The Monkey

I would like to tell you a story. One I read at the very end of A Long Way Gone. Ishmael tells a story of when he was a young boy back in his original village before the war. It goes something like this, "A hunter goes into the bush (savannah, plains, non-settled ground, hunting ground, that kind of thing, also where he spent most of this book) to hunt a monkey. Very shortly after walking into the bush he sees a monkey sitting in a low branch of a tree just chilling. The monkey didn't pay any attention to the hunter, even as he walked through the dried leaves on the ground, as they rose and fell, the monkey didn't care.  Once the hunter got close enough and behind a tree where he could still see the monkey clearly he raised his rifle ready to fire, at that moment the monkey looked at him and said 'If you shoot  me your mother will die, and if you don't fire your father will die.' After saying this he went back to his position, chewing its food, and occasionally scratched its head or belly as if nothing ever happened." Apparently this is a very common story in Sierra Leone and even in some surrounding countries, and as a child is told this story he is normally accompanied by both of his parents to make the decision tougher. Now their would be a good time to tell this story, but where he ended up telling this story doesn't make much sense, he tells it literally five very short paragraphs from the ending of his book. He eventually answers the question with this answer, "I would shoot the monkey so that it would no longer have the ability to put other hunters in this predicament." Now if this story were actually real, he would sacrifice the life of his mother for the meat of the monkey and the security in knowing no one else would ever be put in the same situation again. I think that this is an analogy to the extremely tough decisions that he had faced throughout his entire experience, both before, during, and after his time as a child soldier. I would say that a lot of the stories that he told in this book would be relatable to this question in the main way. Is killing one worth the effects that it has on the world? I believe the main point of this question is to show that all decisions no matter how big or how small always have unseen consequences that you must live with. Although in this story the consequences are told to the hunter, I believe that this relates to decisions whether you know the consequences or not, and that why it is so common.

Charging Money to Leave War

Throughout the entire book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah there are stories told of horrific scenes and of people who aren't acting how most would think that humans would act. Many times their are stories of people who you may think would help these boys or the victims that have both fought and been attacked by the monster of war. Some of these circumstances are logical, for instance when the boys are repeatedly chased out of the different villages by men with guns or spears. The reason for this, as weak as it may seem is the people are afraid of the boys coming into their town as they may be scouts for the rebels or the military, or they could be kids running from the monster of war, however you never know so the reasoning is on the safe side of the chances. However the part that surprised me was when Ishmael talked about how the border officials between Sierra Leone and Guinea asked for 300 Leones, which according to Ishmael is about 2 month's pay, a hefty price to pay to leave a country that is ravaged by a horrible war. Ishmael as well as myself were surprised by this, the Sierra Leoneans would ask for month's of pay to cross a border into safety when their own country is ravaged by a horrible war that the government isn't doing much to stop, but rather helping it burn. This would make sense for the Guineans to ask for money, in hopes to slow the rush of refugees from Sierra Leone into their own country however that didn't seem to be the case. Their are only two reasons why I could see this happening, both aren't good reasons and they are both the result of a corrupt government. One is to help fuel the fire of war in the favor of the government's troops, the other would be to prevent people from leaving the country, why? I don't know, but war allows for strange things to happen. The other place where the government, or their representatives in this case, charged money or stole goods from people at barricades that the military controlled for no reason other than personal gain, even when everyone had the correct papers. This again is the result of a corrupt or lazy government which allows for military and other enforcers collect money for personal gain.

