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Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Franklin, Gov. Patrick Campaigning for Obama in NH
Franklin, Gov. Patrick Campaigning for Obama in NH
Congoboston.com--Nashua, New Hamphire.
Last November 10th, 2007, three school buses loaded with Obama supporters left a parking lot at the 99 Restaurant, across from Bunker Hill Community College in Charlestown, Mass to the primary voter’s state of New Hampshire. In response to a call from Gov. Deval Patrick, the “historically” first African American Governor of the state of
Among many supporters were former Deval’s campaign staff during his 2006 bid for the 'The hope generated in me during the Senator’s Springfield Illinois Presidential Bid and the dynamics for change that America
“Senator Obama (who wasn’t running for president at that time) inspired me, not only after I heard his DNC speech in 04’, but more he made me adopt him as my role model among African-American political figures at my graduation ceremony in Boston
His network for Obama extends from Boston to Washington DC-Virginia-Maryland area where he enrolled in a public affairs/media internship to Dallas Texas. In the longhorn state, e hosted at a friend’s house, a little earlier in the race… back in April 07, a House Barbecue for Obama. About thirty people, Texans from all backgrounds and racial groups showed up for that social gathering at Kale's house.
“Time is now for American voters and especially new voters: US-naturalized Africans and 19 and + first time voters to get involved and to be part of the history in the making” said, Mr. Katunda. He also inspired many voters, such as Andy Ribaudo of Plano,
In closing, we reproduce here an extract from the bus chatting between Mr Katunda and Gov. patrick, as recorded by the editor and campaign worker: Franklin: “Governor, Sen. Obama inspired me when he gave a speech at my graduation (June 2nd 2006) at Umass-Boston; before heading to your fundraiser to support your bid for Governor of Massachusetts; and this happened on the same day afternoon at the Hines Convention Center, if I’m not mistaking… Today, I find myself priviledged to be onboard this bus with you and shake your hand. ( Now, a Citizen of Massachusetts
Gov Patrick: "Yeah, that's amazing? How are you today? Well, nice to meet you Franklin. You sure you don't wanna run for office. I see you are a well suited person to get in politics?" Franklin: " I will consider running. It's amazing i hear everywhere i go, and thank you for saying that. Nice to meet you Governor". Gov. patrick: "Nice to meet you too!"
Dear readers ( US citizens or legal residents), to get involved in or support this movement for change as it goes beyond just the 2008 Elections, please send an email at Franklinkatunda@yahoo.com, and a reply will follow with an invitation to join the group. The main target will be to “get out” the African Vote in New Hampshire Commonwealth of Massachusetts onboard the bus that took them to Nashua NH
By the Congoboston Staff,
Patrick campaigns for Obama in NH
Patrick seemed to enjoy himself immensely, and his persuasive powers were on full display. Valade may have been his toughest customer, but it wasn't long before he was inviting Patrick inside for some homemade blueberry wine, which Patrick declared "delicious."
Endorsements don't always amount to much in politics, but the support of a popular neighboring Democratic governor could help Obama in New Hampshire, the campaign said, particularly along the state's southern tier, where many work over the border or have family connections, and where most are plugged into the Boston media market.
One of the houses Patrick visited yesterday belonged to Ken Tarbell, 77, a Democrat leaning toward Obama. Tarbell has lived in Nashua for 30 years but considers Fitchburg
Patrick's endorsement was coveted by both the Obama and the Hillary Clinton campaigns. Both campaigns, in fact, were there to greet Patrick when the buses pulled up at Obama's Nashua Clinton
After shaking hands with the Obama crowd, Patrick walked over to the
"I love Democrats!" he told them with a wide smile, shaking hands with each of them.
Three members of Team Clinton, a bit sheepishly, asked the governor to pose for a picture. He complied, though he first politely asked them to remove their
Patrick indirectly acknowledged Obama's difficulty in the polls here when, at a rally in Charlestown
"And they say that about candidates who reflect our best values time and time and time again. They say we can't have what we want. This or that one is not electable.
"If you're content to sit around and wait for the pundits to tell us who's going to win and, therefore, for whom we're going to vote, then we will get the government we deserve," he said. "You and I believe that we deserve better, and we're willing to work for it."
In an interview on the bus, Patrick said he believes there is no simple secret recipe for Obama to pull ahead; he just has to keep on doing what he is doing. "It's a regular slog," he said.But while some pundits have opined Obama needs to become more aggressive in attacking Clinton, Patrick said, "Personally, I think that the other candidates are or ought to be irrelevant to Barack Obama's campaign," he said.
"It is not about them, it's not even about him, it's about our common vision for a stronger America
The Boston
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
2010 U.S. Economic Recession: " An Historic Deja Vu "
Washington DC, December. 2010-- During the October 1929's Wall Street Great Depression, 23.6 % of the US population was unemployed. The Economic Crisis of year 2008 before President Obama took office has caused 9.7 % of our Middle Class Workers to become Unemployed.
Sad reality: most Americans seem not to realize that the "Tea Baggers" have been making noise, politicking about our jobless economic crisis without being able to outlining ANY practical solution the Democrats have or are willing to try to get the country out of its recesion.
Since January 2009, Democrats and the President have put forth some of the proposals initiated in 2008 by the former Republican Administration to bail out big banks and other lending institutions that were about to fail in Wall Street. Later, they extended a hand to help fix the foreclosure crisis, the automakers on the verge of the bankruptcy.
The "Cash for Clunckers" Program boosted the Sales from American Car makers in a market that helped them keep hundreds of thousands of workers and dealerships on the job; having a reason to believe the crisis will go away.
To these measures to aleviate these unpredicted economic difficulties born out of the deregulation of the economic rules over the FEC and other major lending insitutions that abused privileges, were applied the 2009-2010 necessary Reforms that were needed to respond to prevent future abuses
These Institutions enjoyed much from the governement over the course of te past 8 years: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, for instance, got a free pass from the Bush administration in the matter : Obama's reform prorams inlude the Wall Street Regulation; Banking Reform, Credit Card Reform, Student Loan Reform, Food Safety Regulations, and the Heathcare Reform.
These changes were necesssary to close the loopholes in the regulations, to redo laws that needed a complete revamp, and to scrap those that needed new premises that can sustain a legislation that would bring our economy to a good start.
Republicans used this legislation process of these reforms to fuel up political fear and doubt in their constituencies affected by the harshes of the economy. They then "ironically" gained a vote back in Congress. After the Elections of November 2nd 2010, "Right-Wing" elected-officials who went out of their way, having called the President of the United States, an alien, a fraud, a non-US born who forged his birth certificate, are now having to work with the same President they claimed had legislated and executed illegally as Commander-in-Chief since his win in 2008 presidential elections..
The truth is here: There has been attempt of reforms in the past in this country and harsh reactions from the K Street's lobbyists. Republicans did not count with the recent history of the great depression. You would think Obama and the 111th Congress have suffered enough attacks, insults, threats from the T-Party, relayed by Republicans Elected-Officials' obstructions in Congress?
We are going to review the 1929 Great depression's episode and learn from it. It was an economic crisis doubled with a series of ideological attacks in Washington DC, of clashes between what's good for the middle class or the rich whom both loss their capital during the crisis, political tensions between Congress and the White House, and a lack of civility in debates, off course.
A Democrat President, Roosevelt initiated a great deal of necessary reforms in various aspects of the political life and the collapsed US economy:
• Roosevelt inaugurated; begins 'First 100 Days'; of intensive legislative activity.
• A third banking panic occurs in March. Roosevelt declares a Bank Holiday; closes financial institutions to stop a run on banks.
• Alarmed by Roosevelt's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the DuPont and J.P. Morgan empires, plans to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government modelled after Mussolini's regime in Italy.
The businessmen try to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot is foiled when Butler reports it to Congress.
• Congress authorizes creation of the:
(1) Agricultural Adjustment Administration
(2) Civilian Conservation Corps
(3) Farm Credit Administration
(4) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(5) Federal Emergency Relief Administration
(6) National Recovery Administration
(7) Public Works Administration
(8) Tennessee Valley Authority.
