Yeah Jen, why are you so bent on news, the truth and the Congo?

By Amy Goodman

January 24, 2008, TruthDig.com

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080123_the_invisible_war/

It's the deadliest conflict since World War II. More than 5 million people
have died in the past decade, yet it goes virtually unnoticed and unreported
in the United States. The conflict is in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
in Central Africa. At its heart are the natural resources found in Congo and
multinational corporations that extract them. The prospects for peace have
slightly improved: A peace accord was just signed in Congo's eastern Kivu
provinces. But without a comprehensive truth and reconciliation process for
the entire country and a renegotiation of all mining contracts, the
suffering will undoubtedly continue.

In its latest Congo mortality report, the International
Rescue Committee found that a stunning 5.4 million 'excess deaths' have
occurred in Congo since 1998. These are deaths beyond those that would
normally occur. In other words, a loss of life on the scale of Sept. 11
occurring every two days, in a country whose population is one-sixth our
own.

Just a little history: After supporting the allies in World
War II, Congo gained independence and elected Patrice
Lumumba, a progressive Pan-Africanist, as prime minister in 1960. He was
assassinated soon after in a plot involving the CIA. The U.S. installed and
supported Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled tyrannically for more than 30 years,
plundering the nation. Since his death, Congo has seen war, from 1996 to
2002, provoked by invasions by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda, and ongoing
conflict since then.

A particularly horrifying aspect of the conflict is the mass sexual violence
being used as a weapon of war. Congolese human-rights activist Christine
Schuler Deschryver told me about the hundreds of thousands of women and
children subjected to rape:

'We are not talking about normal rapes anymore. We are
talking about sexual terrorism, because they are destroyed-
you cannot imagine what's going on in Congo. We are talking about new
surgery to repair the women, because they're completely destroyed.' She was
describing the physical damage done to the women, and to children, one, she
said, as young as 10 months old, by acts of rape that involve insertion of
sticks, guns and molten plastic. Deschryver was in the U.S. as a guest of
V-Day, Eve Ensler's campaign to end violence against women, in an attempt to
generate public awareness of this genocide and to support the Panzi Hospital
in Deschryver's hometown of Bukavu.

Maurice Carney is executive director of Friends of the Congo, in Washington,
D.C.: 'Two types of rape, basically, are taking place in the Congo: One is
the rape of the women and children, and the other the rape of the land,
natural resources. The Congo has tremendous natural resources: 30 percent of
the world's cobalt, 10 percent of the world's copper, 80 percent of the
world's reserves of coltan. You have to look at the corporate influence on
everything that takes place in the Congo.'

Among the companies Carney blames for fueling the violence
are Cleveland-based OM Group, the world's leading producer of cobalt-based
specialty chemicals and a leading supplier of nickel-based specialty
chemicals, as well as Boston-based chemical giant Cabot Corp. Cabot produces
coltan, also known as tantalum, a hard-to-extract but critical component of
electronic circuitry, which is used in all cell phones and other consumer
electronics. The massive demand for coltan is credited with fueling the
Second Congo War of 1998-2002. A former CEO of Cabot is none other than the
Bush administration's current secretary of energy, Samuel Bodman.
Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan, which took over the Phelps Dodge company's
enormous mining concession in the Congo, is also in on the game.

The United Nations has issued several reports that are highly critical of
illegal corporate exploitation of the Congo's minerals. A Congolese
government review of more than 60 mining contracts call for their
renegotiation or outright cancellation. Says Carney, 'Eighty percent of the
population live on 30 cents a day or less, with billions of dollars going
out the back door and into the pockets of mining companies.' An important
question for us in the U.S. is: How could close to 6 million people die from
war and related disease in one country in less than a decade and go
virtually unnoticed?

[Amy Goodman is the host of 'Democracy Now!,' a daily international TV/radio
news hour airing on 500 stations in North America.]


Imagine having a smart and successful person, who knows the system inside and out, calling you on the phone to tell you all the ways they are working to make things happen for you. It feels pretty good, I say, and whenever I thank him, he says that his job is to serve me. That is my congressional representative, who is trying to get Tino here before the baby is born. Elias could be born any day now, but still, I have hope...
This exchange that I have built however, for the first time, with the office of MY Congressional representative, has made me realize that I do have a voice that could somehow reach Washington. Anyway, with as much anger and frustration at politics and foreign policies that I have felt, it is balm to know that there are still people working for us. I have never been a writer of letters, journals or otherwise. Blogging has stimulated a journaling habit, while email and the desire to stay in touch with loved ones all over the world has forced me to sit down and write more letters.
But sadly, I have never, outside of a classroom assignment, written a letter to a politician.
I am about to bring another human into this world, and to make an African man a US citizen.
Here, I am able to read the newspapers and magazines, listen to independent radio, watch primary debates on youtube, watch documentaries on inspiring Americans like Sergent Shriver and Martin Luther King Jr., and good films like 'God Grew Tired of Us' (2007) about the Lost Boy in Sudanese refugee camps, and many others that make the emotional connection with how human lives and culture are affected by political greed and corruption (Wind that Shakes the Barley(2007) about the Irish Republican Army, and The Constant Gardener (2005) are two others I've seen this week.)
A letter isn't much, but after reading the following report by Amy Goodman, I will do my best to be a citizen who shows appreciation for what I do have, by vocalizing my opinion to those who are paid to hear it, and by continuing to shop with canvas bags and stay healthy in body and mind.

Often, living in the United States, I am left with a despondency that there is too much to do know about; too many negative things to stand up to. I feel small and voiceless, on a bike up against this huge machine that drives genocides like the Congolese one, Polar bears to extinction, the funding of 'Vietnam the Sequel,' and a big ugly Hummer. By riding this bike, I've been trying to speak out through my actions rather than ranting in front of supermarkets and driving people in the opposite direction. What I find instead is that I have become lazier. Often, I don't know the right thing to do. But I am no longer to intimidated, or too apathetic to write a letter.
I feel that it is important to continue conversations with each other. Even when I am frustrated to tears because the conversation is nothing new (recycling, composting, conservation, diet and exercise!!).
The dialog must still happen with renewed enthusiasm every time, patience, love and ideas. It must happen with invigorated anger, every fucking time.
Bush may finally be at the end of his term, but the most powerful and greedy country is still our own, and the only way it can be affected is through its citizenry. The world knows this, but we ignore our power by ignoring our opportunities and privileges.

So read this, and have a conversation with your local congressional representative about any issue that is bothering you.
Thank you to Amy Goodman, a long time hero of mine. True reporters are the gems of our civilization.