Sam Childers. Another man`s war

"Oamenii stau pe Pamant ca intr-un post de paza 
si fiecare are o misiune de indeplinit"

Vechi aforism grecesc

"One man can do unbelievable things. 
All it takes is that one person who`s willing 

to risk everythink to make it happen."

Sam Childers

Cand am vazut filmul despre viata incredibila a lui Sam Childers ( Machine Gun Preacher ) primul impuls a fost sa-l socotesc o fictiune hollywoodiana pura . La sfarsitul filmului am aflat cu surprindere ca este vorba despre o persoana reala care si in ziua de astazi se afla tot acolo , in Sudan, si lupta pentru o cauza care este a altora si  pentru multi nu inseamna nimic chiar daca este vorba de viata unor copii . E greu de spus  cum judeca oamenii din alte sisteme politice si sociale gestul unui om care impresionat de moartea unui copil spulberat de o mina , hotaraste sa-si lase si tara si familia si sa-si dedice eforturile salvarii vietii copiilor folositi drept carne de tun undeva in Africa.  Am incercat  totusi sa-mi imaginez  cam cum ar reactiona si ce ar spune unii conationali de-ai nostri si societatea in care traim  daca un semen de-al lor  si-ar lasa balta familia si tara si ar pleca "la dracu-n praznic " sa salveze vietile copiilor altora pe deasupra si de culoare... 

Dupa film, mi-am amintit mai intai  o scena dintr-un roman al lui Aldous Huxley in care 300 de sclavi de pe o plantatie de trestie de zahar s-au revoltat impotriva stapanului plantatiei si s-au adunat in fata resedintei lui. Cei 300 de sclavi vociferau furiosi afara ( dar fara sa indrazneasca sa se apropie de cladire ) iar stapanul plantatiei ,  in veranda si cu o pusca in mana,  ii infrunta singur si fara nici o teama... 

Mi-am amintit apoi o scena reala si povestita de o cunostinta apropiata , scena  care s-a petrecut in 1989 la AFDJ ( Adminstratia Fluviului Dunarea de Jos, Galati ) . 1200 de oameni strigau furiosi  in curtea intreprinderii si injurau directorul ( dar fara sa indrazneasca sa intre in cladire ! ) impotriva directorului aflat ( tot singur )  la etajul 1 , dar care ii sfida fara nici o teama desi n-avea nici o pusca... 

In sfarsit , dupa acest film difuzat pe un post TV de la noi, in Evenimentul Zilei a aparut unul din cele mai triste articole publicate in ultimul timp care descrie cu precizie chirurgicala cumplitul sentiment de neputinta  si lipsa de speranta a cetatenilor prinsi in sistem exact ca soarecii in cursa si in cusca , sistem in care,  la mai mult de doua decenii de la Revolutie,  nici macar nu-si pot denunta  tortionarii de teama unui proces de calomnie (!) : 

http://www.evz.ro/detalii/stiri/rusinea-care-apasa-brasovul-revolta-de-la-15-noiembrie-1987-comemorata-cu-un-securist-to-1067560.html 

Unul din comentariile cititorilor articolului descrie perfect mizeria morala a societatii noastre  dar si cauzele ei  profunde : 

15 November, 09:48. Eddy
Am un sentiment de rusine fata de cei care si-au riscat viata in decembrie '89. Ne-am batut joc de sacrificiul lor. O tara intreaga s-a lasat prostita de oamenii vechiului sistem. Au trecut mai bine de 20 de ani si inca nu avem energia sa ii scoatem din viata publica pe vechii securisti.
In Brasov, la 200 de metri de primarie, sunt mormintele celor care au murit in decembrie '89. Trec uneori pe langa ele si ma uit la fotografiile de pe cruci. Apoi ajung acasa si, daca deschid televizorul sau citesc stirile, ma copleseste mizeria morala a societatii in care traim - si in care ne-au scufundat oameni ca Voiculescu, Sorin Rosca Stanescu, alti fosti securisti si aparatcici.

