Tribal Devastation

On my trip to South Sudan, nothing was more important than braving myself for the conditions that I was about to face. Something that was important to me was to make sure that I had clean and fresh water in order to avoid catching any of the diseases that could be present in the water that I would be coming by on my trip. I quickly packed a backpack full for this adventure. I next made sure that I only brought simple clothing that I wouldn’t mind never seeing again. Light weight shorts and sleeveless shirts make up the majority of the outfits. I also made sure to pack a hat to protect myself from the intense sun. I have a simple wallet with only a little amount of money in it for emergency cases and packed a pocket knife and gun just in case I am engaged in a hostile encounter. The technology that I am bringing with me is a camera, which will be carried by my cameraman, and a cell phone so that I am able to communicate with my editors and family.

            Interviewing members of the tribe could be tough, considering none of them speak English, which is why I requested to have a translator brought with me on this trip who is able to speak and understand the language of the Nuer and the Acholi tribes. I hope that through these translators and through communicating with members of the tribes, I will gain a better understanding of the background of this war. I also look to gain insight on places that may be too dangerous to go, and possibly acquire guides to help me avoid as much danger as I possibly can during my time here. I should hope that I will have my first story in four days.

            I arrive and am immediately thrown into the wilderness. We quickly find a few members of the Acholi tribe and they agree to be our guides for the remainder of our stay. I am nervous because I know that this is the tribe that is known for trying to perform an, “ethnic cleansing,” on their enemy Nuer tribe. The first day is an eventful one to say the least. We are taken to their tribe and are given a small place to place our backpacks and waters. The background woods are filled with sounds of gun shots and it feels as if the fighting between these two tribes is incessant. We don’t do too much exploring on this first day because the walk, process of settling in, and gaining a lay of the land seemed strenuous enough for one day.

            Fast forward to day three and action is really starting to pick up. Our guides have just led us to a mass grave of Nuer people. The Acholi claim that they are not responsible, but I am certain that they are after what I witness later that day when the Acholi people decide to show their true colors. I witness the members travel to a local village of Nuer people and they proceed to gather the villagers and force them to stand in a straight line. With every member of the village lined up, the leader of the Acholi orders his men to fire their weapons. I am utterly disgusted, but am at a loss of what to do. I wish I could end this suffering but am also scared for my own life and am fully aware that the Acholi could turn against me if I were to say anything. I merely tell the cameraman to keep rolling so that we may present this material to the American people and potentially spark action in order to end this, “ethnic cleansing.”

            Filming this was hard and commentating on it is even harder, but it is my job to report to the American people what is going on in this war in Southern Sudan. I will not hold back because sugar coating the facts of what is going on in this country will do nothing to help end this war. People must see with their own eyes the destruction and madness. It is the only way to spark any real action against this violence. This is Francis Jules, reporting from Southern Sudan

Photo essay: the WBC



Two members of the "Journey 4 Justice" group. A band of mostly veterans who drive their motorcycles to every WBC protest. Their goal is to drown out the WBC's message and put them to an end. Unfortunately I was unable to get an interview.



This young lady in the white shows the message the Miami student body was trying to convey...Peace over hate



These gentlemen in the truck caused almost shear pandamonium on spring street



Shriver courtyard is filled...warming to see how a student body can unite in order to stand up against hate



Almost impossible to see past all of the arms, heads, and flags



Students begin to bring out the flags they have brought in order to fight against this protest



Students are bunched on the corner in fear of being yelled at by police to stay on the sidewalk



The streets are so full...I can barely move!



The Miami University Police are in attendance as crowd control



The protest begins with the WBC holding up signs that say, "Fags are beasts and thank god for dead soldiers."

Francis Jules

November 1, 2011

Journalism 101

Miami University

Fire and Brimstone is Back

The Westborough Baptist Church was founded in 1955 in Topeka Kansas by a man named Fred Phelps. The members of the group are his wife, nine of their 13 children (the others have been disowned), their spouses, his grandchildren, and a few other families. This group’s beliefs are that God has only reserved places in heaven for a select few people and that the rest are doomed to burn in hell for all of eternity. The WBC also believes that God has turned against America because it is a country that supports the lifestyle homosexuals and has is retaliating by inflicting tragedies upon its people.

