Between trivialisation and ignorance

Child soldiers as pop-culture icons? Recent movies, such as The Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond, and music by bands like the Gorillaz and Radiohead indeed suggest that child soldiers have been put under a prominent spotlight in the entertainment industry.

In last week’s Time Magazine Belinda Luscombe expressed her concern that child soldiers will become trivialised. The danger is “cheap, ubiquitous images, dropped in like clip art for a hit of emotion and danger,” she argued.[1]

Ms Luscombe might be right, but the fact that the issue of child soldiers has been put on the international agenda can not be ignored. For example, the first trial of the International Criminal Court will be against Thomas Lubanga, a Congolese rebel leader accused of weaponising children.

The dilemma between trivialisation and mass awareness knows many examples. Journalists may find Michael Moore aggressive and his humour misplaced, but he did advance the debate about the US government and media to a wide public. Many historians agree that Schindler’s List is full of historical flaws, but they have to admit that this movie exposed a broad American audience to the holocaust. The political correct intelligentsia might doubt the motives of artists such as Bob Geldof, Bono, and Madonna, but the truth it that they have drawn more attention to Africa and all its problems.

So what is the greater danger here?

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers, mostly in Africa, but still there are many people in the west who don’t know about their existence. If the choice is between trivialisation and ignorance, the first is by far the lesser of two evils. ______________________________________________________
References
[1] Berlinda Luscombe, ‘Pop Culture Finds Lost Boys’, in Time, February 12 2007, pp. 62-64.