The UN had not yet ratified its “Responsibility to Protect” policy and arguably Blair’s successful intervention paved way for a formal justification on humanitarian grounds applicable to UN member nations (UN, 2005). Sierra Leone was not only facing enormous challenges through anarchy but was also faced with a population that was brutalized by widespread amputations, a practice aimed at limiting their basic application of human and civil rights. The brilliance of Blair’s intervention was in bringing Taylor’s Liberian regime to a standstill. The civil war was officially declared over in 2002 and the British intervention evolved from helping Sierra Leone recover after the war to helping pass UN resolutions that would provide sanctions to …show more content…
Fadima Fatmata Zubairu also once a Manchester City Councilor” would take Blair’s preferences for human rights and democracy literally and back Blair’s intervention (ROAPE, 2016). Essentially, the case of Sierra Leone became the first test for Labour’s ethical dimension policy.
Conclusion Through the British intervention, Blair was very instrumental to ending the Sierra Leone civil war. While the RUF was pre-occupied with Britain’s role of evacuating UN peacekeepers and foreign nationals, Blair had perceived the idea to prove his ethical point developed by his Labour Party. After the deployment of 1,000 British troops in May 2000, Blair soon justified a more aggressive form of humanitarian intervention, one that would use force and provide logistical support to UNAMSIL forces thus finding a reason to remain and train local government forces. He later stated that “[Sierra Leone] is now on its feet, able to hold and have proper democratic elections. And when you see something as gruesome and graphic as [the amputated civilians] you realize how important it is in these circumstance that somebody somewhere was prepared to go and stand-by them (ITV, 2012). Blair’s decision to send British troops to intervene and to provide training support to the country, was a direct consequence of the underlying need to prove that his ideals were right, stating that “all countries in this part of Africa will be great partners for us, [providing] and
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and the recent 2006 film Blood Diamond both depict how it was living in Sierra Leone, Africa during the Civil War in the ‘90’s. While A Long Way Gone focuses on child soldiers and what they had to live and go through for many years, Blood Diamond focuses mainly on how the country is torn apart by the struggle between government soldiers and rebel forces. The film portrays many of the atrocities of that war, including the rebels' amputation of people's hands to stop them from voting in upcoming elections. Both the movie and the book try to tackle major issues by asking the questions: how
Sierra Leone has been involved in a humungous amount of absurd human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. This detailed paper on the book, A Long Way Gone, set in Sierra Leone, will create interest by summarizing the memoir through descriptive examples and text on symbolism and imagery. The author of this memoir A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is Ishmael Beah, it's difficult to believe that this is a true and harsh story. You will be learning about Ishmael's resilience and the horrible struggles he faced as a child soldier, while somehow continuing to have hope. Ishmael Beah, 12 at the beginning of this memoir, unexpectedly gets recruited into a time consuming war over blood diamonds, against the rebels as a young child. Ishmael is at a loss, since with his own eyes he viewed not only his loving family, but his whole village as it was horrifically torn down by the dangerous rebels. Ishmael is not physically lonely during the book, but he is emotionally
In 1776, rebellion brakes out against the new British regulations and Britannia declares war against the colonies. The Brits dominates the war until France, The Netherlands and Spain become involved in the war, and support the colonies. In 1883, The Great Britain has to give up the war in fear of losing more than just the American colonies. The war is officially over, and the thirteen states is
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century, the United States and Great Britain have repeatedly clashed heads due to disagreements on views and opinion of other nations. War had become a constant struggle between both nations, starting from the American Revolution. Twenty nine years after the American Revolutionary War had ended in 1783, the Americans partook in yet another war with Great Britain, the War of 1812. Great Britain’s disturbances and ignorance had pushed America over the edge, thus igniting a war. Ultimately, the War of 1812 was due to impressment of American soldiers, continual threat to the “rights of the people”, and
It will investigate the reparations of the civil war and discover if the situation of Sierra Leone could be labelled as a genocide. If so, can the post-genocide approach adopted by Mozambique be the most appropriate? Also, are the other approaches most applicable? Could some aspects of the approaches been adoptable? Meanwhile, understanding the ideology that what functions best in one society does not necessarily apply to another will be considered. As Cobban (2007) indicates “the idea [of]…one size fits all approach…seems not only misplaced but also possibly very dangerous for the members of…[post atrocity] societies; and any attempt to impose such solution …seem very damaging” (Cobban, 2007, p.
I liked reading your profile, but you do seem SO SERIOUS lol. But I am guessing you could use a good laugh sometimes? So here you go!
Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing
Since the start of the Sierra Leonean war in March of 1991, innocent civilians have been the primary target of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)’s wrath. The people of Sierra Leone have faced significant problems due to the invasions and attacks by the Rebel Forces and are the main population that is being affected by this group’s disapproval of the government. One person who experienced profound changes in her life due to the start of this war is Mariatu Kamara, a victim of a Rebel attack that cost her both her childhood and her hands. Throughout her memoir, “The Bite of the Mango,” she is faced with numerous traumatic events and meets an abundance of people who were very significant in her life and some of whom helped her survive the war. Kamara also gives the reader a variety of themes to use as a foundation to understanding war life, which also serve to help readers learn more about life, grow as people, and rise above to help others in need. Mariatu Kamara has not only changed the lives of people all throughout Sierra Leone by giving them a voice and an outlet to share their experiences, but has also proved to be an inspiration for countless amputees around the world.
The doors open slowly when a semi-delirious man uses his back to push them open. Makeshift bandages are nearly bled-through despite the string tourniquets a kind passerby had made for the now-destitute man after he had collapsed on the road to the hospital. He numbly rambles out his story, it’s not one the hospital staff is unfamiliar with but the macabre details are still worthy of nightmares. The man, Ismael, relives a more coherent version once the antibiotics have started to fight off the infections around his amputated hands: “The first victim was dragged forward and forced to kneel before a stump. As the man screamed, he severed one limb first, then the next” (Campbell, Ch. 1, para. 6). Ismael described the way that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) attacked his village of Koidu, Sierra Leone – an area that is rich in diamonds, the catalyst that led not only to the RUF, but the civil wars that plagued the region. Even though Ismael’s story is likely a dramatized conglomerate of similar tales from the region, it does serve to illustrate the plight for which Sierra Leone was renown. Sierra Leone, Liberia, Angola, and certain other African nations had been in a state of near constant conflict since the 1980s, or earlier.
Manipulation is a key factor in the outbreak of a war. Ishmael Beah discusses the several instances of manipulation that occur in Sierra Leone. In his memoir, A Long Way Gone, Beah discuses his life during the civil war outbreak in Sierra Leone. He explains how the affects of war affected in both a positive and negative connotation. Several publishers seek a better understanding of the struggle that Beat faces during the time of the civil war. Throughout the novel, Beah discusses the damage Sierra Leone goes through. He learns valuable lessons throughout his time in combat, which he seeks to share with others. Although Beah describes the importance of soldiers in a time of war, he believes in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone”, that awareness should
The Sierra Leones Civil War, started in 1991 and ended in 2002.In more than a decade cities were destroyed and occupied, people displaced, women raped and children forced to become soldiers. Man were mostly used in the diamond’s mines or deployed in illegal armed forces. At the very beginning, in 1991 the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) from Liberia moved to Sierra Leone to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. In the meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Army tried its best to protect the huge amount of diamonds’ mines. Those mines, through the illicit commerce all over the world, fuelled the RUF and the NPFL (National Patriotic Front of Liberia) or later in the years the AFRC (Armed Forces Revolutionary Council), to support theirs military expenses with the revenues.
The Antic Egyptian civilization believed in the afterlife and they needed to prove innocence to the Gods. The ‘’The Negative Confessions’’ were created in order to gain a position in the afterlife. Consequently, the common theme of the confessions in the Book of Dead is that all confessions are a representation of the everyday morality.
Much recent discourse surrounding humanitarian intervention has focused on the responsibility to protect (R2P). Prevention is a key component for good international relations and few would say it is not important, but as evidence to date would show prevention is very ineffective, the legality of military intervention still needs to be debated, as to date there is no consensus. For any intervention to be legitimate, whether unilateral or multilateral, it must comply with international law. So as not to cause any confusion, any situation in which an “intervention” is done with the permission or by request of the state being intervened, should be considered humanitarian assistance as state sovereignty is not breached. This paper will
From 1972 onwards, the government “usually ran Darfur through officials brought in from other parts of Sudan, mainly from Khartoum” (Darfur: Origins). What Britain did basically doomed Non-Arab Darfur to “a future as an underdeveloped colony of Sudan’s Arab-speaking Nile Valley heartland” (Darfur: Origins).
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are both widely thought to be books filled of nonsense by adults because adults search for meaning in the wrong places. People are taught from a young age to analyze books in a “traditional” way, which is identifying the five stages of plot (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) and to look at the story one part at a time, slowly analyzing the whole book. This method becomes ingrained in their minds and they do it subconsciously. This frame of thought causes most adults to be unable to see the true meaning of Lewis Carroll’s two books, but at the same time helps adults obtain more than originally intended: “Although we can never hope to explain fully what these books mean or how they have secured their high place in the world’s literature, our efforts in this regard can yield many important insights about them and about their meanings for us,” (Rackin, 18). Adults are also taught there is always main plot that slowly builds towards the end, revealing a central theme. But in these books there is no main plot and Carroll uses the central theme to go back and give meaning to the rest of the events in the books. The themes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are conveyed through the structure of the book, rather than the theme. The theme must also be read with the perspective with that of a child rather than an adult to fully understand these books.