Week 14: Child Soldiers

        After viewing the films Invisible Children (2003, 2008), I was given a lot more clarity into the specific issues faced by the African countries of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo concerning the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Through the films, I was able to truly see just how colossal the problem has become—with so many lives lost, and so many children taken and forced into war, it was incredible to realize just how little I knew about what is going on in my world. The war is the longest war is Africa's longest war. The detriments that have occurred because of it have shaken a handful of African countries, and as the war wages on, these countries have continued to be affected by what Alice Lakwena, and subsequently, Joseph Kony began through the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). In this week’s post I hope to discuss some of the major issues surrounding the war, specifically, what is preventing the conflict from being ended and what might happen once the conflict has ended. At the heart of the matter is the LRA’s child soldiers—is there hope for them, and after the war has ended, will there continue to be hope?       

        Aside from the fact that the LRA functions under the authority of an occult-type leader, who uses fear tactics and a kind of religious base for support, there also exist a handful of other barriers to ending the war. First and foremost, it seems that one of the barriers exists in the form of public awareness and support. Indeed, it seems one of the largest difficulties to garner public support in countries such as the United States. But as the second film depicted, once this support had been gained, peace talks became much easier, as the Ugandan government was able to enlist the help of senior American diplomats.

                

        However, there was still no resolve, as Joseph Kony decided to renege on his side of the agreement—for the fourth or fifth time. This brings me to another barrier to ending the conflict, which is the idea that, not only is there limited public awareness and support from countries like the United States to end the war, but there is also an absence of economic resources. It was disheartening to see the image of hundreds of Ugandan child sleeping on verandas or on the pavement at night, in order to escape being abducted by the LRA. The strategy must be to disconnect Kony from his main holding—the children. If the government could provide a safe haven for children, if they could provide protection, some of the consequences of the war might not be as grave—such as the ones mentioned in the first film: child promiscuity, AIDS, etc.

        I have just discussed some of the major barriers to ending the conflict; but, what will happen when the conflict ends? The child soldiers that have become ‘monsters’, as one man in the film puts it, will have to go somewhere and will have to continue living. In one part of the film a boy who is a soldier in the LRA asks to come back to live with his mother; as the film (2008) suggests, his request might seem to highlight the overarching concern of how child soldiers might be reintegrated into society. Part of the solution might include strengthening the community with the means of giving emotional and psychological support for these invisible children—including utilizing transitional justice techniques: locating the children’s parents or closest family members, burying the dead/ marking the graves of those who have died, and especially bringing to justice those who have committed crimes. Other solutions might include providing the children with psychological and spiritual council, while also allowing the children to develop and even redevelop social and communication skills with their peers through school and education.

        In all, the films do a good job of presenting issues connected with the LRA and Uganda, Suden, etc. Perhaps the films’ biggest accomplishment resides in the idea that it has been able to garner so much awareness and support.  –By this, people around the world can be roused to illuminate the issue, to act, to discuss ways to end this war and pick up the pieces.

Works Cited

 Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2006, April 7)  Invisible Children  [Google video]. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from   http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3166797753930210643

Russel, J, Bailey, B. & Poole, L. (Creators). (2008, April 25)    The Rescue of Joseph Kony's child Soldiers    [online video]. Retrieved April 25, 2011 fromhttp://vimeo.com/3400420 

Week 13: Child Exploitation and Abuse - Youth Sex Workers

            This week’s subject matter on child exploitation and sex labor contained a lot of weighty inquiries and touched on grave issues. To hear the girls’ histories of sexual abuse and slavery stirred feelings of frustration within me. How is it possible that so much can be taken away from these girls and boys—their freedom, their childhoods, etc.—and yet so little is being done about it? In this blog I hope to discuss the circumstances that lead children into exploitative trades like slavery and sex work, while also drawing connections with previous coursework to ultimately propose channels of discussion for success in eradicating sex work and slavery.