• Congress passes the
(1) Emergency Banking Bill.
(2) Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.
(3) Farm Credit Act.
(4) National Industrial Recovery Act.
(5) Truth-in-Securities Act.
• Roosevelt does much to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, but is concerned with a balanced budget. He later rejects Keynes' advice to begin heavy deficit spending.
• The free fall of the GNP is significantly slowed; it dips only 2.1 percent this year. Unemployment rises slightly, to 24.9 percent.
Does it sound like some thing we are hearing now? Well Unemployment is under 10%. But still, We see here another page of history on the economic depression of the 1930's, when the the President and the US Congress attempted a fix to its laws, the enactment of reforms. What brings these two eras closer is the opposition by various business financiers in the back stage. Just like the T-party sponsored by US Chamber of Commerce and many other DC powerful Lobbyists are standing against President Barack Obama, the Democratic president in the 30's almost got booted out by a plotted "coup d'etat", calling him a sell-out of our country. Ironically, the legacy of programs born out of the Roosevelt Era still benefit the country to this day...
A "Deja Vu" episode in the American History ...
By Franklin Katunda, Host of the Diaspora Show on CBNext.com
Sad reality: most Americans seem not to realize that the "Tea Baggers" have been making noise, politicking about our jobless economic crisis without being able to outlining ANY practical solution the Democrats have or are willing to try to get the country out of its recesion.
Since January 2009, Democrats and the President have put forth some of the proposals initiated in 2008 by the former Republican Administration to bail out big banks and other lending institutions that were about to fail in Wall Street. Later, they extended a hand to help fix the foreclosure crisis, the automakers on the verge of the bankruptcy.
The "Cash for Clunckers" Program boosted the Sales from American Car makers in a market that helped them keep hundreds of thousands of workers and dealerships on the job; having a reason to believe the crisis will go away.
To these measures to aleviate these unpredicted economic difficulties born out of the deregulation of the economic rules over the FEC and other major lending insitutions that abused privileges, were applied the 2009-2010 necessary Reforms that were needed to respond to prevent future abuses
These Institutions enjoyed much from the governement over the course of te past 8 years: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, for instance, got a free pass from the Bush administration in the matter : Obama's reform prorams inlude the Wall Street Regulation; Banking Reform, Credit Card Reform, Student Loan Reform, Food Safety Regulations, and the Heathcare Reform.
These changes were necesssary to close the loopholes in the regulations, to redo laws that needed a complete revamp, and to scrap those that needed new premises that can sustain a legislation that would bring our economy to a good start.
Republicans used this legislation process of these reforms to fuel up political fear and doubt in their constituencies affected by the harshes of the economy. They then "ironically" gained a vote back in Congress. After the Elections of November 2nd 2010, "Right-Wing" elected-officials who went out of their way, having called the President of the United States, an alien, a fraud, a non-US born who forged his birth certificate, are now having to work with the same President they claimed had legislated and executed illegally as Commander-in-Chief since his win in 2008 presidential elections..
The truth is here: There has been attempt of reforms in the past in this country and harsh reactions from the K Street's lobbyists. Republicans did not count with the recent history of the great depression. You would think Obama and the 111th Congress have suffered enough attacks, insults, threats from the T-Party, relayed by Republicans Elected-Officials' obstructions in Congress?
We are going to review the 1929 Great depression's episode and learn from it. It was an economic crisis doubled with a series of ideological attacks in Washington DC, of clashes between what's good for the middle class or the rich whom both loss their capital during the crisis, political tensions between Congress and the White House, and a lack of civility in debates, off course.
A Democrat President, Roosevelt initiated a great deal of necessary reforms in various aspects of the political life and the collapsed US economy:
• Roosevelt inaugurated; begins 'First 100 Days'; of intensive legislative activity.
• A third banking panic occurs in March. Roosevelt declares a Bank Holiday; closes financial institutions to stop a run on banks.
• Alarmed by Roosevelt's plan to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, a group of millionaire businessmen, led by the DuPont and J.P. Morgan empires, plans to overthrow Roosevelt with a military coup and install a fascist government modelled after Mussolini's regime in Italy.
The businessmen try to recruit General Smedley Butler, promising him an army of 500,000, unlimited financial backing and generous media spin control. The plot is foiled when Butler reports it to Congress.
• Congress authorizes creation of the:
(1) Agricultural Adjustment Administration
(2) Civilian Conservation Corps
(3) Farm Credit Administration
(4) Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
(5) Federal Emergency Relief Administration
(6) National Recovery Administration
(7) Public Works Administration
(8) Tennessee Valley Authority.
• Congress passes the
(1) Emergency Banking Bill.
(2) Glass-Steagall Act of 1933.
(3) Farm Credit Act.
(4) National Industrial Recovery Act.
(5) Truth-in-Securities Act.
• Roosevelt does much to redistribute wealth from the rich to the poor, but is concerned with a balanced budget. He later rejects Keynes' advice to begin heavy deficit spending.
• The free fall of the GNP is significantly slowed; it dips only 2.1 percent this year. Unemployment rises slightly, to 24.9 percent.
Does it sound like some thing we are hearing now? Well Unemployment is under 10%. But still, We see here another page of history on the economic depression of the 1930's, when the the President and the US Congress attempted a fix to its laws, the enactment of reforms. What brings these two eras closer is the opposition by various business financiers in the back stage. Just like the T-party sponsored by US Chamber of Commerce and many other DC powerful Lobbyists are standing against President Barack Obama, the Democratic president in the 30's almost got booted out by a plotted "coup d'etat", calling him a sell-out of our country. Ironically, the legacy of programs born out of the Roosevelt Era still benefit the country to this day...
A "Deja Vu" episode in the American History ...
By Franklin Katunda, Host of the Diaspora Show on CBNext.com
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Final Call: Rally for Health Care at GMU
Have just returned from the Health Care Reform event at George Mason University. It was unbelievable to see the thousands upon thousands of like-minded Americans of all ages and walks of life supporting our President and Health Care reform. The Patriot Center was packed with very few open seats and the crowd stood for the President during his entire speech.
The supporters for Health Care Reform far outnumbered the one hundred or so people who were outside the Patriot Center protesting. Many of their signs were the usual misconceptions and lies about Health Care and what America needs to do for its citizens. It was business as usual with protestors sure that Health Care Reform will kill granny, will be given to illegal immigrants and will involve a government take over.
What the signs didn't say was that Health Care Reform and the bill to be voted on this weekend involves a commonsense bill that takes into account both the ideas from Democrats AND from Republicans. Rather than insurance companies or the government controlling our health care, control will be given back to the American people.
President Obama laid out three goals of Health Care Reform.
They include:
1.Ending the worst practices of insurance companies. This will be a "Patient Bill of Rights on Steroids." Thousands will have the right to buy health are. Denying coverage to kids with preexisting conditions will be no more. Insurance companies dropping coverage when a patient gets ill, will cease. Young students will have the right to stay under their
parent's health care until the age of 26 which will provide them with some security.
2. Small business owners will get the same choices as members of Congress do, in choosing health care. They will receive tax credits. This will be paid for by the elimination of fraud. It will be paid for up front unlike the past administration who passed a prescription bill that was never paid for ad resulted in a huge addition to the federal deficit. President Obama promised young people that a credit card wouldn't be taken out in their name to pay for Health Care Reform.
3. The cost of health care will go down. Individuals cost will decrease
from 14-20%. Employees costs would go down $3,000 per employee. Who knows? Maybe that might result in a raise which would be a totally new concept for so many employees who have forgotten what it's like to get a raise in their paycheck. Health Care Reform will also reduce the federal deficit whereas the so called fiscal conservatives raised the deficit by 1 trillion dollars. Now their mantra is we can't afford this. This was said about both Social Security AND Medicare.
President Obama has the courage of his convictions to not care what the polls say. They don't matter. We need do this for Americans because it's the right thing to do!!!!!!!
The Time for Change and Reform is NOW.
