North- Central Africa...

So far our collaborative essay dealing with child soldiers is doing very well. As of right now we are working on a few minor revisions and just making sure that everything we have works well together. Throughout our research we have come across some very startling realizations, such as the fact that nearly 90% of the soldiers in the Lord's Resistance Army are children. Also small militias aren't the only groups that use children in their armies. The government also is known to use children in their fights. In fact the Ugandan People's Defense Force has an average age of 15 for their soldiers. Also we have been unable to find nearly any information dealing with help for this problem. There are some smaller organizations, but it appears as if there is no help being provided from other countries. Well as far as we have been able to see there doesn't appear to be any at least.

Prejudice In North-Central Africa?

As you may or may not know, our group has begun to research the abuse of rights on innocent children in Africa. The majority of this maltreatment is due to small militias that are constantly murdering and assaulting villagers in small towns. I was wondering why these vagabonds would possibly commit the terrible crimes. I remembered a movie I saw last year called Hotel Rwanda, this movie is based off of the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994. The Hutu soldiers are murdering many Tutsi civilians. It is beyond me how someone can kill based on small differences between people. I am unsure of whether or not this is similar to what is occurring now in Congo, Darfur, and Sudan. What really bothers me is the politics behind these atrocities. In Rwanda, the UN was unable to intervene in the genocide and stop the insanity. Now, the murders in Darfur and Sudan often go unheard.

Blog for this week... Take 2

Well I'm pretty sure I messed up my first blog for this week, so I'm going to try it again... Our group has decided that we are going to focus on children's rights in Africa. So far we have found quite a few countries that suffer from child abductions, even forcing these abducted children to fight in small militia's. Many times these children are taken from these militias and are attempted to be returned home. Unfortunately many of these children's homes are located in war-zones, so shortly after being returned they are often abducted again, or killed. Another large problem is that these militias are the cause of hundreds of senseless murders, many of which take place in remote, hard-to-reach areas. In these areas, the only way for help to arrive is via helicopter, and they often arrive too late to make a difference. So far we have barely scratched the surface of this disturbing topic, and we can already see how terrible of a situation it is. Hopefully we will be able to uncover more information soon to help make sense of all of these problems...

Newfound Minority

I came across an article thanks to Elizabeth earlier that has really helped open my eyes about how different our customs can be compared to other countries. A white, female student described her adventures in India. She first described how she has never really thought about her race or sex. In America it is often a taboo subject to bring these things up. She continues to describe how when she is walking around India, she is often stared at. Not glanced at, but actually stared at. The main reason behind all of this staring is because in India, it isn't considered rude to openly stare at another person. Also the author was surprised by how open the people were about what questions they asked. Often times she was asked "are you married; when will you get married; and which religion are you". Normally that is not something that we ask in America, so it was rough for her to transition and adjust to these more open questions. All of these differences just help to further the authors original conclusion that she is a minority there. It's interesting to see the differences in cultures around the world and how differently people behave.

Even Babies See Races

A researcher at the University of Texas has conducted a study with controversial results. Birgitte Vittrup began her study in 2006, and began testing Caucasian children to see how they judge people of other races and skin colors. She began her research on 5 to 7 year old children and asked the children how nice people of different colors are. She then broadened her testing to children as young as six months. As impossible as it may seem she gathered viable information from testing the babies. She showed the babies pictures of people's faces of different races, then monitored how long the babies stared at picture. To her surprise the babies would stare longer at the faces of people who were of a different race than the baby. Vittrup continued her study with older children by handing them a deck of cards with people's faces drawn on them, and told the children to organize them in any way they would like. Only 16% of them organized the faces by gender. But 68% of the kids organized the cards based on the color of their skin. This just shows that children at such a young age are not nearly as color-blind as most adults expect.

Better to "laugh at" than "be" laughed at?

