A Long Way Gone

A LONG WAY GONE: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

New York City, 1998

My high school friends have begun to suspect I haven’t told them the full story of my life.

“Why did you leave Sierra Leone?”

“Because there is a war.”

“Did you witness some of the fighting?”

“Everyone in the country did.”

“You mean you saw people running around with guns and shooting each other?”

“Yes, all the time.”

“Cool.”

I smile a little.

“You should tell us about it sometime.”

“Yes, sometime.”

In early 1993, when I was 12, I was separated from my family as the Sierra Leone civil war, which began two years earlier, came into my life. The rebel army, known as the Revolutionary United Front (R.U.F.), attacked my town in the southern part of the country. I ran away, along paths and roads that were littered with dead bodies, some mutilated in ways so horrible that looking at them left a permanent scar on my memory. I ran for days, weeks and months, and I couldn’t believe that the simple and precious world I had known, where nights were celebrated with storytelling and dancing and mornings greeted with the singing of birds and cock crows, was now a place where only guns spoke and sometimes it seemed even the sun hesitated to shine. After I discovered that my parents and two brothers had been killed, I felt even more lost and worthless in a world that had become pregnant with fear and suspicion as neighbor turned against neighbor and child against parent. Surviving each passing minute was nothing short of a miracle. After almost a year of running, I, along with some friends I met along the way, arrived at an army base in the southeastern region. We thought we were now safe; little did we know what lay ahead.

This is how wars are fought now: by children, traumatized, hopped-up on drugs and wielding AK-47s. Children have become the soldiers of choice. In the more than fifty conflicts going on worldwide, it is estimated that there are some 300,000 child soldiers. Ishmael Beah used to be one of them.

Beah, now twenty-six years old, tells a powerfully gripping story: At the age of twelve, he fled attacking rebels and wandered a land rendered unrecognizable by violence. By thirteen, he’d been picked up by the government army, and Beah, at heart a gentle boy, found that he was capable of truly terrible acts. At sixteen, he was removed from fighting by UNICEF, and through the help of the staff at his rehabilitation center, he learned how to forgive himself, to regain his humanity, and, finally, to heal.

Ex Child-Soldiers From Liberia Act Out War Trauma in Movie

Click here to see article on Google News (author not listed)

CANNES, France (AFP) — Former child-soldiers from Liberia act out the horror of one of Africa's most murderous recent conflicts in a new film on children forced to go to war, showing this week at the Cannes film festival."Johnny Mad Dog" by French film-maker Jean-Stephane Sauvaire is based on a novel by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala, also from a part of Africa where children are given guns.
The film was selected by festival organisers to screen at its parallel Un Certain Regard section grouping movies that are more original or less mainstream than those competing for its top film prize.
"Violence in childhood is a subject that fascinates me," Sauvaire told AFP in an interview. "There is always violence during childhood but it can degenerate and become atrocity."
The 39-year-old film-maker, who in 2003 shot a documentary in Colombia involving teen violence in "Carlitos Medellin", this time chose fiction to shoot the parallel stories of 15-year-old rebel chief Johnny Mad Dog and 13-year-old Laokole, forced to flee the brutality of war.
While the country is not specified in the film, Sauvaire in fact travelled to Liberia where he first chose 15 children, all veterans of war, from 500 to 600 he met.
He then moved into a house in the Liberian capital Monrovia for a year with the children to gain their trust, explain the film, and help the then illiterate group to learn to act.
"I wanted the film to be as realistic as possible, so I needed to make it with children who had fought in battle, and in a country that had known war," he said.
"I didn't want to cheat with a subject that is too painful and violent to be caricatured," he added.
The children, he added, said films such as Hollywood's "Blood Diamond" had failed to encapsulate their war."In the first sequence, an attack in a village, I began to set up the scene but straight away they said 'No let us get set up, we know what to do'".
Sauvaire said he was wary of traumatising the children by re-opening old sores but that theatre was one of the methods used by specialist aid groups to help evacuate bad memories.
"The children changed during the year we spent together," he said. "It appeased them, they were more stable."
"It really became their film. I called them from Cannes and they said 'How's it going with our film?'"
Sauvaire has set up a foundation to continue to help the children -- www.jmdfoundation.org.
Last year, a movie by Nigerian director Newton Aduaka on blood diamonds and child soldiers, "Ezra", won the Golden Stallion at Africa's biggest filmfest in Burkina Faso.