Thanks to all of you who came out today and showed your support for our President!!!! The crowd and support are still very much for President Obama.. God Bless America and let's hope this weekend our legislators do what's right for our citizens.
From the DailyKos's blog. Sat. March 20th 2010
These are the GMU Students who helped Obama to kick-off his campaign in DC area in 2007
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Congo Conflict Minerals: A Cover For US Allies and Western Mining Interests?
The conflict mineral approach or efforts emanating from the United States and Europe are no exception to this symptomatic approach which serves more to perpetuate the root causes of Congo’s challenges than to resolve them.
The conflict mineral approach has an obsessive focus on the FDLR and other rebel groups while scant attention is paid to Uganda (which has an International Court of Justice ruling against it for looting and crimes against humanity in the Congo) and Rwanda (whose role in the perpetuation of the conflict and looting of Congo is well documented by UN reports and international arrest warrants for its top officials).
Rwanda is the main transit point for illicit minerals coming from the Congo irrespective of the rebel group (FDLR, CNDP or others) transporting the minerals. According to Dow Jones, Rwanda’s mining sector output grew 20% in 2008 from the year earlier due to increased export volumes of tungsten, cassiterite and coltan, the country’s three leading minerals with which Rwanda is not well endowed. In fact, should Rwanda continue to pilfer Congo’s minerals, its annual mineral export revenues are expected to reach $200 million by 2010.
Former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Herman Cohen says it best when he notes “having controlled the Kivu provinces for 12 years, Rwanda will not relinquish access to resources that constitute a significant percentage of its gross national product.” As long as the West continues to give the Kagame regime carte blanche, the conflict and instability will endure.
According to Global Witness’s 2009 report, Faced With A Gun What Can you Do, Congolese government statistics and reports by the Group of Experts and NGOs, Rwanda is one of the main conduits for illicit minerals leaving the Congo. It is amazing that the conflict mineral approach shout loudly about making sure that the trade in minerals does not benefit armed groups but the biggest armed beneficiary of Congo’s minerals is the Rwandan regime headed by Paul Kagame.
Nonetheless, the conflict mineral approach is remarkably silent about Rwanda’s complicity in the fueling of the conflict in the Congo and the fleecing of Congo’s riches. Advocates of the conflict mineral approach would be far more credible if they had ever called for any kind of pressure whatsoever on mining companies that are directly involved in either fueling the conflict or exploiting the Congolese people.
The United Nations, The Congolese Parliament, Carter Center, Southern Africa Resource Watch and several other NGOs have documented corporations that have pilfered Congo’s wealth and contributed to the perpetuation of the conflict. Some of these companies include but are not limited to: Traxys, OM Group, Blattner Elwyn Group, Freeport McMoran, Eagle Wings/Trinitech, Lundin, Kemet, Banro, AngloGold Ashanti, Anvil Mining, and First Quantum.
The conflict mineral approach, like the Blood Diamond campaign from which it draws its inspiration, is silent on the question of resource sovereignty which has been a central question in the geo-strategic battle for Congo’s mineral wealth. It was over this question of resource sovereignty that the West assassinated Congo’s first democratically elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba and stifled the democratic aspirations of the Congolese people for over three decades by installing and backing the dictator Joseph Mobutu.
In addition, the United States also backed the 1996 and 1998 invasions of Congo by Rwanda and Uganda instead of supporting the non-violent, pro-democracy forces inside the Congo. Unfortunately and to the chagrin of the Congolese people, some of the strongest advocates of the conflict mineral approach are former Clinton administration officials who supported the invasions of Congo by Rwanda and Uganda. This may in part explains the militaristic underbelly of the conflict mineral approach, which has as its so-called second step a comprehensive counterinsurgency.
The focus on the east of Congo falls in line with the long-held obsession by some advocates in Washington who incessantly push for the balkanization of the Congo. Their focus on “Eastern Congo” is inadequate and does not fully take into account the nature and scope of the dynamics in the entire country. Political decisions in Kinshasa, the capital in the West, have a direct impact on the events that unfold in the East of Congo and are central to any durable solutions.
The central claim of the conflict mineral approach is to bring an end to the conflict; however, the conflict can plausibly be brought to an end much quicker through diplomatic and political means. The so-called blood mineral route is not the quickest way to end the conflict. We have already seen how quickly world pressure can work with the sidelining of rebel leader Laurent Nkunda and the demobilization and/or rearranging of his CNDP rebel group in January 2009, as a result of global pressure placed on the CNDP’s sponsor Paul Kagame of Rwanda.
More pressure needs to be placed on leaders such as Kagame and Museveni who have been at the root of the conflict since 1996. The FDLR can readily be pressured as well, especially with most of their political leadership residing in the West, however this should be done within a political framework, which brings all the players to the table as opposed to the current militaristic, dichotomous, good-guy bad-guy approach where the West sees Kagame and Museveni as the “good-guys” and everyone else as bad. The picture is far grayer than Black and White.
A robust political approach by the global community would entail the following prescriptions:
1. Join Sweden and Netherlands in pressuring Rwanda to be a artner for peace and a stabilizing presence in the region. The United States and Great Britain in particular should apply more pressure on their allies Rwanda and Uganda to the point of withholding aid if necessary.
2. Hold to account companies and individuals through sanctions trafficking in minerals whether with rebel groups or neighboring countries, particularly Rwanda and Uganda. Canada has chimed in as well but has been deadly silent on the exploitative practices of its mining companies in the Congo. Canada must do more to hold its mining companies accountable as is called for in Bill C-300.
3. Encourage world leaders to be more engaged diplomatically and place a higher priority on what is the deadliest conflict in the World since World War Two.
4. Reject the militarization of the Great Lakes region represented by AFRICOM, which has already resulted in the suffering of civilian population; the strengthening of authoritarian figures such as Uganda’s Museveni (in power since 1986) and Rwanda’s Kagame (won the 2003 “elections” with 95 percent of the vote); and the restriction of political space in their countries.
5. Demand of the Obama administration to be engaged differently from its current military-laden approach and to take the lead in pursuing an aggressive diplomatic path with an emphasis on pursuing a regional political framework that can lead to lasting peace and stability.
Kambale Musavuli is Spokesperson and Student Coordinator for Friends of the Congo.
He can be reached at kambale@friendsofthecongo.org.
Bodia Macharia is President of Friends of the Congo/Canada. She can be reached at
Sources: published on http://www.conflictminerals.org/.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
"Lost in Translation": Latest Clinton's Trip to Congo
Op-Ed by Franklin Katunda
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked a very central question about the US economic interests in Central Africa at a forum in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Unfortunately, an inquiry most Congolese called insightful in regards to the US-Congo relations got quickly “lost in translation”. Not only, had it lost its significance in the media coverage, but worst, given their slacking pleasure not to look into news tips and details, US media networks condensed it into another Clinton’s “saut d’humeur” sound bite.
A “key” question lost into another “sound bite”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked a very central question about the US economic interests in Central Africa at a forum in Kinshasa, DR Congo. Unfortunately, an inquiry most Congolese called insightful in regards to the US-Congo relations got quickly “lost in translation”. Not only, had it lost its significance in the media coverage, but worst, given their slacking pleasure not to look into news tips and details, US media networks condensed it into another Clinton’s “saut d’humeur” sound bite.A “key” question lost into another “sound bite”
This was, indeed, a very momentous question ever asked to a top US official in public by a citizen of Congo about the US-Congo relationship. It refered to China’s economic engagement in the DR Congo in the light of the state of the US-Congo cooperation. The question was put out of context by a US staffer who (apparently) did not understand the Congo’s accent the student articulated in the French language, therefore provided a bad translation to Madam Secretary.
First, it is a shame for the State Department to recruit a language poorly-skilled staffer to the highest US diplomatic affairs’ cabinet, regretfully. Than the media coverage of the forum was curtailed in the frenzy that always worships and longs for the Clinton buzz. Newscasters focused more on what they think Madam Secretary wanted to convey to Africans on her abilities vs. the ones of former president Clinton to bring about a new era in US-Congo relationships.
