{"id":504,"date":"2014-05-10T10:42:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-10T10:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html"},"modified":"2014-05-10T10:42:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-10T10:42:00","slug":"save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html","title":{"rendered":"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \u201cwives\u201d (= slaves) is an appalling situation. \u00a0This is hardly the first such attack; thegatewaypundit.com reports on their attacks on villages fairly often (though the site is often a bit too sensationalist for my taste on other subjects). \u00a0But this has captured Americans\u2019 attention enough to appear on my facebook feed multiple times.<\/div>\n

Here\u2019s a link to a facebook posting <\/a>by A Mighty Girl (a girl-empowerment website that happens to sell girl-empowering books and media) that a friend \u201cshared\u201d; I imagine that if you\u2019re a facebook user, the link will work for you, but not if you\u2019re not, so here\u2019s the text:<\/p>\n

Take action to \u202a#\u200eBringBackOurGirls\u202c\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Over 270 Nigerian girls between 15 and 18 years old were kidnapped from their school two weeks ago by Boko Haram militants, a terrorist group whose name translates to \u201cWestern education is sinful.\u201d The school\u2019s principal, Hajiya Asabe Ali Kwambula, told the New York Times yesterday that 53 girls managed to escape while 223 are still missing. The girls have reportedly been taken to a terrorist camp deep in the forest, although new reports have come in this week from remote villages that some of the girls have been \u201cauctioned off to Boko Haram members for 2,000 Naira\u201d \u2014 about $12 \u2014 for forced \u201cmarriages\u201d or sex slavery. \u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nigerians have been holding mass protests this week calling on President Goodluck Jonathan to deploy every means possible to find the girls. You can join the international call to action to bring back the girls by supporting two petitions that have been building momentum:\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0\u2013 A Change.org petition to President Jonathan at http:\/\/chn.ge\/1ioL496\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u2013 A TakePart petition to Nigerian officials and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at http:\/\/bit.ly\/1rUgsPa\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can learn more about the kidnappings in these articles in the NY Times at http:\/\/nyti.ms\/1rSD7eZ or in the New Yorker at http:\/\/nyr.kr\/1mZgi9F\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While this kidnapping is shocking in its scale, the kidnapping and trafficking of girls and women is a tremendous global problem. The U.S. State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year and 80% of those trafficked are women and girls, mostly for sexual exploitation.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To learn more about this problem and how communities are fighting against it, we highly recommend \u201cHalf the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide\u201d at http:\/\/www.amightygirl.com\/half-the-sky and the accompanying documentary, for ages 13 and up, at http:\/\/www.amightygirl.com\/half-the-sky-documentary\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For an excellent though challenging novel about one girl\u2019s experience being trafficked into prostitution, we highly recommend \u201cSold\u201d for readers 14 and up at http:\/\/www.amightygirl.com\/sold\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The recently released film, \u201cGirl Rising,\u201d also explores the challenges faced by many girls in developing countries at http:\/\/www.amightygirl.com\/girl-rising\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To learn about several organizations working to end sex trafficking, visit Half the Sky\u2019s resource page at http:\/\/bit.ly\/1lEYjTS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I copied over the whole thing so as to not appear to be cherry-picking, but didn\u2019t do the necessary additional work to make the links clickable, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n

The penultimate links are all to products this website sells, but that\u2019s not really my beef. \u00a0It\u2019s the idea that an American attaching their name to an online petition is \u201ctaking\u201d a meaningful \u201caction\u201d that will, in any way, \u201cbring back\u201d these girls.<\/p>\n

The Boko Haram terrorist group is not some kind of fringe group, and this kidnapping is not an isolated event. \u00a0The Nigerian government is already pursuing them aggressively; CNN actually has a pretty good summary<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is not too different from the \u201ckony\u201d campaign from a couple years ago, in which teenagers thought that by buying bracelets and sharing a video they could Make a Difference and Take Action. \u00a0It\u2019s like the countless other change.org petitions and other campaigns to \u201cshare\u201d your support for a cause via facebook or other social media. <\/p>\n

Now, it\u2019s true that even small monetary donations can, in the aggregate, make a difference. \u00a0But people are being conditioned to think that you don\u2019t really need to make any sacrifice other than a trivial sacrifice of mere seconds of your time to do something \u2014 and the skeptic in me wonders whether, far from motivating people to take a next step, these sorts of meaningless actions give people the false impression that they have already \u201cdone something,\u201d and they just move on to the next tweet or facebook item.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:<\/p>\n

Apparently we have moved from \u201ctweeting to save the world\u201d to actually suggesting that the US should step in, in terms of the statements of politicians and blog comments alike \u2014 but we\u2019re still in fantasyland; it\u2019s just that instead of imagining that a twitter campaign will change the minds of the girls\u2019 captors, we\u2019re imagining that the U.S. military could neatly and surgically swoop in and rescue the girls, risk-free. \u00a0As National Review writer Tom Rogan says<\/a>, sending in U.S. troops is, in fact, a risky endeavor. \u00a0Remember how quickly Somalia went from U.S. troops being blinded by the reporters\u2019 cameras\u2019 flashes to Black Hawk Down? \u00a0How many U.S. troops\u2019 deaths are we OK with to rescue these girls? \u00a0(And would a rescue be a one-time deal, or do we need a long-term engagement to defang Boko Harem and prevent their continued attacks on villages and schools?) <\/p>\n

Of course, Rogan goes on to say that we should send in the drones \u2014 but even this isn\u2019t a simple solution. \u00a0What happens when a drone is shot down? \u00a0Or when a drone kills the girls, or when the captors figure out what\u2019s going on and use the girls as human shields rather than simply as slaves?<\/p>\n

There is no answer. \u00a0We as Americans want to think that we can fix the rest of the world, and it even seems to me that this idea has taken an even firmer hold more recently. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \u201cwives\u201d (= slaves) is an appalling situation. \u00a0This is hardly the first such attack; thegatewaypundit.com reports on their attacks on villages fairly often (though the site is often a bit too sensationalist for my taste […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSave the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as "wives" (= slaves) is an appalling\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as "wives" (= slaves) is an appalling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jane the Actuary\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html\",\"name\":\"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\"},\"description\":\"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \\\"wives\\\" (= slaves) is an appalling\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a\",\"name\":\"Jane the Actuary\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jane the Actuary\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)","description":"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \"wives\" (= slaves) is an appalling","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)","og_description":"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \"wives\" (= slaves) is an appalling","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html","og_site_name":"Jane the Actuary","article_published_time":"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00","author":"Jane the Actuary","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jane the Actuary","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html","name":"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-05-10T10:42:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a"},"description":"The kidnapping of over 270 Nigerian girls by the Boko Haram terrorist group, reportedly to sell them to members as \"wives\" (= slaves) is an appalling","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2014\/05\/save-the-world-with-a-change-org-petition-updates.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Save the world with a change.org petition! (UPDATES)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/","name":"Jane the Actuary","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9b99e0bd58c5eeeebae6b82fa5a77a","name":"Jane the Actuary","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d6a493d380e87d49599d5487691c9fc?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jane the Actuary"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/author\/actuaryjane"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}