200 girls kidnapped...for going to school

[DGayle]

It has been a real slap in the face to American News just how good the news coverage by Al Jazerra is. There has been a deep void in non-partisan, straight-up information and Al Jazerra has stepped in. Sadly, many people here in America will let the name put them off.

Fox News is literally to blame. If it weren't for their lawsuit claiming news is entertainment and not subject to truth, news outlets have been sensationalizing and fabricating things on such a sheer scale that 200 girls kidnapped to be sold as sex slaves is a tiny story they think no one would pay attention to.

I get most of my news from NPR, BBC, and Al Jazerra, some of the stations with the least to gain by lying. Most American news outlets are just opinion pieces these days.

[DGayle]

Yes. LINK TV is also a good source as well as Free Speech TV. I also look at Al Jazeera English online. The videos are blocked from to the USA, but you can read the news coverage online. I wanted to see the difference, if any, in what we are given for news America vs English.

I think probably one of the most important things I learned in grad school was how to vet and analyze sources of information. Looking at perspective, motive, premise, conflict of interest, agenda etc, increasing the ability to think critically...

I got into an argument with a friend of mine earlier this year over sources. Her professor allows citing the Wiki. The Wiki is a good starting point, but you need to check their sources. So it shouldn't be the end-all-be-all! Yet a university professor allows it.

I learned from my dad to question motive and potential conflict of interest.

[DGayle]

This story is so sad. I'm a bit mad that it isn't talked about more in the media. Based on the other kidnapping that occurred before, it's believed the girls are forced to convert to Islam and marry djihadists or other members close to the group. :( These poor little babies. My heart aches.

Here is a good piece of photojournalism. A protest was held this week to press the government to hasten the research for the girls.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jinamoore/women ... 00-kidnapp (not breaking the link because it's Buzzfeed)

Things are really going down hill in this area of Africa in the last few weeks. Two Italian priests and a Canadian Nun were also abducted on the night of April 5th in Northern Cameron, near the border with Nigeria. Boko Haram didn't release any statement about it. But many observers blame the group because the way they were abducted seems like a signature move. I actually work for the Sisters of Notre-Dame (Sister Gilberte Bussiere who was abducted is part of that order) and they are very scared and anxious. They have literally no news at all for the past 4 weeks. Sister Gilberte is 74 years old and had been working in Cameroon since 1979, mainly teaching and opening schools :-/

I am deeply disturbed by the relative lack of men in these photos. So few fathers and brothers fighting for their daughters and sisters.

I hope Sister Gilberte is found safe. It's worrisome that there's been no word.

[DGayle]

Just wondering, maybe too much attention works against the victims?

Not possible. The more attention on this stuff, the better. Those girls are already in a situation where there will be no justice for their rapes and possible murders. How can attention work against them when they're already in the most dire of situations?

[FundieWatcher]

Not possible. The more attention on this stuff, the better. Those girls are already in a situation where there will be no justice for their rapes and possible murders. How can attention work against them when they're already in the most dire of situations?

Things can always get worse? Their have been some US military members kidnapped by terrorist over the years. Not much is mentioned in the news about it at all. The attention actually works against the situation somehow. The family members are asked not to go the media. Some went against that advice after a while. I won't claim to know anything about how these things work. I can imagine that if the media coverage was too intense the terrorists might feel hunted or under the gun and just kill the girls then flee instead of selling them.

[FundieWatcher]

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2014/04/ ... ian-girls/

This article has some opinions on why the coverage is low and why that might actually be a good thing. They also point out that the facts are slowly coming out and the coverage in Nigeria itself is low. With someone commenting that media attention might make the terrorist more irrational.

[Vivi_music]

I am deeply disturbed by the relative lack of men in these photos. So few fathers and brothers fighting for their daughters and sisters.

I hope Sister Gilberte is found safe. It's worrisome that there's been no word.

To be honest, I haven't realized the lack of men (I feel so bad!) and you are right, it makes me wonder why aren't there more? I hope, maybe it was because it was organized as a ''women's protests''? :confusion-shrug:

We have no news about Sister Gilberte. All of this is so sad. Kidnapping 200 girls and a 74 years old lady, can you be more of a coward?

