I just got through watching God Grew Tired of Us, a documentary about the Lost Boys of Sudan. I know that I've mentioned this in the past, but until the end of the film, I didn't realize that it was narrated by Nicole Kidman. You know what? I retract all previous statements about her being evil. She's still creepy, but I can't consider anyone who cares about shining a light on the Lost Boys and the continuing conflict in Darfur to be evil. Ms. Kidman, I sincerely apologize.
And if you're looking for a place for some charitable donations for next year's tax deductions, I'm considering donating to the John Dau Sudan Foundation. John Dau Bul was one of the Lost Boys who came to America to make a better life. During the wandering, he was a 13- or 14-year-old and was in charge of a group of a thousand boys. This wasn't an assignment he was given, but one he took upon himself. When he came to the US, he worked multiple jobs in order to support himself, family in a Uganda refugee camp and his friends still living in the Lost Boys refugee camp in Kenya. He started this foundation in order to open clinics and education centers in his home country. There's also a link on the God Grew Tired of Us page linked earlier that shows other ways to get involved to help ease the problems in Sudan.
As for the comic above, I don't necessarily agree with the artist's point (it's another strip from Slate.com, by the way); he's a conservative artist who has drawn other anti-environmentalist strips, but I thought it kind of highlighted our ignorance of what is going on there. I think environmental concerns are incredibly important and should be dealt with as much as possible now instead of later, but I don't feel comfortable with the fact that our country, the most powerful and one of the wealthiest in the world, puts so little effort into helping in places that don't have a major economic importance to us.
3 comments:
Severo will be so pleased to see you've come around.
Severo is dead.
That's what I was going to say (about Severo).
Good for Ms. Kidman. And I agree with your thoughts on the cartoon. It's not that we should only focus on one issue at the expense of all others, but we certainly seem to ignore some pretty serious matters in places that don't make money for us.
Post a Comment