Carly's Digital Portfolio: Humanities Projects

Humanities Projects Page ~ Tree of Knowledge
Hello.
Hello, and welcome to my Humanities Projects Page! You may be wondering what Humanities is... it's kind of like a mix of Language Arts and Social Studies. I love this class because we get to study all sorts of different things. This semester, we have studied an array of subjects, which includes: Propaganda, World War I, (which included the book Slaughter-house Five, by Kurt Vonnegut,) World War II, the Rwandan Genocide, (which included the book Deogratias, by J.P. Stassen,) and currently, we are doing an independent study on a genocide we choose. I have choosen the Ugandan genocide, which is still going on. I will be updating this page periodically, so stay tuned! Thanks,

Carly

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Propaganda Project: A Look at Propaganda from WWII- Present
and the Messages We Gulp Up Subconciously
by Many Tricky Propaganda Techniques

Propaganda Poster

Propaganda Poster Analysis

U.S. Justice…
If We Don’t Avenge the Innocent
and
Restore Our Honor!

Tom looked at the poster- newly put up, yet it already had a rip on the side. The picture made some feelings stir up inside that he wasn’t sure what to think of: anger, fear, a wrenching feeling for those who had suffered and died, and -the biggest protest of all- a cry out against what had happened.

This is the effect I want my poster to have on people. I want them to have emotions stirred up by the picture of the sinking of the Lusitania. I imagine that the people who would have lived then, who would have read about it and seen pictures of the event in the Sunday newspaper would have felt all those emotions. The goal is to hopefully have people subconsciously associate AVENGE with WAR. I used kind of a dark setting, (dark sky, fumes from the Lusitania, dark water,) to help inject an over all daunting, distressing mood. The technique that it is used would be ‘transfer’, because it uses the Lusitania to suggest the idea of avenging the U.S.’s honor. Another technique I used would be ‘euphamism’ because instead of saying, ‘let’s go to war because people from our country died,’ the poster says, ‘avenge the innocent and restore our honor!’ ‘Avenge’ is a much ‘softer’ word than ‘war’, plus it gives us a reason. ‘Died’, a word that can often be gruesome, is replaced with ‘innocent’. Yes, ‘died’ has more emotion, yet ‘innocent’ gives the sentence a new meaning, because ‘innocent’ implies that the people did not want to, and shouldn’t have died, and that they should not have been a target. ‘Flagwaving,’ the last technique I used, is demonstrated on the Lusitania on the poster- the text on it reads, ‘U.S. Justice,’ therefore demonstrating that U.S. Justice will ‘sink’ IF we don’t avenge the innocent and restore our honor. The anticipated response would be indignance and anger at this idea.

This poster definitely fits into the historical context of WWI, because the Lusitania, a grand cruise ship, was sunk by German U-boats on May 7^th, 1915. This was before the U.S. entered WWI, and it was one of the causes for it. On February 18^th, 1915, Germany declared that it would start a naval export/import war against nations trading with Britain, so that Britain would not be able to import or export supplies, therefore damaging the economy and maybe worse, depending on what was traded and the amount at the time. President Wilson, along with other countries, sent a letter to Germany, saying that it would be held responsible if any American ship was sunk. Neutral ships were excluded from the order. However, that did not stop Germany from sinking the Lusitania.

It was true that the Lusitania was traveling into the ‘European War Zone,’ and Germany claimed the Lusitania was carrying weapons- which it turns out they were carrying ammunition to Britain, but so little compared the amount being used in battles. The attack was still for no legitimate reason. Upon hearing of the attack, there was an uproar of indignance from the U.S., although President Wilson reasoned that Germany changed their ways. Post-‘Lusitania’, the U-boats came to the surface to sink ships, and a neutral ship not carrying smuggled supplies to the Allies was allowed to go on. A neutral ship that was carrying the goods was sunk, but after the crew had evacuated into lifeboats. Apparently this was good enough for President Wilson.

What we are learning about propaganda and how it can influence us reminds me a lot of the project we did last year, with socialization, and how ads in the media effect us. That’s what propaganda is- ads. When people think of propaganda, it is thought of as trying to get you to vote for a certain person, or do a certain thing, instead of just buying something; however, persuading you to make a purchase works as propaganda as well. I think that propaganda aimed at people, especially with the bandwagon technique, can be very forceful, because I find that most of us have an unconscious, yet acute panic feeling when we think about being left out or left behind in something. People just want to fit in-not only teens feel this need. But I think it can be quite sad sometimes, when some store is selling something, and people buy it because they don’t want to be the oddball out- I think that changes something inside of us, just a little. And maybe, little by little, we are changed to be somebody we don’t recognize as ourselves anymore.

I read an article¹ on the internet where they talked about how ads have changed from the impression being, ‘buy this, and you will be loved,’ to, ‘buy this and it will love you,’ which implies a relationship with the object itself and implies that the product is more important than people. An example the internet site had was about a Thule commercial, with a baby in the backseat, with an adult’s seatbelt on, and then a Thule snowboard securely strapped into a baby carrier. The caption reads, ‘We know what matters to you.’ And then, ‘Your gear is a priority.’ This obviously implies that the snowboard is more important than the baby, and that whoever is driving the car cares more about his snowboard than his baby. Yes, it was funny for about two seconds, but then the author, Jean Kilbourne, pointed out that it is easier to love a product than a person, and that there is no vulnerability in loving a product, because it cannot hurt you as you could be in a relationship. Our emotions are linked to every piece of propaganda- just like my poster is. How true, and how awful, I think, for those who create propaganda to be able to take advantage of us, using our own painful, exciting memories and feelings against us. The author tells about when she does a lecture about ads: (People tell her) ‘“I don’t pay attention to ads…I just tune them out…they have no effect on me.” I hear this most from people wearing clothes emblazoned with logos.’ It is not possible to tune out all the information ads throw at us, particularly because it is deliberately designed to break though the ‘tuning out’ process, which it does through all of those emotions and memories I talked about earlier. Sut Jhally, an advertising critic, said, “To not be influenced by advertising would be to live outside of culture. No human being lives outside of culture.” What propaganda is trying to do is give you the information and ideas in a way so that it tricks you into thinking it was your own idea in the first place, therefore getting the best grip it can on you.

Ads not only tell you what to spend your money on, but they can also make your life seem boring and commonplace, which can be toxic to relationships and contentment, the author, Jean Kilbourne, pointed out. It gives us the message that it is better and safer to make a commitment to a product rather than a person. Also, they turn people into objects made to sell things. Chances are, if we like the way somebody speaks, looks, and they way they sell something, we are more likely to buy it. Unconsciously, we, especially girls and women, learn that we need to look and act and be a certain way because we cannot get away from ads communicating to us that our bodies are flawed objects. We buy to seek identity- indeed, every classmate I know uses clothing as a way to show their identity -it says a statement about ourselves. A researcher on the influence of media, George Gerbner, said, “For the first time in human history, most of the stories about people, life, and values are told not by parents, schools, churches, or others in the community who have something to tell, but by a group of distant conglomerates that have something to sell.” The story they are telling us is that to be happy, we need to buy. In parenthesis, with the asterisk at the very bottom, in point .2 lettering, it says, ‘buy, buy, buy, until it’s coming out of your ears, until you’re in debt, until your house is full of junk, until your personality is so identical to everyone else’s as if it has been run over by a steam-roller. Until objects of no personal worth are all you have left.’ The prize, after all, is fitting in, creating your own ‘special’, ‘unique’ identity with the items you have, and –the best part- the wonderful things you have spent everything on will make you happy. Completely, totally happy. For five minutes. Ap! That time it was two.

But was it like this back then in the early 1900’s? I thought that propaganda then was very different then it is today. However, after a little research, I have decided that, yes, it is different, but not nearly as dissimilar as we think. Of course, there was no television to throw at them four different advertisements in one and a half minutes, but that does not mean there was less in magazines or newspapers. I found that ads then may be just as sneaky and absorbing as they are today- one ad² in particular caught my attention- it was an ad promoting a ‘Scrap-book for “Homely Women” Only.’ It begins, ‘We dedicate this collection of toilet secrets not to the pretty women (they have advantages enough, without being told how to double their beauty), but to the plainer sisterhood, to those who look in the glass and are not satisfied with what they see. To such we bring abundant help.’ Shocking. That’s how I would describe it. For some reason, I thought that girls and women had only started to care about their looks only a few decades before now…but now I see that I simply did not think about logically. Of course women and girls were self-conscious, even before ads. Why should they not be any different then than they are today? In fact, I think that ad is one of the most straight-forwarded ads I have ever seen. If something like that was put on television today, people would be offended because ‘beauty on the inside counts more than on the outside.’ That’s what we tell ourselves, yet we still tend to judge people based on their looks. I bet that’s what they were trying to put in their heads back then, too, that being kind was better than having a fair complexion. Yet the ads are always telling us different, getting us to care about it even though we are trying to push it away with all our might. A few of us have succeeded, but others still cannot get it out of their heads. I think that ad is depressing, to put it simply. There are five reactions a person can have- the first would be, “I’m not a woman,” the second, “I’m too pretty, I don’t need this stuff,” the third, “I could really use this…oh…because I’m….ugly,” the fourth, “I don’t need this, I like myself the way I am,” (while still doubting yourself,) and the fifth, “I know that ad is trying to get me to do what it wants me to do and feel the way it wants me to feel, so I’m going to disregard everything it says.” Only a man would have the first reaction, and only somebody who has knowledge on propaganda could have the last reaction. But for most women and girls of the time, (early 1900’s,) who would have no knowledge on the effects and methods of propaganda, they would face either smugness or lack of confidence while facing the ad. How awful is that? To have to look at yourself and those around you and judge yourself based solely on looks. In all honesty, it sometimes makes me want to cry for the girls who have to put up with this- such ads making them face uncertainty and insecurity about their body and facial appearance. It’s not right. So what can you do about this? How do you get away from all of the advertisements that are clawing at your ankles and ripping your clothes? The simplest thing I can think of is to just turn the TV off. Stop watching. That’s number one. Next is stop to buying magazines that have a ton of skinny people with shining hair and ‘the latest fashions’, particularly for girls, because you can be unconsciously measuring yourself up to them. Of course, these will not work for everyone, but hopefully they will help. A conclusion I can draw is that the people creating the propaganda know a lot more about us than we realize they do. They know how to dig down, and pull up something that is connected to us in some way, and use it to get us to buy into something. Another conclusion is that, when using our emotions in a drastic way to get us to feel strongly about a certain thing, it can have a large impact on us, just because of the fierceness of our feelings. If you have propaganda that produces lots of strong feelings, it will be easier to get people to do what you’re trying to get them to. Next, they know that no matter what you do, as long as you’re watching their entertaining, thought-out commercial, you will be sucked in. And there’s nothing you can do about it.