Result: The “I’m the Secretary of State, not my husband” line was highlighted on front pages of newspapers and in 30 seconds “sound bites” played all day long on every American TV network. The Daily News and the New York Post and others quickly “xeroxed” the AP breaking news for their morning (August 11th) cover page.
American listeners and viewers were unfairly fed with a sound bite, played on almost every network even though US journalists recognized the incident turns out to be a wrong translation of what the student’s question really meant. Interesting enough, business TV channels such as CNN-Money, CNBC and others Bloomberg News that should have had interest in covering the story all seemed to have missed the ball… They simply did not elaborate on another China’s gain over the US in the business competition we have been losing at every inch of the way in Africa.
The release of the recorded-translation clearly casts a (female) voice, translating a question by University of Kinshasa’s student (a young man), and it reads: (About the China and Congo’s relationships…) "What does Mr. Clinton think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mutombo think about? ", instead of translating: “What does Mr. President think through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mutombo think about?”
The real argument one can make sense out of is to just think the following: What if the incident played good for the US diplomat who happened to just be lucky not even looking to dodge the question? Students from all over the world like President Obama, and students in Congo understand their expectations in regard to the current US Administration. Any reference to Bill Clinton to reflect on China-Congo relationships won’t even cross their minds a beat, given the former president’s background on the Great Lakes conflict since the 90s.
What strikes me, as I write this opinion piece, is that the media did not extensively comment on Madam Secretary’s response, even after a clarification was made about the true meaning of the question. Just as many Americans have not learned any consistent news on the Congo’s fate in past decades. Meanwhile, China gained significant economic interests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan, as reported several informed-organizations. The United States government has been on the side lines, had timidly and sometimes just rhetorically referred to their will to “work with” these war-torn nations' leaders in order to help them recover, while they did not effectively engage them economically.
The US government failed, to a large extent, to support DR Congo and Sudan with the needed conflict resolution process after the invasion of the Eastern Congo region by Ugandan and Rwandan troops and the horrific mass killings in both Sudan’s Darfur region and Congo while still the US complains, for more than a decade, about the violence borne out of sequences of civil unrests.
America talks “human rights” when it comes to consequences of the war (rape on women, young girls and violence on civilians) but did too little when it comes to put pressure on the governments of Congo and Sudan. Meanwhile, China did none of these things and would never even refer to the observance of human rights when they strike business deals. In facts, it’s not a secret to anyone that China, still a totalitarian regime, has made huge progress in economic development and diplomacy although a “red” regime. China seats on the UN Security Council without being questioned too much on its plans to protecting and respecting the rights of its own citizens.
A call to US Media to factually and objectively report on African Affairs
A Huffington Post website's writer critiqued the lack of depth in facts by US media coverage of the Congo’s conflict that required the intervention of 17,000 UN peacekeepers, and yet unsuccessfully resolved. Ms. Georgianne Nienaber wrote that we (reporters) “owe Africa the same kind of attention to detail and accuracy in reporting. There is a certain sloppiness that happens in reports from Africa, and we can all do better”, she said.
Often, just a few newspapers reported on the DR Congo. The NYT usually reports on DR Congo every other 6 weeks, sometimes with just a few short articles lost in pages 6 or 10. Reporters negligently write without really attracting US scholars and citizens’ curiosity on the Congo’s crisis when, ironically, this war has been called the “worst armed conflict involving many countries since the World War II”.
Radio, TV commentators and producers turn away from citizens’ calls and emails when contacted to speak out and to contribute with news analysis about the Congo during their show casts. I personally was a guest-contributor on US-African Affairs with Voice of America (VOA) in Washington DC, and I sat down on a radio/web-TV panel that debated on the post-Congo’s 2006 presidential elections. My opinions on the topic, as always, so pointed and my account of facts very challenging versus scripted talking points did not attract fans among these felows from the public government-run radio. It’s safe to say that most of my analysis did not align with the producers’ talking points on the DRC crisis, and (reason why) I never got invited again; despite my calls, emails and offers to contribute in months that followed.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and reporter Lisa Ling who reported for the Oprah Show made a well praised on TV but risky report of the stories of rape, violence and genocide in the Eastern Congo during the Bush Administration's era. Anderson went with President Obama to Ghana to report on the history at slave trade site, but the CNN war anchor remained silent on Hillary Clinton’s trip to the eastern Congo… No special report, not even a press correspondent from major networks was present on Clinton’s plane… Why?
MSNBC only played that sound bite over the “lost in translation” question, without reporting or calling for a news analysis on the question it self and the Kinshasa town hall’s highlights. MSNBC Chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell invited on three shows in two days following Monday’s forum, and just elaborated on what may have gone wrong with the secretary of state as a person.
What a shame to reap a worst news spotlight with such unfairness in journalism, after so many human rights advocates, bloggers, Congolese and American scholars in US, activists like Kambale Musavuli of Friends of the Congo, Jean Kamba, Abraham Luakabuanga, John Pendergast or my-self; What a deception after book writers, freelance photographers and even lawmakers like former GA Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney worked hard and took risks of their careers to calling for an exclusive spotlight on Congo since the war started?
Recent developments on the ground
The bigger Congo’s picture here is that investigative journalists in US still ignore the magnitude of the civil unrest and violence that is taking place every week between militias, and more the American public is not aware of the whole controversy about the use of Coltan to build cellphone components, the US corporations which are behind the deals and their illicit exploitation of minerals in Congo’s conflict zones.
A recent government “launch of the operation Kimia II in the DR Congo has seen a spike in the number of sexual assaults against the women of the Kivu’s”, wrote in an editorial, Scott Morgan, web-editor of the “Confused Eagle.” One key problem, he wrote, is that the “FARDC (Government of the Democratic Congo’s Armed Forces) is not able to sustain combat operations against the Rwanda’s FDLR. As part of the Peace Accord, the Government in Kinshasa has instructed its army (FARDC) to integrate some of the former Militia Groups into the Regular Armed Forces. The FDLR have had bases in the region since they were driven out of Rwanda, after the horrific genocide of 1994.” The FDLR (Hutu Rwandans) “have a tactical advantage of knowing the terrain” in the Kivu provinces compared to the Congolese government forces, argues Morgan.
A columnist in LA Times, Helen Winternitz, said that the "Eastern region of Congo has been set by civil wars for a decade, a horrifying symptom of breakdowns through the entire government. The undisciplined Congolese army and the various militias combating the FDLR use rape as a weapon of war. As many as 200,000 women and girls have been raped, some men mutilated to the point of death in what is described as the world's worst episode in mass killing and sexual violence."
Meanwhile, on an unprecedented twist since August 1998, Rwanda and Congo’s heads of state orchestrated a quick meeting in Goma, Kivu to normalize their diplomatic relations (under US’ recommendations?) … What did the two leaders discuss when they met in Goma, days before Clinton’s trip in Congo? Not much consistent is known about. The Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda (a Rwandan-born rebel), who terrorized the Kivu’s civilian population under a Congo’s “laid up” President Kabila, was arrested a few days before the inauguration of Barack Obama, even after he benefited from an impressive military and logistic support from Rwandan President Paul Kagame (his mastermind). So many unreported happenings, news stories are still left out there… without newscasters doing their job.
Congolese Bloggers and Web-news critiqued some of Hillary Clinton sayings
Although Mrs. Clinton was overwhelmingly welcomed in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city, the Agence France Press (AFP) reports that she faced some "hard questions" from students. Questions from that forum in Kinshasa were worth being reported in western media, and of course only a few European and Congolese local newspapers commented on.
The American public and even some high government officials don’t know the history and more the recent happenings in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), and if the conventional media won’t help with the matter, perhaps “citizen journalism” has taken over with social networking tools like i-report, twitter, you tube, facebook, hundreds of Congolese news websites and many other independent blogs are beginning to help build networks of African news sharing in US.
I’m not sure these citizen journalists can fight the opinion and the news framing from the coalition of decades-long and powerful press agencies like the well-known AP, Reuters, AFP, Belga, Xinhua… But it’s been making a whole difference in shaping the public opinion. Signs of progress in social networking being noticed in Congo; residents of Kinshasa by-passed some of these traditional media who either report for either side of the story and just missed the point.
