A New Kind Of Cancer

08/18/05

HIV/AIDS is not just a health problem. The LRA is not just a political problem. They are both caused by the lack of economic empowerment and education in these underserved communities. Every expert I have talked to here on the ground agrees. Only by empowering these communities to help themselves, and offering constructive support and ideas, will we help this shift. That is what we are going to try in Kanga.

My Father and Colleen were both in my dream last night, and I was invisible for much of it. The invisibility was very cool, and I realize now how much I wish I could be invisible, how much easier it would be do make this documentary. It was strange, I didn't realize that my Dad was dead in the dream. We were just hanging out and having fun, and it was nice to be near his warmth and strength again. But with Colleen it was different, I knew. I was ducked in the back of a car, and she was in the front. I could hear her talking to someone, and she was filled with all this hope for the future, all these plans. I remember her talking about looking forward to the flowers in her garden blooming in the Spring, and it was heartbreaking, because I knew it was just a dream. When I woke up, I laid there, unable to move for a while.

A note about last night. I went and met Nathaniel and Susannah, both Uni students from the US and here doing some hardcore traveling. They had just returned from Northern Uganda, which is essentially a war zone. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is a rebel group from Uganda operating out of Sudan, with some blurry political demands, fueled by the hatred of their guru/commander. They 'recruit' by abducting kids, under 14, sometimes 100s at a time, and (excuse the crassness) force the boys to fight and the girls to fuck. As the Ugandan army has recaptured some of these children they put in rehabilitation camps for counciling before they go back to their families. A councilor named Robert from one of these camps met us and had brought some pictures that the returned abductees had drawn as therapy. Truly, some of the most twisted, horrific imagery I have ever seen. You can tell that the pictures are drawn by children, but the brutality depicted is unbelievable. I'll spare the details so anyone who reads this can eat today and sleep tonight. I just shudder to imagine what these children's dreams must be like. The general concensus was that what is most needed is publicity about the problem, so I am considering finding a way up there in Sept/Oct, after we have the project in Kanga underway, and seeing if I can help, even if just a little.

Talking with the Director Of Communications at Ashoka's East Africa HQ, we came to an agreement that almost every problem in Africa is a result of all the social, economic, and educational problems. HIV/AIDS is not just a health problem. The LRA is not just a political problem. They are both caused by the lack of economic empowerment and education in these underserved communities. Every expert I have talked to here on the ground agrees. Only by empowering these communities to help themselves, and offering constructive support and ideas, will we help this shift. That is what we are going to try in Kanga. The shift needs to happen person by person, community by community. Howard Zinn said "Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.\" I believe that is where the solution lies. That is what I have seen, that is what these amazing groups like Ashoka and Omiydor profess. The answer is no longer multinational NGOs and foreign governments blanketing aid and dictating the future. The answer lies in the realm of empowering individual leaders in communities, and finding a way to help that spread. That is what I see, that is what I am asking people to help me do. I have had this reoccurring vision of a new kind of cancer. One that spreads healing and hope, person by person, community by community, until it spreads over the whole world, suffocating poverty and disease and corruption and violence.

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