Family

Ishmael Beah, the author of this memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. As he retells the stories of himself in the jungle fighting for the Sierra Leone military it reads, “My squad was my family, my gun was my provider and protector, and my rule was to kill or be killed. . . . and it seemed as if my heart had frozen” (p. 126) When you start this book, you read of his family, his older brother junior, his younger brother Ibrahim, his mother, his father, and his careless stepmother. His dad once payed for Ishmael and Junior's schooling, but no that he didn't they didn't do as much, they went and saw their loving mother much more often, they played with Ibrahim more, they danced and listened to rap and had a childhood with a family. Then the rebels attacked while Junior, Ishmael and a couple of their friends were at a village about 16 miles away from their home called Mattru Jong. That was the first time that his idea of a family changed, he spent the next several months barely surviving, escaping death hundreds of times, never finding enough to calm their stomachs or take the thirst from them, until they were abducted into the Sierra Leone army. As with every change, Ishmael didn't immediately become or consider himself family, he just wanted out. Then he watched some of his friends get shot to death, and as he did, something snapped as he realized it was for real. That was his transformation to soldier instead of child. As he is continued to be drugged up and kill for the praise of  his superiors, he receives the nickname "The Green Snake" and I believe that as he is renamed, it marks the move of "co-workers" to family. And then just a few weeks after that occurs the army hands him over to UNICEF, and as that happens, again something snaps as he feels as though his family betrayed him. After months of rehabilitation thanks to UNICEF, he finally realizes that the military wasn't his family in any sense of the word. On page 128 as he is still in with the rebels there is a part where he is forced to sing the Sierra Leone National Anthem, and this line came up, “High we exalt thee, realm of the free, great is the love we have for thee…” I don't know even close to everything about Sierra Leone, but I do know one thing, the citizens are not free. They may be if you compared them to slaves sure, but other than slaves who is not free compared to servants and slaves and serfs? If you compare them to the USA however, they are the equivalent of how we were when we revolted in the 1770's. Under the rule of tyrannical, oppressive, fear inducing government that has little obligation to it's people. If you look at the USA we are not completely free, the only thing is that I firmly believe that any society that is completely free is a doomed society that will never work. I believe that a free society is one where you can think, and say anything you want without the fear of someone coming and getting you in the middle of the night and taking you away forever. If one was truly free than there wouldn't be a society as you couldn't have everyone being completely free in a place of haves and have-nots with out a civil war. I believe the USA is one of the most free places on earth.

Stronger? Or just harder, weaker, and less of yourself?

Kanye West has a great song called Stronger from his Graduation album. In the background there is a robotic sounding voice that repeats "Work it, make it, do it, makes us harder, better, faster, stronger" as well as Kanye repeats over and over "That that don't kill me can only make me stronger," both of which are referencing the old saying, What doesn't kill you will make you stronger. I feel like this is only sometimes true. From 3rd to 5th grade, every single school day, a kid named Blake Polley and his group of friends would make fun of me for being fat, monstrous (I was 5'2" in fourth grade), and just straight up fat. I wish I could say that didn't kill me. I am obviously still alive, but one day after almost two years of being bullied every single day I snapped. I beat him so hard, so thoroughly, and so intensely, I broke his nose, and ejected 3 teeth from his mouth as well as cut up his lips and my hands on his braces. I struggled with depression for a little bit and as I said I wish I could say it didn't kill me. Sure it made me stronger, I watch what I eat, I work on my strength and make sure I stay skinny in response of that bullying, but the thing is that I didn't get much stronger. I would call it harder. Every time I've been hurt on an emotional level I put up another wall of defense around me. Honestly, I don't know how many walls I have around me now, what I do know is that I am a different person now. That little kid inside of me, the innocence inside of me died after that. And it has scarred me to this day, even now, almost 6 years after I finished it, after I let a beast out of it's cage to end the bullying I have this inner monologue. When someone else calls you something or says you'll never do something you have two choices, you can either say "no" and fight for it and prove that person wrong, or you can lay down and let him roll over you. I eventually got to the place where I am no longer fat. As a response to the bullying however I learned to walk around almost all day with headphones in to block out the things others would say about me. That works fine, until those things aren't being said about you, they're being said by you. And when your voice inside your head, it's hard to do anything about it, in fact it destabilizes you, it makes your security inadequate, its literally immobilizing. That has been the longterm affect that bullying has had on me, it didn't kill me, but rather it made me harder, weaker, and more vulnerable. That was name calling. In the book A Long Way Gone, a kid named Saidu talks about how every time someone attacks him with guns and spears and swords, he accepts death, but every time so far he has escaped the reaper. What he is scared of is that every time one accepts death, he dies a little on the inside, all the way to the point where he may be physically alive and breathing but only in that sense. Emotionally, personality wise, and spiritually, his body will eventually be just a carcass of what he used to be. A empty shell that simply walks around, If bullying killed my innocence, I feel that accepting certain death would be only more so. I don't know what is true as I have never fully accepted death, however I pray for those kids fighting the wars in Africa, the young kids that voluntarily entered war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the soldiers all over the world, no matter how old or young that they may be, that you can always go back to at least partially alive on the inside. I may only be 90% of what I was at the end of 5th grade now, but I've healed and I've moved forward, and I've won back some of what is lost. But just as if you believe in heaven, when you die, you may continue on into eternal life, you will never be able to inhabit a human body of flesh and bones again, and so in a way you will never make it back to 100%, I believe the same thing happens to your soul when you accept death.