¹Kilbourne, Jean. "Jesus Is a Brand of Jeans." New Internationalist. 1 Sept. 2006. Web. 24 Sept. 2010. <http://www.newint.org/features/2006/09/01/culture/>.

²"Vintage Ad Targeting "Homely Women"." Found in Mom's Basement. N.p., 17 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. <http://pzrservices.typepad.com/vintageadvertising/advertising_from_the_1900s/>.

1917, By. "Unrestricted Submarine Warfare." History Learning Site. 2000-2010. Web. 26 Sept. 2010. <http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/unrestricted_submarine_warfare.htm>.

"The Lusitania." History Learning Site. 2000-2010. Web. 27 Sept. 2010. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/lusitania.htm.

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Propaganda Poster and Reflection

1. Explain the assignment. Propaganda and World War 1. We have been studying propaganda, which is a form of advertisement that was excessively used to get people to join the army and support the war in World War 1. It has been used for quite some time, and continues to be used today. There are all sorts techniques that are used on the objects of the propaganda- that is, the people viewing it. For example, the ‘bandwagon’ technique uses the ‘everyone does it, so you should, too’ scheme. You don’t want to be left out, or be the odd one out, so chances are, you are obedient to what the propaganda is telling you to do. Advertisements and commercials that we see on billboards, in newspapers, and on TV could be considered propaganda, but the ‘true’ form of propaganda is usually used in political campaigns. What I mean by ‘true’ is that propaganda was originally used just for war or political efforts, and that’s usually what it’s thought of as, not just selling something to purchase. In our classroom, we have also been studying World War 1, which is how propaganda ties into it. Every little detail about the war, it seems, we covered. From how the war started, to how it grew to involve the whole world, to the weapons used, individual battles, to propaganda, and how it affected people. After pumping our brains with this fresh knowledge about the world’s past, our goal was to create a propaganda poster that would draw people in, use one or several techniques to make people do what you want, and make it relevant to World War 1.

2. Explain some of the revisions you made between your drafts. We had learned about the great cruise ship, the Lusitania, and how it was sunk by some German submarines in 1915. I thought it would be a great idea to do my propaganda poster on. One of the first drafts I had was a pencil sketch of a boat sinking, with waves all around it, and ‘Lusitania’ in small, fancy print on the side so people would know what it was. In bigger lettering, I wrote in an elegant scrawl, ’U.S. Justice’. In the black-and-purple water I had drawn with colored pencil, was the words, ‘…if we don’t Avenge the Innocent and Restore our Honor!’ I meant to give the impression that

U.S.

justice would sink…IF we don’t do something about it. Sort of like a cause-and-effect scheme. After our first all-class revision, where we traded our posters around 5 times and had our peers critique, it was clear to me what I had to revise: I decided to take the advice of my classmate Boone, and add some pieces of boat floating in the water for a more dramatic effect, and possibly the murky outline of the subs that sank the Lusitania, lingering beneath the black water. With advice from Kinjah’s critique, I decided to try putting the American flag in the smoke of the sinking Lusitania, to be more dramatic, and to get the picture across more, of the

U.S.

’s justice sinking. Tucker advised that I make the ‘Lusitania’ along the side of the ship bigger so people could recognize it easier. In the end, I decided against placing a German submarine below the surface, as well as taking out the American flag in the Lusitania’s smoke. I did not end up putting chunks of wood in the water, either, but my poster’s perspective is so far away that I do not think you would be able to see the pieces, anyways. As for my propaganda analysis, I talked a lot about propaganda and ads today and how it affects us. When my teacher, Lori, critiqued my paper, the biggest revision she gave me was to connect my analysis of modern commercials back to what we were studying for WWI propaganda, such as answering the question, ‘is propaganda today different than it was then?’ and ‘do you think it had the same effect on people then as it does today?’ She challenged me to offer my own recommendations, such as answering the questions, ‘should propaganda be limited?’ and ‘how should we, as a modern society, deal with this influence?’ If it was true that I spoke a lot of today’s propaganda, then after Lori’s critique, I spoke excessively of it. But I feel that it really adds to the paper, and goes very in depth about how extensively ads affect us. I added a lot on my thoughts about propaganda then and now- I don’t think it was as different as we think it was.

3. How do you feel about my propaganda poster? Hmm. Well, truthfully, I had imagined it to be more refined, with more details than it has now. However, I am glad that it turned out as good as it did, seeing I had to re-do it three times. I am glad I got in to cut out the ship and put it in the other picture, as well as trim it up, and add text. If I would have just turned it in as the farthest I had it before, it would have just been the picture of the Lusitania with its name on the side, not in the new water I put it in. So I’m glad I took the extra effort to re-do it again, even though it is not as detailed and trim as I wanted- for example, you can totally tell I just pasted the ship onto the ocean picture because-one, it’s in black and white, and the ocean and sky around it is not, and two- it is highly pixilated. But I’m just glad I got the time to make it better than it would have been!

4. What are the main ideas and lessons you have taken from working on this project? Double-check where you’re saving your work, that’s a lesson I’ve learned. No, quadruple-check it. Because it might turn out that you can’t open it, after all that time you spent. Which would be a real bummer, right? I also learned to not spend time fuming and being frustrated, because that’s wasting time that could be used to get on the right track again. I learned the best thing to do when things don’t work out is to just take a deep breath, go back, and start again. With determination. Because it’s no use to do anything else- you’re just wasting your time and energy and you’re just forgetting everything you learned. (On Photoshop, I mean. You’re just forgetting everything you learned on Photoshop. I didn’t want to say Photoshop in that sentence because of the parallelism it had to our lives in general, and I didn’t want to mess it up. Anyways, what I mean is, while I was trying to figure out ways to get a specifically outlined ship onto another picture of the sea, I also learned ways to do other things along the way. For example, I’d try out the eraser, realize it has components that I didn’t know even existed, but not the thing I needed it for. So there goes a piece of information, away into storage. Better put it to use while it’s hot.)

5. If you did this piece over again, or could do one more revision, what would you do differently? Why? If I had more time to work on my poster, I would have colored in the Lusitania, (because it is black-and-white, while the sea and sky around it is colored,) and added more details, such as pieces of the ship floating in the water, and some people in lifeboats, too. This, I feel, would have given the scene a more dramatic look to it. I had a particular picture with people climbing on top of an upside-down life raft, and others hanging onto it. Drama is what I was going for. Next, I would ‘transform’ the whole thing- maybe make it look like a sketch, or a painting, or just give it some texture. The idea is that it will take away from the ship, the Lusitania, obviously being copied and pasted into the scene, to make it all go together more, and to downplay the way the Lusitania is so pixilated. If the whole poster was pixilated or ‘transformed’ in some way, you wouldn’t even see the difference. Lastly, I would add a border around the whole thing, probably in a red, blue, and yellow color scheme, maybe with some stars, to throw in the ‘flag waving’ technique that I was going to go for. I already put in a little ‘flag-waving’ with the ‘Restore our Honor,’ text, and I thought the border would add even more to it, plus put in a nice, clean finish around the edges.

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Ugandan Genocide Notes (For more on this project, (Project Description, Artist's Statement, Pictures of my Project, and my Project Reflection, go waaaay down!)

Here are some notes I took- to view my actual project and writings for this project, please scroll down until you come upon blue asterisks *****

Secondary Source I

"Uganda's LRA 'seizes Hundreds'" Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera and Agencies, 12 Aug. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2010.

Summary: The LRA has killed at least 225 people and has abducted more than 600. It is thought that the LRA is trying to build itself back up again and to come back to Uganda. After taking the people and tying them together at the waist to form a human chain, the LRA usually loots the houses, taking food and clothing. Then, they are all marched into the bush. Joseph Kony, the leader of the LRA, is known for his brutality. "The LRA continues its horrific campaign to replenish its ranks by brutally tearing children from their villages and forcing them to fight," Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, said. A security void seems to be a problem, too. There are many more peacekeepers in the surrounding areas than there are LRA soldiers- the UN peacekeepers need to step in, because then the civilians can be protected. Joseph Kony, along with several other LRA leaders, have a warrant out for their arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Credibility: Al Jazeera seems credible, because there is a lot of information on the site, with quotes from knowledgeable people, such as Anneke Van Woudenberg, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, as well as specific numbers and dates. The site was updated only 3 ½ months ago. There are other links to all sorts of other information, such as on other Joseph Kony, the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni, and others. Also, there are links that go to pages that give information about various countries, cities, and organizations. There are advertisements, but only at the very bottom.

