Hypothetical Project Proposal
When completing a degree course unit titled Research Skills and Dissertation Preparation I had to create a hypothetical project proposal in collaboration with someone which we titled The Dynamics of the Child Soldier Experience (to view this proposal click on the title). This took the form of a poster in landscape view, and I found it to be a fascinating creative journey in attempting to visually convey the life-changing choices young people caught up in conflict are often faced with worldwide.
Although I was personally pleased with the outcome, there was also a bizarre series of events involving my project proposal partner. The night before the poster was due I received an alternative poster featuring an image of Black African boys parading AK-47s, and I was bemused. We had worked together to create the poster over a few days, and I made sure they were happy with every detail before proceeding throughout its creation. Why say something so late? Later we received a low grade for what we had created, and my partner held me entirely responsible for this by accusing me of ignoring them throughout our entire collaboration.
I felt this was harsh, but such is life and you move forward. I held no ill will or personal enmity towards this person, and I went on to explore dynamics intertwining conflict, violence, peace, children and young people, identity and wellbeing, and Education in Emergencies (EiE) for the rest of my degree. This exploration only reinforced the importance of challenging stereotypical representations of any young people which were driven by my commitment to social justice and empowerment. We must not patronise, glorify and pity young people affected by the dynamics of the child soldier experience and fuel poverty porn. I am a staunch advocate of empowering children and young people, and further academic pieces of work of mine define what I mean by empowerment.
Poverty porn: also known as development porn, famine porn, or sterotype porn, has been defined as “any type of media, be it written, photographed or filmed, which exploits the poor’s condition in order to generate the necessary sympathy for selling newspapers or increasing charitable donations or support for a given cause.” It’s also a term of criticism applied to films which objectify people in poverty for the sake of entertaining a privileged audience.
[source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_porn]This doesn’t necessarily need to be for the purposes of entertainment, selling newspapers or gaining donations. Many individuals and entities are inclined to dwell and take pleasure from sympathising for the ‘other’ person of difference, be it racial or another category such as gender (where women can often experience such pity and patronising) without taking note of the consequences of their views and actions. bell hooks writes extensively about this in her essay titled “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance”.
To develop a bond with a young person then break this has devastating consequences, and for this to happen repeatedly only compounds the effect.
An arguably damaging practice that is relatively similar is that of voluntourism, where people will often travel to overseas countries to work with young people (often in orphanages) for short periods of time to enrich their life experiences and CVs, taste a different culture, see a different country, “help the poor and impoverished”, yet create a great deal of damage in the process. To develop a bond with a young person then break this has devastating consequences, and for this to happen repeatedly only compounds the effect.
Furthermore, there are many instances where travellers will ignore the norms and values of the place they visit, and significant question marks remain over whether all the young people in child institutions such as orphanages are truly orphans. JK Rowling’s charity, Lumos, continues to campaign against and raise awareness of voluntourism (see the following article from The Independent for more on this: https://ind.pn/2Ol7ejp).
Recognise
Mainstream discourse surrounding ‘Child Soldiers’ speaks at length about children and young people being subject to manipulation, subordination and exploitation when ‘recruited’. Yet it isn’t merely Black African boys parading AK-47s who are subject to the dynamics of the child soldier experience. Identifying children and young people of a select gender and racial phenotype is a grave injustice. Why? Because it only reinforces the disempowerment taking the form of said manipulation, subordination and exploitation that ‘traps them in the game’.
Conflict, war and violence isn’t selective, but is pandemic, sporadic and takes multiple forms. When the dynamics of children and young people’s everyday lives aren’t appreciated, when little effort is made to map and understand them, the actions of the limited understanding that exists has significant adverse consequences for them. To truly help these people, they must be empowered, and this only begins when one engages in efforts to recognise the dynamics of their everyday lives.
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