War, the vacuum of trust

In the book, Ishmael writes, "This is one of the consequences of the civil war. People stopped trusting each other. Everyone who wasn't a friend was an enemy." Ishmael, the only thing that you got wrong, you specified civil war, all war does that to everyone. Many of my friends as well as 4 of my family members served as a military man in the Iraqi Freedom operation. All of them said that at first they could trust almost all of the civilians as it was easy to depict the terrorists from the civilians as they dressed in militia clothes. However after about 6 months of the war, and the insurgency finally realizing they would be much more effective at killing American soldiers by dressing up as civilians and concealing their weapons, trusting the locals instantly became a call for your own death if you were a soldier. Although the R.O.E.'s (Rules Of Engagement) stated you had to be fired on before you could fire on anyone, many US Soldiers would be on edge and threaten innocent civilians to secure their own safety, once this began, the mutual trust plummeted and most of the locals didn't trust the US Soldiers and most of the US Soldiers didn't trust most of the locals. When I moved from Souther California to the Metro-Detroit area, I experienced this in a way. It took me a REALLY REALLY LONG TIME to realize I could be myself without being afraid of everyone rejecting me. So I put up a facade, and as it felt as though more and more people were rejecting me and ever fewer people were actually accepting me. As I experienced that I started to shut down my social aspect, I went from trying to be out there to pulling myself inside a shell, and every person I met that wasn't a friend was automatically marked as enemy in my book. Now I've healed and exposed myself to the world, or at least more so, and I've stopped marking people as enemy. It can heal and will heal it just will take time.

Late post

First of all, I would like to say that I am sorry about not posting recently, I will get back on track with updating my blog, between my internet not working and not having enough time between tons of other homework for this class and my three others combined with my fall sport water polo, I have had no time for anything except sports, school and sleep.
Recently we have been reading a book called A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Child Soldier, written by a former child soldier for the Sierra Leone rebels fighting to free the people of Sierra Leone from their rulers named Ishmael Beah. During the book there are multiple times where Ishmael is struggling with the things he has witnessed, such as watching people die and seeing the aftermath of the killing that the rebels have committed. I don't know how anything could console him after seeing that, but as he says in one part of the book, every time he sees the moon he remembers things from when he was six and he's glad to know not all of him has changed. When he longs to be back with his family he thinks back to the times before the war, to the times before all of this madness happened, that is another thing that takes him out of the present and into the past, one thing that consoles him. When I am having a hard time with a day I like to go and just swim, one of the roughest days I can remember I went to my high school's pool when I lived in California, it was open for public use Mon-Sat, and swam from 3:00 to 7:00 at night to clear my head. Another thing I would do to console me or to clear my head, was to go surfing or to play music. Now that I live in Michigan vs. Southern California I sometimes sit in my bed depressed thinking back to the good ol' days of surfing, sometimes I play or music, and now I sometimes when I can I do go and just swim for hours at a relaxed pace. Nothing I can think of however would console me after witnessing what Ishmael witnessed. Or what happened to one of the boys that Ishmael travels with to escape his loneliness more than the war. One of the boys, Saidu, had three sisters, when the rebels burst in his door to kill/rape/pillage everything they had, Saidu was in the attic getting rice for his family's escape. His three sisters, 19, 17, and 15, were beaten and raped over and over and over again as his father fought to have them stop, he was beat down with the butt of a gun and his mother was beaten as she screamed how sorry she was that she brought them into this mess. He was in the attic holding his breath and listening to all of this happened, this breaks my heart for what happened, he described as though his veins were being pulled out of him viciously one inch at a time. I don't know anything that could console anyone after something as horrific as that. Ishmael didn't have it much easier and yet he was still able to console himself. My prayers go out to Saidu and all of the others that have been reluctantly dragged into this

