Ignorance Isn't Bliss... But Neither Is Being Informed.

I just got back from an Amnesty International Film Festival that was being held at a local university. It was a last minute and rushed decision to go but I’m glad Amy, Darlene, and I got the opportunity. Darlene and I watched three films, Amy missed the second one.

The first was about Afghanistan and it was told from the perspective of three women. It spoke a lot to the oppression of women, the American bombings, and the need to flee to Pakistan. One of the women was a doctor and she wasn’t married… I can’t imagine what it would be like to be her. We saw the refugee camps that are in Pakistan because of the unjust leaders that are in power.

The second was about women in Saudi Arabia, their oppression and the leaps that they are making to reach equality. A lot of the documentary was about women who are working. There is a very small percentage or women who have jobs and the ones who do get paid about half as much as men. Even when the women are working, they’re forced to be covered and they cannot work in the same room as men. It seems that women are slowly gaining equality but they are still not allowed to vote or drive a car. The Prince of Saudi Arabia employs a women but he does not require them to be covered, as women are required to be outside of the house or in front of men who are not immediate family according to the laws. There seems to be something off about the prince, he only hires beautiful women among other things.

The third film we watched was on the war in Burma, how the military has taken over the country, imprisoned their elected leader, and the military troops are destroying entire villages of people. There were points made like Britain is one of the largest financial contributors to the situation in Burma. Another factor is the French and the Americans who are getting natural gas from Burma and the military uses forced labor to build, guard, and maintain the pipelines. The film on Burma predated the protests of the monks.

It’s so hard to swallow so much of this. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit ill to be a North American knowing that my country has been, at the very least, financially responsible for so much mass injustice. As a North American, How do I deal with this? As a Christian, how do I deal with these issues. What needs to take place for people to become aware of what is actually going on in the world?

Today one of our sessions was on bearing burdens. In light of what I heard today, how are we as Christians called to bear the burdens of injustice in our world? Do we just hand them over to God and go about our merry way? Do we hold on to them as a way of remembering bringing forth change? Is there a happy medium, can we both hand things over to God and still feel the same importance or searching after justice and shalom?

If you want the names of the films, I can get them, the paper is currently downstairs.