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.