Sasha Kozhevnikova

Ms. Tompkins

WLH p. 2

24 April 2015

I Want My Mommy

I looked down at my Blue’s Clues digital watch, reading four numbers. Those four numbers meant nothing to me-- how much longer until it was two o’clock, I didn’t know. I knew there was this confusing thing called subtraction that I could use to figure it out, but they didn’t teach us that sort of stuff in preschool. I preferred looking at an analog clock, because then I could count how many times the minute hand went around in a circle. I knew that my mom would arrive when the minute hand was two numbers past the vertical position, but I don’t know where that minute hand was right now. I only knew the numbers. But of course, they didn’t even have a clock in the room.

I hated this room. It was full of phony adults who thought that I needed to be talked to like a child. I was four years old! I didn’t need someone to talk to me in a baby voice for me to understand. Unlike the annoyingly welcoming teachers, the other kids were entirely unapproachable, cupping their hands around each others ears and whispering loudly, making sure that I could hear them saying my name but knowing that I wouldn’t be able to comprehend their sour words either way. The walls were covered in horrid drawings made by my peers. There was not an empty space on the walls… maybe that’s why they didn’t have a clock anywhere!

I truly hated this place, but my mom dragged me here every day so that I could learn to adapt to American culture and make new friends. I missed my mom.

I decided that the only way to figure out the time was to ask one of the teachers where their clock was, as I had a hard time accepting that there was no clock in the classroom.

I didn’t know how to speak this intricate, foreign language that twisted my tongue, but my heart's longing for my mom overcame my fear of speaking, so I decided to risk it. I waddled over to one of the teachers and nervously tugged on the bottom of her shirt. I looked at her for a few seconds while racking my brain, searching for words to express my helplessness in this situation. How did you say clock again?

“What… time?” I managed to articulate two words in English, my eyes wide with fear.

She looked at me in surprise-- I hardly ever uttered one, let alone two words.

She hesitated. “Mommy come soon!” Camsun? She looked at me and nodded to reassure me, even though what she had just said sounded like gibberish.

Camsun? What's a camsun? And why on earth is my mom one? I don't think she understood my question. I made a point of looking at the walls to signify that I was looking for a clock rather than my camsun mother.

"No, what time?" I repeated, a little frustrated that I wasn't able to express my thoughts.

"Mommy come soon?"

What the heck is a camsun? I made a mental note to ask my mom about that later. I will not let them call my mom a camsun!

Clearly, the teacher had no idea what I wanted from her. I needed a new plan to escape the frightening world of finger painting and play dough. I didn't like getting my hands covered in ugly spinach-green paint and sticking my hand prints on a big poster of our class that showed the camaraderie that was supposed to accompany our small and "welcome" environment. The only truly welcome environment I knew was back home with my mom, my dad, and my sister. I didn't belong here.

"Can I go outside?" I asked her sweetly, my innocent voice suggesting that I simply wanted to ride a tricycle in the warm fresh air that California was apparently famous for.

"Of course!" She replied. A sigh followed, her muscles relaxing as she recovered from my persistance.

I walked past the different stations of kids who were actually enjoying themselves. Some kids were cutting up their paper to make snowflakes, others were making pigs out of play dough, and the rest were playing musical chairs.

I made my way through the door. I had to be careful about this because I didn't want anyone to see me making my big move. There was a short wired fence surrounding our building, and the first time I had seen it I knew I could easily climb over. My capabilities as a flexible ballerina could help me bend just enough to make it over the border separating this hell from the free world around me. I lifted my leg, and made it onto the ramp. My short legs scrambled to run up there as quickly as I could. My future depending on how effectively I made this escape.

I heard them gaining on me, two of them. My heart pounded mercilessly through my tiny chest, I made a final step towards the door of the next building, grabbing the handle, I opened-

They had me. Grabbing my arms and trying not to hurt me, they pulled me back down the ramp, back through the fence, back to the place I knew as my personal hell. This was my only chance, and now I would never be able to escape. Tears flooded down my face, and I broke down choking, my lungs tightly repressing the breath of air I was unable to take.