Soldier Child

Although I am truly very interested in warfare and the strategies as well as the atrocity of this issue which is using children, as young as 9 and 10, to kill as well as to serve as sex slaves. However I am doing this blog in the moment as part of a class. Because this is a class, we have multiple sources that we are viewing, the first of many that we will watch or read is called "Child Soldier", which to be honest, I didn't expect it to change my view that much of this issue. I knew about the atrocities and absolute terrors and horrors of wars, and I thought, "Ok, this is horrible and sad, and there isn't any reason why kids as young as 9-10 years old should ever be subjected to the horrors of war. No one should have to witness a man being killed let alone having to kill another man." In the first ten minutes that thought changed completely when you heard the story of an 11 year old boy named Simon, he only told the story of the part where he was abducted, and from the translator's version of his story, within the first couple days he was forced to make his first kill. But because he was a new recruit, he wasn't allowed to just shoot him, he wasn't allowed to do anything to get it over with quickly but was rather given a hoe, one normally used to dig in the ground, but rather he had to kill a man with that same tool. Making anyone kill another man in such a personal way, especially at such a young age. This is such a horrible issue and led by a demon man named Joseph Kony, is he the only warlord that does this? No, Sierra Lionne does, many splinter or rebel groups use children, al-qaida uses children sometimes. However the biggest thing that struck me about this one is that if a child disobeys, he is not killed quickly, one of the biggest ways they are killed, is slowly with machetes and stones and beaten with the gun stock, etc. Is it a mad man who does this or a demon sent straight from hell?

Introduction

Around 300,000 child soldiers around the world are in forced active duty as they kill to survive in the ranks in the multiple different armies, both legitimate and freedom fighters, as the fight over 50 different conflicts worldwide. They cannot normally get out of this life alive. In fact, most of the children die in their first year of captive fighting. These kids are abducted from their homes when they are in their homes when they are barely in middle school. They are forced to kill their families and are then brainwashed with drugs and beatings to become soulless killers. The perfect soldier. One who doesn't question. The boys are given mind altering drugs and the girls are forced to be sex slaves. The boys are forced to kill, plunder, rape, and kidnap new soldiers and sex slaves. The women are forcibly raped over and over again as well as being beaten, sometimes to death. These atrocities need to stop. We need to figure out the fastest way to kill these crazed war  lords and return these kids to their lives as well as return the security to these kids minds all over Africa and as far as the Middle East.


My name is Connor Perry and this is for a school project. However I am actually fairly passionate about this problem and will provide accurate information from as many different sources as I can. This may not be a daily or even regularly updated blog but I will try to provide a strong point to this issue. Whether this is based on actual child soldiers or different studies on the drugs they are subjected to, the disorders they might encounter (i.e. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD) from the brutal treatment they are given and taught to give out. This blog may also have some of my personal thoughts on political issues from around the world from my view of the Arab Spring to Iran's Nuclear Program to our somewhat trivial debates about stuff like obesity.
Thank you for reading,
Connor Perry