It seems that one of the only ways to get Westerners to consider a disaster outside of their limited frames of reference is for Hollywood to make a movie about it (often after the fact, such as Hotel Rwanda or The Last King of Scotland) or to have a rock star adopt it as a cause. Then, the cause will be considered sexy, and it will become socially advantageous to bring up the cause in conversation or declare on Facebook that you stand in solidarity with the victims. Political candidates will use the cause as leverage to reinforce their credibility. Otherwise morally bankrupt celebrities will adopt the babies orphaned by the disaster and declare their outrage at the politicians who allow such injustice to be perpetrated. Greasy televangelists will take a break from their heretical tirades to raise a few dollars for the cause.
So, why has someone not embraced the Second Congo War as a cause? Where is the outrage at the world's deadliest conflict since World War II, a disaster that has claimed 5.4 million lives and dwarfs the body count of wars in nearby Rwanda and Sudan? Is anyone drawing attention to the absolute impotence of the 17,000 UN "peacekeepers" to quell the violence there? Why is it that the US government seems so quick to intervene militarily in situations in which there is a direct link to Islamic extremism or in which our access to oil could somehow be threatened, but is essentially disengaged from this conflict?
C'mon. Make a movie, someone.
So, why has someone not embraced the Second Congo War as a cause? Where is the outrage at the world's deadliest conflict since World War II, a disaster that has claimed 5.4 million lives and dwarfs the body count of wars in nearby Rwanda and Sudan? Is anyone drawing attention to the absolute impotence of the 17,000 UN "peacekeepers" to quell the violence there? Why is it that the US government seems so quick to intervene militarily in situations in which there is a direct link to Islamic extremism or in which our access to oil could somehow be threatened, but is essentially disengaged from this conflict?
C'mon. Make a movie, someone.
3 comments:
Thank you for this. Very interesting post.
I agree.
http://www.fbcsouthberwick.org/0811clemmerletter.pdf
How did I miss this post? This is a good one! I must admit that reading the headline made me say, "I think they did..." and then I read the rest of your post and thought, "Ohhh. Yeah, different movie."
You're absolutely right, but no one's really willing (or maybe able) to make a movie about conflicts that exist in the here and now. Whether it be that they are afraid to "upset people" or they just can't get all the facts during the event...
It's a sad time we live in when the only atrocity you see on the news revolves around one lost girl. What about the millions of others that go missing everyday? It's the hype. The worst part is that it makes us all insensitive to the mass-tragedies going on around the world (like Congo or Somolia).
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