Mercy 10

Mercy 10 refers to a well known phrase that circulates the ship referring to the 10 pounds one puts on while "in service". I have also heard Mercy 20 referred to. The cooks do almost too good a job in providing us with 3 buffets a day...unheard of in Liberia. Instead of fasting we are feasting.

Banksy

More social commentary from Banksy...

Banksy and the NGO Dilemma

I just came across these images by Banksy, the world's most famous and anonymous graffiti artist, who has in recent years broken into the world of high art. Celebrities and art collectors alike buy his work which fetches up to US$576,000.
Banksy's piece (above) represents the precise state of the Non Governmental Organizations (NGO's), how they operate, are funded, and the marketing scheme that leads them by the nose. Everything becomes a photo opportunity. Everything is a dramatic story if told just so. It must be aimed to tweak the heartstrings of the unconsciously guilt-ridden wealthy west. It must be told in a simple and somewhat trite manner. Please don’t include any complex irony that may complicate the objective or indicate true humanity. If all goes well the money should pour in. Is this compromising too much?

I instantly conjure up images of World Vision television ads. The background music has caused me to dislike “tear jerker” movies in their attempt to manipulate my emotions. Mine are manipulated easily (I score high as a Feeler in Myers Briggs). Nor will I ever look at the faces portrayed and believe that their overriding feelings are not embarrassment and intrusion.
I watched in embarrassment at the Mercy Ships screening day in Liberia. Crowds of people lined up before the sun came up, many with very visual physical deformities that, in a superstitious culture such as Liberia, is commonly believed to be a sign of a curse or an evil presence. Many hide away for their own safety. Mercy Ships with its boundless supply of excited and sometimes naive volunteers had a handful of amateur photographers who had procured themselves professional cameras and were exuberantly clicking away in the faces of people whose dignity should have been protected rather than exploited.

After the 2004 tsunami a Canadian news team did a follow up story on the international emergency aid and NGO’s that were sent to that part of the world for emergency relief efforts. They found that almost exclusively the aid was concentrated in prominent media covered areas. The organizations were heavily reliant on international exposure for funding and therefore exposure became the priority over the helping of the desperate. This particular news team went town-by-town to “unpopular” areas and found nothing had changed or been done there despite the millions contributed worldwide.

There was one exception. A Toronto Muslim society had sent a medical team that was operating with doctors and medics in the middle of nowhere. No one knew they were there except the people who benefited. The team was filled with doctors who could not practice in Canada due to the strict regulations on any medical persons trained outside of the country. I was mightily impressed. I assumed the society had raised the necessary money to send the team. In an era where Muslims are often vilified, it is so nice to see anyone humbly operating exclusively out of their own desires to help the needy.

Liberia: Kimmie Weeks Addresses U.S. Congress

The Inquirer (Monrovia), 19 May 2008, Posted to the web 19 May 2008. - Author unknown.
The World's renowned Liberian child rights activist, Kimmie Weeks, has warned the United States Congress that the escalation of prices of basic commodities and other staple food would undoubtedly cause a widespread political unrest in Africa which could derail years of progress towards development and stability. Kimmie Weeks raised the concern as he testified before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, May 13.

While speaking at the Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Kimmie Weeks detailed the difficulties already facing poverty stricken war-torn countries. He painted a picture for lawmakers of the entire nations in Africa without running water, electricity and more importantly where a growing number of people could not even afford to feed themselves. He lamented that "wars, corruption, and environmental degradation cause poverty to the extreme that mothers watch their babies die and can absolutely do nothing about it."