De fapt,  aceasta nu este numai rusinea Brasovului , ci rusinea unei tari intregi adusa prin natura sistemului  in postura sclavilor de pe plantatie sau a muncitorilor depersonalizati care isi urasc seful , dar la fel de mult  le este si teama de el.

Probabil  ca o schimbare radicala a perspectivei din care sunt privite lucrurile ar debloca si mecanismele apatiei, depresiei si paraliziei sociale instalate la noi dupa iunie 1990 . 

Citind cele de mai jos se poate vedea ca aripa rece a neantului nu este chiar atat de departe cum credeam noi ,  iadul este de fapt pe Pamant , dar pana si in iad se duc unii in numele tuturor si lupta acolo fara sa le ceara nimeni ! 

Prin comparatie cu ce traiesc alte fiinte umane in aceste sisteme si conjuncturi tragice,  intelegem cat de prizonieri sunt in realitate romanii intr-un sistem care pacaleste si UE si USA cu o masca democratica si  europeana , dar in care "stapanii" isi bat joc in continuare de "sclavi".

Deocamdata vedem mai jos revolta unei constiinte libere provenita dintr-un sistem democratic si care arata ca un om care crede in valorile umanitatii si democratiei isi poate depasi conditia , poate lupta cu un sistem si uneori chiar face de unul singur  ce nu vrea  sau nu poate face de multe ori o organizatie, sau chiar o tara.  
Cu totul si cu totul admirabil este faptul ca eforturile lui incredibile sunt recunoscute si elogiate chiar de societatea pe care aparent a parasit-o si de catre conationalii sai , pentru ca exista si societati care primesc lectii de la propriii cetateni tocmai pentru ca le recunosc valoarea si le acorda libertatea de a gandi si de a actiona . 
Acest lucru nu se poate intampla in statele , societatile si sistemele care isi tin propriii cetateni prizonieri in menghina dependentelor politice economice si sociale si in permanente situatii de imposibilitate,  le aplica anticipat prezumtia de vinovatie,  si chiar ii vaneaza sistematic pe baza celor precedente . 
Intr-o epoca in care se vorbeste de declinul democratiei si de declinul valorilor crestine, lectia lui Sam Childers este o lectie de democratie globala si tonica pentru orice om care crede in valorile umanitatii , democratiei si normalitatii . 
Dincolo de cuvinte si de vorbe  se simte intotdeauna sinceritatea sau nesinceritatea unui om,  si cine il asculta pe Sam Childers vorbind in videoclipul de mai jos isi poate forma singur propria impresie si opinie chiar daca nu stie limba engleza.  