            It is interesting that there are four children who were able to escape the clutches of Fred Phelps and the twisted views that the WBC holds. The “Southern Poverty Law Center” stated that, Nathan, one of the disowned children, said that Phelps was abusive towards his all of his children and his wife. He did this in order to create an atmosphere of fear where he could maintain a strict authority. I feel that this raises the important question of can the others be saved, or are they too far brainwashed? The debate of nature versus nurture should look in to the case of the WBC because from what Nathan had said it seems that nurture could win out. I would compare this information to what Hitler had imposed on the children in the “Hitler Youth.” Members are brain washed to believe that God is against America and our tolerance of homosexuality.

            A large portion of what this hate group does is hold protests and to picket events such as American soldier’s funerals, Colleges, and high profile events. They create signs that display phrases such as, “God Hates Fags, and Thank God for Dead Soldiers,” and spout obscenities at the family of the dead soldiers and at the local people who walk past their picket line. They are always highly controversial wherever they go and large portions of people will frequently go to their protests in an attempt to retaliate with a protest of their own. As of late it seems that more and more people are attending their protests, possibly because of their easily accessible protest schedule on their website, godhatesfags.com.

            An interesting fact about the WBC is that they never ask or accept any money donations whatsoever. The way that they make the majority of their money is through winning civil law suits against people who decide to react physically to their protests. Multiple members of the Phelps family are attorneys and through their lawsuits have amassed money totals as high as 100,000 dollars in a single case! The simple fix that many must think is that this group could be ended quickly if people merely did not attend their protests and if family members of dead soldiers were more able to turn the other cheek and ignore their protests. This, however, is not nearly as easy as it sounds because they will always draw intrigue wherever they go and so people will be in attendance anyway.   

            Recently the WBC formed a protest at Miami University where I was in attendance. It took place on Spring Street by the Shriver Center. I was surprised when I got there to see that only four members of the church were there to protest. It was also a shock to see how many students and locals had shown up to form a protest of their own opposing the WBC. It was impossible to get close to the church members because of how many students had shown up so I was forced to observe from across the street and was unable to hear what the members of the WBC were saying because all of Spring Street had erupted in continuous chants of, “USA! USA!”

            The famous, “Journey 4 Justice” group was also in attendance of the WBC’s protest at Miami. “Journey 4 Justice,” is a counter protest group of Motorcyclists who strictly focus on the Westborough Baptist Church. They are known to hoist American flags and to rev their engines as loudly as possible in order to drown out whatever the WBC protesters are saying. Members are from all over the country, many of them being retired war veterans, and are in attendance of almost every protest that the church holds. I was unfortunately unable to get an interview with a member of this group.

            While attending the WBC protest, I was able to interview a few students who were in attendance in order to get their view on this infamous hate group. The first person that I interviewed was Zach Fowlds a Miami University sophomore. When I asked Zach for his opinion of the protest he answered, “This is a disgrace to the US. I understand that everyone is entitled to free speech, but what they are saying is absolutely outrageous. They are so closed minded and are clearly in a state of delusion. If it was up to me they would be in a mental institution.”

            The second student that I interviewed shared Zach’s outrage. I next interviewed Miami University junior, Dan Steinkerchner. When I asked Dan why he chose to come to the protest he stated, “This is something that doesn’t just happen every day. While I don’t agree with what this group stands for, I was curious to see who would come to watch and also to see how many of the members of the WBC would show up and protest. I also came to join the other students and people that did come to form a protest against the WBC. While some may think that it is better to ignore them, I think that it is important to let them know that we are here to let them know that we will never accept their dark views of the world.”

            While this protest seemed to be the talk of the day at Miami, there was another large event taking place in the Central Quad outside of McCracken Hall. It was a rally for peace and it was an attempt by sororities and other students to peacefully protest the WBC away from their pickets. It was a way to promote peace where just a down the street there seemed to be complete pandemonium. Everyone in attendance was wearing white listening to the music that was being played and buying many of the baked goods that were for sale. While there were many students that decided to be a part of this, I did notice that there weren’t nearly as many people there than there were at the actual WBC protest. In hindsight when I walked over to the peace rally I feel that this was definitely the way to respond to the protest, however, it is hard to beat the intrigue of actually seeing the WBC at work, if you have never seen them before.