He detailed, how hard it was for the world's poor right now and painted a vivid image of the struggle a majority of the world's people face to live from one day to the next. Speaking extensively about problems facing his native Liberia, Kimmie Weeks noted that more than half of the Liberian population was living far below the international poverty line. "It's already difficult for these people to come up with the $26 to buy a bag of rice to feed their families. What do you think will happen when those people go to the store tomorrow and find that the price of their staple food has more than doubled to $50 or $60.?"Weeks asked.

Weeks predicted that if food prices continue to soar and if food shortages start to become more widespread, turmoil and civil wars would break out in capitals across Africa. Kimmie Weeks noted that outbreaks of turmoil would prove disastrous in efforts to reduce the number of children participating in armed conflicts. He observed: "Children are recruited in every African conflict. If wars breakout, we're guaranteed to see a traumatic increase in child soldiers, human trafficking, and rampant sexual exploitation."

Weeks admonished American lawmakers to begin to take preemptive strikes against global crises due to food shortages. He called for increase in US aid not only in terms of providing food aid, but to provide seeds, technology and know-how to help African farmers to become self sufficient. He said: "If there is ever a need for a preemptive strike, it should be a preemptive humanitarian strike. It should be one that acts now to prevent millions of people from dying in the streets of African capitals from hunger and disease."

Kimmie Weeks used the hearing to discuss issues around the use of children in armed conflicts, the difficulties surrounding rehabilitation of child soldiers, as well as the trafficking of women and children in conflict areas. His panel included Benjamin Skinner author of "A Crime so Monstrous".

Mercy Colour

From the galley salads section...

Look-Alikes: Spongy Sweets

Licorice All Sorts Candy & a package of sponges.

Liberia Bans Food Exports to Tackle Food Crisis

(RTTNews) - In the latest attempt by Africa's poorest countries to fight a food crisis sparked by a worldwide rise in prices, Liberia banned all food exports Monday, to prevent profiteers from taking advantage of its relatively cheap rice prices by selling the grain to neighboring countries with higher prices.

Rice is a staple food in many countries in West Africa, where the high cost has hit the poor people hard as they have to resort to importing. In Liberia, which is recovering from war, the price increase has put yet another obstacle in the way of economic recovery, as rice is already in short supply in Liberia.

The ban on export applies to commercial foodstuffs also, Commerce Minister Frances Johnson Morris said. Liberia also dropped all import duties on farming tools to promote production.

The government said it is launching a campaign to urge Liberians to eat alternative food products such as yams, cassava, and plantains to reduce consumption of rice.

Although Liberia heavily depends on imported rice, dealers from neighboring countries have been buying up sacks of rice on Liberia's market to resell in countries like Guinea, where it is more expensive.

Mercy Motto

"All [humans] are equal, but some [humans] are more equal than others."

-butchered quote from Animal Farm by George Orwell

Mercy Trap

Faith

I was the first born to a young hippy couple that were part of the Jesus People Movement, a west coast Christian movement that broke down the barriers of traditional church. My early life was lived in communal housing with both street people and hippies. Once a second child was born we moved to our own house and had different boarders living with us. The house was always filled with all sorts of people: some intellectuals, others musicians, some shoemakers, others teachers, some mental health patients, others healers, some wanderers, others searchers, some peacemakers, and others rebels. Our young imaginations were left open to the vast enormity of it all and I felt God all around me.
When it came to faith, my parents allowed each of their 4 children to find their own journey. As a result, all 4 of us developed extremely different expressions that each now ring true with who we are and where we are in life. It was with such a family that I continually learned how to live alongside and learn from others.

When I became a teenager and chose to go to a popular church and youth group, I found myself facing rigid views I had never come across before. There was a way I was supposed to believe, feel, think, and act in order to be part of this Christian community at large. I spent a time trying to conform, as though God wasn’t attainable in the truest sense unless I jumped through these hoops. I began feeling rebellious, in my continual failure. The teachings never sat right with me. God, the one from my childhood, and Christian community soon became two very different places for me. I was careful not to let the latter too close to destroy the God I knew.

