Child Soldier - Ishmeal Beal's Experience

This video is an interview with Ishmeal Beal a former child soldier. When he was still at a very young age he was forced to become a soldier. He had become a child solider in a militia that had overrun the government where he lived. In the interview he describes his experiences and talks about the challenges that he had to overcome. He was changed mentally and forcefully made take drugs. The militia commander abused his metal state and made him, along with others, turn into killers and made them have the will to kill.


Connections:

I cannot make any connections to my own life since i am grateful to have to go through what Ishmeal Beal had to. I can make a connection to a TV show that i watch which is called Graceland. The show is about the DEA and FBI. In the show they show a scene in which a character is forcefully injected with a drug. The person injecting the drug makes the character get addicted to it and gives the drug to him once every week and than continues until his body craves it. This happens to child soldiers, once they are addicted to the drug and their body craves it, the militia's can use that drug as a reward and tell the children that if they follow orders they can get the drug, and since they got hooked to the drug and their body can't function properly any more without the drug, they end up following the orders.

Concepts:

One thing that you should hold on from the text is the fact that he is now living a perfect live and goes to school. Even after all the things that he had to go through as a KID, he moved on and even ended up writing a book that was published. This goes to show that your past does not determine your future. With the right mind set you can conquer anything.

Challenges:

One thing that i would want to argue with the text is that it blames video games for the increase in violence. First off, most games that show drugs, violence and other things like that are rated M for Mature, and its for people 18 years and older. Nobody cares to notice that kids at the age of 10 are playing games meant for people 18 years or older. The reason to why the games are suggested for people 18 years or older is because they have matured enough to understand that it is just a game but kids at the age of 10 might not understand that and take the game to serious. If parents cared to read the game that their kids want to buy than there wouldn't be this problem. Even than, video games are not the cause for violence.

Sniper News Article

Free Staters Fight for Independence

       During the month of June, the streets of Dublin were turned into a battlefield as Free Staters fought the Republicans in a hopeful battle for Irelands independence.

       The Streets had become no mans land. The Republicans on one side and the Free Staters on the other. One women who was seen running out of the streets explained " What were once calm streets have turned into a war zone". Anything/anyone that was on the streets of Dublin was targeted and seen as a enemy. We advise citizens to remain inside their homes and to not go to the Dublin streets.

       One of the Free Staters shouted " Ireland shall get it's long deserved independence", as he ran off towards the streets of Dublin. Many people had the same mind set and didn't hesitate to take part in the fight for independence. The army had split up too, so there are skilled soldiers out there possibly fighting against amateurs.

       The Republicans seemed much calmer and more layer back about the situation. A Republican explained " We have to continue fighting as long as they continue" With this being said, this battle doesn't seem close to ending soon.

       This battle for independence didn't seem like a battle that either side would give up on. Both sides are fighting until the other one stops. With this mind set on both sides of the battle, who knows how long it will last. We advise citizens again to remain indoors until it is all clear.

Slam Poetry

I wanted to make a slam poem about war and its affects since that seems to be a topic that is also in the news. I tried to make a poem but i didn't know how to poetically show my views on war. I wanted to view over another persons slam poem about war since it was how i wanted my poem to sound.

WHAT I WILL

by Suheir Hammad

I will not
dance to your war
drum. I will
not lend my soul nor
my bones to your war
drum. I will
not dance to your
beating. I know that beat.
It is lifeless. I know
intimately that skin
you are hitting. It
was alive once
hunted stolen
stretched. I will
not dance to your drummed
up war. I will not pop
spin break for you. I
will not hate for you or
even hate you. I will
not kill for you. Especially
I will not die
for you. I will not mourn
the dead with murder nor
suicide. I will not side
with you nor dance to bombs
because everyone else is
dancing. Everyone can be
wrong. Life is a right not
collateral or casual. I
will not forget where
I come from. I
will craft my own drum. Gather my beloved
near and our chanting
will be dancing. Our
humming will be drumming. I
will not be played. I
will not lend my name
nor my rhythm to your
beat. I will dance
and resist and dance and
persist and dance. This heart

beat is louder than
death. Your war drum ain’t
louder than this breath.

This poem starts off by talking about "i will not dance to your drum" which basically means that they person doesn't want to be ordered around like how soldiers are. This poem talks about doing what they want to do and not following/dancing to others drum. It also talks about hating for you and murdering for you, which is basically what they soldiers in the army are doing, they are killing and hating the enemy even though the conflict is between the two leaders of the countries. This is what i wanted my poem to reflect when read by others and this poem by Suheir Hammand reflects that.

ISU Blog Post #2

Social Issue

The social issue in my book has not changed from when I did my first blog post. The social issue in my book is war and conflict. I can say that this is the social issue. This book is a fantasy book so many things that happen in this novel are hard to relate to real life since it is fiction.

Article

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/getout.htm

This URL leads to an article about how to get released from the military. Many people join the military and end up wanting to leave since it isn’t want they thought it was going to be. In the article is basically says that once you join the military there is not getting out. It compares this to a McDonalds job. When you work at a fast food restaurant you can basically quit whenever you want but in the military you sign a contract and take an oath. The way that the main character in Glory Road gets released from the military is since he had suffered from an injury. I could find many articles about people that intentionally try and injury themselves in hope that that they get sent back home. The main character even says that he wishes to get injured on the job since he worked on the front lines as a soldier.

Glory Road

Glory Road

So far in this novel, the only social issue that has been shown is to deal with war. The reason why I think this is the social issue is because the main character receives a letter stating that he has to join the army and fight for his country. This is sort of like the conscription crisis that happened during World War 1.  The conscription crisis is about how able-bodied men, from the age of 18 to 45 had to join the army when their country was at war. The main character ends up getting into the army working as a soldier instead of the job that he wanted which was the job of which the person only had to type up letters and such, which meant he didn’t have to actually fight in the war but was still in the army. 

http://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP12CH2PA3LE.html

This link is to a website that talks about the conscription crisis, who it affected and why it was created. The conscription crisis was a law that had forced able-bodied men around the age of 18-45 to HAVE to join the army; this was done to get more soldiers since they had lost so many soldiers in battle. This caused many people to start riots, destroy stores and streets. In the novel it does not mention the main character being enraged and joining the riots, rather it just talks about him going and joining the war, even though he has a strong belief against war in general. When the main character didn’t put up a fight of joining the army, you could infer that he had no choice but to do as the letter told him to.