[Hisey]

I recently read a book about a similar mass kidnapping of children in Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army. This is another one of those disorganized and free-floating rebel "armies." It's very difficult to negotiate or communicate with such groups, because they are at war, always on the move, have constantly changing leaders, etc.

In the Ugandan case, over 100 girls were kidnapped from a rather elite boarding school run by nuns. The head nun went after the girls, following their trail all night till she had caught up with them. Already some of the girls had been raped. The nun negotiated with the LRA and they agreed to return all but 20 of the girls. Their fate was the basis of the book I read, which was called Stolen Angels.

The 30 girls who remained with the LRA suffered terrible fates. All of them were "married" to some of the crazy, young LRA members. Those who tried to escape were beaten to death or otherwise killed. Sometimes the girls were forced to kill a girl who had attempted escape. It was terrible, I won't go into all the details.

It was very, very hard for the parents, nuns, or government to negotiate with the LRA, because it was such a loose and disorganized organziation, constantly on the move. Even after the case got the attention of people like Oprah Winfrey, it was very hard to know what to do.

The LRA has also kidnapped other kids, including children from orphanages. This is part of the reason it makes me mad when people complain about children adopted internationally into less-than-ideal families in the US. Yes, a fundie family is a terrible place to grow up, but it is far better than living in an impoverished orphanage with the risk of being kidnapped and raped by maniac rebel army members. And when faced with such a fate, orphans will gladly give up their home country and its culture (which often had rejected them anyway) in order to live in a place of safety such as the US. I sure would, anyhow.

If you are interested in the Ugandan girls story, I'd recommend Stolen Angels. I wouldn't recommend a fictionalized account of the events called Thirty Girls. The author of that novel seemed to capitalize on the kidnapping in order to make a buck, and actually went back to Uganda to ask the girls about their rapes in a manner which sounded enormously insensitive.

The kidnapping of these 200 girls makes me very sad, because it seems like a very similar situation, which means those girls are going suffer terribly. I hope I am wrong.

[Tesseract]

Hisey, thank you for the book title. I recently read another one called Night Wanderers. This one goes into the fate the boys who are kidnapped suffer. Yesterday, Al Jazeera reported on Bala Walter, a man who was returning to his home village after escaping the LRA as a nearly 30 year old man. He had been kidnapped at 13 and forced to do unspeakable things to family. He was not sure how he would be received, but thankfully, he was welcomed back. How does one ever "recover" from something like that? Al Jazeera is putting a face on the brief mentions of things happening "over there" that we generally get tidbits, if anything of, from the mainstream media.

[DGayle]

What exactly is it that we are supposed to do? This isn't a government that can be sanctioned, their army is in no fixed place to bomb...The UN would have the same problem-what can they actually do? Guard every school? Sure, but someone has to pay for that and provide troops. This is not a problem that lends itself to an easy or obvious solution that can be implemented by outsiders.

At least acknowledge this is happening! Officially speaking out is FREE. How about offering asylum?

[Arete]

Oh, someone at the State Department has probably already tut-tutted, it's cheap and free and rarely makes broadcast cable. As for asylum, who exactly would you give asylum too? These girls were not kidnapped by a government, they are being targeted by slavers.

This is cold and it is hard, but sometimes there is absolutely NOTHING that outrage from outsiders can accomplish. No one wants to face the real solution, that the Nigerian government needs to hunt these criminal bands down and liquidate them. It is a failing state and security issue, and the solution isn't pretty to most of our sensibilities.

[Clementine]

There was a protest outside the Nigerian embassy in London yesterday, demanding that the Nigerian government do more to get the girls released:

http://www.channel4.com/news/nigeria-mi ... ram-london

I am not sure how much it helps, but I'm glad the there are people who make a fuss about it so it isn't just another human rights crime that will be forgotten after a week.

[EyeQueue]

Did anyone see the news relating to this that just came out today? One of the missing girls turned up with a 4-month-old baby today.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-36321249

Front page of the BBC (and probably other non-American news outlets--not sure).

I checked CNN and guess what? Drumpf, Drumpf, and more Drumpf. Not anything at all about this breaking story.