Evaluation: This information was relevant to my project because it helped me understand how the LRA operates. An interesting bit of information that I learned was how the LRA comes in the evenings or at night when they ambush, so they know that people are home, and how the LRA ties the people together by the waist and then leads them into the bush. I didn’t know about all the UN Peacekeepers being in the region, and it makes me question why DON’T they step in? I knew about the LRA, Joseph Kony, and how they just abducted people from my previous research, but I didn’t know, in detail, what tactics they used.

Evidence: The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has killed at least 255 people and abducted more than 600 others over the past 18 months in Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, according to a report by Human Rights Watch. The Ugandan group has been pushed into remote areas of neighboring states by military operations since 2005, but it now appears to be attempting to build up its numbers, the New York-based group said. "Nearly a third of those kidnapped are children and many of them are forced to serve as soldiers or are used as sex slaves by the armed group's fighters." The findings of the study conducted by Human Rights Watch were based on interviews with more than 500 civilians, "including 90 former kidnap victims". Tom Porteous, the director of Human rights watch, told Al Jazeera that the LRA may be mounting this campaign of atrocities to replenish its ranks in order to return to Uganda. The report says that the group's fighters "often attack villages early in the morning or late in the day, when residents are likely to be home". "LRA fighters grab their victims and tie them to each other by the waist, forming long human chains," it said. "The abductions are usually followed by the extensive looting of food, clothes, salt and other items, which are loaded into heavy bundles onto the captives' heads, backs and shoulders before they are marched off into the forest." Of 45 children who had escaped the LRA and were interviewed by Human Rights Watch, almost all had been forced to kill other children.

Secondary Source II

Amoru, Paul, and Cissy Makumbi. "AllAfrica.com: Uganda: The Journey of Leaving IDP Camps (Page 1 of 2)." AllAfrica.com: Home. Web. 03 Dec. 2010. <http://allafrica.com/stories/200911230488.html>.

Summary: One man said that the conditions in the villages that they have traveled home to are four times worse than in the camps, because there are no homes, no food, (because it was all destroyed and taken by the LRA,)no clean water, and it is a long ways from humanitarian aid. Around 80% of the people formerly in the IDP camps have traveled home. Hunger and starvation have spread because of lack of these necessities- people drink polluted surface water and become sick from water borne diseases and suffer from hunger. Malaria, Anemia, and Diarrhea have also spread. Many people who have come back to their villages have nowhere to go. According to local officials, the young, old, and sickly cannot build their own houses, grow their own food, or afford health care. Even with Universal Primary Education, books are not always affordable.

Credibility: I think this article is credible because it clearly states the names of the authors, the date it was published, and it looks professional. The information is clearly separated from advertisements, and, all in all, the site has a lot of information, including direct quotes from people in Uganda.

Evaluation: The thing I enjoyed the most about this site was that it had information about specific people, with their stories and their quotes. I also like how it briefly compared the villages now to the camps. I thought before that the people would come back home, and, oh, it would be wonderful. But now I see that it really wouldn’t be like that at all- just think what would happen to a house and land that had been wrecked and just left like that for 20 years. It would be a mess.

Evidence: Ms. Florence Anena, a 42-year -old widow and her 11-year-old son are all living positively with AIDS. Ms. Anena and her family were displaced for eight years at Unyama IDP camp, about 10 kilometers north of Gulu Town. She lost her husband while in the camp and lived in desolation and humiliation, surviving solely on handouts with her son who contracted HIV at birth. But amidst the challenges, Ms. Anena has since returned to her husband's village in Awilocici near Gulu Town. She is among thousands of former IDPs who have returned to their ancestral homes. She started out selling cereals, which were on high demand at the return sites, where there was need of seeds to plant on the vacant land."My [starting] capital was Shs50, 000 but as I talk now, I have Shs200, 000 and on a daily basis, I save Shs500 for my son and Shs1, 000 for myself. So in case of any emergency we can be in position to rescue ourselves," Ms. Anena explains. "Unlike other caretakers who wait for services from NGOs, I have learnt to save and in case of any sickness I am in position to treat my son and myself," she adds.

Secondary Source III

"All IDP Camps to Close by March 2010." Welcome to NUREP: Northern Uganda Rehabilitation Programme. 10 Dec. 2009. Web. 03 Dec. 2010. <http://www.nurep.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108:all-idp-camps-to-close-by-march-2010&catid=42:latest-news&Itemid=57>.

Summary: Omwony Ogaba, the Resident District Commissioner for Kitgum District, has announced that all IDP camps will be closed by March 31^st, 2010. In 2006, the Juba Peace Talks started and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed, and the LRA left northern Uganda. Most of the people in the IDP camps have deemed it safe to return home. As of November 2009, less than 500,000 people remain in the camps. 36% of the Amuru, 16% of the Kitgum, 12% of the Pader, and 9% of the Gulu people are still in the camps. NUREP has helped provide the people who returned home with boreholes, water troughs, solar and windmill driven water sources, valley dams and tanks, and more. It also supports reintegration and peaceful coexistence with the people. However, there are still concerns, which include Ugandans fighting for land, and deforestation.

Credibility: This site is very credible because it is the site of NUREP, which is the Northern Uganda Rehabilitaion Program, which is ‘a government of Uganda programme funded by the European Union.’ Plus, it has many different links to other pages of its site, including Home, About Us, Interventions, Events, Partners, Links, Disclaimer, and Newsletter. In addition, there are absolutely no advertisements on the site.

Evaluation: I was interested to learn about what helped the leaving of the LRA, and what the NUREP is doing to help people. Another topic I hadn’t even thought of was how the displaced people might effect the environment. If they want land, they probably will do anything, including cutting down trees, to give them space. It never occurred to me that deforestation would be an issue. So now the question is, how can we get people the land and water to live, yet save the environment by saving the trees? I’m not going to go off on this tangent with my project because the people are what I am focusing on, but it is something I had never thought of before.

Evidence: The Resident District Commissioner for Kitgum District, Mr. Omwony Ogaba has announced that all camps for the Internally Displaced Persons will be closed by 31st March 2010. Since 2006 when the Juba Peace Talks started and the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed leading to the LRA’s departure from northern Uganda, the IDPs have been steadily returning home. According to the Northern Uganda Data Centre (NUDC), 77% of IDPs have returned home and to date, less than 500,000 people, a majority of whom are in Acholiland, still remain in the camps. While 100% of the IDPs in Lango have left the camps, in Acholi different districts have varying populations still in the camps. The figures of those still remaining in the camps are Amuru 36%, Kitgum 16%, Pader 12% and Gulu 9%. A majority of these are living in transit sites from where they are being encouraged and supported to return in the homes of origin.

Secondary Source IV

Lacey, By Marc. "China Keitetsi." Race Matters. New York Times Company, 2003. Web. 05 Dec. 2010. <http://www.racematters.org/chinakeitetsi.htm>.

Summary: China Keitetsi, a former child soldier in Uganda, has published a book, called Child Soldier, which tells about what she saw, heard, and did as a child soldier. Although many people, including the Ugandan government, have tried to make claims that what she said is falsehood because it casts them and their country in a bad light.

Credibility: I think it is credible, because I know that China Keitetsi is a real person- I’ve heard about her and her new book before on other sites, and I highly doubt that any information about her would be made up or untrue. For instance, in her book, it is said to talk about how China was raped by several other soldiers and how she killed so many people she lost count. I know that that is not a lie because it goes along with other interviews I have read and heard. I completely trust this information. Also, the site looks fine, and the name of the author is at the top.

Evaluation: I learned more about what the child soldiers went through and more of what her book has in it- which I think is pure truth. The biggest thing that stood out to me was how the Ugandan government reacted to her book- numerous times they tried to make it look like her book was a scam, a lie, because it made them look bad. What does that say about President of Uganda Museveni? Doesn’t he know what is going on? I think he tried to get people to safety with the camps, but why is he trying to cover up the genocide that was/is going on? Isn’t that why he put the people in the camps in the first place? In addition, I was glad to see a personal story about somebody- China Keitetsi will definitely be a person that I integrate into my project.

Evidence: ‘These days she fights for her reputation against a Ugandan government that is embarrassed by her account and that has launched and aggressive campaign to discredit her… But Ms. Keitetsi has many backers. “We just met her once and we didn’t have any doubt,” said Monica Gram, her Danish literary agent. Unicef and Amnesty International continue to use Ms. Keitetsi to draw attention to the global problem of child soldiers… In the process, Ms. Keitetsi has become an international spokeswoman on the plight of child soldiers, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela. “If I stop talking, I will be betraying my life and the life of so many of my young comrades,” she said, brushing off the Ugandan government’s campaign against her.’

Secondary Source V

"Congo/Central African Republic: LRA Victims Appeal to Obama | CommonDreams.org." Common Dreams | News & Views. 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/11/11-0>.

