2nd Book Blog

The book I am reading is They Fight like Soldiers, They Die like Children, by Romeo Dallaire.

Dallaire, Roméo, Jessica Dee. Humphreys, and Ishmael Beah. They Fight like Soldiers, They Die like Children: The Global Quest to Eradicate the Use of Child Soldiers. New York: Walker &, 2011. Print.

I have read pages 104-156

In the little extra I have read since my last post, I have learned even more and actually been able to make a connection to the CST. On page 155 "But nonetheless, we responsible and reasonable adults still seem far off the mark when dealing with rehabilitating war-affected children and child soldiers." I connected this to the teaching of Rights and Responsibilities, and that because these children have the right to live a normal life, the adults with the power to change things are responsible. We all have the power to help aid this situation, even if its in a small way. 

I also leaned about more dreadful stories of atrocities that child soldiers are brainwashed into doing. One of these came on page 141, It was about how a group of child soldiers captured a girl and killed everyone with her. They chopped off her hands so she could not vote for the president. "The first swipe didn't get through the bones, which I saw sticking out in all different shapes and sizes." A chilling story about Mariatu Kamara, who grew up in Sierra Leone, and now works for UNICEF. In this situation the boys had the power in the situation, they may have been brainwashed, or influenced to do it, but they still had the power.  

On page 152 Dallaire references a line from a song by Emmanuel Jal when discussing how ex-child soldiers are. "I'm in another war / This time / It's my soul that I'm fighting for." I looked further into Emmanuel Jal, who himself was a child soldier at some point, and is now a rapper-activist trying to help child soldiers. Looking to the future, I believe his music will be another good addition to my website, something to supplement, especially because it comes from an actual child soldier.