One web-twitter present at the forum (August 10th at 8:39 AM our time) wrote: “Town Hall ended a short while ago, that was pretty exciting, seeing HRC, Fox News, Secret Service and Mutombo in one room.” Another person twitted on Clinton’s address to Congolese students, reporting what she said at that very moment: “I came here to talk to you students before anyone in your government; I expect more transparency from your government”
US News media would not broadcast even on a 30 seconds sound bite that: “A student told Clinton, to applause from the crowd, that underdevelopment (of DR Congo) stemmed from a long history of Western exploitation in the resource-rich nation,once notoriously the private fiefdom of Belgium's King Leopold II…”, as reported the AFP here.
Digging deep on the forum’s aftermath, one of the US top diplomat’s answers to Congolese created an outrage in many circles in Kinshasa; when Mrs. Clinton refused to “look back to the past”, saying she (the US) wants to “work with people who are seeking for a good future, not those who refer to the past.”
An Congolese online blogger for the Hinterland network wrote an open-letter back to Clinton saying: “This one sentence from your answers to the forum in Kinshasa is very saddening, and brings wordiness among the Congolese people, which is still traumatized by a 13 years-long war. Your country, the US, wrote Roger Puati, wants to work with the Congolese people while suggesting that we live by your way of thinking: Never refer to the past… Meaning forget the humiliation we have endured for 10 years and even more for the past 50 years?”
An expert on Central African Affairs and author of “East along the Equator”, Helen Winternitz writes in an Op-ed that “when Congo emerged from the vicious colonial rule of Belgium; the United States empowered and, as a Cold War tactic, supported Mobutu Sese Seko. Utilizing the dictator was considered a legitimate tool by American policymakers who did not worry about the long-term consequences. Mobutu fathered the corrupt and dysfunctional mode of governing that now plagues the country.”
Another Congolese appalled by Clinton’s remarks, Jean-Pierre Mbelu writes on a French/Flemish language website; A Brussels-based network Congoforum.be: “In our faces, Mrs. Clinton asks us (Congolese) to turn the page on a past that holds more than 5 millions of lost lives ! “What about this? Secretary Clinton calls for trials on soldiers who raped in war zones without referring to their foreign chief-allies, past US administration’s officials and multinationals involved in secretly supporting or carrying out the invasion in the DR Congo to be tried as well or called on for their wrong deeds… Is that how the US will work with us?”
What if anything the Department of State should learn from this?
“Obama, who took an interest in the DR Congo's fate when he was in the Senate, has inherited the moral responsibility to make amends and to help the Congolese (people to elect) to build a government that actually works on their behalf”, says in an Op-Ed, Winternitz. The Senate bill S. 2125 from the 109th US Congress on the Democratic Republic of Congo happened to be the only foreign policy, Mr. Barack Obama (then US Senator) initiated with a bi-partisan support from twelve other US Democrat and Republican Senators.
In the light of that 2006 congressional law, signed by George Bush, the Obama administration cannot afford lose its “own” message. Madame Secretary Clinton should be commended for meeting with students for a forum “before” meeting Congo’s officials (good move!). She is to be saluted for clearly “voicing up” (to government officials including President Joseph Kabila) on the resolutions that borne from the last spring US Senate hearing on the DR Congo.
A key message was to stop and to prosecute actors involved in the rape of civilians, used as weapon in conflict zones. This is the 111th congress senate hearing on Congo/Sudan where (as I reported earlier in Spring) California Senator Barbara Boxer (D) and the audience could not resist the heart breaking when they listened to the horrific account of scenes of rape and violence by panelists; one of them being Mrs. Chouchou Namegabe, a Kivu-based Journalist and Activist.
In an open letter to Secretary Clinton, another Congolese US-based website’s owner urges, on the post- Congo’s trip, the US to be practical if “work with” Congo is what they want, and get all rapists to be tried in criminal courts. He proposes to the Clinton’s cabinet to “… send DNA technical experts to DR Congo to help collect DNA samples from former militias and soldiers who fought in the east of Congo and from children born out of rapes. By matching the DNA samples of children and militias in a DNA data center, wrote the web-writer, the paternity of these fatherless children will clearly be established.”
Editor Sylvester Ngoma (Congovisiondotcom) believes that “… The criminals will then be excluded from the national army and brought to justice. Even new victims will be able to report to these data centers for DNA collection to help catch rape criminals. This approach will have several positive effects. Some soldiers will leave the national army on their own just by knowing that their DNA will be collected and kept in a data center. The parliament will need to pass a law mandating all soldiers who fought in the east of the country to comply to the "DNA as a Rape Deterrence Plan."
At the end of the day
Having say all that, Secretary Hillary Clinton still needs to carefully do an unscripted "facts check" on the DR Congo since the Rwanda genocide of 1994, and to attentively review the history about the after 1997 invasion of the DR Congo by Rwandan and Ugandan militias (under Bill Clinton watch). The State Department’s African Affairs division must sincerely determine the US responsibility in the conflict, and assess the public opinion before they apply President Obama’s own policy.
The Congo Senate Bill (as they call it) will empower Secretary Clinton to pressure on President Joseph Kabila’s governance style. Only the S2125 bill would help them to measure up the progress in security and the observance of human rights towards the people of Congo, and then she can finally masterfully avoid alienate, frustrate the Congolese people, but would preach the message of “Hope”, accompanied with an engaging economic and bi-lateral cooperation the US failed in the past 8 years.
It has to be known that above and beyond the differences of cultures, languages and the issue of proximity, Congo shares a common history with the US, citing the past “Cold War” as an illustration; Congo (ex-Zaire) has gone out of the way to contribute through the generosity of its people, the use of its territory militarily, its strategic resources, minerals and intelligence to strengthen US national security and preserve its interests not only in the Continental Africa, but here at home and around the world.
Fifty years since the DR Congo’s independence, and considering the potential level of cooperation both countries can still develop, our commitment at Congobostondotcom remains to write (read: to accurately translate) the opinion of the Congolese people from their French heritage into the English language.
We will continue to help channel their local news, by every means, into the American mainstream media, and than I strongly hope that the message of “Hope” from the US to the DR Congo will never be lost in translation again.
An Opinion Editorial by Web-Editor Franklin Katunda in Washington DC
Former grassroots field orgnizer and web-coordinator for the Obama Campaign.
Op-Ed published for the first time on, © August 18th 2009, Congoboston.com
Monday, October 12, 2009
New Era in US-DR Congo Relationships?
Washington DC, September 14th 2009 -- Since the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States of America, a new page was turned in the relationship between the United States and African Nations. The Obama administration committed and made it known on January 20, 2009 to make Africa a "priority" in foreign policy.
The State Department Focuses on the DR Congo
The new cabinet translated this will into action with the recent trips Mr. Obama made to the African nations of Egypt and Ghana. The new administration emphasized its position for a new era in US-Africa relationships during both much spotlighted speeches the President made at the University of Cairo, Egypt and before the chamber of the Ghana’s Parliament in Accra.
Meanwhile, Madam Secretary Hillary Clinton travelled for eleven days to seven African countries, -- the earliest trip any new cabinet had ever offered to Africa following any presidential inauguration. She seized the moment to articulate the position and the views of the Obama administration on the new diplomatic agenda with Africa to be conducted in years to come. This adds to the fact that as US Senator, Mr. Obama sponsored a bi-partisan bill on the security, the relief and the welfare in the DR Congo -- a bill he worked hard on, eventhough it didn’t get much coverage out of the well of the Capitol. The Obama Congo's bill, supported by 12 senators from both parties, was signed into law by President Bush, his predecessor in 2006.
A significant desire to deliver a diplomatic message is highlighted here when local and US embassy officials in the DR Congo expressed their concerns for Mrs Clinton's personal security, and still, she remained adamant to make an airplane trip over to the eastern Congo “war-torn” zone. The Secretary of State of the United States landed in the city of Goma and visited surrounding refugee camps and hospitals in the provinces of North Kivu where she eventually met there President Joseph Kabila.
