I’ve returned recently from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the world’s poorest country, where fighting is flaring up again. More than 5 million people have already died since the Second Congo War started in 1998, making it one of the greatest humanitarian disasters anywhere since the end of World War 2.
My report in The Nation covers a number of subjects, including how a huge international mining company and a small group of Congolese officials may have cheated the Congolese people out of as much as $5.5 billion.
One big question; why is the mainstream Western press paying so little attention, as contrasted with, say, Syria or, in past years, Darfur? Jason Stearns, whose Dancing in the Glory of Monsters is a brilliant and comprehensive history of the Congo’s recent past, pointed out, “The New York Times, one of the few American newspapers with extensive foreign coverage, gave Darfur nearly four times the coverage it gave the Congo in 2006, when Congolese were dying of war-related causes at nearly ten times the rate of those in Darfur.”
Of course traditional Western racism and indifference to Africa plays a role. But I wonder if there’s not another, very 21st century explanation; the Congo, unlike Darfur, has no Islamic threat, whether real or invented. Possible proof of this theory is the two big recent Times stories (July 18 and 19) about the rise of jihadism in the northern part of the west African country of Mali; the first article was the paper’s front-page lead.
The Times stories on Mali are excellent. But why can’t they send at least one of their reporters to the Congo, which is no harder to get to? Does a group of Congolese have to proclaim an Islamic jihad to get a little more coverage?
This is all about money. American companies profited and US officials benefited from the looting of Congo’s natural resources which is the backdrop for this genocide of 5 million blacks before our eyes?
James North, it is like you are channeling me. We agree completely. I consider the greater Congo war to be WWIII (Rwanda was part of the greater Congo war.)
The UN and African Union sent many peacekeepers (occupation armies using leftist lingo.) Many of them were hurt or died. The UN troops was reliant on close air support to avoid getting overrun. After that bad experience the UN and Africa seem to want to forget about the Congo. It is deeply sad and wrong.
Les, grow up. No one benefits from genocide in the Congo.
Les, grow up. No one benefits from genocide in the Congo.
Abhorrently wrong.
link to theinternational.org
Let’s get even more ‘personal’, anan – both these guys benefit enormously from conflict in the Congo and elsewhere, and they’ve just finished slugging it out in London’s courts:
link to miningweekly.com
Lev Leviev and Arkady Gaydamak, described as “buccaneers” – doesn’t that also mean pirates? They’ve made BILLIONS out of Africa, especially in the conflict zones, including Congo. And, whoop-te-doo, both born in different parts of the USSR, but now Israeli. The Settlements benefit from LEVIEV’s donations from his billions acquired from African conflict zones!
Since your evidence supports my claim, down below, about Israel sponsoring Rwanda to play pirate in Congo, I’d like to open up this hole a bit wider. To quote Qatari public diplomacy in Al Jazeera on another topic today, what is the endgame for Israeli piracy? I propose that the normal division of labor in a mafia-type organization has broken down with Israel. Like English Kenya, there had been three police forces , in three tiers, defending Israel’s security and legitimacy: the Israel mafia (William Safire comes to mind, damning Admiral Inman because he questioned open-ended US intelligence support to Israel), the Jewish lobby as a whole (that is the term from “Game Change”, the authors calling AIPAC “the Jewish lobby”) but J Street last year identified Israel as the defining issue for US Jews today, and the goy apologists–every imperial force uses local or third-nation auxiliaries. What seems to have happened is that the division of labor has collapsed.
Confusion seems the result. Syria as a target of “Western” diplomacy, public and private, makes Iraq and even Libya seem truly surgical strikes (Vietnam talk). One day Damascus is “engulfed” with rebels (AFP), or Aleppo is “full of total war” (Reuters), and the next day the army is “storming” a pocket of rebels in one of those cities. But I mean local confusion, too. “America Abroad” makes a new program this month about religious minorities in new Islamic democracies, but fails to note in the introduction that the case in point for gauging constitutional change in the region would be Israel: how do non-Jews fare under Zionism?
I never esteemed division of labor as an organizational prerequisite–it practically defines “organization”, the division of bodily functions into specialty organs–”machines”–since I never dealt with successful organizations, only academia, the military, a failing office supply business. But I do now esteem it: someone has to identify the objective and gain everybody’s endorsement. Someone has to fix the food. Someone has to go out on patrol. A mere horde merely muddles.
This seems to be the state of Israeli polity, reading “Israel” as the transnational enterprise of Zionism in Palestine. It would seem to augur ill: muddle is bad enough, but when you had previously succeeded beyond all expectations at intimidating everybody else in town: well, intimidation is not easy, and it’s not cheap. Who is staffing the indimidation desk now? Who is devising the latest intimidation mission statement? Jefferson told us, be of no doubt, slavery relies on intimidation.
Do you also deny the existence of the military industrial complex?
“traditional Western racism and indifference to Africa plays a role.” Substitute the “whole world including other Africans” for “Western”. No one seems to give a damn. It is wrong.