Summary: Victims of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, which kills people, and kidnaps the children to make them soldiers so they can help carry out the killing and kidnapping, too, are pleading directly to President Obama, asking if he can help take action to end the massacre that the LRA is perform. Dozens of testimonies and letters from people have been posted on Human Rights Watch that are directed to President Obama. There are letters from Claude, a 14-year-ol boy from Dakwa village (Bas Uele District, northern Congo), Eveline, a 12-year-old girl from Botolegi village (Bas Uele District, northern Congo), Bridget, a 47-year-old woman from Kpanangbala village (Haut Uele District, northern Congo), and Emmanuel, president of an LRA victims' association in Obo (CAR).

Credibility: The credibility for this site is very believable because at the top, it has the organization you may contact, Human Rights Watch, the U.S. telephone number, and an official e-mail. In addition, they offer a Home page, About Us, Donate, Signup, Archives, and Search. You may also sign up to get CommonDreams.org in your mailbox. All in all, the site is very professional, clean, and has no advertisements whatsoever.

Evaluation: I learned about what this organization is trying to do, and, more important to my project, I learned the stories of these different people, which is exactly what I need for my project: The stories people have. (Now if I could only get their pictures…) But the idea is to show what horrors are going on, and that actual people are asking for help. Hopefully I will be able to use these testimonies, because they are exactly what I am looking for. Even if I am not able to obtain pictures of these individuals, I got the idea of putting the stories there, pictures of the people who did the testimonies which I am able to find, and then just pictures of other people. That is my new idea. Also, I know that the stories are of people not from Uganda, yet they still are connected to the LRA, which is why I like this site so much.)

Evidence: Bridget, a 47-year-old woman from Kpanangbala village (Haut Uele District, northern Congo):

Bridget was sitting outside her home with her husband and brother when a group of LRA attacked her village. She tried to flee but the LRA grabbed her. They stabbed her husband to death in front of her and looted her home. Bridget managed to run away, but the LRA tied up her brother and marched away with him, back into the forest. Three days later, Bridget found his body. He and five other men had been stabbed to death deep in the forest outside her village.

"I'm not at ease because of all that I have seen," she said. "My hope is that the international community can take measures to sanction the rebels who killed my husband and brother, and make them leave Congo. We have suffered far too much."

(I only did Bridget’s testimonial because there are several other testimonials, and I was unsure if I should put them all on here, or what, so I only put one.)

Secondary Source VI (counts for 2)

Branch, Dr. Adam. "Fostering the Transition in Acholiland: From War to Peace, from Camps to Home." Scribd. Human Rights Focus, Sept. 2007. Web. 2 Dec. 2010. <http://www.scribd.com/doc/4535979/N-Uganda-Human-Rights-Focus-September-2007>.

Summary: Out of the 66 pages, I used 21 of the pages, then narrowed it down to return patterns of the Gulu and Amaru districts and the Kitgum and Pader districts; who is remaining in the camps; security; infrastructure and rehabilitation; resettlement kits; and the information deficit. Gulu and Amaru districts return patterns: People have moved to locations around schools, because it is thought that in areas around schools, there will be more services available in the area. Movement out of camps have been organized by many different people. Sometimes young men, sometimes the families who lived there before the camps were made on their land, sometimes the government. Kitgum and Pader districts: District officials have declared Pader and Kitgum districts to be able to be moved back into; however, at the same time, UPDF officials and security have instructed people not to return home. The right to return home seems to be violated. Who remains in the camps: Different people are accusing each other and others of staying in the camps because they are lazy, or because they do not know how to farm. Specifically, young men, taxi/ bicycle taxi drivers, taxi loader boys, business people, and girls who people had thought had turned to alcohol and prostitution. When these specific people were talked to, most said they were firm on leaving within the next two years. For those who said they were going to stay, they mostly said because they had land close enough to the camps so that they could work on it and then come back to the camps to live. Others said that they didn’t want to move back home until they knew they could stay for good. Security: Many people were afraid to leave the camps because the LRA had not come out- this means that other vandals could steal and things and they’d get away with it because they could claim it was the LRA. In addition, people were anxious that since the LRA is not caught yet, they might be forced back into a camp. Before, everyone in the villages worked together to keep bandits out- but now that everyone is messed up and confused, bandits would easily perpetrate them. Infrastructure and rehabilitation: Rebuilding roads, getting water through more bore-holes, and education continue to be the main points that need to be rehabilitated. Because there are more schools in the camps than in violence-torn villages, or in transitional sites, often times children are left in the camps to get an education, while their parents work in the transitional sites. This begs the question of how the children are being looked after, and it is recommended that nursery schools and other schools should be set up. Resettlement kits: Seeds, machetes, blankets, and iron sheets are part of the resettlement kits. However, many times they do not work, so they cannot be used. For example, seeds that could not germinate were given to people, who had to end up eating them instead. Also, blankets were sometimes so coarse that they were used as a shower curtain instead of blankets. Sometimes the machetes are too weak to use. It is uncertain if everyone will get a resettlement kit and what it will contain. People also do not know if they will get the 30 iron sheets they were promised, so they don’t know whether to stay and wait for something, or go home without it. Information deficit: People in the IDP camps are unsure of how much more food they will receive, when they should be given the information. Meetings, pamphlets, and fliers are the most effective way of getting out information.

The next paragraph will include the summaries of: Women in Displacement and Return; Threats to Land at Present; and obstacles That FAPs Have to Return. Women in Displacement and Return: Women say that the camps have effected them negatively because some of their husbands have died, succumbed to alcohol, left their wives, and joined armed forces, so the women become responsible for their families by getting jobs. In addition, women are being abused more and more by the men because of alcoholism. However, the good part is that in the camps, the women get to be out with other women, and there are chances to earn money. It has helped bring women together, and to give them more independence than they had before. Women are moving up, and some are even assuming positions of authority. Threats to Land at Present: There are several threats to people’s land. First, the government claims that the land is the government’s, and takes it from them for personal use, or takes it to give to others. The government also sometimes claims they need the land to make it into a forest or game preserve. In other cases, a family has lent another family their land for years and years, and now suddenly demand it back. Also, at times a woman who has married a man in the camps or who has a baby born in the bush will not be allowed onto her husband’s land, and sometimes the woman and baby are rejected. People who were captured by the LRA at times come home to find their neighbors have taken over their land. Obstacles That FAPS Have to Return: Most FAPs have little or no concern about returning to their former homes, and some already have. They have rebuilt ties with their families and community. On the other hand, others, especially who have been with the LRA longer, are having trouble. When they want to go home, they are afraid that people will be against them. They are afraid of violence against them by the LRA, their community, or the government . They are also afraid they might be arrested for taking part in the LRA. Other times, they don’t want to go home because the LRA has changed them so much. Instead, they prefer to settle in town, instead of in a small, spread-out village, or to make a life for themselves in camps or trading centers.

Credibility: I have no doubt whatsoever of the credibility of this source. I mean, it’s a 66-page report on Uganda, what is happening in different areas, and then recommendations about what would help it move on the right track. In addition, there are acknowledgements, and the name and e-mail of the lead researcher is present, as well as the names of the Human Rights Focus Project Team, and the Research Team. The address of Human Rights Focus is listed, along with several phone numbers and the website. This report is very professional, and the only advertisements are at the top from the site it is on.

Evaluation: I learned much more about the intricacies of the camps- the different camps themselves, what people think about each other and the camps and what is going on in the camps. I learned the people’s worries and fears of not having enough to be able to go back home, and the fears the FAPs had to deal with. Also, about how the FAPs were being received into their communities. I’ve learned a lot about the people and how they see it all, and I hope to integrate it into my project when I give little overviews of what is happening with the Ugandan genocide.

Evidence: Here is a clip from one of the paragraphs I highlighted as informable: Therefore, displacement not only caused significant physical hardship and suffering for women, but also brought women together in a way they had not been before. Perhaps the most noticeable result has been the emergence of women’s groups, mostly for economic empowerment through rotational work schemes—kalulu pur—or loan schemes—kalulu cente. These are often combined with cultural activities such as music, dance, or drama, and serve the additional purpose of providing women with a space in which to come together and discuss their problems. Some groups were started through interventions by aid agencies or by the government, but many of them have received no external support. The women’s group has proved a rapidly multiplying social form as each group that is created in the dense camp setting, where the benefits—perceived or real—of being in a group are widely visible, serves as a catalyst for other groups. Indeed, many women who were not in a group expressed to us their intention or desire to join one in the future.

Primary Source I

Diaz, Mario, dir. Uganda Genocide. 2008. Web. 1 Dec. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09I-GRBf3Cw>.

Summary: Through many interviews, we gain a perspective of what it was like in the Uganda IDP camps: no food, not enough sanitary bathrooms and whatnot, deadly conditions where a contagious disease would spread like wildfire because the houses were so close together. It was a disgrace to everybody because whole families had to sleep in the same room. Women and girls were being raped, and there wasn’t anybody to report it to, because they wouldn’t do anything about it. There are stories of the LRA coming and killing people’s families, and how their siblings were abducted by the LRA. Lastly, it is talked about how it is the government’s job to take care of their people, but it looks like they are actually committing a genocide, because they see how many people are dying per week- 1,000- and they’re not doing anything.

Credibility: I would say that this source is very credible, because it is by CEGUN, which is Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda Now! I have heard about it from various other sites. In addition, I looked up the people who were interviewed, such as Milton Allimadi, editor-in-chief of Black Star News and Olara Otunnu, Former U.N. Undersecretary General, and both proved to be credible. (Also, I think I saw Olara Otunnu on TV the other day.)