It was sometime around my mid teens when my family switched to a church with an intellectual pastor who had the mind of an artist. He thought outside the box and allowed me a glimpse of hope that my faith might still be legitimate. Still, my 20’s saw me firmly established as “one to pray for” in some Christian communities and I felt a strange compulsion to stir the pot and provoke them.

One day I saw my faith as a shelf of jars. Each jar was a different doctrine or belief. As I studied which jars were on my shelf I realized that there were many that had been placed there that I was not convicted of. I began the process of picking up each of those jars to put on the floor only to realize that there were more jars strewn around the floor. These were even more thoughts and beliefs, some of which I had taken off my shelf at times when I felt I wasn’t supposed to believe such things. I was overwhelmed and the process of moving jars back and forth didn’t appear straightforward.

It was around this time that I decided to announce I was no longer a Christian. It seemed the best way to eliminate the pressure of other’s expectations and to allow me a clear space to think out what I believed. The first thing I did was clear the entire shelf of jars. Everything went on the floor. In doing this I realized that what I was really searching for was truth and love. Truth, because there I would find God. Love, because even as a child I knew without a doubt that love was the most important thing in the world.

Two jars went on to my shelf. Two jars I was convicted of: firstly, Love and secondly, the fact that there was a creator who loved me. That was it. As simple as that. No doctrine. No having to feel washed in the blood of a lamb. Nothing. There were no barriers that God had to conform to. No rules of engagement that I could feel secure seating myself in.

I felt free and I felt excited. If I could say I could sense God at all, I sensed that he was waiting for me to do this all along, as though he couldn’t operate in the box either. It was a liberating time in which a lot of my early convictions came flooding back to me. But instead of life becoming black and white and lining up in neat rows of easily distinguishable laws, I was relieved to feel things getting greyer, less defined. Life grew even more colourful, imaginative, creative, and daring. Anything could happen. As things became less defined they became simpler, as contradictory as it sounds. Instead of figuring out whether something was right or wrong I was to just accept and love. This sat well with my soul.

I was heavily involved in the arts and found an extremely accepting community among them. Artists by nature are somewhat counter culture and so accept each other with all their warts and bruises, destruction and rebelliousness, and ever realness. I could be myself there and people appreciated who that was. I found I could openly talk about my deep protected faith at unguarded moments and they still accepted me.

I've had a handful of friends over the years that between us we could share our faith in a way that supported the other. One was a Muslim. One practiced her First Nations ancestor’s beliefs. One was exploring Buddhism. I hate these titles, because these individuals are so much more than labels, but it makes the point that I felt a deep connection with what might appear on the surface to be very different people. We were each either searching for love and truth or we had both in some way met the Creator.

And so it sits. My shelf remains pretty bare. 3 jars currently sit there. The third came from a person I heard speak about the cycle of physical addiction and how it relates identically to the cycle of failure within faith. Although I would say that there is a lot I stand for, experience, and believe, I don’t often define things as concrete as my jars.

My last thought and a profound realization for me is this simple truth:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Mercy Meat

Alternate Title: Yet Another Reason to be Vegetarian

Punk Dad

My dad's response to my punk blog: "Hey Michal, count me in."

Proposal

My dad taught me that most people can obtain a loan from a bank regardless of going bankrupt or having an unsteady income. I countered that I would certainly not qualify as a full-time visual artist, despite making a living from it. He explained that when approaching an institution with established rules and guidelines one must request a Creative Money Lender. This is a specific person who is there to think outside the box and on an individual basis balance the merits of proposals that don’t fit into the regular parameters, but are valid, none the less. I am looking for this proposal to reach the “Creative Money Lender” within the Mercy Ships organization.


