GINS Task #8: Word Art

Hey! (: Today for our Global Issues Novel Study, we were assigned with the task of creating a piece of word art. We chose a quote from our novel (mine is War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay) and used computer software or pen and paper to form it into a powerful visual. The quote is meant to express the most important issues and themes that are occurring throughout the novel. I created my quote with Adobe Illustrator, hope you like it. (:

"Can a good boy be turned into a killer more easily than one who was not a good boy in the first place? I think of how the words of God were so misused by Kony and his commanders. I now believe that if you tell a lie, feed it, nurture it, and help it to grow, it will be believed. It will grow powerful despite being rotten at the core."

The first reason I chose this quote is because the main issue throughout the whole novel is discussed, examined, and analyzed in this quote. The underlying message in this quote is asking: who's fault is it if we are forced into thinking bad things are the right thing to do, and we carry them out? Is the person committing the actions responsible, or the one who persuaded them into that way of thinking? Is that human's soul truly evil, or truly good, based on which way they were influenced? These questions are all pondered and addressed in the novel and are a huge part of the overall story. Second, it connects to worldview :p. "View of human nature" is clearly explored in this quote so that's another connection that can be made. Finally, this quote just really stays with me and makes me think, therefore giving it some personal connection.

There were several intentional choices I made while creating this piece of art. I made certain words that I felt were important, such as believe, lie, powerful, and rotten, larger than the others because I felt that they were the words that really stand out in this quote. Throughout the quote, I also used several different fonts. I chose an un-distracting, basic font for the filler words so they did not detract from the message. For the word believe and believed, I chose a scrawled calligraphy because I felt like it was uneven and each letter was different, much like each of our own beliefs. Lie was put in a scratched out kind of font because we think of lies as covering the truth, like the scratches, and it also gave it a more sinister look. The middle section of the quote is in earthy green because it is using a plant analogy throughout that section, and I chose the cursive font because it looked floral. For the word powerful, I put it in a strong-looking in font and made the colour red to infer to the disastrous outcomes that can come with power, and if a lie grows powerful. Finally, I chose to make rotten in a messy writing with highlights of yellow/green because it made it look as if something was rotting.

Hope you enjoyed this post! Have a lovely day. 

GINS Task #7: Empathy Free Write

Hey! Today's post is again a part of the GINS (Global Issues Novel Study) that I have been participating in for school. To find more information on this, click the initial post I have linked to above. This post was a free write exploring empathy through the main character's mind. I have written a piece from the perspective of Jacob in my novel, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay. Enjoy! (:

  "Terror pulsed through me. Gunshots rang through the air, vibrating through my body as I felt my arms being tugged roughly behind me. Screams and shouts added to the cacophony, drowning out the beating of my frantic heart. I tried to find Tony in the crowd, but he was no where to be seen. The cold butt of a gun in the small of my back prompted me forward. 

    "Move," the holder of the gun told me in a rough voice. I didn't dare disobey. 

    Many of my classmates and myself were being guided in a scraggly line out of the school and onto the grass. Our shoes and any extra clothing was taken from us, so by a few hours, my feet were aching and drenched in blood. There were many rules, the biggest being never talk, and never stop. 

    We walked for days. I no longer knew if we were in Uganda or not. I thought about my father, and the maid, back home, waiting for my return. Surely the news of Kony's kidnap on our school would've reached them by now. I tried to remember the last words I had said to my father, but I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure of much anymore, just the deep anger and uncertainty and the terrible loneliness that had taken root in the pit of my stomach. 

    So much had changed in a short few days. A few days ago, I never would've imagined that I, with an important father such as mine that attended a prestigious school, would be kidnapped and forced to fight for the Lord's Resistance Army. Never would I have thought that such terrible acts would be committed by human beings, just the same as me. 

    Never would I have thought I might never return home."

Hope you enjoyed! Have a lovely day.

GINS Task #6: Global Charter

Today I have a post relating to my Global Issues Novel Study. As to explore further into our current study of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms, along with a few others, we created a charter to apply to our entire globe. Because we all read different novels, we were all able to contribute our different ideas spurred by the issues happening in the country we were reading about. Below you can see our document that we came up with.

My novel, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, takes place in Uganda. Many of the laws in our charter were inspired by the situations that have occurred there. In the Canadian charter, we also have equality rights, which state that we are all equal. However, they say that we will not be discriminated based on age, gender, religion, ethnic origin, or mental/physical disability, but they don't mention discrimination based on sexuality. In Uganda, they passed an Anti-Homosexuality Act, and to prevent this type of behaviour, we included sexuality in our equality rights. Another specification we made that is not in the Canadian charter is the fact that you have the right to peacefully challenge the laws in the charter without being accused of treason, unlike that of the Ugandan constitution. Though we were inspired by several things in the Canadian charter, because we felt like they were fundamental rights that are critical to a fair and just country, we also added our own rights, particularly in the Government Obligation Rights. We created this section because we found that in many of the countries from our novels, the government was not upholding their end of the bargain. Even if certain laws are in place, the government does not always follow them. One major law we included in this section was the fact that the government cannot turn a blind eye to it's citizens, and also the fact that the government cannot use violence against the citizen's. We also included mandatory health care, because though that is usually a government choice, so many people in Uganda have died of AIDS that we thought it prudent to include it.

