My understanding of ecofeminism is that it is an approach which deals with
our common environmental and women's problems in a holistic way. A few
things which I think need to be recognized and discussed are: 1) the effects
of child soldiers on both the physical and social environment of mother
earth and 2) issues of brutality to children are women's issues, not because
we are ignoring our own repression to only care for others, but because what
happens to these children has implications for future generations. In
addition, because women/mothers are often unable to protect their children
from the militias which recruit them, raising consciousness about this issue
can bring support to those women who badly need it. I do not choose to
separate the world I want for myself from the world I want for my children.
Unfortunately, in many places in the world women do look after the children
while men go out and do nasty things - it has generally been a woman's role
in times of war to keep the appearance of normalcy as much as possible,
i.e., meals are still prepared, laundry is still done, children are still
raised and put to bed at night. If anyone is interested, there is a good
photo-article about this issue in the latest Mother Jones mag.
-----Original Message-----
From: vikki charles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, November 05, 1999 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: 300,000 Child Soldiers Serving World-Wide
>If this is studies in women ad the environment - presumably
>talking about stuff from a womans point of view whay are we
>talking about child soldiers? Yes it's bad and down right
>daft that Britain and US have under age soldiers but surely
>talking about children on an ecofem page is just pandering
>to and reinforcing the idea that women look after children
>while men go out and do nasty things.
>just a thought.
>-vikki
>On Thu, 4 Nov 1999 10:09:47 -1000 Viviane Lerner
><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> 300,000 Child Soldiers Serving World-Wide
>> http://www.aviva.org/newsinex.htm
>> It is estimated that there are a total of 300,000 child soldiers on the
>> front line of battle, in every continent. Children are involved in
ongoing
>> conflicts in Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, Colombia, Congo, El Salvador,
>> Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Sudan
and
>> Uganda. During Sierra Leone's brutal war of amputations, children have
been
>> abducted to special camps to be trained, and drugged - so that they
believed
>> they had magical powers to resist enemy bullets. In Uganda, children aged
>> between 13 to 16 make up to 90% of the Lord's Resistance Army, which is
>> fighting the government in the north of the country. As human rights
groups
>> are pressing for adoption of an optional protocol on the Rights of the
>> Child, which would raise the minimum age of recruitment into the armed
>> forces from 15 to 18 - the US and Britain have said they would not block
the
>> protocol - but continue themselves to recruit 16 year olds. The
Convention
>> of the Rights of the Child, which marks its 10th anniversary in November,
>> has been ratified by 191 countries - the US and Somalia remain the only
>> countries who have not signed up. Source: BBC World Service, 18.10.99
>>
>
>----------------------
>vikki charles
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
