www.invisiblechildren.com A documentary by three kids from California exposed the tragic circumstances of children in northern Uganda, who've sort of become pawns in the rebel-government war that's been going on for nearly two decades now. The guerrila rebel army raids the outskirts of towns to abduct children and force them to become soldiers - desensitizing them to violence by forcing them to kill or watch others be killed. The kids, then, are forced to either risk capture by remaining outside the villages at night, or walk into the middle of the city and sleep en masse in bus stations, hospitals, etc. Estimates place it at between 20,000 and 50,000 child soldiers, and several are likely unaccounted for because of lax census-taking. Government soldiers will stop the rebels if they try to penetrate the cities, which is why they don't, but the government's army also doesn't venture into the bush to fight the rebels for various reasons - lack of incentive is one of them, plus some lingering prejudices against northern Ugandans. Anyway, the documentary is REALLY powerful - it starts out hilarious, but stops being funny pretty fast. I'm not a particularly emotional guy, and I was fighting back tears (successfully, I'm pleased to report) at more than one point. The folks who made the film are organizing what they call a 'global night commute' in 130 cities across the U.S. on April 29, encouraging people to try and raise awareness about the issue as well as to understand what the Ugandan children go through every night by marching to a particular point in a given city and spending the night there. (I think this was featured on 'Oprah' today, if anyone saw it.) I'm sure it's happening in Houston, I think at Rice University, but maybe you could check on that if you're interested. I'm not sure there's a whole lot to debate or discuss here, but I don't think it's the kind of thing people are looking for in the Hangout. We could, of course, argue the relative merits of at LEAST U.S. diplomatic intervention (which I'm obviously in favor of).
