In this world there are realities that bring unimmaginable among us. The average people of the civilized countries regard surreal as a 1-week vacation on a secluded island, with an all-inclusive vacation package finalized with a return to their normal lifestyle, to their normal jobs and shopping habits. Most of us don't even think of an eventual different world which is actually included in ours whether we want it or not. The poverty of the third-world countries may be brought to our attention in news, but these coverages are only treated with superficiality, sparing the viewer from emerging in a real insight into their realities. There are movies and documentaries based on the horrors which happen at this time in the world, but there the average viewer finds himself into the impossibility of catching up with the superfluity of the data presented.
Has anyone heard of the child soldiers? Their existence will not seem a fact for us, all used to working in capitalism, struggling for a "decent" existence, shopping at the local mall and hypermarket, travelling a week or two per year at a popular vacation destination and having our laptops tied to the neck. There are children whose way of life is killing each other just like a highschool student from London would kill his virtual enemies in Counter Strike.
Since the struggle of gaining their independency the past century, since adopting ideologies like comunism and since fighting for an elusive freedom, countries like Sierra Leone, Angola, Sudan or Uganda have passed through incredible rough civil wars. Due to their exploit by the superpowers, these countries' people are trying to regain independence by turning into rebels. It is perfectly understandable foe wanting them to get the intruders, the colonists out of the country, but why fighting with each other? These colonists have taught groups the taste of money. A whole series of situations and events have brought chaos into these lands. Groups of rebels kidnapping little boys after having them watched their mothers and sisters being raped and their fathers being killed; groups of rebels fighting against their own Government, which is active on the black market, washing money with other countries Governments; groups of rebels wanting to take control by not being very clean themselves. Little boys are forced to fight, suffering brainwashes and being determined to forget or, worse, hate their families, doped to blindly listen to their new commandors. Having passed such horrors, most of them would most likely grow up into fierce warriors, having their mind washed forever. They would keep on killing, making themselves uncounsciently guilty of this sin and many others.
But rebels are not the only ones using this type of army force. Governments do not hesitate in doing the same for constantly having civil wars ablaze. The situation in Nepal may pass as a paradigm to you, I hope. "Thousands of children were recruited by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) during Nepal's 10-year civil war. Children served on the front lines, received weapons training, and carried out crucial military and logistical support duties for the Maoists. Even after signing a comprehensive peace agreement with the government in November 2006, the Maoists continued to recruit children and refused to release children from their forces." (http://hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm)
What is it to be done, you may ask... Should I be ecstatic to find solutions. But basically, there is nothing you and me and our neighbours or friends can do. The hatred will go on, once in a while extinguished by the ones in position to control the situation. UNICEF will continue to supply medical and nutritional help and the UN is making steps further into restoring peace. What's left for us is to sing petitions, make donations or volunteer. But this is what we will do the times that we remember of the situation in third-world countries and how badly they need a do up. We watch Governments spending money on stupid wars in the Middle East, fighting for stealing the oil resources over there, just like it happened with the diamonds in Africa not long ago. We feel rage, we feel pitty, we feel supportive in a way or another, but we will go on being blind witnesses to plans that are so vague to us only the ones who have created them are in matter of clarifying them. Meanwhile, we live. Nevertheless, the majority of us will always be living the same opaque life, driving the same car, fueling it with an oil of whose existence in the local gas station we are unaware of, buying another apartment and dreaming of a penthouse and having no precise interest in dealing the cards of our future. Still, it would be nice if once in a while we helped the ones less fortunate than us. Those child soldiers, daily witnesses to HIV, malaria and shtooting guns are extreme cases whose power of dealing with is not in our hands. But an awake conscience and an interest in a matter like this is always a step further. We must only make understanding of the fact that living in an ideal world has never been more than the shell of our mediocre thinking.
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