The Senate's Democratic Republic of the Congo Bill S. 2125
This Obama-sponsored bill of 2006 stresses guidelines that should help the executive branch of the US government to measure up the progress the DR Congo has shown so far, and eventually to equate the aid and the logistic support that the US lends to any Congolese officials to the progress on the ground.
Key messages in the bill are US recommendations on good business practices made to empower the DR Congo in the areas of good governance, observance of human rights and security. The bill exhorts Congolese to break away from corruption and similar practices as ways to conduct public business.
Meanwhile, repetitive peddles by Congolese officials were being reported in the local and European media. Congolese who live in the DR Congo see their freedom of speech and the respect of their human dignity going diminished to the worst. The Bush Administration did not do enough to follow through this Congo's post-2006 election bill's recommendations to pressure the Kabila government on that important post-crisis foreign policy, therefore the new Admi istration would have to design a new policy implementation's path.
The core of the new era of diplomacy between the US and the DR Congo is laid out in significant signals the Obama administration telegraphed during Mrs. Clinton's visit to Congo-Kinshasa. The state department set a spotlight on the new generation of Congolese actors (the youth); seen as the hopefuls who can rebuild their own country.
Madam Secretary visited the newly built healthcare center, - Marie Biamba Mutombo Hospital in Kinshasa-Masina, built by a Congolese-American NBA star Dikembe Mutombo (a star in many Congolese circles —seen for more than fifteen years of success as a role model by Congo's youngsters). She attended later a student’s town hall at the University of Kinshasa, along with Ambassador Gaverlink and the American Kinshasa-born basket-ball player Mutombo.
In all my years of news analysis, I can testify without fear of being proven otherwise that " for the first time in the history of the two countries, as far as I can recall, a US higher official opted to meet with students for an open “harsh questions” session before being hosted by the Prime Minister and later to meet the President. This official State Department’s protocol tells it all about the desire of the new administration to first meet the Congolese people, regular citizens and the scholars enjoying free speech and engaging in a constructive national debate.
In that same order, Secretary Clinton delivered a strong message to President Joseph Kabila, when showing up (personally) in the hollowed city of Goma, Eastern Congo, asked him face-to-face to work towards putting an halt to a war and the violence that are embolding its actors to “... use rape as a weapon of war in conflict zones in the eastern DR Congo” and Clinton wants Congo officials to deal once for all with these well identified cases of abuses on civilians and the “ illicit exploitation of minerals, which fuels the violence by armed forces on civilians.”
The US Senate sets a Path for the New Administration on DR Congo
No need to remind here that several preparation events took place in Washington DC prior to the African diplomatic tour. A Senate's foreign relations committee's hearing held last Spring 2009 on Capitol Hill shaped the draft of a letter to the state department done by, among many Senators, Russ Feingold and Barbara Boxer to address key Senate's resolutions on Congo and Sudan conflicts.
An active follow up by Madam Secretary could be seen while the choice to visit the "unstable" DR Congo over the rwandan president's bid was part of the Secretary's travel plan. Two days before she landed in DR Congo, and for the first time since 2003, Congolese and Rwandan presidents Joseph Kabila and Paul Kagame met in Goma to normalize their diplomatic relations and to discuss on security in the eastern Congo. All of these facts mentioned above have helped to highlight a clear US government's message to Congo officials and other leaders in the Great Lakes region.
Washington seeks "new solutions to old challenges" in DR Congo
Here in Washington DC, the Nation's capital and along with the Congolese Diaspora, many things are being shuffled from a very recent past. The new Department of State’s philosophy to engage Congolese residents and Americans (journalists, activists, scholars, and NGO representatives) is translated in public forums and discussion sessions the State Department held on foreign affairs questions in connection to the DRC.
United States Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bill Garvelink hosted a discussion session to the public, last Tuesday Oct. 1, 2009 at the Jefferson Conference Room in Washington DC. This is a Town Hall gathering that was designed to enrich the US foreign affairs'cabinet to listening, discussing and really grasping the public opinion in America on the DR Congo's crisis. Mainly, the US military assistance to African countries, the pro and the cons in the opinion about the implementation of the "Africom" programme on the African continent, particularly in the DR Congo was discussed.
Meanwhile, at the higher level, the Obama’s newly appointed Assistant-Secretary of state for African Affairs, Ambassador Johnnie Carson --who happened to be the Africa’s veteran US diplomat with 37 years department's background in Security, Intelligence and Foreign Service, also called a meeting in the Nation’s capital. The purpose was to engage a discussion that would help the new cabinet to “encourage new solutions to old challenges."
The Center for American Progress in DC hosted a two hours discussion where non-profit organizations, citizens and natives Congolese had "one hour and half to listen the diplomat speak and only 45 minutes to enjoy responses to a few questions from the audience". Many DC's African Activists (for the most from other countries than the DR Congo) I spoke to at the conclusion of the meeting, told me they were a little bit disappointed the discussion session on the new "African Affairs strategy" did not meet the set goals they expected (based on what the invite had detailed). Three out of four African attendees think Ambassador Carson spoke longer than he listened to them, while he only took a few questions from selected journalists in the audience. That alone did not meet their expectations for a discussion of that importance.
To a broader picture, more questions should now be asked... Were these events by the new Clinton Affairs Office different from the ones we have seen for the past eight years under the past Rice and Powell's republican ones?
Would the Obama new administration's meetings (just in 9 months) help the US State Department to find "new solutions to old chalenges" in the DR Congo, as Ambassador Carson's invite had suggested about the event?
Too early to tell. We will see...
Would the Obama new administration's meetings (just in 9 months) help the US State Department to find "new solutions to old chalenges" in the DR Congo, as Ambassador Carson's invite had suggested about the event?
Too early to tell. We will see...
Franklin Katunda is Boston and DC-based Activist and Journalist,
Since 2001, he writes as web-chief editor of Congoboston.com
(c) September 2009
"End Ressource War", urge Congolese Activists
Kambale Musavuli
Guest Column
September 22, 2009 -- One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Although advocacy for the Congo has a rich and illustrious tradition dating back to the dawn of the 20th century, contemporary advocacy is faced with unprecedented obstacles: corporate interests, the humanitarian industry, geo-strategic battles, the devaluation of black lives, and media caricatures and misrepresentation of Africans.
In 1908, international advocacy resulted in Congo being taken from King Leopold II and given to the Belgian state as a colony. The ultimate aim of today’s advocacy is to see the Congo removed from the clutches of multi-national corporations, foreign governments, multi-lateral institutions, the humanitarian industry and local elites and placed in the hands of the people of the Congo. The challenge of 21st century advocacy is for the affairs of the Congo to be determined by the people of the Congo.
Corporate Interests
American business interest in the Congo is focused primarily on the mining of resources such as tin, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, tungsten and uranium – including minerals vital to the aerospace, military, automobile, electronics and technology industries. A number of American companies were listed in a 2002 United Nations document as being among companies accused of benefiting from the pilfering of Congo’s wealth.
Humanitarian industry
Unfortunately the humanitarian industry has been trapped in a “charity prism” in which Congo is viewed from the perspective of poverty, conflict, atrocities and depredation. One of the results is that the humanitarian industry is silent in the face of oppressive governments and often works in cahoots with exploitative corporations.
Probably the most deleterious effect of this way of viewing Congo is the military prescription that these institutions lobby for in Washington, DC. They often support policies that prolong conflict, prioritize military options and in the final analysis serve the propaganda of belligerent allies of the United States – such as Rwanda and Uganda – as well as U.S. corporate foreign policy interests.
In the final analysis, the humanitarian industry functions more as an instrument of Western soft power than as a genuine help to Africans. If they truly have the interests of the people of Africa and Congo at heart, their number one aim should be to put themselves out of business by calling for justice and not charity. When the people of Congo attain justice, charity will no longer be needed.