A Hero in Hell

by Maria Sliwa,

New York, U.S.A 

With a physique like Jean Claude Van Dam, 42-year-old Sam Childers has hunted alligators in the U.S. and has smacked down miscreants in Africa . This titan, who could easily pass for Hulk Hogan's younger brother, sold hard drugs in the late 70s and early 80s and was a rider with the Outlaws, a motorcycle gang in Florida . He has since put his notorious ways behind him and now uses his muscular prowess to save lives in Sudan and Uganda. On a recent morning, Sam surveys the orphanage he built on the 36 acres of bush land he cleared four years ago in Nimule, South Sudan. His orphanage is a safe haven for children who are captured out of, or are lucky enough to escape from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel paramilitary group operating in Uganda and Sudan, which has been designated a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department. Though Sam's gut is overstocked with intestinal fortitude, the terror that rages around his orphanage is so frightening that just thinking about it can send a cold shiver of electric sparks up and down his sturdy spine. Sam is a pastor and is the only white commander in the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), another rebel group, which, like the LRA has troops in Sudan and Uganda. Despite the exhilarating jolt of adrenaline he feels while fighting the LRA, Sam says that if he is captured he will likely suffer an excruciating death, as he says he has been warned more than once of the LRA's intent to brutally kill him. Yet the possibility of slaughter, which Sam faces daily, could be carried out by those considered the least likely to wield the slightest ferocity. As pint-sized threats -- some as young as eight -- the child soldiers of the LRA are capable of striking a human target like Sam with fatal precision.
In March of this year, a band of these small predators attacked a group of women who were collecting firewood near the border of Southern Sudan: just a few miles from Sam's orphanage. The juvenile attackers managed to effortlessly hack off the lips and ears of seven of the victims and abduct several others. The children of the LRA perform these acts at the bidding of their adult counterparts and make up about 80 percent of the rebel group, according to the United Nations. The LRA has kidnapped more than 20,000 children since 1988 and today its captives constitute the largest army of child soldiers in Africa. Joseph Kony, the LRA's founder and leader, is a Ugandan and former Catholic catechist whose ideology is based on Christianity and witchcraft. A recent Reuters article says Kony's group was first armed by the Government of Sudan. According to Jan Pronk, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sudan , there are unconfirmed reports that "factions of the Sudan's military are still sending weapons to the LRA." Believing that he is a modern-day prophet enforcing the Ten Commandments on earth, Kony tells his followers that God has commanded him to punish anyone who works with the Ugandan Government or refuses to obey his message. Though many of the adult soldiers willingly endorse Kony's campaign of violence, most abducted children do not know why they are fighting. "Thousands of children have been raped, brutalized, drugged and forced to inflict unspeakable violence on others," wrote Jan Egeland, UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, in the foreword to the 2004 book published by IRIN: "When the Sun Sets, We Start to Worry: An Account of Life in Northern Uganda."
But children are not the only victims. Since the LRA began attacking civilians in 1986, they have forced some 1.6 million people in Northern Uganda out of their villages into internal displacement camps, according to the U.N. Disease is rampant in these camps, as they lack proper food, sanitation and medicine. Civilians are afraid to go back to their villages because of the constant fear of another LRA attack and therefore they remain in the camps. Last month, Sam and his soldiers went to Magwi, one of the most dangerous towns in Southern Sudan because of its high occurrence of LRA violence. "It was a suicide mission," Sam says. "Joseph Kony and his men were ambushing villages and butchering civilians, while we were there."
Although he was unable to capture Kony, Sam says that he and his soldiers emerged from the fighting unharmed and brought 25 former child soldiers, ages 4 to 14, to his orphanage. Despite Sam's sometimes overbearingly tough exterior, his manner can be surprisingly gentle. When he is at his orphanage, children often tag alongside him. He takes a personal interest in each one, calling them "my kids," and frequently nurses their wounds. Even the more traumatized children can't help but giggle when he jokes with them. Sam built the orphanage in 2001. It is managed by village women who cook, clean and take care of the children and by his own soldiers who protect the compound and oversee other day-to-day operations. Sam has used his experience in construction to build dormitories that house 110 children. He has also built showers, outhouses, the beginnings of a school, a pen for four pigs and seven chickens, a cooking area, a church, storage rooms, two security posts and a few guesthouses for short-term visitors who occasionally arrive from the U.S. He even installed a flushable toilet, something that is unheard of in the bush. Sam and his staff also travel to surrounding villages to distribute food, clothing and medicine. "We will go out and de-worm the people, as their bellies get real extended from the worms," he says. "We give out medicines, especially when there are epidemics."
