BOMBIES
Between 1964 and 1973, the United States conducted a “secret” war, dropping over two million tons of bombs on the mountains and jungles of Laos. Many of these bombs - especially a newly developed weapon called a “cluster bomb” - failed to explode when they hit the ground, leaving the landscape littered with millions of unexploded bombs, as dangerous today as when they fell from the sky three decades ago.
Dubbed “bombies” by Laotian villagers, these eye-catching but deadly orbs, as brightly colored as exotic fruit, are still found by children playing in shallow dirt, in the clefts of bamboo branches, or in the furrows of fields where farmers still till the soil by striking the earth with a hoe.
So begins the story of the debilitating and deadly legacy of US Government/Military action in other countries around the globe in the movie “Bombies”. If you remember, cluster bombs have been used in more recent wars. Check this reality out for yourself. http://www.itvs.org/bombies/
I find this especially interesting since hearing advertisements on the local “Christian” radio station for Americans to sponsor microloan programs for women in other countries so that families can get out of poverty. Putting 2-and-2 together I began to wonder where are the men in those countries, and why not get them access to microloan programs too?
Please don’t mistake. My questioning is in no way rooted in a belief that women should not be able to work where and how they desire. They should in fact have that right, and be properly and justly compensated for their work.
No, my questioning comes from the picture that came to mind of maimed bodies of former male children, working age males and elderly males who for dacades now have been unable to provide economically for their families because of death and injury. And why? Why is in fact the question. We already know that the men are injured or dead, but why are they so? This question of why (US military and political action), I assure you was not being discussed on Christian college campuses and universities when I attended.
And it is not yet evident that the “why” is being discussed now, at least not so far as getting to the root of the matter. The microloan, noble charity that it is, like too many other Christian responses, offers only partial relief while allowing and enabling the causes to continue. Yes, the “miracle” of microloans Jesus would do. But the greater works than these which confront the roots of the matters, are still undone.
