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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 9:04 am Post subject: Cheap Playstations and the Rape of the Congo |
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Africa/Congo_BehindNumbers.html
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The British medical journal Lancet recently took greater notice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) than all western media outlets combined. A group of physicians reported that about 4 million people have died since the "official" outbreak of the Congolese war in 1998 (1). The BBC reported the war in Congo has claimed more lives than any armed conflict since World War II (2). However, experts working in the Congo, and Congolese survivors, count over 10 million dead since war began in 1996-not 1998-with the U.S.-backed invasion to overthrow Zaire's President Joseph Mobutu. While the western press quantifies African deaths all the time, no statistic can quantify the suffering of the Congolese.
Some people are aware that war in the Congo is driven by the desire to extract raw materials, including diamonds, gold, columbium tantalite (coltan), niobium, cobalt, copper, uranium and petroleum. Mining in the Congo by western companies proceeds at an unprecedented rate, and
it is reported that some $6 million in raw cobalt alone-an element of superalloys essential for nuclear, chemical, aerospace and defense industries-exits DRC daily. Any analysis of the geopolitics in the Congo requires an understanding of the organized crime perpetrated through multi-national businesses, in order to understand the reasons why the Congolese people have suffered a virtually unending war since 1996.
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Sony dramatically increased their importation of coltan following the release of their Playstation 2, while Compaq, Microsoft, Dell, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Nokia, Intel, Lucent, and Motorola are also large-scale consumers (17). |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 1:34 pm Post subject: |
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Isn't at least part of the Congolese War a continuation- to a degree- of the same conflicts which devastated Burundi and Rwanda in the mid-90s?
I haven't been keeping up so I'm not sure how accurate that is... |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Bulsajo wrote: |
Isn't at least part of the Congolese War a continuation- to a degree- of the same conflicts which devastated Burundi and Rwanda in the mid-90s?
I haven't been keeping up so I'm not sure how accurate that is... |
Correct. Militants involved in the Rwandan crisis were the catalyst for the first Congo war. WWW.CRISISGROUP.ORG has a lot of good material on the Congo. |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 4:08 pm Post subject: |
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| That's why I didn't like the article's insistence on laying all the blame on multinational corporations. That's ZMag for you though. There's a better article in (I think) the Guardian but it's behind a subscriber wall. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 5:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Whenever I read of this, I think of my university classmate who was from Zaire. We used work together on class projects. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu May 11, 2006 11:16 am Post subject: |
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| mozambique has been at peace for some time now. I don't believe it is still in "armed conflict." Maybe I'm misreading the map. Do the colors represent the present situation or are they a historical record? |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 12:44 am Post subject: |
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| bucheon bum wrote: |
| mozambique has been at peace for some time now. I don't believe it is still in "armed conflict." Maybe I'm misreading the map. Do the colors represent the present situation or are they a historical record? |
I think there has been some small-scale unrest since then, as RENAMO gradually adjust to loss of political power.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605100616.html
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AFRICA-06.htm
I have a special interest in Mozambique- I was there at the time of the peace signing in Oct 1992. I had my own armed bodyguard, and lived within view of a RENAMO rebel base. The story of the 3 months I was there is far more interesting than the 3 years I've spent in korea! |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 1:52 am Post subject: |
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| rapier wrote: |
| bucheon bum wrote: |
| mozambique has been at peace for some time now. I don't believe it is still in "armed conflict." Maybe I'm misreading the map. Do the colors represent the present situation or are they a historical record? |
I think there has been some small-scale unrest since then, as RENAMO gradually adjust to loss of political power.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200605100616.html
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1995/WR95/AFRICA-06.htm
I have a special interest in Mozambique- I was there at the time of the peace signing in Oct 1992. I had my own armed bodyguard, and lived within view of a RENAMO rebel base. The story of the 3 months I was there is far more interesting than the 3 years I've spent in korea! |
What were you doing there? I'm interested in visiting Moz some time soon. |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:45 am Post subject: |
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| jaganath69 wrote: |
What were you doing there? I'm interested in visiting Moz some time soon. |
A friend of my fathers had bought up a large citrus farm within the Beira corridor, on which he had provided an orphanage and Christian chapel for about 50/60 local kids. He also was developing the fruit farm and softwood plantation, and rebuilding the wrecked houses etc.