For the past five years, the SPLA has been assisting the Ugandan Government in fighting and capturing LRA soldiers. As both a pastor with Abundant Life Ministries and a SPLA commander, Sam can be seen praying with a group of soldiers before they go out and attack areas where the LRA are active. He stockpiles weapons for SPLA soldiers at his orphanage. Many of his soldiers are also pastors. According to Sam, one of the reasons why the orphanage has remained untouched by the LRA is because the LRA knows it is well protected. But there is a downside to this. Although there are a variety of medicines available for the children at the orphanage, the soldiers who work in the dispensary have no medical background and do not know how to administer these drugs properly. They also do not know how to prevent illnesses from occurring. Ringworm is contagious and tends to run rampant among the children. Though medicine is administered, those caring for the children don't wash the children's bedding and clothing after applying the medicine, so the ringworm easily spreads again. The bodies of some of the children are covered with ashen colored circles from the infection. "We desperately need a doctor or nurse on staff," Sam admits. "The problem is that whenever we hire a medical person, the conditions are so dangerous out here that they leave in a few months to get a better job." Despite these problems, Sam says his kids are much better off in the orphanage then in the villages, because unlike the villages, his orphanage provides safety, mosquito nets and three meals a day.
Sam says that his life of crime started to change 24 years ago, when Clyde Carter, a cousin of former President Jimmy Carter, hired him to work on his house. He says he was living in Florida at the time and earned a lucrative income working construction jobs and selling drugs. "I was heavily into drugs then," Sam says. "I was on heroine, cocaine, every kind of hard drug before meeting Clyde. He was one of the first ones to influence me to stop taking dope." But seven years after meeting Carter, Sam was still selling drugs for a livelihood until he "hit the wall" one day and decided to come clean. He says his drug dealing was wreaking havoc on his wife Lynn, who became a Born Again Christian in 1986. Sam also became a Born Again Christian in 1991. They were both ordained as ministers with the Full Gospel Assemblies in 1995 and are pastors at the Boyers Pond Shekinah Christian Fellowship Church , in Central City, Pennsylvania. When Sam first heard about the child soldiers in Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda in 1998, he began rescuing them. He says he knew that despite the atrocious acts these children are forced to perform while slaving as soldiers, they could live happy and productive lives once they were freed and placed in a better environment. Last year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, Netherlands, invited Sam Childers to testify against the LRA. But some observers fear that because the ICC has no enforcement capability, its move to highlight the LRA could fuel the war and disrupt the ongoing attempts for peace negotiations between the Government of Uganda and the rebel group. Sam disagrees. "Joseph Kony needs to be stopped no matter what Uganda or anyone else thinks," he says. "The U.S. and other countries need to step in and stop this guy immediately. He should never be negotiated with or given amnesty, because he needs to pay for his crimes. When you look at his crimes, it is not against just adults, it's against little children. I mean raping little children and chopping them up. This stuff is unreal." Sam does agree that the ICC has limitations and that sometimes it takes years for the ICC to do anything. But he reasons that in such desperate circumstances at least the ICC is doing something as opposed to nothing.
As LRA violence continues to rage and appears unstoppable, some voices are being heard. In April of this year, a number of high profile people spoke out at a press conference in DC. Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), and actor John Amos, formerly of "The West Wing," along with representatives of World Vision, condemned the LRA, while calling on the international community, to make the protection of the children a priority. As he forges ahead in Uganda and Sudan, Sam says he wants to expand his work to other countries where children are also being exploited. During his visits to the bush area of the Congo, Sam received numerous reports that Kony's rebels were setting up LRA operations and abducting children in that country. Sam says he is preparing to build an orphanage in the Congo and will begin rescuing children there soon.
It is dinnertime back at the orphanage in Nimule. After a long day of freeing children from the LRA, Sam and his soldiers rest their AK 47s against a gray concrete wall in the dining area, wash their hands in a nearby basin, and enjoy a meal of fresh caught fried fish, corn meal porridge and red beans, which they wash down with a mixture of instant coffee, unprocessed sugar and powdered milk. "The things I have done in my past were really bad," Sam tells his soldiers. "But despite that God protected me, and with his grace I will help the children in whatever way that I can." 
http://www.globaltryst.com/Uganda1.html

