Today it’s all too common to hear people going on about how disconnected the world is, how apathetic we all are to each others’ problems, how the youth of today is cut off from reality and has nothing to say about the world or its issues.
Well, on the 25th April, 2009, over 1000 Australians across NSW gathered in Sydney to show support for an issue which needs to be addressed. Myself, Aidan and Grace were amongst that crowd which met at Milson’s Point, then walked single file across the Harbour Bridge holding a symbolic rope, all the way to Fleet Steps in the Botannical Gardens.
The march wasn’t disruptive or violent. It was conducted with a lot of respect and maturity and didn’t cause any trouble as it carried out its journey. Maybe if we’d made more of a fuss, we would’ve gotten more attention.
“The Rescue” was an event held in about 100 cities in 10 countries around the world. In every city there was a march, intended to help raise awareness to the plight of the child soldiers in Uganda, abducted by Joseph Kony to fight for the Lord’s Resistance Army in Africa’s longest running war.
Grace has already explained the outline for the night’s events, so I won’t go into them here. Basically this is just a follow-up to Grace’s post, where I can express my annoyance at the conclusion of Sydney’s Rescue.
I really thought that because Sydney had the largest attendence in Australia, that it would be easy for us to get rescued. I thought we’d have every flag raised by the time we moved to Hyde Park, no problem.
This was not the case, as you already know.
What I’m really upset about, is that every media contact we got in touch with and asked to come and cover our story, said they’d be there. They said they would come and cover it, if we just stopped calling. And then they didn’t show up.
Channel 10, Channel 7, at least three newspapers, they all gave their confirmation. Channel 9 said they’d be waiting at the Barracks, but they weren’t.
Lying out on the gravel in front of the convict museum in Hyde Park, freezing, were all these kids who had come out expecting their media and their government to show some concern. As far as I know, Perth got four members of their parliament to show up. The entirety of New Zealand was rescued within hours.
Our rescuer expressed shock over the lack of coverage we had when he gave his address. I really thought Sydney could do better.
It was ANZAC day, but that doesn’t explain why three other cities and the whole of New Zealand were rescued, and not us. Surely on a day commemorating the sacrifices made by our soldiers during past wars, we can spare a few moments to look beyond our own shores to the lives being affected by war today, a war in which the soldiers have no choice, and a war which we, as a part of a global effort, can have an impact on.
If this was going on in Sydney, there is no way it would be allowed to continue. The fact that it is happening in Uganda, shouldn’t make it any less important.
We were finally technically ‘rescued’ at around 5 in the morning by a guy from Channel 9 who had been in the city covering something else. We got a little bit of coverage, I don’t know when it will be shown.
The event at large seems to have done much better, and I’m sure Sydney will have contributed in a positive way by adding to the global message that Invisible Children seeks to spread. Our part was a small one, but hopefully our efforts will be made much greater in the grand scheme of things, when we finally see this war come to a conclusion, see Joseph Kony brought to justice, and the end of the abduction of children for the LRA.
Christa, too tired to think of something witty.
p.s “Hold on Uganda!”
Listening to: All These Things That I’ve Done – The Killers (damn good song.)
I helped to organise the Perth event and I know exactly how you feel. 4 members of parliament said they would attend, but in the end only 2 did. Luckily for us, the shadow Attorney General came and rescued us and did an excellent job of addressing the crowd and interacting with everyone. We were unable to get coverage from any major media outlets though, despite our best attempts, they simply were not interested. It made me realise how pathetic mainstream news coverage is.
ReplyDeleteNeedless to say these kind of obstacles can make you feel disillusioned, but the important thing to remember is that you really need a consistent, sustained and strong amount of public pressure in order to get a government to act. Government's receive public pleadings of this nature on a continual basis and it takes more than one rally to end a war.
My hope is that, given Invisible Children's profile in the US and the large number of cities that took part, that the US government will implement a response that will ensure Joseph Kony's child soldiers are rescued, and instigate other countries to do the same.
Hey Christine, my gosh, I didn't even know about this until now :S That is really pathetic, I am actually really angry after reading about what happened. The media don't cover any stories about young people these days unless its about our supposed bad drinking habits and how we don't seem to respect our elders like other generations did or whatever the fuck else they think they're better than us in. That really is just so ridiculous I can't even think of a better word...Its not the youth that don't give a shit, its all these "adults" who think they've got their lives all worked out and they're all mature and care about everything when they don't! the adults on buses who tell you to move for them are not any different. I can't stand these stupid stereotypes the media has placed on our age group. They're the ones making us angry.
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