Evaluation: This video has helped me gain a lot of insight into what people are/were going through in the camps, and I know this to be true, because I heard it from their own lips. I know it’s not some report somebody typed up, I know that it is the truth because there are people being interviewed. I am going to probably use at least a few of these people and their pictures for my project, because it’s perfect: I can take a picture of them on the video, and then post their quotes under it. Hopefully.

Evidence: “Life wasn’t all that bad during the time before Museveni came into power,” says Geoffrey, a Ugandan asylum seeker, “But when Museveni came into power…eventually everything now shifted. I lost my dad during that time. He was killed by the LRA…The situation in the camp is really horrible. They blocked the decent way of life the Acholis had.

“Now,” says Milton Allamadi, Editor-in-Chief of Black Star News, we also have credible reports that the Ugandan government has also used those same tactics, and they blame it on the LRA….Where else in the world could you have a government allowing its own citizens to die at well over 1,000 deaths per week, every year, for 10, 20 years, and not be brought to task… But it’s slow-motion, it’s not seen, it’s not beamed around the world. People die of starvation, they die slowly, they die of disease, they die of planned neglect…human beings are not supposed to exist or to live in such conditions. And, by the very fact that those conditions are allowed to continue existing, when it is in fact known by the Ugandan government, that suggests to me a policy of genocide.

Gloria Oloya, a CEGUN member, said, “The conditions in the camps are just deadly. They are absolutely deadly. There’s not enough food, there’s not enough sanitary facilities for people, and people are absolutely crowded, so any contagious diseases that would break out, they would just spread like crazy through the camp because there’s no breathing room for people.

Primary Source II

Hashagen, Amanda, and Mindy Marie Roberts. "YouTube - Come Back Home (Dwog Paco)." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 02 Dec. 2010. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Summary: A number of people told about how they were abducted, and how they had to walk for five days to Sudan. One girl told about how she was given to a man that told her if she was stubborn, he’d kill her. Another talked about how she had to kill people. A Gulu Professor of Phycology talked about how children were abducted instead of adults, because they could become disoriented and scared more easily. Also, they talked about how that generation is hopeless, because they know no value.

Credibility: This source is credible, because World Vision is mentioned, and I have researched it, and World Vision is a reliable organization that really does help people.

Evaluation: I have gotten a few more interviews here, and something to think about for me was how this whole generation is going to… just not be connected, because of the violence and everything they grew up in. It was great to have more people’s interviews, so I might use some for my project.

Evidence: These are all the interviews and quotes from the video: “They abducted me at night. . We were 12 children which had been abducted in our area. We were ushered into the house. We were tied at the waist, mixed even with men. Then they started walking with us. They walked with us, it took only five days when we reached Sudan. The older and bigger people you find they are being killed when walking has defeated them. When we walked and reached Sudan they started taking me to give me to some man that I knew. When I was presented, I went to him. He told me that if I was stubborn he’d kill me.”

“Me, I was captured. I was captured in ’96. Knowing the age, that would be a little difficult because I was still little. If not 8 then 9. I was even carried to go to Sudan. Yeah, people were given and we killed. Yes, two people. Yes, because I was even just forced. I didn’t even want to. Because if you refused they’d kill you. Because they were asked to show where the center is and they refused. Yeah, those kind of people, they refused. Then that leader said to kill these people. All those three, ahh, all those two we would hit. We would hit with a log.”

Did you have any brothers or sisters? Yes.

Did they take them? They have taken 2 of them, 2 of them they have killed. But me and another boy, that boy has gone back home. That’s home, but the 2 they have killed.

Have you spoken to your family, since you’ve been here? Have you met with them? No.

Have they found your family? No.

For me I like English and Social Studies. To know, if you know the English you can be a good teacher. If you are following what a teacher is telling you… such a thing like that. If you listen to your parents, you can be a good teacher, even a leader. If I do so, I think I will be a good teacher.

Where will you live when you leave World Vision? Will you live with your family? When I leave the World Vision here? I think I will go… I will go back home.

They had a thing, they have give me to kill a person, but I have refused to kill a person. I have been in the bush, but I didn’t kill any civilian…in the bush. They can force you to kill, but if you refuse, because they chose me to kill, but for me even I have my gun. If you say if you don’t kill that man I will kill you. If I say also, I will kill you because all of us have a gun.

“And I say to be in the bush is very very difficult because there is no food, there is not even water. They beat you so much. They like to kill people.

James, a Gulu University Phychology Professor, said, “Adults were abducted, but the majority of adults abducted would escape. So they thought it was useless to abduct the adults and keep them in the ranks, because they would escape. Instead, the children would be confused in the bush and not find their way back, and they could be very easily intimidated, forced to remain within the ranks… it is not only peace they have not known, a lot of things a child being born in the bush has not known what school is, has not known anything good. Maybe the child has already developed a different definition of peace. It is going to effect their integration into the communities, drastically.

“Sometimes maybe children are taken to kill people, and when they cut, they can be instructed to cut off the neck or head of that person,” says Alice, a World Vision Child of War Counselor, “then possibly hold the head in their hands like maybe some luggage… when I see very young girls even below my age, they will be with children, or sometimes you find that they are sexual abused, to have been exposed to that, no one at all at that age can be forced to be a Mom from the bush there, because the girls are entitled to that. When the girls come up, you feel pain for them, because they have…they come with their thighs begin to ache, they even sometimes fail to walk… I can imagine some of the children here during the war, and they’ve never known what this is. So it’s like they are growing their life over taggery???? , like rebocktivity, children, when they are young as they may be to three years old, you see children playing with guns, and this are not normal toy guns, but they know what the guns do, it kills people. They do not watch from views (fumes?) but they see and they hear, and that is really very bad for this generation in the north. I don’t feel good about it… I don’t know the designer of the northern people who are ???? taken like over 18 years, come almost 19, 20

“The rate, I think is …all people are gone , “says mike, a primary school teacher, “not merely gone physically, but also in terms of…a generation will be without any useful value. Born in conflict, gone/born conflict, no future in the conflict, it’s useless generation. Useless. And that is it. It’s terrible.

“ The 19 years has brought… in a generation that I have called a lost generation.

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Uganda Genocide

My Uganda Genocide Project: Overview

For this project, each person in the class chose a genocide to do their project on. I chose Uganda because it is a genocide that is currently going on today, and I want to help bring awareness to what is going on- after all, you cannot stop something when you do not even have the knowledge that it is happening, can you? Then, we did extensive research on that particular genocide. That's when the Uganda Genocide Notes came into the mix. (As you saw above.) Next, we decided what sort of a project we wanted to do now that we had all the information we needed. There were all sorts of different projects: People created videos, songs, essays, sculptures, masks, posters, diagrams, drawings, you name it. As for myself, I decided to put all the information I learned into several projects which would then come and join together as one massive project. The different elements of my project were: 1. 3 Stories of young adults who had been effected by the LRA, (Lord's Restistance Army, an armed rebellion group that is violent towards the Acholi tribe and kidnaps Acholi children and makes them kill their families and whoever else dares to refuse them.) Also, I included pictures of them. (To watch the videos I got their interviews off of, go to YouTube and type in 'Ugandan Genocide' or 'Come Back Home (Dwog Paco).) 2. Then, I made 3 different sculptures, one of each person. I put the sculptures on a platform that had many pictures of different people, mostly children, in the refugee camps. 3. I created a poster that says, 'GENOCIDE' with sharp shards of mirror.

My Uganda Genocide Project: Picture of me and my project

My Uganda Genocide Project: The 3 Stories of Ugandan Refugees

Geoffery

“Life wasn’t all that bad before [Uganda President] Museveni came into power,” says Geoffrey, a Ugandan asylum seeker, “But when Museveni came into power…eventually everything now shifted. I lost my dad during that time. He was killed by the LRA. When the LRA invaded the town, they come to loot a lot of merchandise, so they broke into many shops. And so when they broke into my daddy’s shop, they decided to cut him to pieces, and we were just watching and seeing. The situation in the camp is really horrible. They blocked the decent way of life the Acholis had. You find in the manyattas where people are sleeping… you are going to sleep with your father, your mom, your auntie… in the same place. Because, like us, a grown-up boy of over 18 does not share the same room with a… a father and daughters and everything. So it was just a disgrace to everybody. And then, the women being abused by the government soldiers… young girls being abused by the government soldiers… You can find your mother being raped, your sister being raped… and we have nowhere to report because the commanders will do nothing.”

Girl (Name Unkown)

Girl: “They abducted me at night. We were of 12 children who had been abducted in our area. They had a gun they gave me to kill a person, but I refused to kill a person. I have been in the bush, but I didn’t kill any civilian in the bush. They can force you to kill, but if you refuse, (because they chose me to kill,) I had my gun. If they say, ‘if you don’t kill that man, I will kill you.’ [Then] I say also, ‘I will kill you because all of us have a gun.’”

Interviewer: “Did you have any brothers or sisters?”

Girl: “Yes.”

Interviewer: “Did they [the LRA] take them?”

Girl: “They have taken two of them, two of them they have killed. But me and another boy, that boy has gone back home. That’s home, but the two they have killed.”

Interviewer: “Have you spoken to your family since you’ve been here? Have you met with them?”

Girl: “No.”

Interviewer: “Have they found your family?”

Girl: “No.”

Girl (continued): “For me I like English and Social Studies. You know, if you know English you can be a good teacher. If you are following what a teacher is telling you… If you listen to your parents, you can be a good teacher, even a leader. If I do so, I think I will be a good teacher.” (She smiles.)

Interviewer: “Where will you live when you leave World Vision? Will you live with your family?”