THE MAN 

http://www.machinegunpreacher.org

ANOTHER MAN’S WAR

THE SAM CHILDERS STORY

Machine Gun Preacher Sam Childers grew up in the hills of Pennsylvania. His parents were decent, honest people but at an early age Sam started to show a knack for getting into trouble. His father, a former marine, grew fond of saying “Boy, somebody’s gonna kill you one of these days!”
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A TROUBLED TEEN
By his early teens Sam was constantly in fist fights, selling hard drugs and sleeping with married women. He continued to slide deeper into a life of violence and crime until he became a Shotgunner – an armed guard for drug dealers. It was during this stage of his life that he met Lynn, a stripper, who would later become his wife.
UNLEARNING A LIFE OF CRIME
Sam, haunted by his father’s words, became increasingly concerned that he was going to be killed because of drugs and slowly began to distance himself from his former life. He found a job in construction and prospered despite his continuing drug and alcohol habit. Lynn, meanwhile, returned to the Church she had forsaken as a young adult.
A CHANGED MAN
Sam also sought to re-establish his relationship with God and began to live a clean life. Slowly, things began to change for the better. Lynn gave birth to a healthy baby girl and Sam started his own construction business. Little did they know that their greatest challenge was just around the corner.
AN EDUCATION IN WAR
In 1998, Sam arrived in the village of Yei, Southern Sudan. The African nation was in the midst of the Second Sudanese War, and Sam, urged by his Pastor in America, had joined a mission group to help repair huts damaged in the conflict. During this assignment Sam stumbled across the body of a child torn apart by a landmine. He fell to his knees and made a pledge to God to do whatever it took to help the people of Southern Sudan.
A MESSAGE FROM GOD
Sam returned to Sudan several months later to run a mobile clinic. To fulfil his promise he ventured far across the nation, from the western town of Yei to the eastern villages of Boma. While passing the village of Nimule,on the Ugandan border, God sent him a message:
I want you to build an orphanage for the children, God said. And I want you to build it here.
MAKING THE VISION A REALITY
The local people though he was mad. At the time, the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal rebel militia that had kidnapped 30 thousand children and murdered hundreds of thousands of villagers, was laying waste to the area. But Sam was adamant: God had told him to build the orphanage in Nimule and that’s where he was going to build it. He returned to the U.S.A, sold his construction business and sent the money to Africa.
Slowly the orphanage began to take shape. During the day Sam cleared the brush and built the huts that would house the children. During the evening, he slept under a mosquito net slung from a tree: bible in one hand, AK47 in the other.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Lynn and Sam’s daughter Paige fought a battle of their own. The family car was repossessed and a foreclosure notice was issued on the house. Sam had enough money to pay the outstanding mortgage or finish the orphanage. He couldn’t afford both so he sent the money to Africa.
With the orphanage finished, Sam began to lead armed missions to rescue children from the LRA. It wasn’t long before tales of his exploits spread and villagers began to call him “The Machine Gun Preacher.”
SURVIVING AGAINST ALL ODDS
13 years later the orphanage is the largest in Southern Sudan and has fed and housed over 1,000 children. Today, more than 200 children call the orphanage home. Unfortunately there are still many Sudanese children suffering and in need of rescue.
Sam and Lynn still live in the same house in Pennsylvania and are just as dedicated to the plight of the Sudanese children as they were 13 years ago. Sam’s biography, Another Man’s War, is currently being made into a Hollywood feature film starring Gerard Butler. The film is due for release in September 2011.
http://www.machinegunpreacher.org/about-sam-childers/

THE MISSION 

blakefarrington.photoshelter.com

www.youtube.com

www.news-mail.com.au 

www.godfuel.org 

THE ENEMY
- Joseph Kony -

www.dailymail.co.uk

www.cnn.com

HIS ACTIONS... 

vimeo.com 

http://pulitzercenter.org 

THE RISK FOR SAM CHILDERS 

" Sam is a pastor and is the only white commander in the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army (SPLA), another rebel group, which, like the LRA has troops in Sudan and Uganda. Despite the exhilarating jolt of adrenaline he feels while fighting the LRA, Sam says that if he is captured he will likely suffer an excruciating death, as he says he has been warned more than once of the LRA's intent to brutally kill him. Yet the possibility of slaughter, which Sam faces daily, could be carried out by those considered the least likely to wield the slightest ferocity. As pint-sized threats -- some as young as eight -- the child soldiers of the LRA are capable of striking a human target like Sam with fatal precision."

http://www.globaltryst.com/Uganda1.html

http://mtakavitu.files.wordpress.com

www.fortressofsolitude.co.za

THE SOCIAL RECOGNITION

source : www.ramascreen.com

source : latimesblogs.latimes.com 

 "I have never before played someone that not only is still alive, but whose life 

touched me so deeply, having such a deep emotional impact on me " 

 Gerard Butler

                       
                                             

THE FAMILY 

 source : www.aceshowbiz.com  

 source :  www.aceshowbiz.com