Poverty

            In the documentary film Modern Slavery: Captive Servants and Child Prostitution, and in “Working with Child Prostitutes in Thailand: Problems of practice and interpretation”, as well as in other research, it seems there is extensive evidence for poverty as a driving factor behind exploitative pursuits such as child slavery and prostitution. I was shocked to understand that in many circumstances it is actually the children’s’ families that introduce them to sex labor or sell them into slavery. In other words, most of the time it is not by tragic accident that these girls or boys get sold into slavery or become prostitutes; rather, these circumstances are a consequence of the reality of poverty, of a lack of education, and so forth. Many times these families and their children lack the economic stability, and so they find ‘opportunity’, for example, in prostitution to support themselves—or in an offer from a stranger to take the child to another country where promises of prosperity are seemingly guaranteed. This point is especially poignant in Montgomery’s discussion of her own anthropological research on child prostitution in Thailand, where she found that the stance on child prostitution, of both the parents and the children, was one of acceptance—where prostitution was a viable means of fulfilling one’s obligation to take care of their parents, to support a household.

Culture and Society: Bun Khun

            Subsequently, and as I have alluded to in the preceding paragraph, children may be compelled into prostitution or slavery to fulfill traditional cultural and social expectancies and desires. According to Montgomery, in Thailand, children are expected to work and to provide income for their parents. A son or daughter’s worth is measured by this cultural standard of ‘bun khun’, where “children are said to owe a debt of gratitude to their parents and especially their mothers; they should be the ones to repay their parents for giving them life and it is part of children’s duty to support their parents in whatever way they can” (Montgomery, 2007; Mulder, 1979; Tantiwiramanond and Pandey, 1989). Also connected to this example, and to social and cultural elements as presented in previous course content, is the idea that these kinds of circumstances are highly cyclical. In her work, Montgomery writes, “In eight of the 14 households that contained child prostituted, the children were the second or third generation to have worked as prostitutes. Their grandmothers worked with American servicemen during the later stages of the Vietnam War, their mothers worked with tourists and the children worked for child sex-tourists” (2007). In the setting as described by Montgomery, men play little to no role in family connections and the household is controlled by the matriarch.

Intervention: Government and NGOs

What I found most interesting throughout the media presented is that there was no clear-cut method for handling issues of child slavery and prostitution, and the prevalence of these exploitative trades remains huge. In the media presented throughout this week, it seemed clear that many of the governments had no means to deal with this. Not only was much of the work left up to NGOs, but also when the government did intervene, it tended to support the status quo—either by treating sex workers as criminals, or by turning a blind eye. Either way, it seems that not much is being done by the government, and what little good that is being done, has been accomplished on part of NGOs like Gary Haugen’s International Justice Mission, where tactics like sting operations are used to extract kids from dangerous situations like sex labor.

Conclusion

            The issues of child sex labor and child slavery remain significant in today’s world. These underground industries are fueled by poverty and, as Dr. Montgomery might hesitantly admit, cultural and social norms and traditions. But the question is, by what methods do we go about abolishing these trades? Even though the tactics discussed in Dateline’s Children for Sale, seem extreme, I believe that these tactics are necessary for initiating the abolishment of exploitative trades like prostitution and slavery. The NGOs that employ extreme tactics like sting operations and ones that work to educate, have begun to create positive effects.

On another level, however, social welfare programs in each of these countries vehemently need to be established in order to educate and economically support families exposed and prone to sex labor and slavery. Additionally, the government needs to put competent legal infrastructures in place for prosecuting and sentencing individuals involved in sex labor and slavery—it should not be the case that prostitutes and sex laborers are considered the criminal in these circumstances. This is where further research needs to be done. What kinds of programs would be successful in societies constrained poverty, by cultural traditions, by currently inactive governments? 

Works Cited

Modern Slavery: Captive Servants and Child Prostitution. Films Media Group, 2008. Films On Demand. Accessed 18 April 2011 http://digital.films.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=1850&xtid=41369.

Montgomery, H. (2007). Working with child prostitutes in Thailand: Problems of practice and interpretation. Childhood, 14(4), 415.