Girl: “When I leave the World Vision here? I think I will go… I will go back home.”

Note: World Vision is a relief, development, and advocacy organization that works with children, families, and communities to overcome poverty and injustice. In 2009, World Vision helped 11,643,253 people. The girl who was interviewed was living in a World Vision shelter at the time of her interview.

http://wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf/maindocs/3F50B250D66B76298825736400663F21?opendocument

Peter

Peter, a Ugandan refugee, said, “When I was 6 years old I started my education in Central Uganda. I lived at school when I reached 5th grade. My parents were killed. My two brothers were abducted. My young sister was abducted. So the report was brought to me when I was at school in Central Uganda in Soroti District. I came back home…I found that everything was nothing completely. The homes were burned. The whole place was flat. I think the government is the government because of the people. So I don’t think the government can be the government alone without anybody to be ruled. So that’s what I’m requesting from the U.S. government. To give speeches… or to raise up such kind of issues. And to make sure the Uganda government should take responsibility of everybody.”

Photos and quotes courtesy of YouTube videos: Come Back Home (Dwog Paco) by Amanda Hashagen and Mindy Marie Roberts, and Ugandan Genocide by CEGUN (Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda …Now!)

My Uganda Genocide Project: Artist's Statement

See Them in Yourself, Find a Way to Help

Here in the United States of America, we are luckier than we know. Many of us have not been touched by the violence that goes on around us in many other countries. Here is an interpretation, account, story, or whatever you wish to call it, of the Ugandan Genocide. Unfortunately, I must inform you that found that rather than one genocide, there are more likely two genocides, with the first leading to the second. The first genocide is the doings of Lord’s Resistance Army, a ‘Christian’ armed rebellion group ‘against the government’. Besides having kidnapped around 30,000 Acholi children and forcing them to kill their families and many other people, the LRA has also mutilated and sexual enslaved their children abductees. It is hard to believe that this has gone on for more than 20 years. The results of the Lord’s Resistance Army, I have decided, are worse, if possible. In what I call the ‘second genocide’, Ugandan President Museveni, allegedly to protect those endangered by LRA, forced 1.5- 2 million people into Internally Displaced Persons camps to ‘keep them safe’ from the Lord’s Resistance Army. There conditions in the camps are appalling, and there is an estimated 1,000 deaths per week. The ‘guards’ for the camps often rape and abuse those in the camps, yet the commanders will take no actions against it. Some camps have been in place for around 20 years.

Uganda Genocide , a YouTube video: The girl, with her black-coffee-colored hair and skin the color of milk chocolate, who seemed to be rocking where she sat, licked her lips, looked straight at the camera, and began to tell her story, “They abducted me at night…” She pulled me into her world, into her story. I saw the darkness; I felt her fear raise the hairs on my neck. “…two of them they have killed…” I think the videos made the biggest impact on me and gave me the most authentic view of what life in Northern Uganda is like right now. The difference was that I could see the people, their faces, and the pain in them. I could see their humanness. To see their faces right in front of me made me very clearly realize how real of a conflict this is. The videos proved to serve exactly to my needs because they focused on the people and their experiences with the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Internally Displaced Persons camp- exactly what I had been hoping for. My goal for this project is to be about the people.

You know, it is debatable whether this really is a genocide- some claim that the Ugandan government is simply trying to keep the people safe. I cannot see how further from the truth you could be. Milton Allimadi, Editor-in-Chief of Black Star News, in the YouTube video, Come Back Home (Dwog Paco), stated, “…citizens [have died] at the rate of 1,000 excess deaths per week, every year, for ten, twenty years. They die of planned neglect. And by the very fact that those conditions are allowed to continue existing, when it is known by the Ugandan government, that suggests to me a policy of genocide.” In addition, Gloria Oloya, a CEGUN, (Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda Now!) member, said, “The conditions in the camp are just deadly… There’s not enough food, there’s not enough sanitary facilities for people, so any diseases that breaks out just spreads like crazy.” Genocide. That’s what I’m out to prove and show you. The three clay statues, each taking an alikeness to some form of fear, anger, and bitterness, represent the targeted Acholi, inflicted by the Lord’s Resistance Army and suffering in the Internally Displaced Persons camps, a.k.a. the ‘death camps’. At the same time, they each represent the emotions of the person whose picture and story is below. The sculpture above Geoffrey, which has his legs in crossed, a bony elbow on each knee, his face in his hands, is representing the helplessness, having nowhere to bring justice, the unfairness of it all. Above the girl, the figure has her arms wrapped around her legs, representing her pain and distress which she seems to keep within herself as she speaks of her family without any emotion, as if she is numb. The last statue above Peter characterizes his bitterness and the aching in his heart that you can see in his eyes and what he says. His figure’s position is the most abandoned, the most needy, and the most tormented. The purpose of the statues is to shine a light, even painfully bright, on how they have been treated, what they have gone through and still are going through. Any pictures at the statues’ feet catch your eye? If you look closely, you will notice they are pictures of those, mostly children, in IDP camps. A kind of reflection of the three youth, it brings the awareness that there are not just these three dealing with this problem, there are many others, and the pictures are just a few dozen of the millions out there.

The poster behind the three sculptures, reflective (literally and figuratively) and sharp, has the word GENOCIDE across it, made up of mirror shards. Broken and shattered into slivers sharp as the blade of a sword, the mirror pieces are to symbolize both the brokenness of Uganda, (the Ugandan government, the Ugandan-started LRA, and the families in the IDP camps,) as well as to give those viewing my project a reflection of themselves. ‘Look in the mirror- can you see them in you?’ is the question written in black across the bottom. The aim of such a question is to get the viewers, you, to see those whose lives have been shaken up by the LRA and IDP camps in yourself. My hope is that this creates a kind of realization that, hey, these are people, just like you and me, who are in desperate need of help. And hopefully once you have realized this, you will take action to help the people of Uganda.

If you take nothing else away from my project today, take with you knowledge. Knowledge about what is going on in Uganda. That is the reason I chose Uganda- because it is a genocide that is currently happening today. The goal of my project is to bring awareness about what is happening in Uganda to Durango, because the first step to ending genocide is recognizing it. I want my viewers to acknowledge it and to have the desire and inspiration to do something about it. As Gloria Oloya, CEGUN member, says in the video, Come Back Home (Dwog Paco): “…it’s not a passive thing where you just go to sleep and figure that everybody’s being taken care of. You could choose any country on the earth and talk about what the human rights situation is, but when you look at Uganda, it seems to be a worst-case scenario on so many different accounts.”

Art is one of my joys in life, so when the decision for what sort of project to do came upon me, I immediately chose to do something with clay, because first of all, for me it’s just more fun than writing a lengthy essay, and second, I feel that art has certain qualities, most unnoticeable, that allows people to more deeply understand the situation and the feelings behind . I knew I wanted to incorporate how helpless the men, women, and children in the IDP camps are and I needed those who would be viewing my project to get themselves involved with the Ugandan genocide as well. I think both of those goals have been met through the three figure sculptures and the GENOCIDE poster behind it.

My Uganda Genocide Project:Project Reflection

1. When you think about this project, what are you most proud of and why? This could be a particular aspect of your final product, part of your work process, a specific revision you made…

I am most proud about my final project- the way everything came together in the end. I had a picture in my mind of what it would be like, and my project turned out to be almost exactly the way I had pictured it! I am quite pleased with the way everything came together for the Exhibition- I felt like I really knew my facts and had a lot of information to share. Before Jake asked me to explain what my project was about, I was underestimating myself. I wasn’t completely sure I knew what the facts were and if I could make a good presentation. So I was slightly startled when I gave Jake all the details of what happened in Uganda. I realized, ‘hey, I know what I’m talking about, and I can explain my project thoroughly, and I feel good about the final product,’ which made for a successful exhibition for me.

2. If you had 1 more week to work on this project, what would you change/add to make it more amazing?

If I had one more week to work on this project, what would I change or add? I would take more time to look for a Lazy Susan and I would redo one of my sculptures. You see, if I had the stories on the Lazy Susan spin around, more people would have read all of the stories, instead of the one directly in front of them. All three stories are equally important, I think. As for the sculpture, I’d totally start over with the one where the young man is kneeling over with his face in his hands. Specifically, I would shape him so that his knees were more bent, as well as his back, so that I could place his elbows on his knees, which would support his upper body. I would make it so that his feet and legs were all even with each other, which would keep him more stable and less wobbly. The way he is now, there is a lot of weight on his upper body that is unsupported, so he could fall forwards. Also, his feet are at different heights, so that doesn’t really help with his balance. In fact, literally attaching the all of the sculptures to the Lazy Susan, probably with Elmer’s glue, would be another step I would take make them secure. However, there is a connection between finding a Lazy Susan and having to redo the sculpture: If the quotes were around the Lazy Susan, that would mean that I would have to make my sculptures sturdier and less fragile so they wouldn’t fall over or break if a person was a little less gentle than I would hope them to be when spinning them around. It wouldn’t do for them to come flying off, now would it?

3. Of the categories on the rubric, which do you think your project is strongest in? Explain your answer with specific examples from your project, and explain how you were able to make this so strong.