Very little changes. From 2009:
link to theinternational.org
There is nothing wrong with Chinese, Indians, Brazilians or Europeans buying cell phones which use trace amounts of tantalum (a byproduct of Colton or Columbite-Tantalite).
“There is nothing wrong with Chinese, Indians, Brazilians or Europeans buying cell phones which use trace amounts of tantalum (a byproduct of Colton or Columbite-Tantalite).”
Hoo-boy! Got us a live one, here.
I think U.S. reporting generally reflects the agenda/propaganda of the U.S. government. Not only is the war in the Congo one of the worst bloodbaths of our time, but it has gone on for decades without eliciting much international outcry.
I think it’s mainly what James says–there are Muslim villains in the case of Darfur and not in the case of the Congo.
Kristof gave his own explanation several years back–that Darfur is “genocide”, while the Congo is not, even though the death toll is far higher. You can read his rationalization here
If you read the comments below Kristof’s column the first ones are supportive, but then the later ones point out all that is wrong with his bizarre reasoning. Are people who are raped or murdered any less victimized because their killers didn’t have an ethnic motive?
The New York Times, one of the few American newspapers with extensive foreign coverage, gave Darfur nearly four times the coverage it gave the Congo in 2006,
The reason for that is that there was a well funded Darfurian movement in the United States that hired a pricey NY PR firm. A number of Zionist organizations, including the Washington Holocaust Museum, were part of that movement. I discovered the existence of the PR firm after an article appeared in the now defunct TPM Cafe that advocated for Western intervention in the civil war there. The author was someone right out of the blue that had never appeared in any foreign policy issue before. After checking him out it turned out he was an employee for this PR firm.
The answer to your headline question is a resounding yes with the additional minor detail that it benefits Israel.
“The author was someone right out of the blue that had never appeared in any foreign policy issue before. After checking him out it turned out he was an employee for this PR firm.”
Gosh, and Hearst had to beg for pictures before he could get a war going. Now all it takes is text.
How far we’ve come.
Rwanda is an Israeli agent.
The story of the birth of the Hutu-Tutsi bifurcation is right out of Israeli history.
You wouldn’t want to read about Israeli security measures in the “occupied territories”, Lebanon, Syria, etc., would you? So you don’t want to read about its security measures in Africa.
The Times is only trying to be helpful.
What’s my evidence that Paul Kagame is an Israeli agent? I’ll just bet this: if you went looking for it, you’d trip over it.
What possible rationale could Israel find for security operations in Congo by Kagame? What does “security” mean in Israel? Two things: money, and intimidation. You can’t intimidate people if you don’t have an income. Rape and pillage as a source of income also have nice intimidation effects.
What makes a mafia go away? People realize they’d rather pay a little bit less and get their fun in the sunshine.
Yes. That and traditional practice of ignoring Africa. Well, that and fear of getting “sucked in” despite the Rwanda retrospective (where an engaged, battalion-level+ presence would have almost certainly avoided the murder of 1M people). Well those and some commercial interests exploiting a corrupt status quo to make $kazillions. Well, those and…
The compound “reasons” for our non-involvement in the DRC parallels the Monty Python “Spanish Inquisition” sketch. “Our chief weapons are surprise, and, and, and…” though in a decidedly unfunny and deadly way.
link to youtube.com
I still cling to the notion that solving this I/P (or P/I) dilemna frees us up to solve other big issues like this. Instead of having the entire US State Department mobilized to prevent any Palestinian initiative whatsoever, that extensive power could be used for actual and substantial good in the rest of the world, with the power of the supporting precedent of seeking broadly-applied justice. The same goes for other US agencies and “good offices.”
As it stands right now, allowing (consciously prolonging??) P/I to fester generates such a horrible waste of resolving energy and focus.
ritzl, there is something to your comment.
@anan
Oh shit.
Solving means a sovereign Palestinian state using the ’67 borders as the guiding principle, or one state with one person, one vote as the outcome.
Settlers as citizens of Palestine subject to its laws or Palestinians as citizens of Israel subject to its egalitarian “ideal.”
At this point, almost certainly the latter in both cases. Not some protracted, middling/facts on the ground, mushy, unstable compromise along the lines of the final Clifford map.
Nobody cares about Africa as usual.
OlegR, China cares about Africa.
Well sure as resource for it’s economy.
I am not even sure that this Chinese shell we say neocolonialism
is necessarily a bad thing for Africa.
The West certainly does not want to hear about it…
OlegR, increased interconnectedness between Africa and China benefits Africa, China, America, Europe and the world. Ditto with increased interconnectedness between Africa and America or increased interconnectedness between Africa and India etc.
This is good for what you call the “West.” Not that I know what the term “West” means.
In my view AfriCOM should be expanded into a NATO command, African countries should be allowed to join NATO if they wish. And a Chinese 3 star general flag officer and a Chinese Corps HQs should be permanently assigned to AfriCom. As much as possible America, Europe, China, India, Japan and South Korea should collaborate on Africa. Work hand in glove with each other. The interests of the free democracies are almost identical in Africa. Chinese interests are almost identical as well, except with respect to democracy.
China needs to be brought into the international system as much as possible. And China needs to start paying for global public goods such as global security services.