Obligations In The Film 'Pray The Devil Back To Hell'

National Obligations If someone is hurt and there are others nearby who could be of some help, generally they are obligated to do so. Generally, at no cost to themselves, they can help someone else whenever the need arises. However, there are sometimes circumstances in which the helper must do more than just care enough to help. Sometimes, they will need to commit more time and effort than it could be worth. Sometimes, helping someone else could cost them dearly. In even worse case, helping could only make things worse. In terms of the film “Pray the Devil Back to Hell”, outside influence may have made matters worse. Of course, that would depend on where it came from and what their intentions were. “Pray the Devil back to Hell” is an inspirational
documentary film about the women of Liberia putting aside their religious differences and their everyday lives to fight against an actual problem at the risk of their own lives. That problem being the oppression and mistreatment of the common people of their nation and the ongoing war. They called upon the support of everyone from every background to put an end to the childish war being fought for justifiable reasons and in unjustifiable ways. The government officials and military factions throughout the region seemed entirely unconcerned about the well-being of its citizens, to the point where their own soldiers would attack their own innocent people. People they were claiming to supposedly protect. This violation of human rights along with many other violations are justifiable causes for foreign nation-states to intervene, despite the idea of sovereignty. The United States is well known for committing to helping in situations such as these, however their help doesn’t come without a bit of controversy since the U.S. does have its own agenda. Generally, the U.S. goes after some sort of natural resource or protects a region for some-sort of political gain or edge. The United Nations could also interfere. This actually came to fruition during the later stages of the Liberian women’s effort to solve the issue. Unfortunately, the U.N. did not handle “clean up” efforts very well and the Women of Liberia called them out on what they did wrong. As far as this issue being an obligation, that would be the case depending on what kind of obligation it is.
Legally, there is not obligation other than whatever the foreign nation’s political agenda may be. Perhaps the foreign nation sees this as a moral obligation. That is how most people would it as anyway. People tend to help others who are in need. It is basic human nature. That is of course if the onlooker’s perspective is more liberal than realistic. A national moral obligation would be a powerful and well accepted reason for interfering in international affairs. It is not enough to break sovereignty, but at this point sovereignty will not protect the Liberian leaders. The only thing that would endanger this foreign interference is the reach of power the morally just nation has. How much could they influence the outcome of this situation. They could put troops on the ground to suppress rebel activities or even attempt to arrest or assassinate the leaders behind the conflict. Whose right is it to dictate which action is correct. In this case, the people of Liberia should have a say in what happens since they are one of the primary victims in this conflict. Luckily, the people, or rather, Women of Liberia had stood up and spoken out before there was any major foreign intervention. They had already made progress in ensuring peace for their people and outside interference was no longer a necessity. It may have helped, but it was not
required. Overall, whether the obligation was based on political necessity, political gain or morality, foreign interference could have been helpful but ultimately would not have been necessary. This story is proof that nations can resolve matters on their own without some form of paternalism. It is proof that women can achieve just as much as men and are not inferior. Incidentally, it is also proof that not all foreign interference is necessary or even helpful. The women of Liberia deserve all the recognition they have received for what they did for their country.