On: A Long Way Gone - 10-5-2012 Exposition

There is very little doubt in my mind that the film Soldier Child (2005) developed and allowed viewers, such as myself, to sit back and take in the complexities of what exactly the undistinguished Northern Ugandan citizen has been tormented by; with regard to the ferocious group dubbed the "Lord's Resistance Army". The issue at hand, addressed in the film, is to attempt to both effectively limit and shed a vast amount of light against such a stark lack of commonsense demonstrated by the Lord's Resistance Army's actions; behaviors that directly contradict the supposed "sustained peace and security" and "unity and sovereignty" that the group has touted as "goals" for the Ugandan people, through their continuum of destruction. The Lord's Resistance Army has wrecked havoc into the minds of Northern Ugandan youth, capturing an incredible "supply" (as the Lord's Resistance Army would refer to it as) of children who, at their ever-blooming state of conscious and subconscious development, are inconceivably vulnerable to certain brainwashing techniques. Given the Lord's Resistance Army's emphatic use of said children, the youth have unwillingly turned against family and friends and, in turn, an ever apparent culture in turmoil is present in today's Northern Uganda. The initial reaction toward this issue (who the Lord's Resistance Army actually was in comparison to who they say they are) in my mind, in terms of not knowing next to any "true facts" pertaining to this epic level of violent and barbaric behavior before watching Soldier Child, was notable and saddening, to say the least. Soldier Child did not fail to shape the thoughts and feeling that overcame myself with an overcoming state of complacency; in other words, the world is not always just, and the sun does not always shimmer on the entirety of this world's population. Among the seemingly endless spectacular and despondent examples of cruelty toward their brainwashed youth that the film Soldier Child put on center stage, the most emotionally stripping example lied in a young women's abominable fortune; a fate where she was raped and, in turn, impregnated by certain Lord's Resistance Army soldiers. There is very little question as to what fate the future holds for these researched Northern Ugandan youth; a fate as tools of the Lord's Resistance Army's defective operations, a predestination that also must discontinue. -Henry