Along the way, my group and I had little to no disagreements. We all agreed on the rights that should be included, except for one misunderstanding. We were discussing collective rights, language education rights in particular, and we misinterpreted something Brianna said as to mean every country should have a school with every language someone's first language is. However, this was a miscommunication and in truth she meant a school in which a large group of people in the province, state, or region needed schooling in that language.

After doing this activity, I also consulted The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a global document created by the UN. There were several things listed we had considered, but there were also some things I had never even thought about. For example, marriage. Below is the exact Article 16 from the Universal Declaration:  "(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality, or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at it's dissolution. 
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. 
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State."

Thanks for reading this post! Have a lovely day. 

GINS: Task #5

Hello! Today I am going to be making a post for our Global Issues Novel Study (GINS) which began back in October. I am posting today about the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in connection to the events in my novel, War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay, and the country it takes place in. My novel takes place in Uganda, so that's how I will be phrasing the questions.

Credits to this website for this image. 

Is there a similar document to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Uganda?
The Ugandan government has a constitution which lays out the basis of their government. I found it very interesting that there was a large focus on not speaking against the constitution, because that would be considered treason.

What rights and freedoms are guaranteed in the document?
In the Chapter 4 - Human Rights section of the Ugandan Constitution, it is clear that Ugandan's have very detailed and similar rights to those that we do. They have several sections similar to our equality rights which give rights to women, children, those with disabilities, as well as the section titled "equality and freedom from discrimination". There was also a section that said the citizens are able to vote in elections, but it doesn't say how often. They also included the fact that people's property and homes cannot be searched without consent, and each person has right to a public hearing after arrest. I didn't see anything resembling our mobility rights. The Constitution also says that "no person shall be subjected to any form of torture, cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment." What I found particularly interesting is that this document was last revised in 1982, yet many of the rights given to the citizens are not being followed by the government. Just this December, the government passed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill which prevents the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender) from being what they are. Furthermore, the police forces and government treats them unfairly and they are even subjected to physical abuse from their own government! As for the section I quote earlier about not being subjected to torture, well, according to the Amnesty International survey in 2011, this is not the case. Directly from the site...

"Dozens of people in the north-eastern Karamoja region were reported to have been killed during the year in disputed circumstances by government soldiers engaged in security and disarmament operations. Army personnel were also accused of committing torture and other ill-treatment in the course of these operations. The government did not institute credible investigations into alleged human rights violations and no one was brought to justice. In October, the Uganda Human Rights Commission reported that torture and ill-treatment by the police, other law-enforcement officials and the military remained widespread."

How might the issue in your novel be different if the Canadian Charter were applied?
The major issue at hand in my novel is Joseph Kony's LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). It is established throughout the novel that Kony is the "bad guy" (for lack of a better term), and the government are the "good guys" who are trying to catch Kony. This is right in a sense, but there are many crimes that go against their charter which the police force or government of Uganda has committed. The thing is, Uganda has a constitution which outlines almost all the rights we have in Canada, and more, and when I read it I found it to be very fair and respectful to the citizens. However, if the government doesn't follow it than what use is it? Therefore, I feel that if the Canadian Charter were applied, it would be the same situation as what is going on now. The problem is, even though rights and freedoms are in place in the Ugandan Constitution, the government does not respect or follow them, so why would the Canadian Charter be any different? Both the Canadian and Ugandan charter's prohibit the kind of behaviour the LRA is showing, so I don't think the difference would affect it. The one thing I noticed is that because the Ugandan constitution does not have mobility rights, people who are afraid and in danger would not be able to leave the country. As it says in the Mobility Rights of the Canadian charter, 6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in, and leave Canada. I couldn't find anything that expressed that Ugandan citizen could do the same. Therefore, more children and women could be held kidnapped by the LRA, more causalities would occur, and more people would be traumatized because they may not be able to leave the country when the LRA was at large.

Resources Consulted
Amnesty International
CNN News Article (Anti-Homosexuality Bill)
Ugandan Constitution (Chapter 4, Human Rights and Freedoms)
Ugandan International Crimes Division

GINS: Task #4

Hi! For this post, I was making connections between the novel study I am participating in (see here for more), and my academic consumerism tumblr (click top tab).

