Thursday, February 25, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
She started to sing. "'Keep the home fires burning,'" she sang in a thin, reedy voice, and slowly the others joined her. As I walked toward the lodge they began other songs, going quickly after a few bars from one to the next. They sang of wars they never fought, of losses they have never sustained. They were singing, forgetting the words, appropriating the harmony for themselves, convinced of a heroic desolation, toasting their sadness in the big campfire like another marshmallow. "'It's a long way, '" they sang, "'to Tipperary.'" It is indeed, I thought.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Congo
"Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake."
Take a look. Really. I'm personally grateful and overwhelmed with gratitude which the media, grassroots groups and various NPO have put forth to address the on-going concerns post earthquake in Haiti. But where was I when Haiti, the most poverty stricken country in Western Hemisphere, was simply a country of poverty?
Where will I be when Congo gets hit by a natural disaster, or even worse, a disaster induced by men? Will I be living there to address the needs of the community or will I simply send money, post things on facebook, watch celebrity pledge drives because it's sexy and the right thing to do. It's the current cause and that has to be okay because it's also the right thing to do - to respond with love, attention and tangible assistance.
This article has encouraged/challenged/convicted me that sometimes enough is simply just not enough.
More excerpts:
A displaced family near Kalehe, eastern Congo. The area has been suffering for a dozen years from a brutal and complex civil war. More than one million people were displaced by fighting there in 2009 alone, according to the United Nations.
Utukufu Nabuziralo is homeless and, perhaps, a widow. Rebels attacked and burned her village in November, she said, and killed five people in front of her. Then the rebels led her husband into the forest, and she didn't know if he was still alive. At one point, Utukufu said she had been raped, but at another she said she had been only beaten. She is holding her baby, Chiza.
"Sometimes I wish eastern Congo could suffer an earthquake or a tsunami, so that it might finally get the attention it needs. The barbaric civil war being waged here is the most lethal conflict since World War II and has claimed at least 30 times as many lives as the Haiti earthquake."
Take a look. Really. I'm personally grateful and overwhelmed with gratitude which the media, grassroots groups and various NPO have put forth to address the on-going concerns post earthquake in Haiti. But where was I when Haiti, the most poverty stricken country in Western Hemisphere, was simply a country of poverty?
Where will I be when Congo gets hit by a natural disaster, or even worse, a disaster induced by men? Will I be living there to address the needs of the community or will I simply send money, post things on facebook, watch celebrity pledge drives because it's sexy and the right thing to do. It's the current cause and that has to be okay because it's also the right thing to do - to respond with love, attention and tangible assistance.
This article has encouraged/challenged/convicted me that sometimes enough is simply just not enough.
More excerpts:
A displaced family near Kalehe, eastern Congo. The area has been suffering for a dozen years from a brutal and complex civil war. More than one million people were displaced by fighting there in 2009 alone, according to the United Nations.
Utukufu Nabuziralo is homeless and, perhaps, a widow. Rebels attacked and burned her village in November, she said, and killed five people in front of her. Then the rebels led her husband into the forest, and she didn't know if he was still alive. At one point, Utukufu said she had been raped, but at another she said she had been only beaten. She is holding her baby, Chiza.
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