Week 12: Child Labor in the U.S. and Internationally

         This week’s content on child labor was illuminating and very interesting. In this discussion I hope to talk about some of the challenges, developments and future of the movement against child labor in accordance with the film India: Working to End Child Labor, the piece “The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data” and finally, youth employment laws in the United States, and particularly in Arizona.  This discussion will draw upon these sources to hopefully offer a balanced take on the issue, and desires to ultimately foster more discussion on the issue.
         Firstly, the film on India was especially poignant in highlighting the issues associated with child labor—particularly in addressing the types of environments exploitive child labor thrives in. As the article mentioned, “child labor is an important global issue associated with poverty, inadequate educational opportunities, gender inequality, and a range of health risks”, additionally ninety-six percent of child laborers live in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (“The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data”, 2007). The case of India especially pointed out these elements of the article, while also addressing something that may be unique to India; that is, India’s caste system—which is rooted deeply within the culture and religious beliefs of many of its people. India’s caste system serves the dual function of justifying the poverty much of its population suffers, while also justifying the indolence of the wealthy. In this way, child labor seems to be very much a social issue that needs to be challenged on many levels—including religion, culture and community.
         Subsequently the media also mentioned child labor’s effectual relationship with education. It is interesting to note that many of the children interviewed mentioned that their families depended on them for the income they brought in—and so they must work and could not go to school. Here, we see a few affects: “short term, the most obvious economic impact of child labor at the family level is an increase in household income. Long term, the underaccumulation of human capital caused by low school attendance and poor health is a serious negative consequence of child labor, representing a missed opportunity to enhance the productivity and future earnings capacity of the next generation” (“The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data”, 2007). This verity unwittingly contributes, as India’s caste system also purportedly does, to a cyclic, persistent condition of poverty—one in which there seems to be no means of escape. These are some of the elements that Shanta Sinha, founder of the MV Foundation in India (an organization that seeks to abolish child labor, and promote education) face.

         Roggero's et. all research also found that child labor had significant impact on the health of children in ways that include how work can “expose children to physical and social environments conducive to high-risk sexual behavior”, that work inhibits girls from attaining an education that promotes their health and the health of their progeny, and also on the direct measurement of child mortality rates (“The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data”, 2007). In accordance with the findings of the film, the element of health had a significant impact, not only in the way that it impacted the child’s future health, but also as a determinant for whether and when a child entered the labor force. Several of the children’s stories of child labor were initiated with the existence of a parent’s’ health condition.

         As mentioned above, the MV Foundation serves as a good example of how one organization has sought to end the effects of child labor. As I looked through Arizona’s laws and regulations concerning child labor law, the contrast between child labor in the United States and India struck me—U.S. labor law is basic, clear and defined. On the other hand, it seemed that in the case of India, child labor is left up to the discretion of the child’s parents and the child’s employer—the film mentioned no instance of the government protecting a child’s right to education or a regulated work age or schedule. Thus—the obvious observation that child labor continues to be hidden under a veil of culture and tradition. But in order for advances to continue, it needs to be brought out as a more perceptible political issue.

     Finally, one of the largest factors for whether developing nations can overcome exploitive child labor to create laws that can realistically be enforced—is whether or not the country and organizations can establish programs that promote the welfare of its people. Why do children enter the labor force in the first place? The reasons may not be so fundamentally clear as merely economic—they may stem from issues of health, etc.: for example many of the children in the film had parents with bad health, which forced them to take up jobs, as their parents could not.  In this sense, it might be beneficial to explore different programs which include health, culture, education, etc. to promote child welfare and abolish child labor. 

Works Cited

Meehan, Ruth (director). "India: Working to End Child Labor" 2004. Online video clip. Arizona Universities Library Consortium. FMG Video On Demand. Peadar King (Executive Producer)Accessed on 11 April  2011. http://digital.films.com/play/VBRGKP


Minor, Robert (Cartoonist). Child Labor [Political Cartoon]. Accessed on 11 April 2011. http://filipspagnoli.wordpress.com/2008/05/15/human-rights-cartoon-80/

Roggero, P., Mangiaterra, V., Bustreo, F., & Rosati, F. (2007). The health impact of child labor in developing countries: Evidence from cross-country data. American Journal of Public Health, 97(2), 271-5.