‘Audience engagement’ is the area my project is strongest in because it is very appealing to the eye, what with the GENOCIDE poster made out of mirror shards and dotted with blood spatters, not to mention my sculptures portraying different emotions with the story and picture of the person they are representing underneath them. I got many complements on both the poster and the sculptures. Obviously, my whole entire project is made up of creative elements. The way this was so entertaining and attractive for people is because people enjoy things they can see- they enjoy art. It is a lot harder to get people interested in your project if it’s eight pages of size 12 font- people seem to enjoy visuals, which makes up almost all of the project, (excepting the Artist’s Statement, of course, and the three small stories of the Ugandan young adults.) The reason why I chose to do an artistic project is because I think that, a lot of times, people can relate to things they can see (art pieces) which represent feelings and emotion better than a paper could.

4. Of the categories on the rubric, which do you think your project is weakest in? Explain your answer with specific examples from your project, and talk about why this is the case. You should also talk about what you could have done to improve this aspect.

My project is weakest in the ‘professionalism’ category. The cardboard on which I modg podged many small, colorful pictures of adults and children in the IDP camps was showing from the sides, which makes it look less professional. In addition, my clay statues were not as smooth-looking as I would have liked. It was not my intention to make them glass-smooth, but in certain places, such as the elbow of the statue with his legs crossed, it is bumpy. I suppose I could have covered up the cardboard with more pictures or with some smoothed clay on the sides, or something, but, frankly, I finished that piece about half an hour before the whole project was due, and I only had a few pictures left over. I didn’t have time, and I had no idea what I could do to fix that in about half an hour or less. With my clay statues, I realized there was a point where I just couldn’t do any more. One time, I was trying to smooth the back of a sculpture by adding a little more clay, but it just made a small bump there, too. I figure now that no matter what I did, the elbow would still be slightly bumpy. I comfort myself with the fact that if I kept trying to make it smooth by adding clay, it would still be bumpy and it would swell a bit… To improve the cardboard on the sides, I could have cut out strips of black paper and pasted it on the sides, (probably still would have been a little messy). Or I could have printed out more pictures and folded and glued them over the edge. As for the sculptures, I think really the only way to have made it smoother would be being really cautious and careful with the clay as I was just making the sculptures, so I could make it smooth while it was still malleable and wet.

5. Score yourself in each of the 5 categories. Then, explain what you think the final grade should be for your project, based on your scores on the rubric. Give a letter grade and percentage.

Professionalism- B. Could have done better, but overall pretty good.

Connections- A. Connections evident.

Focus- A+. The message I was trying to portray was splashed everywhere in my project.

Audience Engagement- A+. Attractive, grabs the audience, makes them interested.

I think my final grade should be an A, preferably a 91% to a 96%. I reason this is a grade I have earned because I worked so long and hard on it. The whole week before Exhibition, I stayed up until 11 or 11:30 working on my project. Everything I did for the project I did with care- for example for the GENOCIDE poster, I smashed two mirrors with a hammer and chose only the best pieces I could find to put on my poster. I mixed red and brown for the exact shade that would match that of blood. For the statues, I easily spent over an hour each on them. I redid one of them to make it more like the others, (with the thin, arched backs.) That particular statue took me over three hours to create. I was almost done with it, but it just didn’t work for me, so I started over. In addition, I sacrificed my lunch hour almost every day last week and some of the week before to get in as much work time as I could. Also, I took the time to put each of the photos of the people in Photoshop and give them a black border instead of keeping the YouTube background. In addition, I took my project a step further and tried to get people themselves involved in the genocide- different organizations they can donate to, as well as having the bracelets out from Paper to Pearls. I think I deserve this A because I consistently worked hard on my project, I paid attention to the details, and I put together a large project, having three different aspects of the project instead of just one.

My Uganda Genocide Project: What You Can Do

What You Can Do: Donate

Organization: UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency

Go to:

www.unhcr.org

What your donation could go to:

· Provide blankets for displaced civilians

· Register refugees in order to assess their needs and trace their families

· Provide a tent shelter

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Organization: Invisible Children

Go to:

www.invisiblechildren.com/donate

Checks put in donation box will be mailed to Invisible Children

You can choose what your donation goes to:

· Legacy Scholarship Fund~ gives students a chance to attend secondary school or University

· Schools for Schools~ rebuild war-effected schools

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Organization: World Vision

Go to:

www.wvafrics.org

(click on Uganda)

Your donation could provide formerly abducted children with:

· HIV and AIDS education

· Food, medical attention

· Psychosocial counseling

Here is an array of pictures of my genocide project at exhibition!

My Genocide Poster- I broke a mirror and placed the shards in a way that created the word 'Genocide'. The words written below say, 'Look at Yourself in the Mirror. Can you see them in you? Can you see them in you?' This was meant to force the audience to see that there isn't any difference between you, and the people who are suffering and dying in the genocide- just a bit of luck in winding up in the U.S., is all. Lastly, I splattered the poster with red paint to give it a more violent effect.

This is another part of my genocide project- you can see the poster over on the left. The statues you see in front represents both those who are suffering because of the genocide, and actual people whose stories are next to them. (You can't really see them at this angle.) Each statue represents a different emotion: helplessness, anger, fear

This picture (though sideways) is another angle to the statues. The paper with 'Peter' and the picture of a man is the story of Peter, told by himself, inwhich he tells of how the genocide affected him. It's a very sad story, and you scrolled by it to get here. To see what he said, scroll up until you get to 'Peter.'

Yet another angle of the statues, which I spent hours and hours on, and are made out of clay. Geoffrey, who is the man in the picture on the paper on the left, is another genocide survivor. His story is near Peter's.

This is an overall view of my project- you see the poster, the statues, the papers telling the stories of the genocide survivors, the 'what you can do' paper, as well as two bracelets (in the white little bags you see) made by women refugees from the genocide in the camps. I also decorated and put up a donations box.

Yet another awkard angle on my project. Dizzy yet? (Here you can see the bracelets in their bags, as well as the donation box.)

Poetry

This is a project we did where we learned about poetry, read poetry, and wrote about poetry. Here are 10 paintings I did to go along with my poem, and, as you scroll further down, my poem! So, without further a do...enjoy!

Colors in the Box.

Timothy put his colors

-the Reds, Greens, Oranges,

Blues, Yellows, and Purples-

…As bright and alive as

The Pirouetting Fire as it licks at

A Jungle Leaf, with beads of dew rolling off,

Beneath a Blazing, Glowing Sunset

Above the Bottomless Ocean,

Its Deep-sea Waters

Gleaming in a hundred different versions of

Sapphire and Jade,

Where Flashing schools of fish travel together

Under the intense Sun…

As day turns to night,

And the moon steps out once more,

From behind a curtain of Velvet and Amethyst-

Velvet for the softness and the royalty

Amethyst for the depth of the sky…

He put his colors

In the box

One final time

After one final drawing

Color to the paper

The colors spiraling

Out of his control,

Yet he never attempted

To control them.

The plastic warm to his touch,

The paper crisp and ready,

Finally realizing what he was

Drawing after all…

He was giving all this up

For his graduation

From Everything World.

From now on, he would be

A man

And men do not have time

For things

Such as coloring.

And so Timothy slipped from his imagination,

As if he were sinking through the cloud, And fell through the sky,

Until he hit the hard concrete,

His skin slapping the sidewalk,

Of UnWorld, where most adults live.

It is noisy and crowded

Everyone wearing clothes that reek of sepia

With black hats pulled over their heads

And only large, pointed noses showing

Blind to the world

Only know where they’re going

Because they’ve gone that way

1,647 times before.

Muttering unintelligible nonsense

That sounded like,

Wankwankwankwank,

They stomp flat-footedly, shoulders swaying,

Down the sidewalk.

Timothy went

To the local grease monkey

And got a job.

For that is what adults do,

You know.

He put on a sepia

Jumpsuit,

And a white cap

Someone thrust onto his head.

One does not know

How he was supposed

To fix cars.

But each morning,

At five o’clock,

He buttoned his shirt,

And brushed the dust,

(Not that there was any,)

Off his hat,

And Timothy grew up to be

A man who spent

His life

Staring at the inside of a white hat.

(You’d think he’d be slightly cross-eyed.)

And then one day,

Timothy walked to his grease monkey

Duties. To work.

It might have been the headache.

It might have been the stew.

It might have been the change of the inside of the hat.

Timothy stopped.

He thought back,

(Which he hadn’t done since… well… when?)

And realized…

His hat had been different.

It was… lack of black.

Timothy always assumed

There were others with hats with

…lack of black.

But now he wasn’t so sure.

He realized now,

Leaning against a grey building,

(How did he know it was grey?)

All everyone else ever saw

Was black.

They relied on repetition,

The buzzing of alarm clocks,

Having the same routine…

Everyeveryeveryevery day.

But Timothy.

He tilted his chip up.

Today was different than most days.

It was… less of the monocolor

He saw everyeveryeveryevery day,

And more of… something different.

Timothy could see…

That is,

A ball of… glowing from the inside of his hat.

And…

Through the stitches

Of the inside of his hat…

Specks,

Practically invisible…

Of- well, what was it?

It was… something he hadn’t seen since-

Since- since- since-

Timothy ripped the hat from his head

(He never knew he could take it off!)

Light flooded his eyes

And he had to cover them

For a moment

As they adjusted.

Once more,

He gazed… up…

And all there was…

All there was was…

Blue.

That’s what it was!

Blue, BLue, BLUe, BLUE, BLUE! BLUE!! BLUE!!! BLUE!!!!

And the ball of…glowing…

The sun! THe sun! THE sun! THE Sun! THE SUn! THE SUN!

And, oh, it sparkled!

Timothy looked around…

All these people with hats on their heads

Covering their faces, their eyes!

They couldn’t see, they were blind!

Oh, how foolish!

