I wasn't aware of this man until now. My brain lurched to a halt and froze when you wrote: "To that end he hired his own militia, claiming to join the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA, the SPLA disputes this), and began smuggling and selling arms in the country."
This makes no sense as charitable or humanitarian unless you define "charitable and humanitarian" as "taking people's money to fund your own mercenary army and run amok, adding to the slaughter and brutality in one of the most unstable places on earth". His "caring for the children" obviously takes the form of "other people are getting away with rape and murder and private army/harems of children and I want some of that action for myself". Defenders? What *defenders*? What defense is possible when someone is supplying arms into that hellhole, so that more unarmed civilians can be victimized? Granted, many of those victims are adults, and women, so perhaps there's some sort of twisted astigmatism going on, but children are also victims. Daily people are being raped and tortured in ways that I don't want to think about because it will give me nightmares, and people defend supporting this atrocity?
*wanders away in search of beer, mumbling vaguely in disbelief*
Edited to add that I just started going though your links, and the fact that there's a movie being made about his life -- a professional one, with known actors, etc. -- makes me want to throw up. How about they show people real video and photos of what's happening in the area for two hours instead? I think the Western movie making edifice (and its' target audience) need to wake the hell up, collectively.
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Date: 2011-08-06 02:10 am (UTC)I wasn't aware of this man until now. My brain lurched to a halt and froze when you wrote: "To that end he hired his own militia, claiming to join the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA, the SPLA disputes this), and began smuggling and selling arms in the country."
This makes no sense as charitable or humanitarian unless you define "charitable and humanitarian" as "taking people's money to fund your own mercenary army and run amok, adding to the slaughter and brutality in one of the most unstable places on earth". His "caring for the children" obviously takes the form of "other people are getting away with rape and murder and private army/harems of children and I want some of that action for myself". Defenders? What *defenders*? What defense is possible when someone is supplying arms into that hellhole, so that more unarmed civilians can be victimized? Granted, many of those victims are adults, and women, so perhaps there's some sort of twisted astigmatism going on, but children are also victims. Daily people are being raped and tortured in ways that I don't want to think about because it will give me nightmares, and people defend supporting this atrocity?
*wanders away in search of beer, mumbling vaguely in disbelief*
Edited to add that I just started going though your links, and the fact that there's a movie being made about his life -- a professional one, with known actors, etc. -- makes me want to throw up. How about they show people real video and photos of what's happening in the area for two hours instead? I think the Western movie making edifice (and its' target audience) need to wake the hell up, collectively.