"Sasha! No more going outside for you!"

They patronized me, but all I could think about was how close I was to the door behind which my mother sat, learning simple strings of English words, feeling the same restless sense of constraint and detachment that I was.

I want my mommy.

United Nations Involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo

“On July 5, four M23 fighters gang-raped a 12-year-old girl as she went to fetch water in her village in Rutshuru. An M23 fighter who accosted an 18-year-old woman near Bunagana shot her in the leg on April 15 when she refused to have sex with him” (Boitiaux). The M23 Movement has affected the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo ever since its formation after Congolese President Joseph Kabila’s inability to fulfill a peace agreement. Because of the ongoing rebellion, the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo are no longer safe, and the United Nations has been asked to interfere to solve the problem.

So far, the intervention of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been a controversial issue, succeeding in subduing the rebel groups but failing to keep the civilians out of danger.

The U.N. mission has been effective in taking out the the rebel groups that had resulted from the March 23 Movement. According to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s information minister, the United Nations Mission in Congo has “reduced the number of rebel groups from 55 to about 20” (Clottey). The United Nations is wiping out the rebel groups one by one, thus seemingly eliminating the problem of atrocious human rights violations committed by them.

Despite all of the successes due to the United Nations peacekeeping mission, the citizens feel threatened by amassing violence. A protester against U.N. involvement makes a point when he states that the mission “is supposed to keep the peace… Why are they turning their guns on the people when we only want peace. We demand that [the U.N.] leave… immediately” (Kanyunyu). To solve the M23 problem, the United Nations soldiers are physically pointing their guns on the civilians and making them feel threatened, which is no better than what the rebels had been doing. Preceding the U.N. mission, only the rebels were harmful to civilians, but now there is double the danger. Not only are UN peacekeepers putting people in greater danger, they are also committing their own human rights abuses. The Globe and Mail reports that in early 2011, two sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo aged 14 and 15 were attacked, gang raped, and beaten by three United Nations soldiers who had been in Congo for the mission. The 15 year old was left pregnant and badly injured (Caplan). But this is just one example of the brutality that the United Nations has inflicted in the Democratic Republic. In fact, a military operation run by a U.N.-backed Congolese military to protect the civilians from these rebels has actually “caused more civilian casualties than damage to rebels, with more than 1,400 people deliberately killed over a nine-month period” (Taylor). As the situation continues to worsen, one would suspect that the U.N. would extend their aid positively, but instead they worsened the situation, causing grief among all.
On one hand, the United Nations has been useful in the reduction of rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but on the other hand, the civilians feel that they are being put into even more danger. The U.N. may have eliminated many of the M23 rebels who are accountable for human rights violations, but they have not eliminated the violations. Their involvement is at the heart of many disputes about the Congo, and the question remains- who will be able to truly eliminate this problem of mass rape and murder in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Works Cited

Boitiaux, Charlotte. "Africa - DR Congo: Who Are the Various Rebel Groups at War?" France 24. N.p., 22 Aug. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://www.france24.com/en/20120822-democratic-republic-congo-various-rebel-groups-war-rwanda-uganda/>.

Caplan, Gerald. "Peacekeepers Gone Wild: How Much More Abuse Will the UN Ignore in Congo?" The Globe and Mail. The Globe and Mail Inc., 3 Aug. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/peacekeepers-gone-wild-how-much-more-abuse-will-the-un-ignore-in-congo/article4462151/>.

Clottey, Peter. "DRC Military Offensives Reduces Number of Armed Groups." VOA News. N.p., 10 Apr. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.voanews.com/content/drc-military-offensives-reduces-number-of-armed-groups/1890655.html>.

"DR Congo: M23 Rebels Kill, Rape Civilians." Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch, 22 July 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/07/22/dr-congo-m23-rebels-kill-rape-civilians>.