Timothy could practically feel a rumbling in his belly…

Made its way up to his throat…

Hahahahahahahahaha!

Tears (tears, that’s what they’re called!) rolled down his face,

And he wiped them off

With the backs of his hands.

Oh! There was not one moment to waste!

There was something he must do!

He must find his way back

Back to his box

He must find his way back to his box

His box

Of Colors.

He knew he must find his way back…

To the small, now dusty

Square cardboard box

Decorated in Midnight-Blue fingerprints

Adorned with Fusia ink

Embellished with glitter like Golden twinkling stars

Covered in paint globs of Avocado and Morning Sunlight

Sealed with clear

Packing tape

On the top shelf

In the corner

Of the September Sky closet he had

As a child.

Violet crayon scribbles

Behind where

The shirts used to hang.

A dark Bottle-Green stain

On the old

Yellow carpet.

Imprints where the Tomato bed,

Auburn dresser, Mauve desk, and Sunshiny side table

Sat for eighteen years,

Though the Mauve desk only for

Six. Imprints are almost

Gone.

It takes many things

For Timothy

To go back.

(Learning to fly, for one,

Sailing in a paper boat, for two,

Erasing his left ear, for three,

Floating through the city hanging from a red balloon, for four,

Jumping into a chalk drawing, for five,

Conversing politely with the birds, for six,

(“And how are you today? Fine? Wonderful, as for my day…”)

Making a sentence completely out of apostrophes, for seven,

And

Imagining six impossible things before breakfast, for eight.)

But somehow, he is able

To go back.

Back

To that town,

Though it was lazy,

That street,

Though it was nothing great,

That house,

Though it was old and dark and empty.

That room.

The one place Timothy created

To be his own entirely.

A big stove pot

Hanging from a metal hook,

Full of things like twigs and shells and letters and alphabet soup,

To be tasted with a ladel,

Back to that closet,

With hidden messages drawn in light blue marker

On the September Sky paint.

And able to pull down the box,

Blow the dust off the top,

And open the box.

That’s the hardest part.

But once he does,

He finds the colors

He once drew with as a child.

He sits on the floor

Takes out a piece of paper,

Worn from the journey,

From his pocket,

And

Drew.

And

The

Color

Was

New

And

Alive

Again.

My Artist's Statement

What text did you choose as your inspiration and how does your poem relate to it?

I chose Regina Spektor’s song, Braille, as my inspiration for my poem format. I wanted my poem to be a story that could tell a tale of life, how to get through it, or something that we can learn from it. A narrative, basically. Another thing I liked in Braille is that it had several symbols and metaphors, which gave me the inspiration to put all the metaphors I did in my poem.

What artist or poem did you choose as your influence? How did they influence you and why?

Although I did not explicitly think of the painting The Son of Man as my inspiration as I was coming up with this poem, I think it was probably at the back of my mind. We had been looking at surrealist paintings in class, and I remembered the black bowler hat, and the apple covering the man’s face. Somehow, that translated to people wearing black hats covering their faces, sort of like the apple covered the man’s face. Regina Spektor’s song Braille was another influence. I enjoy how harsh the poem can sometimes be, and when it is, it only says the absolute truth that would have been false if covered up in any way. In that way, the truth is very real, very piercing, and very alive, and I tried to copy some of that harsh truth into my own poem. Braille and Colors in the Box are both poems about a person trying to get through life, taking what comes at them, and being better off from their experiences. They are both poems about life, and I think that these types of poems can be useful and relieving, because they show that life is life- it’s going to be hard, but you just need to hang in there and keep going. It kind of shows you that there are people who can relate to you, and that after you go through hard times, it will help you to be a stronger person.

What poetic devices did you use in your poem and why did you use them?

I used lots of imagery, because I love it when I’m reading a book, poem, or any piece of writing, really, and I can imagine it. I enjoy putting a lot of detail into my writing, and I find that when I am done, there is often a good amount of detail. I also used metaphors. In fact, you could even look at the poem as a whole as a metaphor. There were many, many, metaphors that were used in this poem, from ‘the moon steps out once more from a curtain of velvet and amethyst,’ to Timothy falling from his imagination as if he were slipping from a cloud. I feel that metaphors can communicate ideas and messages better than just saying it flat out. It gives you a picture or an experience in your mind to base the idea or message off of, which makes what you are trying to get across more piercing, as well as easier to understand. Not only that, but, when used appropriately, it can sound very beautiful and poetic, and make your writing so as well. Metaphors are an effective tool among poetic devices. I used onomatopoeia once, when describing the unintelligible words people were speaking, which sounded like, “Wankwankwankwank.” I believe that onomatopoeias bring writing to life, perhaps even more than imagery, because you can here in your own mind exactly what something sounds like. Instead of just saying that the people were speaking unintelligibly, I showed the reader exactly what they sounded like, which gives more detail to pull the reader in. Personification was a poetic device I used only a few times, I believe, when Timothy is conversing with the birds, (“And how are you? Good? As for my day…”,) to show how abstract it was that he was speaking with them. The only other time I believe there is personification is when Timothy is coloring in his room with his markers, which is when the colors were “spiraling out of his control, yet he never attempted to control them,” in which I really tried to show how Timothy’s colors and coloring could be brought to life, how they were almost magical, how special Timothy is and how special his colors are, especially to him. There is an understanding between Timothy and his colors that I wanted to make clear. I used repetition a little, specifically when Timothy ‘wakes up’ from the dream of a life he’s been living, by pulling the hat off his head, and discovers the sun and the bright blue sky. He goes, “Blue, blue, blue, blue!” and “The sun! Sun, sun, sun, sun!” I use this repetition to point out how excited Timothy is to finally be able to see the color blue, and the sun- colors, basically. It shows how unlike the rest of the adults in the UnWorld is, which is very important. Dialog was used once, (as well as personification in this instance,) when Timothy was speaking with the birds. I put a few short sentences of dialog in there because I was unsure that readers would understand that Timothy was actually talking with the birds, not just to the birds. This difference would bring out how unusual and funny it is that he is talking with them. Narrative was my last poetic device. Basically, the poem is a narrative- a story. I decided for my poem to be a story, because I had to account for a young boy growing up to be a man. I wanted readers to become attached to the boy, (Timothy,) then the man. Really, it’s a story about life, all our lives, not only Timothy’s. I also think that stories bring up experiences that we’ve had, recollections, and, at the end, give a message. It was my desire to have the readers experience all this in my poem. And thus, a narrative.

Poetry Project Reflection

Description of this project. What was the project about? What did you do? What did you learn? Think of this as an overview for people who are not familiar with the project.

This project was all about poetry.

We studied poetry

We read poetry

We wrote poetry

All this led up to our project,

Which was to write a poem and have it

Performed in some way-

A video

Kinetic text

A performance

Art

A slam

And, I suppose,

If you wanted to,

A song.

But that is no at all;

Oh, no, indeed.

There is something more

That is needed

For these poems:

A theme of

War, violence, or

Peace.

My poem,

‘Colors in the Box.’

Is about Timothy

A boy who grows up

To be a man

Who lives without Colors.

You might think,

“What does his have to do with

Violence, war, or peace?”

But it does, it does.

Oppression can be an example

Of violence- indeed, one of

The many hidden shadows

Violence casts.

You may not think so,

Yet that is how well it is hidden.

My performance:

12 paintings

A slideshow

My poem softly in the background

And the occasional girl’s squeal

Who did not know my need of quiet.

Violence comes in many forms

This I learned.

I learned about the terrible

Ways of war;

I learned how needed yet

Sometimes impossible peace can be.

About poetry,

I learned the poetic devices:

Enjambment, metaphors,

Turns, alliteration, imagery…

Ways to enhance your writing.

But on top of that,

Or perhaps underneath,

I learned that my favorite poetry

Comes when it does.

It is so difficult

Frustrating

Forced

When you must write something,

Especially when you don’t feel it.

I learned that my poetry

Is mostly

Just

Describing:

Describing what I feel

What I see

What I hear.

My writing, too, is very descriptive.

Why?

To experience the full experience?

To make it real

Or, at least,

As real as it can be.

Many a time, it is a gift

To be encircled in another world

Besides your own. I wish

To bestow that gift to others

As previous authors have

To me.

What have you learned from this process about how to use writing, language, and performance to affect your audience?

The way you speak

The emphasizing peaks

Quiet or loud

Shows the crowd

What you mean and do.

If you speak words of conviction,

Spouting them out

One after the other,

With powerful words and powerful meanings

Left and right,

What do you think will happen?

The audience will be pumped

Full of your adreline and inspiration

Your slam poem.

Or what about a slower,

Meandering poem-

It lets you think, observe, and

Just listen.

If you use large, flowing words

That fit together like

A and T, G and C,

Words that are less used,

Your poem with be poetic,

And will be appreciated as

A poem.

They will sit back in their chairs and think,

“Now we have some nice, real poetry.”

Traditional poetry, is what they mean.

For things that rhyme is the norm.

Big words, small words

Slanted or bolded words.

Capital words, moving words,

Words that do what they say.

These words on the screen

Show what they mean

By being what they are.

Angry, in-your-face, loud,

Sad, lonely, proud.

So, it’s the words you speak

And the words on the screen-

Literally- that might give the audience

A clue.

Writing the poems with a rhythm in mind

Gives yourself a clue

Of what you want your poem to be.

Use metaphors, alliteration,

Similes, turns, the works

To further prove your point

And enhance your meaning.

It gives poetry to your poetry.

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