Today
on Listen Up – Hollywood’s attempt at telling the African struggle for
justice – Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney and the people who stay
after the camera’s go away….
It was once known as “the Dark
Continent” but today, Africa is lighting up movie screens around the
world. Hotel Rwanda told the failed story of the United Nations
attempt to prevent a genocide. A lesson now being applied by those
desperate to help 2.5 million displaced refugees facing what many call
the slow genocide of Sudan – including Hollywood mogul George Clooney.
We’ll see his rescue attempts today, and watch in on another famous
star.
Leonardo DiCaprio said the astounding challenges of
Africa taught him new meaning of the human spirit and the African
energy for dealing with the most insurmountable problems. BLOOD
DIAMONDS his latest movie brings to the world the devastation caused by
illegal diamond trading across Africa.
What responsibility do we have when the injustice of Africa takes to the silver screen?
Kevin Miller
Screenwriter and producer Kevin Miller says ‘if ever
there’s ever been an ideal time to make a film about Africa, that
time is now. The world’s attention is focused on Africa like
never before.” He is working on a film set in Sierra Leone, which
chronicles the lives of three men trying to fit in with post-war
society.
Professor Jo Kuyvenhoven
My connection is long with Sierra Leone. It was fiercely kindled
when I returned in Aug.-Sept 2001 when the borders were (finally)
secured by the UN. With friends of mine I went into the Freetown
amputee camps to see Kuranko friends there. The Kuranko, of the
northern regions, were occupied from the rebels’ first
terrorizing work. Until the RUF “army,” the rebels
hit Freetown, the world was indifferent to what was happening in the
north for 6 long years already. I traveled north with the first
returning Kuranko people from Freetown as road blocks came down.
I was there when the first helicopters of returning child soldiers
where brought up by the UN to reintegrate into their communities.
At one point I went back to the village where I lived for 4
years. It was a scene of terrifying emptiness and memory.
The community was numb with horror and loss. Half of the people I
knew in Badala were dead. Walking and weeping with people in the
village of Badala, they led me to commit to doing everything I can as a
Christian who is a friend and professional - for children in Sierra
Leone. The particulars of this story don't fit in an email. I
still can hardly speak some of the stories I heard (I speak Kuranko)
and things I saw.
I'm very critical of Hollywood approaches. These are
characteristic of my culture. I am disappointed with much about
my culture. We're in a so-called post colonialist era. I
suspect barriers between people are higher than they ever were.
My academic community has nearly abandoned honest relationships, is
fearful about curiosity, and has rationalized its abdication of
responsibility. Truth is relative, relationships are contracts,
corporate greed feeds bank accounts and retirement savings. Talk,
papers and cultural theory displace active listening and work for
reconciliation. A new gospel of tolerance is a disguised
indifference (CS Lewis identified the opposite of Love as indifference
... not hate.)
I’m not hopeful new films, books, documentaries make big
differences. That said – I admit they do in the short
run. A significant benefit is that they tell the story that must
be told. The Kuranko, Krio, Mende, Themne… peoples, who
suffered in the war must have their stories told. (They suffered
before the war too because of world trade practices etc…).
However, the story, like all the stories, is made by real people, real
blood, the realities of a machete. It is another thing to hold the
warm, living stump of woman’s arm in your own hand.
We respond from a great distance with the usual panacea:
cash. Worse, the story is often mere fodder for the ravenous need
of an attention-deficit-culture. Our understanding of people in
the world is developed through disconnected sets of images and events
in clips of 90 second, intensely visual and interesting moments.
Visceral, interesting jolts. Human compassion is expressed in
knee jerk formats. True, a few good things happen when the money
pours in –briefly. Everyone here adds an event to their
knowledge cache. I wager most projects grow like seed on thin
warm soil over a rock…. A few root deeply.
And, in fairness, we can’t possibly respond to every one of these
terrible events: Sudan, Ethiopia, Rowanda, Afghanistan, Sri
Lanka… the homeless at Scott Mission and in Hamilton’s
inner city “turn around schools.”
