These opinions are mine and I swear no one else's
Innocent Voice: Will it be heard?
How would a 11 year boy react who suddenly becomes the “man of the house” after his father abandons the family in the middle of a civil war? How would a 11 year boy would react when he would be forcibly recruited in army?
Based on the true story of screenwriter Oscar Torres’s embattled childhood, Luis Mandoki’s Innocent Voices is the poignant tale of eleven-year-old Chava who lives in a makeshift village with his mother Kella and two siblings. Each night gun fire rips more holes in their cardboard walls. But soon, Chava will be 12, the age at which boys are conscripted into the brutal Government army. Chava’s life becomes a game of survival, not only from the bullets of the escalating war, but also from the dispiriting effects of daily violence. As he hustles to find work to help his single mother pay the bills, and experiences the pangs of first love for a beautiful classmate, Chava’s tiny home village becomes both playground and battlefield. Armed only with the love of his mother and a small radio that broadcasts a forbidden anthem of love and peace, and faced with the impossible choice of joining either the army or the rebels, Chava finds the courage to keep his heart open, and his spirit alive, in his race against time. But when he escapes his village – and certain conscription – by joining his passionate, radical Uncle Beto at a guerrilla safehold, his childhood is at a premature end.
This is a deeply moving portrait of courage amid hopelessness, and innocence amid evil. In El Salvador in the 1980s, the civil war broke out after army seized power and started military rule. Their controversial decision on land lead to peasant’s uprising which led to civil war. In 1980′s government’s armed forces recruited twelve year olds, rousting them out of their classes at the local middle school or their homes. After seeing movie, one couldn’t wonder can human be so evil?
While watching movie, it constantly reminded me of our Maoists’ uprise and more than 10 year long war. Comparing Salvador and Nepal, situations are same, terror is same only difference is language and geography. Many villages like Chava’s village are burnt and children were forcibly taken to military camps either by guerrilla or state. Many innocent voices were silenced. I am silently recounting many of my army uncles’ descriptions. They describe how an entire VDC of Rukum was rout out by Army after villagers supported Maoists’ attack on them. I am remembering pains of many people who were displaced by Maoists’ threat. They describe how Maoists tried to flush out their families merely because they are government servants or are opposed to their ideologies. Many children like Chava were forced to join militia, are killed or are forced live in terror or are forced to displace. Many houses were burnt, many women were raped and many were injured.
The nightmare is finally over for now. Maoists and Government are in process of sustaining peace. Maoists are now part of Parliament as third largest parties. Yesterday was first anniversary of historic peace accord. People are debating on structuring power and making inclusive Nepal.
But still a boy doesn’t know why his house is bombed, a girl doesn’t know why her brother or father disappeared, a father doesn’t know why his son or daughter is killed. Many children lost their adolescence in their early age. Now 1000′s of questions and fingers are raised, but there’s no one to answer them.
All I wonder is may be those innocent voices would never be heard. Never!!!
Innocent deaths are a part of war.”The Problem of Pain”,The existence of suffering in a world is a fundamental theological dilemma.War and disease is a fact of life.Even in the animal world, the young / weak and diseased are first to become dinner.If u hv studied history,u will know dat most conflicts R caused by racial OR religious differences.Many people face discrimination because of their colours OR religion.There is war because people, despite our desire to say so, we are not all equal. We all have different levels of intellect. We have different strengths and different weaknesses. We all have different upbringings and are brainwashed (even though we don’t realize it) in different ways.They go to war because they want what the others have, or want to protect what they have.But the only reason why wars exist is because the mass majority of people are followers and not leaders. If people were leaders they wouldn’t become slaves to leaders. If there were no armies there wouldn’t be any wars.”Soldiers are the reason for war, war isn’t the reason for soldiers.”
That being said, we will disagree on things. Some of us react in violent ways because we either feel really strong about a cause OR we just can’t help it. Others of us will blindly follow because we are not smart enough to know better OR we feel safe in numbers OR we also like violence.In a perfect and just world, there shouldn’t be poverty and starvation, but of course, this world is not perfect at all. Where these events are concerned, people of all background are asks to help those in need as urged by their religion, faith or based on their humanity and morality.
Of course, it cause so much pain and grieve to see innocent children die of, be it in starvation, in line of fire, accident etc.Only one war is enough to destroy everything, and there is not much time left for man to understand that we should create a world where the very possibility of war does not exist.We have examples of people like Gandhi who freed nearly a billion people without the use of traditional forces. There were other forces at work that he describes in his autobiography. Because modern warfare has not given me an example of such power, I must conclude that this is something very powerful.
Thus the purpose of life is to learn. If people who have money would use it to buy food for the children who don’t have any, then the children would not be starving. Seems to me like the majority of the problems in this world are caused by mankind’s selfish choices instead of loving each other.
Life:- It’s all about perspective.I know each person will have a different view, some will say their view is fact and some will say theirs is scientific. Well I don’t know, I would be a rather silly person if I said I knew as no one knows for sure. We just have live out life the way we see fit, do the things we enjoy and love as many people as possible along the way.I live my life like that, I enjoy it, I do what makes me happy and I try to make others happy who come across me.I don’t hurt people, I don’t lie and I don’t steal and that’s how I am, I Look forward everyday for the new things it will bring, the new laughs, new smiles, new tasks and even new problems to solve. The purpose of life is to learn get an education and to get a career to start a family with the person you love .To me life is sorrow, struggle, adventure and challenge. You cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. No matter how much I care, some people just don’t care back. it takes years to build up trust and only seconds to destroy it. It’s not what you have in your live, but who you have in your life that counts. No matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides. There are people, who love you dearly, but just don’t know how to show it. Sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry but that doesn’t give me the right to be cruel. No matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that. No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief. We could remind ourselves of the bad experiences we have survived as an example of how much better things now are, but that is still a fairly negative approach. Instead, we can make ourselves much happier to concentrate on the good things and even on how we can improve things for ourselves and others. If we consider smoothly after achieving a goal, then maybe the goal isn’t what’s important. So if it’s not important, why do we set goals? I’ll get to that. We all know of the many problems facing the earth and its people. And I believe that most people would like to do something about it, but they don’t do much about it because they believe that what they do will not make any difference. That is how I feel.
kind regards
Laser