Lets face the facts, no one likes to be the butt of someone else's joke, but is it better to be on the other end making fun of someone? While there may be many perks to making fun of innocent little kids, such as fitting in with the cool kids, or helping feel better about yourself, it isn't necessarily better. A great man once said "that which does not kill you, only makes you stronger." This is a very true statement, the child being made fun of can grow compassionate because he is often made fun of, and help others in similar situations. Also it takes a great amount of courage to dress how you want, or to behave how you do, regardless of what the other people say. On the other hand, it takes nothing to go along with the main-stream group and make fun of someone. In conclusion I believe it is better to be made fun of than to make fun of others. Like I previously stated, anyone can make fun of others, but it takes a lot of courage to be able to take a joke.

Yet Another Example of how Prejudice is Satirized

While looking at random, stupid videos across the internet, I came across another example of how prejudice is often made fun of on various forms of media. This clip

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

shows how anyone can be prejudiced for almost anything. This skit shows how a man with hiccups is made an outcast at his job. Many times his co-workers would tell harsh jokes about other hiccupers. Also the hiccuping man was often rejected from his group, and also abused. This video, funny as it may be, shows many of the different extremes that people take after they judge them unfairly. Before the man hiccuped his co-workers treated him as an equal, but the minute he hiccuped he is an outcast. Many times we judge people, and some people also go to some of the extremes shown in this clip to make someone else feel rejected. Next time you see someone being abused and harassed based on their differences, don't walk by, stand up for them and make a difference in the world.

Causes Of Prejudice

When looking at prejudice, we have to ask ourselves "why is this here?" In reality, prejudice only exists due to our own ignorance. Many times when we look at ourselves, we characterize our attributes to help distinguish between one another. Be it hair color, eye color, skin color, or height, we notice these subtle differences. After noticing these differences, people tend to generalize about each other with the same hair color, or eye color. Sometimes they begin to hate one another based on nothing but how they look, whether right or wrong it often happens.

What's most detrimental about these generalization would be most people develop an irrational fear or hatred towards someone. Frequently people will notice a persons skin color, and absolutely refuse to talk to them. How can this advance us as people? Throughout America's history we have been trying to amend our wrongs and to bring all people of all races together. All has prejudice accomplished is to reinstate those irrational fears and hatred.

Unless we move past these simplistic opinions, then we will never be able to successfully move towards a united, entirely integrated society. Prejudice and descrimination act as walls to stop what we have tried so hard to succeed.

Media Prejudice

Marriam-Webster defines prejudice as a preconceived judgment or opinion. We see this judgment every single day, but little did I know that prejudice is often satirized in today's media. Last weekend I was watching Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay. This movie is overflowing with all of the different kinds of prejudice seen today. One instance is when Harold and Kumar are driving away from the federal police, and they crash into a fire hydrant. Normally this wouldn't be a complete catastrophe, but the fire hydrant was in a ghetto neighborhood. After crashing, a series of upset looking black men approach their car. Harold and Kumar freak out thinking that they are going to get mobbed and leave the scene, running for their lives. The group of black men around the car were in reality just checking to make sure everything was alright. Whether prejudice is taking place on the big screen, or in our own neighborhood, we know it's wrong yet we frequently make jokes about it, or often laugh about it. Something needs to be done to move past these elimentary instincts that plague our so called "advanced" society.

Unknown Strangers

Every day, you walk around at school, anywhere in public. When you see someone that looks the slightest bit different, you focus on them. As soon as you see them, you already have an idea of how they act and what they do. For example, when I was walking down the hallway last week, I noticed a kid with a mohawk. As I thought about this kid, I figured he must listen to punk music, probably raised by bad parents, and eager to express themselves with their style. But after really listening to the kid who I realized was in one of my classes later on in the day, I noticed that I had him all wrong. No matter where we go, no matter what we do when you see someone you judge them. What makes you different from the others is whether or not you still give those people a chance. Ignore whatever preconceived notions you have about a person, and talk to them, get to know them. You may be really surprised about who they are despite how they dress. Alot of people act tough or guarded when walking alone, but when you really talk to them, you will be surprised at what you find. That's all for this week....