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Life Asphyxiated (Photo: gossnj/Flickr)
Thursday, April 3, 2014
War Child
War Child offers precious insight into the world of refugee life, cultural survival, and art as a powerful response to crisis. The Beijing artist project and the play To Me similarly addressed issues of cultural sustainability through art. This is a space to log your own thoughts after watching the film about the challenges faced by people (very literally "global citizens") seeking refuge in another land.
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My high school participated with the Invisible Children project. The Invisible Children Project was used to spread awareness of the war in Africa and what the rebel army is. I was always moved by this group and I always wanted to find ways to get involved with it. I was never old enough to apply to go on any of the trips or work for their organization. Watching this movie brought back old feelings that I had about the Invisible Children project. Watching this movie makes me forget about any problems I may have and it makes me want to spend my time trying to make a difference in our society and in other societies that are in need of help. I am planning on going into the medical field and i think I could use my degree to go out and help people. Places like Africa have little health care and they haven't been able to develop as other countries and continents have been able to. i would love to use any knowledge I gain in college to travel and make a difference in the world. Many people who live in lesser developed countries are asking for help and they are rarely heard. I want to bring awareness to these issues and help to solve them so that everyone can have a healthy and free life that every human being deserves.
ReplyDeleteHi Kate, I remember your book report on Paul Farmer from last semester, where you also articulated your passion for this cause. It is wonderful to see it again in this post. There are a couple of health communication classes in our department (Dept. of Comm) that may be interesting to you. If you are interested but having trouble finding information about them, let me know!
DeleteThanks for this heartfelt message, Kate. I like how you ended with the buzzwords "health" and "freedom"--two experiences that come up as the baseline for human rights in the documents we've read (and on the sites of the groups we'll visit). Without the pledge to try and ensure health and freedom, can a nation really be said to act on behalf of the public good?
ReplyDeleteMy freshman year of high school I went to a charter school so my English teacher had more free reign with the curriculum. Instead of reading again about the holocaust and reading other classic novels my teacher had us study genocide. This was the first time I heard about Rwanda and the fact that genocides still happen. We read several biographies from Rwanda and Sudan. This was extremely eye opening at the time because I had never been told that people still committed atrocities, I though after the holocaust and WWII people understood they were wrong. Since then I have been confused about the terms surrounding people who are in countries that are filled with internal conflict. Visiting the UHHR center definitely helped with that! I think we often forget everything that people go through to get to a stable country or even a camp. The UHHR was eye opening in that way too, we think the physical struggle is all that matters and once they are "safe" all is well. I don't think that there is any reason why someone deserves that kind of treatment and still don't understand why the UN and the countries that make it up don't do more or step in sooner when they become aware of atrocities. Why does it take a courageous woman to smuggle a young boy across a border to safety?
ReplyDeleteKaitlyn, I like how you've phrased your point about physical struggle being only one component of the personal journey for safety and security--one that can never end when it begins in such rough circumstances. And your question--why must we rely on a courage smuggler rather than designated international watchdogs for peace--is a great one. We DO rely on those people and the efforts of many that you've met in films/videos and you are meeting live. That field of work across the world is vast and perpetually, dangerously understaffed.
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