More Rescues From Boko Haram Nigeria Reported, and Marquel TPVs NYTimes Told You So Section correspondent, was only too happy to read it. It was almost exactly a year ago when Marquel reported the back story here.
Basically the girls were kidnapped to appear in a musical of “The Lost Girls,” made a complete road tour of the African continent, including Missouri, and ended the tour last week. Over two hundred girls were returned this week and something like 600 last week. Seasoned troupers, they now have a career and c.v.’s.
Of course this did not occur without controversy or bloodshed. Boco Harum is a homicidal psychopathic group. They kill for no reasons and have never felt guilt. But they have a deep appreciation of all the arts, including theatre. In fact many of the members were critical of “The Lost Girls,” for being “too temporal, restrained and concrete, leaving nothing to the imagination,” as General Wumva Terence, the assistant adjutant for artistic affairs, said, and “insufficiently abstract and progressive,” as private Leon Karzuvoyo, an enlistee who saw the production three times, put it. Even Marquel was a victim of the controversy. He wrote about it, exposing the theatrical back story in a major scoop (TPV 3/9/14). One commentator, aptly self-identified as “Idiot Police,” wrote last year,
“Fuck you MARQUEL! You son of a bitch! How could you be this ignorant?! I know someone whose daughter was kidnapped! This is nothing to joke about, ASSHOLE!”
“you know what will happen: if the girls are freed you’re a hero. If they are killed, and usually that’s the outcome, you’ll come up as assholes. Major asshole.”
Marquel didn’t want to be either an asshole or a hero. Not even a major one. He just wanted to cover the news.
So the girls are back. Except for the ones that were killed of course. But the rest had the time of their lives. They learned musical notation although at first they were afraid it was a coded ransom note. They learned syncopated dancing, although they all carried M16s when they practiced. And most of all they learned how to work together. Solidarity. Almost all mastered the kazoo. Some of them became accomplices to murder and rape, of course.
I asked some of the girls who returned how they felt about that.
“It made me sad,” said one teenager.
“I didn’t want to do it,” said another, teary eyed.
She said, “That’s show business.”
It is such a terrible topic. I can hardly admit I read it. Now, how is it to say, I actually thought it is very well written, but gush Marquel…It makes me very uncomfortable.
indeed. well written but really? Let’s forget about these truly unlucky people. All of them who are born in Africa
but we can all aspire to be Africa. With the politicians we are doomed to have…