            Throughout my research of the WBC I have come to the conclusion that while they are a small group, they will be around for a while. Hate groups seem to be something that are very hard to get rid of completely. For example, the KKK has been around for decades and it in no way seems that they will ever be completely eliminated.  The WBC could be very similar especially since the majority of their members are part of the same family and the brain washing started by Fred Phelps could easily continue for decades. The best way to respond to this group is to ignore them. I am aware that they draw intrigue from their audiences and that many people feel that it is their duty to form a counter protest against them, but it is honestly the only way to at least try to end their organization. The majority of their money is from their civil law suits and if no one were to attend their protests then the WBC would lose major funding. We as people know they are wrong and there is no need for anyone to pay this hate any attention.

(Some information was attained from southerpovertylawcenter.com and journey4justice.com)

Hodge and The Year of Arts

President Hodge is a man on a mission, a mission for change. In his annual address, he immediately started talking about his plans for improving Miami by making it into a more “entrepreneurial” school environment. He has started this process by making this year at Miami, “the year of the arts.” It is time for the school to promote and show the art talent that is prevalent on the campus, and this will greatly help to get the word out. President Hodge described the way that he wants Miami and its students to be perceived. He talked about the Miami student that is, “obsessed with opportunity and committed to excellence.” Many steps have already been taken in Hodge’s plan for Miami, for which we are in year five. Evidence of this progress is seen in the new freshman class which was stated as the biggest that Miami has seen yet. More and more people are wanting to attend this university because of the work that Hodge has been doing. When I spoke with Miami University sophomore Dan Steinkerchner, he said that the reason that he attended was because, “Miami is a school on the rise. Each year you see that they are moving up in the ranks for the top schools in America. Students here have a work hard, play hard mentality as well, which I love. We know how we want this school to be perceived and I think that Hodge is doing a great job of improving Miami.

the scoop on politico

When Looking at Politico.com the first thing that I noticed was how efficiently the website was laid out. The website greets the reader with a large headline for their front page article of the day along with a picture used to draw your attention. There is a menu bar as well at the top which leads the viewer to different portions of the site such as headlines, policy, video, click, and arena. I think that this bar is effective; however, they could make their titles for some of the areas more clear. Areas such as, “click,” and “arena,” are confusing to someone who is unfamiliar with the site. I wonder though if they purposely did this to draw viewer intrigue to click on the selections and further explore the website. I noticed that at the top there are thee very subtle search bars where it states, “search by author, date, or keyword.” I think that this is a great addition to the site because it allows for a reader to easily access articles by their favorite author, and makes it easier to find a specific article that they wanted to show to others. A missed opportunity that I noticed was that when the viewer clicks on one of the above tabs that it takes them to a page that literally is only the title of an article and then annotated portion of it and then the reader can choose to click on the title to view the whole article. (http://www.politico.com/arena/) I think that this is poorly laid out because and definitely does not appeal to my generation. I feel that unfortunately websites and articles really have to draw their reader’s attention now for them to even consider reading and this does not cut it. There is nothing that makes the articles look appealing and I am not drawn to read it. It almost feels as if they spent their entire time making the front page great and then just thought that that would be good enough. The creators of this site should spend more time with the actual substance of their site than just the front page, “glamour,” portion

Qadddafi Reps Visited China in Attempt to Buy Arms

Hey guys, I read some articles yesterday from Fox News, The New York Times, and the Huffington Post  that reported the ex Libyan dictator Moammar Qaddafi had sent his representatives to bid to buy arms from China. The Chinese government did confirm that the representatives were there but have also claimed that no arms have been sent and that they refuse to cooperate with Qaddafi. What makes this more controversial is that the Rebel Military Spokesman in Libya claims that there have been arms have been shipped through Algeria to Qaddafi's forces from Chinese companies. The articles I read were all pretty similar, they each presented the story in the same way, the only difference was that the article from Fox News was much shorter than the articles from the New York Times and the Huffington Post. The New York Times and Huffington Post were at least twice as long and contained more quotes. I definitely want to continue reading about this because no definite conclusion has been made of whether China has been aiding Qaddafi or not. Something that I thought was pretty interesting was the tone of the articles. It seemed as if the writers, while writing a report, also seemed to write as if they believed China is definitely aiding Qaddafi. They brought up the fact that before the revolts took place that China was a regular supplier of arms to Qaddafi and so it seems as if the reporters believe it is definitely possible that their relationship is still ongoing. I enjoyed reading all of the articles and they were all very well written, but if I were to put stock into one of them as the best, it would be the one from the New York Times. I felt it had the most information about the topic and had multiple quotes from both sides of the argument.