Geo-strategic Battle
Congo is a storehouse of geo-strategic minerals vital to the industrialization of great powers in the east, mainly China, and to the west’s efforts to maintain their economic and military dominance in the world. Apart from Western investment, China has invested U.S. $9 billion in the Congo in a mineral for infrastructure swap with the Congolese government. Congo’s location, size and mineral wealth are far too valuable to be left alone: it will be the playground of great power interests for the foreseeable future.
Devaluation of Black Lives
Nowhere outside Africa could the deaths of an estimated six million people in a 12-year period not cause a global outcry. The United Nations says the conflict is the deadliest in the world since World War II, and the former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said the Congo is “the worst killing field of our generation.”
Yet, the world community is silent. “Doctors without Borders” has reported that Congo is one of the top 10 most underreported stories. We live in a world where black lives are undervalued and underappreciated. But things do not have to remain this way. We can break the silence and change the attitudes and beliefs that have trapped the world in a mindset that undervalues a fellow member of the human family.
Pathological Media Prism
The mainstream media have presented the Congo crisis as an internecine tribal conflict with no discernible beginning or hope of ending, leaving people of goodwill hopeless, despondent and disempowered. If more stories were presented that clearly articulate the true nature of the conflict – that of a resource war and that there are major identifiable players in Western backyards that we can hold accountable – we would see if a dramatically different response from consumers of the mainstream media.
We almost never see a Congolese scholar, thinker activist or intellectual articulating the issues of the Congo. Our people are almost always presented as hapless and in need of saving by Western do-gooders, usually a Hollywood star. Slain gorillas usually get more sympathy and in-depth analysis than the Congolese people.
Prescriptions
A global Congo movement is as important today as the anti-apartheid movement was yesterday. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has presciently noted, “There cannot be a new Africa without a new Congo.” Contrary to presentations by Western scholars and thinkers, the conflict in the Congo is not intractable. If the correct policies were implemented, the conflict could end quickly or at least be mitigated.
The two basic goals of today’s global movement in support of the people of the Congo are:
• To bring an end to the resource war being waged on the backs of the Congolese people, particularly women and children, and• To ensure that the people of the Congo take control of their own future so they can determine how best to use their enormous resources for the benefit of their people and Africa at large.
Global pressure must be mobilized to call for a diplomatic and political approach to ending the conflict as opposed to the military heavy policies favored by the U.S. government, think tanks and humanitarian institutions in Washington, DC. There is a growing global grassroots movement around the Congo.
Thanks to the Internet, the Congolese can speak to the world uncensored. Inside the country, Congolese are organizing teach-ins and rallies. Congolese women are staging sit-ins, artists are using their talent to break the silence, and civil society is rallying to reconstruct our nation. Next month, from October 18 to 24, Friends of Congo and its allies will hold “Congo Week II,” a repeat of last year’s awareness-raising campaign.
As more people get involved, it is critical that the integrity of the movement be safeguarded. The last thing the people of the Congo need is for the movement to be “darfurized” – a process in which people are objectified and their struggle emptied of cultural and historical context. We must press for justice, not charity, and the Congolese must assert their role as agents of their own destiny.
Guest Column
September 22, 2009 -- One hundred years ago, a global outrage surrounding the death of an estimated ten million Congolese resulted in the end the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium over the Congo. Ordinary people around the world from all walks of life stood at the side of the Congolese and demanded the end of the first recorded Congolese holocaust. A century later, the world finds itself facing the same issue where the Congolese people are subjected to unimaginable suffering.
Although advocacy for the Congo has a rich and illustrious tradition dating back to the dawn of the 20th century, contemporary advocacy is faced with unprecedented obstacles: corporate interests, the humanitarian industry, geo-strategic battles, the devaluation of black lives, and media caricatures and misrepresentation of Africans.
In 1908, international advocacy resulted in Congo being taken from King Leopold II and given to the Belgian state as a colony. The ultimate aim of today’s advocacy is to see the Congo removed from the clutches of multi-national corporations, foreign governments, multi-lateral institutions, the humanitarian industry and local elites and placed in the hands of the people of the Congo. The challenge of 21st century advocacy is for the affairs of the Congo to be determined by the people of the Congo.
Corporate Interests
American business interest in the Congo is focused primarily on the mining of resources such as tin, gold, diamonds, copper, cobalt, coltan, tungsten and uranium – including minerals vital to the aerospace, military, automobile, electronics and technology industries. A number of American companies were listed in a 2002 United Nations document as being among companies accused of benefiting from the pilfering of Congo’s wealth.
Humanitarian industry
Unfortunately the humanitarian industry has been trapped in a “charity prism” in which Congo is viewed from the perspective of poverty, conflict, atrocities and depredation. One of the results is that the humanitarian industry is silent in the face of oppressive governments and often works in cahoots with exploitative corporations.
Probably the most deleterious effect of this way of viewing Congo is the military prescription that these institutions lobby for in Washington, DC. They often support policies that prolong conflict, prioritize military options and in the final analysis serve the propaganda of belligerent allies of the United States – such as Rwanda and Uganda – as well as U.S. corporate foreign policy interests.
In the final analysis, the humanitarian industry functions more as an instrument of Western soft power than as a genuine help to Africans. If they truly have the interests of the people of Africa and Congo at heart, their number one aim should be to put themselves out of business by calling for justice and not charity. When the people of Congo attain justice, charity will no longer be needed.
Geo-strategic Battle
Congo is a storehouse of geo-strategic minerals vital to the industrialization of great powers in the east, mainly China, and to the west’s efforts to maintain their economic and military dominance in the world. Apart from Western investment, China has invested U.S. $9 billion in the Congo in a mineral for infrastructure swap with the Congolese government. Congo’s location, size and mineral wealth are far too valuable to be left alone: it will be the playground of great power interests for the foreseeable future.
Devaluation of Black Lives
Nowhere outside Africa could the deaths of an estimated six million people in a 12-year period not cause a global outcry. The United Nations says the conflict is the deadliest in the world since World War II, and the former Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland has said the Congo is “the worst killing field of our generation.”
Yet, the world community is silent. “Doctors without Borders” has reported that Congo is one of the top 10 most underreported stories. We live in a world where black lives are undervalued and underappreciated. But things do not have to remain this way. We can break the silence and change the attitudes and beliefs that have trapped the world in a mindset that undervalues a fellow member of the human family.
Pathological Media Prism
The mainstream media have presented the Congo crisis as an internecine tribal conflict with no discernible beginning or hope of ending, leaving people of goodwill hopeless, despondent and disempowered. If more stories were presented that clearly articulate the true nature of the conflict – that of a resource war and that there are major identifiable players in Western backyards that we can hold accountable – we would see if a dramatically different response from consumers of the mainstream media.
We almost never see a Congolese scholar, thinker activist or intellectual articulating the issues of the Congo. Our people are almost always presented as hapless and in need of saving by Western do-gooders, usually a Hollywood star. Slain gorillas usually get more sympathy and in-depth analysis than the Congolese people.
Prescriptions
A global Congo movement is as important today as the anti-apartheid movement was yesterday. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki has presciently noted, “There cannot be a new Africa without a new Congo.” Contrary to presentations by Western scholars and thinkers, the conflict in the Congo is not intractable. If the correct policies were implemented, the conflict could end quickly or at least be mitigated.
The two basic goals of today’s global movement in support of the people of the Congo are:
• To bring an end to the resource war being waged on the backs of the Congolese people, particularly women and children, and• To ensure that the people of the Congo take control of their own future so they can determine how best to use their enormous resources for the benefit of their people and Africa at large.
Global pressure must be mobilized to call for a diplomatic and political approach to ending the conflict as opposed to the military heavy policies favored by the U.S. government, think tanks and humanitarian institutions in Washington, DC. There is a growing global grassroots movement around the Congo.
Thanks to the Internet, the Congolese can speak to the world uncensored. Inside the country, Congolese are organizing teach-ins and rallies. Congolese women are staging sit-ins, artists are using their talent to break the silence, and civil society is rallying to reconstruct our nation. Next month, from October 18 to 24, Friends of Congo and its allies will hold “Congo Week II,” a repeat of last year’s awareness-raising campaign.
