"I was a soldier now. I could sleep with one eye open; I knew there were 11 ways to attack a town; how to open, fuse and throw a grenade; how to load and fire an AK-47; how to raise a machete and hack at an enemy... There was nothing to be afraid of." As military memories go, it all seems fairly conventional - the baptism of fire, the euphoria of survival, the bond of comradeship. But there's an ugly twist. The gifted recruit, Emmanuel Jal, was fighting in Sudan in the early 1990s and he was 10 years old. His recollections are quoted in a recent book, They Fight Like Soldiers, They Die Like Children, by the human rights campaigner and former UN peacekeeper Romo Dallaire." (Independent, 16 December) RD
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
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Paternalism is a common attitude among well-meaning social reformers. Stemming from the root pater, or father, paternalism implies a patria...
1 comment:
Hi comrade,
Great blog. I'm a socialist and activist based in the South West, and run a left-wing blog at http://marchthefury.wordpress.com/
It would be great if we could link each other and by doing so strengthen the network of progressive UK blogs.
In unity,
Josiah Mortimer
March the Fury
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