From reading the novel “War Brothers” by Sharon E. McKay, it came to my attention that there are many poor or impoverished people living in Uganda. 40% of all people living in the rural areas of Uganda are living in poverty - that’s around 10 million people! See, in the rural areas of Uganda, there are isolated from the developments and economic growth happening in the cities. As a result, they lack the technology to increase the efficiency of their crops and also to rid themselves of pests and diseases. And honestly, I wanted to know why they didn’t have the opportunities that we have here to improve their quality of life.

I was able to connect this to one very part of the government: social programs and services. Social services are provided by the government to help increase the economic inequalities amongst citizens, as well as promoting a better quality of life. In Uganda, there is little access to these type of services, such as health-care or financial support. There are huge amounts of people that also are sick from AIDS/HIV and don’t have the access or money for proper health care.

For the purpose of my mini-investigation, I headed to the Uganda Parliament website to try and get some insight into how and why their government uses their money. They do have a committee for social services, including health (and AIDS), education, and sports, but it isn’t clear what exactly their health-care looks like. I decided to try to find a bit more information about this. I found a rather interesting look at their health profile (http://www.who.int/gho/countries/uga.pdf), but nothing about the way their system runs. When I visited the Ministry of Health website for Uganda, the link that was supposed to redirect me to their practices said it was “hacked”. Interesting.

My point of this post was mainly to reflect and think about the difference in the life we have here as opposed to somewhere like Uganda. Our country’s wealth, government and economic system, allows us to live the lives we do and greatly affects our roles as consumers. I also don’t think we realize in North America the impact that social programs provided by the government has on the way we live each and every day.

Thanks for reading! Have a lovely day.

GINS: Round Table Discussion (Task #3)

This is our second round table on the novel War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay. This discussion was done with Michael who also is reading War Brothers. In this discussion we examine the novel after conducting some research about the book and the country it is set in (Uganda).


Thanks for listening!

GINS: Round Table Discussion (Task #2)

Today I had the chance to get together with a few classmates to talk about our global issue novel studies. We each are reading a separate novel, but we were able to all answer a few guiding questions and compare.

Click these links to see my classmates Alyssa, Jada, and Ivana's blogs.



Thanks for listening! Have a great day.

Global Issues Novel Study: Task #1

For the next while, I am going to be participating in a novel study exploring various global issues within our society. Click here for more information. The novel I have chosen to read out of the various options is War Brothers by Sharon E. McKay. So far I have read 20% of the novel, enough to begin to analyze the content.

What is the main issue being addressed in your novel?

In the book War Brothers, the focus is on Joseph Kony's army of abducted child soldiers, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). There are many references in the book to this event, even though neither of our characters have yet been taken. "He is sad because he grandfather was taken by Kony." Joseph spoke in a matter-of-fact voice. Tony's mouth dropped open. They took him as he was walking home from school, and that is the last anyone has heard about him. He was just a little younger than us, then." And, "Kony can't get us, you know. We are safe." 


Why did you choose this piece for your project?

I chose this book because the fact the children the age I once was have had their childhood stripped from them. The topic of child soldiers just makes me extremely angry. At their ages they should still be innocent and not have to go through all the things they have and seen all the things they have seen. 


What background knowledge do you already possess on this issue? 

Though I do feel strongly about children not being abducted to become child soldiers, I don't know much background information on the issue. I am aware of Kony and his army of abducted children, but the details I know are few, and obscure. 


What questions do you have as you begin to read?

My main question I had while reading was how the two boys will become abducted. I am unsure how Kony's child army operates, so I was totally clueless as to how this will happen. Also, since Jacob's father is wealthy and he goes to a school with extra guards, how will he become part of the LRA? I also wondered what "cassava" is. When I looked it up, it turned out to be a woody shrub that grows in Africa and South America and is also the root of tapioca. I was also curious to another aspect of their culture, religion. It mentions how many people are Christian (Oteka and Jacob included), and how the witchcraft from the medicine man goes against their religion, but what other religions are prevalent in their society? And is Kony targeting those people? My last detail I noticed was that Bella, the maid, was described as being very, very old at over 50 years old. This shows that diseases mentioned like AIDS really affect their life span. Here, very old is around 90 years old! That's a huge difference in years. I had more questions too about why this difference might be so large. 


What characters have been introduced so far?

So far we've been introduced to both Jacob and Oteka, the two young boys who are the focus of the story, and from what I understand, both get taken by the LRA. Oteka's story is very interesting and sad, and Jacob's is much less sad, and he as a person is often both naive and ignorant so far from what I have gathered. I think that his experiences in the novel will change him however. We also have met many more characters such as Ethel and Bella (maids at Jacob's), Jacob's father and his friends, Tony (Jacob's friend), Adaa (Oteka's honorary grandmother), Oteka's deceased family, and the medicine man Oteka visits. And of course, we've heard lots about Joseph Kony. 

Right now I am still getting a feel for the culture, setting, and characters, but I am very much anticipating when the deeper issues begin to be explored. Thanks for reading!