"Hundreds of M23 Rebels Escape Repatriation." Global Issues in Context. The Content Agents, 17 Dec. 2014. Web. 8 Mar. 2015. <http://find.galegroup.com/gic/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=0f48ecee8b1fd7f446ffb51dd31f8b93&prodId=GIC&userGroupName=los42754&tabID=T004&docId=A393874479&type=retrieve&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0>.

Kanyunyu, John, and Ohilipp Sandner. "Congo Protests against UN Peacekeepers | Africa | DW.DE | 23.10.2014." DW.DE. N.p., 23 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015. <http://www.dw.de/congo-protests-against-un-peacekeepers/a-18016649>.

Musoni, Fabrice. "Understanding M23 and the Current Conflict in the DR Congo." End Genocide. United to End Genocide, 29 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Mar. 2015. <http://endgenocide.org/understanding-m23-and-the-current-conflict-in-the-drc-congo/>.

Taylor, Adam. "UN-Backed Congo Troops Killed More Civilians Than Rebels, Says Human Rights Watch." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Mar. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2015. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/14/un-backed-congo-troops-ki_n_391635.html>.

John's Analysis

Thesis- Alan Paton uses this scene to show how John's lust for power has taken such a strong hold of him that he's willing to ignore and insult his culture, past, and family's beliefs.
"I do not say we are free here...But at least I am free of the chief.  At least I am free of an old and ignorant man, who is nothing but a white man's dog.  He is a trick"(35).
"Every factory, every theatre, every beautiful house, they are all built by us.  And what does a chief know about that?  But us here in Johannesburg know"(37).
"'And you wife?  Why did she leave?' 'Well, well', said John Kumalo with his knowing smile. 'She did not understand my experience.'  'You mean', said Msimangu said coldly, 'that she believed in fidelity?'"(37).

This house represents the fact that John is consciously destroying his previous beliefs and past, thereby destroying all remnants of his culture in order to have more power and fit in with the white men.

The Rooster of Power, and The Color of Communism

Rooster Alarm Clock:

Thesis: The author uses the symbolism of the rooster alarm clock to demonstrate that whoever is in charge of the alarm clock has power over the lives of everyone in the village.

Quotes:
1. “Luo had a brainstorm: with his little finger he slid the hands of the clock back by one hour. We got back into bed to enjoy our lie-in” (15).

2. “I was convinced that the real reason behind his liberal attitude was the irresistible attraction of our alarm clock, with its proud peacock-feathered rooster… The only way he could have it all to himself, even for a short time, was to dispatch us to Yong Jing. During the four days it took us to get there, see the film and return to our village, he would be lord and master of the clock” (80).



Red and the Three Blood Spots in Headman's eye

Thesis: Sijie uses the symbol of the three red blood spots in the Headman’s eye to represent the influence of communism in the peasant villages, where red is the color of communism.

Quotes:
1. “The headman held the violin upright and peered into the black interior of the body, like an officious customs officer searching for drugs. I noticed three blood spots in his left eye, one large and one small, all the same shade of bright red” (3).

2. “At that instant the glint of the vigilant Communist reappeared in the headman’s eyes, and his voice turned hostile… Again I was alarmed by the three spots of blood in his left eye” (5).

Competition

To be the unquestioned best had always been my goal

But I have learned it is not in my future.

I am straying from my guiding path,

The only path that can exist,

The only trail that leads to my success.

Following one that does not, and cannot exist

It has been a beautiful lie,

A hopeful fantasy.

The ghost of a directionless road that I can only presume leads supremacy.

Meanwhile, in this arduous race,

I have been peering around to see how my opponents are doing.

It has distracted me,

And now I am behind.

Now I know that to win the race,

I must only compete with myself

For the only genuine champion that exists

Is the one who faces reality

And settles on a truce

To find inner peace,

To be only who he is justified to be.

An Inaccurate Stroll Down Memory Lane