to do things differently in the future.
Hell, yes, we should campaign against the arms trade and take the economic consequences. Yes, other countries might do it instead, but then it will be them making the weapons that kill children not us.
We should take a leaf out of the pages of the 70-year old nuns of Jonah House who were arrested having broken into a nuclear bomb silo. They each spent years in prison and were released on probation and payment of a fine. They refused to pay the fine and instead turned up at the courthouse with the equivilent in tinned food which they wanted to give to poor families at military bases (did you even know there were destitute families in military bases?).
We need to write to our politicians. We need to examine our pension schemes and see if we are supporting arms manufacturers. We need imaginative people to think about what skills can be transfereed from arms manufacture into useful production. We need to refuse to rest until this scurge is wiped from our nations.
Comment by: Rachel
10 03/1/07 8:48 AM | Comment Link |Well said, Joe! Your message about repentance is very timely for this season of Lent.
Wow. I need to do that but I’m even not sure how. I’m looking at our last 401K pension report and it just lists 5 different fund names. I don’t have a clue what is included in those. And one is called “Alliance Bernstein US Government.” Gulp.
Comment by: Helen
11 03/1/07 12:56 PM | Comment Link |Joe, for what it’s worth, I’m fine with the concept of repentance, as long as it relates to areas in my life where I can see I could have done better. Rather than someone saying “you need to repent” and I don’t get why.
I do get why in the context in which you’re using it so imo it’s very appropriate.
Comment by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci
12 03/1/07 1:43 PM | Comment Link |Glad you are bringing this info to more people. We are organizing a crew heading to Uganda for two months to serve (April & May). Keep it up!
Peace,
Jamie
Comment by: Rachel
13 03/1/07 2:48 PM | Comment Link |Welcome, Jamie! What kind of work will you be doing in Uganda? We’d love to hear more about your plans.
Comment by: Jamie Arpin-Ricci
14 03/2/07 8:06 AM | Comment Link |We will be working in Soroti for a month, serving in a local school, HIV/AIDS program, water/well program and other service and ministry projects in the community. The last month will be spent in Jinja and Kampala, doing similar work. Our program has a strong emphasis in exploring and engaging the Biblical mandate to justice (Micah 6:8).
Peace,
Jamie
Comment by: benjamin ady
15 03/6/07 9:49 AM | Comment Link |Jamie,
Would love for you to share stories with us while you are there or when you get back!
Comment by: Justice and Compassion
16 03/8/07 6:03 AM | Comment Link |[...] posted this comment on Pray for Uganda: Sometimes it is difficult to know which crisis to pay the most attention to. What have you two [...]