“Childhood’s End: An
African Nightmare”
Hitchens’ essay abut the psychopathic Ugandan “general”
Joseph Kony. Hitchens visited northern Uganda as well as refugee camps in Sudan
and interviewed children and women who had suffered at the hands of the Kony
army – “the ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ (L.R.A.)…This grotesque, zombie-like
militia, which has abducted, enslaved, and brainwashed more than 20,000
children.”
Hitchens points out interestingly that Kony was a former Catholic acolyte and is probably suffering from multiple personality disorder. His biggest concern is with the children who are forced to seek shelter in protected urban enclaves at night to avoid being kidnapped and indoctrinated into the LRA.
Hitchens calls it “a kind
of Christian Khmer Rouge and has for the past nineteen years set a standard of
cruelty and ruthlessness that— even in a region with a living memory of Idi
Amin— has the power to strike the most vivid terror right into the heart and
the other viscera.”Hitchens points out interestingly that Kony was a former Catholic acolyte and is probably suffering from multiple personality disorder. His biggest concern is with the children who are forced to seek shelter in protected urban enclaves at night to avoid being kidnapped and indoctrinated into the LRA.
A picture from the NY Times after Kony's arrest and an advertisement from the international campaign to bring justice to Kony:
New Learning: Hitchens points out interestingly that Kony
was a former Catholic acolyte and is probably suffering from multiple personality
disorder.
New Word: crepuscular
= relating to twilight
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