But I feel strongly that if all of us were to make living connections
and commitments to let compassion free … to lean on God to
sustain compassionate living through the drought of public
support/attention, change might happen to us too.
Work like education is a very long job. So are other development
tasks. For instance, moving from a trading and subsistence
economy to a cash-based one; moving from family and tribe communities
to ones of financial and contractual relationships … demand a
complete reformulation of traditional paradigms. It’s a
long haul. Taking up a commitment that must be directed by Sierra
Leoneans, has little immediate gratification, demands humility, and
entails slow growing outcomes. This is hard on us. We're in
a culture of “experts,” result-based projects.
Moses Moini
A former refugee from Sudan, Moses is now working in Ontario, Canada
with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee in Refugee
Sponsorship. In early 2006, Moses went back to Uganda to visit his wife
and by July of 2006 had successfully sponsored her to Canada.
Chris Derksen Hiebert
Director of Advocacy and Education for World Vision Canada and involved in justice issues re. Sierra Leone and Sudan.
Philip Maher
Senior Correspondent for World Vision Canada who has documented the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Darfur and in Southern Sudan.
The inside scoop on Listen Up TV and Sierra Leone:
There
are some things you just can’t forget; like standing on the brink of
human made hell. I discovered that sitting on a bus in Freetown,
Sierra Leone traveling with a journalist from the government owned
broadcasting company in that nation. It was January 2000, and
providing information on war crimes only a few months old in the
country was dangerous business. Prior to the bus ride, I had just sat
with a group girls under the age of ten, all of them who had lost limbs
to the brutal amputation of rebels moving in a war fueled by greed over
the diamond trade and corruption. In an effort from stopping adults to
vote in elections, the rebels launched fear by chopping off any
people’s limbs – anyone, even infants. The reporter I was sitting
with on the bus was burdened for his country, and even now, seven years
later, it’s still not wise to put his name in public postings like
this. Following discussions on the bus, that young journalist smuggled
me a tape of atrocities he had personally recorded before going into
hiding for his life. His private story telling on the bus that day
launched a series of events that to this day, continues to give Listen
Up TV a responsibility to care for Sierra Leone. So it is with great
authenticity I personally recommend a charity whose seed of an idea
began that day on the bus ride, and wonderful Canadians picked it up
ever since. Check them out, I personally stand by Conrad and Anna Van
Dijk (www.cvmcanada.org) who have stewarded the creation of a grass
roots ministry that began with the work of that young Freetown
journalist and is beautifully caring for orphans and needy families in
Sierra Leone today. Lorna’s Wrap
If Hollywood has discovered that the pain in Africa
makes great story telling for the big screen, I have mixed emotions. If
every dollar spent on movies about Africa was rather invested in wise
development and care there, it might be a better help for those trapped
in epic stories of injustice. But then I’m reminded that Christ was a
storyteller. He also knew the power of story to impact our thoughts
and motivate us to action. Christ loved us enough to put truth for our
soul into stories we’d understand. One of his strongest stories, was
the one about loving our neighbor. That includes our neighbor in
Sudan, or Sierra Leone. On our website there are agencies and letter
writing tools for you to engage the great story of injustice happening
now in Sudan and its pending genocide. Stories of courageous agencies
helping in Sierra Leone, where you can help too.
Pacific 1:30
am Monday
Mountain 2:30am
Central 3:30am
Eastern 4:30am
National Religious Broadcasters (NRB)
Eastern 8pm Monday
10:30am Wednesday
DVD's of all our shows are available for sale. To place an order, please call (905) 336 9777 x27. Copies are $15.00 which includes shipping. Payment can be made by cheque (made payable to Listen Up TV); VISA or Mastercard.
Read Lorna's Globe & Mail columns by searching
our archive.
Read 'Media & The Message'. Lorna says if the church wants to impact society, we need to share our stories.
On April 30, 2005 Lorna was privileged to receive an honorary Doctorate of Christian Ministries from Canada's largest Christian university, Trinity Western University. Lorna was recognized for the witness and leadership that Listen Up TV has provided in public messaging: "a leader in the voice of evangelical life in Canada."
(Photo: Blood Diamond - Warner Bros.)