As more people get involved, it is critical that the integrity of the movement be safeguarded. The last thing the people of the Congo need is for the movement to be “darfurized” – a process in which people are objectified and their struggle emptied of cultural and historical context. We must press for justice, not charity, and the Congolese must assert their role as agents of their own destiny.
Mr. Kambale Musavuli is the spokesperson
and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo,
an advocacy group based in Washington DC.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The 1980s: A Very Recent History of The Republic of South Africa
Cape Town-South Africa, September 3, 2009 -- I recently took a 10 days trip (September 09') to South Africa's cities of Pretoria, Johanesburg, and Cape Town where I enjoyed the freedom of a desegregated society, a nation that moved to become the world's largest multiracial one in Africa. Well in shape economically, South Africa is preparing with the help of its modernized cities and the impressive infrastructure therein to host the 2010 World's Cup.But, as world's witnesses, we are far from forgeting where this nation came from and the progress that has been made by the intrepid people who fought for the liberation of the oppressed, and those who decided courageously to give up that evil philosophy. Even so, South Africans are a nation that aspired to becomel a "new" multi-racial democracy where the generation of those who lived under a taught/practiced segregation are still alive.
South Africa flag's multi-colors seem to be freshly painted over a very recent history of segregationist and racist philosophies. This is a 1980s letter by former Prime Minister Peter W. Botha to his Cabinet. Please, be ready to learn the hard thruths about this reprehensible thinking within one among letters the "racist" leader of the Republic of South Africa, under the "Apartheid" regime, wrote to his cabinet members and followers.
This reprint was written by David G. Mailu for the Sunday Times, a South African newspaper dated August 18, 1985. Back then, it was alright for an "Afrikaneer" to live as a white segregationist, with one of duties in mind, was to hate, patronize, disciplined, terrorize and eventually kille " black" South Africans.
Letter
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"Pretoria has been made by the white mind for the white man. We are not obliged even the least to try to prove to anybody and to the Blacks that we are superior people. We have demonstrated that to the Blacks in a thousand and one ways. The Republic of South Africa that we know of today has not been created by wishful thinking.
We have created it at the expense of intelligence, sweat and blood. Were they Afrikaners who tried to eliminate the Australian Aborigines? Are they Afrikaners who discriminate against Blacks and call them Niggers in the States? Were they Afrikaners who started the slave trade?
Where is the Black man appreciated? England discriminates against its Black and their "Sus" law is out to discipline the Blacks. Canada, France, Russia, and Japan all play their discrimination too. Why in the hell then is so much noise made about us? Why are they biased against us? I am simply trying to prove to you all that there is nothing unusual we are doing that the so called civilized worlds are not doing.
We are simply an honest people who have come out aloud with a clear philosophy of how we want to live our own White life. We do not pretend like other Whites that we like Blacks. The fact that, Blacks look like human beings and act like human beings do not necessarily make them sensible human beings.. Hedgehogs are not porcupines and lizards are not crocodiles simply because they look alike.
If God wanted us to be equal to the Blacks, he would have created us all of a uniform colour and intellect. But he created us differently: Whites, Blacks, Yellow, Rulers and the ruled. Intellectually, we are superior to the Blacks; that has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt over the years.
I believe that the Afrikaner is an honest, God fearing person, who has demonstrated practically the right way of being. Nevertheless, it is comforting to know that behind the scenes, Europe, America, Canada, Australia-and all others are behind us in spite of what they say.
For diplomatic relations, we all know what language should be used and where. To prove my point, Comrades, does anyone of you know a White country without an investment or interest in South Africa? Who buys our gold? Who buys our diamonds? Who trades with us? Who is helping us develop other nuclear weapon?
The very truth is that we are their people and they are our people. It's a big secret. The strength of our economy is backed by America, Britain, Germany. It is our strong conviction, therefore, that the Black is the raw material for the White man. So Brothers and Sisters, let us join hands together to fight against this Black devil.
I appeal to all Afrikaners to come out with any creative means of fighting this war. Surely God cannot forsake his own people whom we are. By now every one of us has seen it practically that the Blacks cannot rule themselves. Give them guns and they will kill each other. They are good in nothing else but making noise, dancing, marrying many wives and indulging in sex.
Let us all accept that the Black man is the symbol of poverty, mental inferiority, laziness and emotional incompetence. Isn't it plausible? therefore that the White man is created to rule the Black man? Come to think of what would happen one day if you woke up and on the throne sat a "Kaffir"! Can you imagine what would happen to our women?
Does anyone of you believe that the Blacks can rule this country? Hence, we have good reasons to let them all-the Mandelas-rot in prison, and I think we should be commended for having kept them alive in spite of what we have at hand with which to finish them off. I wish to announce a number of new strategies that should be put to use to destroy this Black bug.
We should now make use of the chemical weapon. Priority number one, we should not by all means allow any more increases of the Black population lest we be choked very soon. I have exciting news that our scientists have come with an efficient stuff. I am sending out more researchers to the field to identify as many venues as possible where the chemical weapons could be employed to combat any further population increases.
The hospital is a very strategic opening, for example and should be fully utilized. The food supply channel should be used. We have eveloped excellent slow killing poisons and fertility destroyers. Our only fear is in case such stuff came in! ! to their hands as they are bound to start using it against us if you care to think of the many Blacks working for us in our However, we are doing the best we can to make sure that the stuff remains strictly in our hands. Secondly, most Blacks are vulnerable to money inducements.
I have set aside a special fund to exploit this venue. The old trick of divide and rule is still very valid today. Our experts should work day and night to set the Black man against his fellowman. His inferior sense of morals can be exploited beautifully. And here is a creature that lacks foresight. There is a need for us to combat him in long term projections that he cannot suspect.
The average Black does not plan his life beyond a year: that stance, for example,should be exploited. My special department is already working round the clock to come out with a long-term operation blueprint. I am also sending a special request to all Afrikaner mothers to double their birth rate. It may be necessary too to set up a population boom industry by putting up centres where we employ and support fully White young men and women to produce children for the nation.
We are also investigating the merit of uterus rentals as a possible means of speeding up the growth of our population through surrogate mothers. For the time being, we should also engage a higher gear to make sure that Black men are separated from their women and fines imposed upon married wives who bear illegitimate children. I have a committee working on finding better methods of inciting Blacks against each other and encouraging murders among themselves.
Murder cases among Blacks should bear very little punishment in order to encourage them. My scientists have come up with a drug that could be smuggled into their brews to effect slow poisoning results and fertility destruction. Working through drinks and manufacturing of soft drinks geared to the Blacks, could promote the channels of reducing their population.
Ours is not a war that we can use the atomic bomb to destroy the Blacks, so we must use our intelligence to effect this. The person-to-person encounter can be very effective. As the records show that the Black man is dying to go to bed with the White woman, here is our unique opportunity. Our Sex Mercenary Squad should go out and camouflage with Apartheid Fighters while doing their operations quietly administering slow killing poison and fertility destroyers to those Blacks they thus befriend...
We are modifying the Sex Mercenary Squad by introducing White men who should go for the militant Black woman and any other vulnerable Black woman. We have received a new supply of prostitutes from Europe and America who are desperate and too keen to take up the appointments. My latest appeal is that the maternity hospital operations should be intensified.
We are not paying those people to help bring Black babies to this world but to eliminate them on the very delivery moment. If this department worked very efficiently, a great deal could be achieved. My Government has set aside a special fund for erecting more covert hospitals and clinics to promote this programme.
Money can do anything for you. So while we have it, we should make the best use of it. In the meantime my beloved White citizens, do not take to heart what the world says, and don't be ashamed of being called racists. I do not mind being called the architect and King of Apartheid. I shall not become a monkey simply because someone has called me a monkey. I will still remain your bright star...
His Excellency Peter W. Botha.
From "Sunday Times" A South African NewsPaper, August 1985.
End of the Letter
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(This note was reproduced in its entirety from the author's English version's script, Oct. 2009)
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