At that time some Zimbabwean farmers were starting to experience difficulties in Zim, and land was cheap in Mozambique, so they were acquiring land there. Why not? Very lush and fertile compared to Zim, but a lowland forest type of environment with its own set of difficulties. For example you couldn't successfully keep livestock there because it always died of foot& mouth and tsetse fly, etc. So I was on a diet of lentils, bread and citrus for 3 months.
I had to look after the orphans, (my first go at teaching english haha) and help with putting in the water pump and building work. I slept in a burnt out house with no roof, and the orphans slept under the stars, often catching rats and mice to live on. Many of them were missing arms or legs.
The farm had been attacked by RPG's a few times and everyone force-marched by the rebels (over 300miles before being released). So they hired about 20 Frelimo soldiers to guard the property, who constructed a ring of trenches and defences around the farmhouse.
about 2 weeks before I arrived the MNR had attacked one night, at which point the guards had shot dead 3 rebels. however all the time I was there was uneventful that way, although I did see 2 dead rebels laid out beside the road and a fairly brutal interrogation, and we were threatened with attack one night (wherupon I holed everyone up in the underground room by candlelight).
Interesting sight there was also several rusting steam engines (the line had been blown up during the independence war) as well as all the rusted and broken tractors and other vehicles (former property of Portuguese farmers that was destroyed by FRELIMO overnight back in the 70's).
In my art classes the kids drew lots of pictures of guns and bullets, knives etc. Kinda disturbing. They also sometimes stole chickens and crops off the farm, for which they would get a belting occasionally.
I remember talking to a former Rhodesian soldier about the MNR one time. He said that the S.Africans had actually created RENAMo out of nothing as a way of destabilising FRELIMO, which were sending insurgents into S.A. How much truth there was I don't know, but they had installed Alfonso Dhlakama in the north and airdropped a whole load of leaflets over the country urging everyone to join the Mozambique Nat. resistance.
Anyhow..to cut the story short..I caught malaria. 15 yrs of warfare there had allowed a resurgence of it in that country, so even the pills I took were useless. After drifting in and out of consciousness for about 3 weeks, the fever finally lifted with intense doses of prophylactics. At about 7 stone in weight, I thought I would get out of there, "au briggado!". |
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rapier
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 2:53 am Post subject: |
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Um, what would you be intending to do in Moz? I heard the scuba diving and the reef off the coast around benguela was second to none. Probably safe to visit now too.
Theres a big nat park in the south called Gorongosa. Apparently very unspoilt..although the road was still mined when I was there. |
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jaganath69
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 7:39 am Post subject: |
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| rapier wrote: |
Um, what would you be intending to do in Moz? I heard the scuba diving and the reef off the coast around benguela was second to none. Probably safe to visit now too.
Theres a big nat park in the south called Gorongosa. Apparently very unspoilt..although the road was still mined when I was there. |
Its a pipedream for me, Africa. I'm more of a cities and people person, I'll probably sound nuts but I have no great desire to do a Safari or see wildlife. Its probably the ex-Portuguese colony aspect that's drawing me there and the fact that a few Moz friends at Uni and others I know who have been there rave about the place. That aside, the more likely trip for me would be Ghana for the African cup of nations in 2008, got a mate there and a standing invitation to visit. But who knows? Flying through SA I could tack on a Mozambique sidetrip. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Fri May 12, 2006 10:15 am Post subject: |
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| I have a cousin who lived in Moz for 5+ years and became quite attached to the place. If you get really serious about it, PM me and I can get some more info for you. |
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