April 28, 2008

Dear Mercy Ships,

I am writing to you with a unique proposal for your consideration. After having met with the Managing Director and other leadership on board, I have been advised that a proposal of this nature would best be approved at your level.

By way of personal introduction, I am currently serving on board the Africa Mercy as a full-time Assistant Cook with a minor job as the Academy High School Art Teacher. My partner is coordinating Anaesthesia from January 22 to August 15, 2008. Off the ship I am a full-time artist. I live and work in both Canada and the UK and received my Masters of Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. My work has been exhibited across Canada, in the United States, Europe, and Africa and has won the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Grant. Further CV details can be found at www.michal.ca/cv.html.

My latest exhibition, Metal Head, was met with positive success from the arts, on-line communities and the media. Please find the review attached to this proposal. From this coverage, I was offered a solo exhibition in the fall of 2008 in Vancouver, Canada, to be followed by another review. During this same time I was short-listed for one of the largest monetary painting awards in Canada.

Having now served on board for three months, I see an enormous artistic opportunity that I believe would be of great benefit to both Mercy Ships corporately as well as to my own advancement as a professional artist. While it was my intention to continue painting in my off time, I have found that after eleven – twelve hours in the galley I am both physically and creatively exhausted. I would value the opportunity to partner with you (by including Mercy Ships branding) while documenting from a creative artist’s viewpoint, what happens on board the Africa Mercy in terms of the benefit and impact in the lives of the Liberian people that we serve. I would envision this to be a full time position for the remaining three and a half months of our on board commitment.

I have discussed at some length with Public Relations the possibility of having one or more art exhibitions on board as a preview to the art world, and/or strictly for its own merit to be enjoyed by crew and vision trips alike. They were extremely supportive and eager to get involved in a creative partnership. Perhaps, if this project is approved, PR would be an appropriate on board reporting line for me.

PROPOSAL: WARD SERIES

CONCEPT: A series of drawing/painting portraits of individual patients. Each portrait would be done in a similar raw style as my previous Metal Head Series with the addition of written information on the canvas or Mylar: perhaps including a name and something about the person.

TIME FRAME: The project would take 3.5 months of full-time work on board the AFM. Creating the work with the patient and finishing each piece would take the majority of the time. This might also include going out to our Tenegar site and perhaps Redemption Hospital where we have our Dental Clinic. Other related work includes website updating, international exhibition and grant submissions (see Submission Bodies below), assembling and writing media related items (press release, artist statement, proposals and cover letters), and extending web visibility.

SUBMISSION BODIES:
20 Galleries and funding bodies within Canada, USA, and the UK.
(Further countries and funding bodies will be included as I research appropriate venues and institutions)

MATERIALS: I have brought 20 kilograms of art supplies with me to Liberia that include oil paint, canvas, brushes, medium, Mylar, charcoal, graphite, watercolours, paper, and sketchbooks.

BENEFIT TO MERCY SHIPS: Each body of work must include a press package created by the artist to send to galleries, museums, media, and funding bodies. Each package would include an Artist Statement summarizing the “what, how, and why” of the work involved. My statement will focus around my experience serving with Mercy Ships in Liberia. I will be taking Mercy Ships name into the art world and media. I would also be pleased to donate a painting to Mercy Ships should I be given the opportunity to create this series.

COPYRIGHT: As soon as an artist creates a work of art, it is protected by copyright. If art is created for an employer or as work for hire, copyright belongs to them. The purpose of copyright is two-fold: it protects the artist's right against piracy or illicit use and it provides the economic incentive for artists to create. As I am a self-funded short-term volunteer, I would wish to maintain copyright on my own work, although any public and/or private event is open for press coverage.

FINAL THOUGHT: In my three months on board the Africa Mercy I have again been reminded that I am meant to be a painter and an artist. I have enjoyed cooking and the great personalities in the galley, but do feel more and more, however, that the place I am most meant to be is that of an artist wherever I am. Art is a powerful medium, whether in post-war Liberia or in the Western world.

Sincerely,
Michal