tagged w/ Genocide
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I have been watching developments in Libya over the last few days, and the sporadic statements that have been made by heads of state regarding action/non-action against Colonel Muammar Qaddafi. We have all been horrified to see that the Libyan leader has unleashed his 'dogs' on his pro-democratic protesters with orders to kill. We have watched the daily exodus of expatriates as they attempt to flee the country, as well as a small group of Libyans that want to cross the border into Tunisia.
A half-hour ago, we saw a press conference being held at the White House press room where Jay Carney spoke in veiled terms about what the US administration was planning, and the options it was considering. He explained that no less than an hour ago did a plane load of Americans leave Tripoli taking them to safety toward Istanbul. On the al-Jazeera channel, a Q & A program with UK prime minister Cameron was interrupted due to the White House Press Conference. Journalists were pressing for more exact answers, but unfortunately they were not getting them.
Will sanctions really work? In the short term, of course they won't. And I don't believe that President Obama thinks that either. His top priority was to get American civilians out of Tripoli and to safety. The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli is now shut down. Obama has spoken on the phone to Turkey's Erdogan, France's Sarkozy (who happen to be together at the moment in Ankara), and Italy's Berlusconi. Do you think they are discussing sanctions? Unlikely.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: You may not see or hear Obama, but he's working on Libya - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/you-may-not-see-or-hear-obama-but-he-s-working-on-libya#ixzz1F0TrN1UqI have been watching developments in Libya over the last few days, and the sporadic... more
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On Thursday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that at least 30,000 foreign migrants from Libya have crossed the Tunisian border in the first major exodus to Tunisia since the Libyan turmoil began.
The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said later that Libyan nationals were among the arrivals in Tunisia, but spokesperson Melissa Fleming told AFP the agency did not know how many Libyans there were. The UNHCR has urged all countries to keep open their borders for people fleeing the bloodshed.
Another UNHCR spokesman, Andrej Mahecic, said that the agency was to start an airlift this weekend that would bring in tents and other emergency shelter supplies into the city of Djerba, in Tunisia.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: In photos: 30,000 migrant workers flee Libya into Tunisia - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/in-photos-30-000-migrant-workers-flee-libya-into-tunisia#ixzz1Eu27Tg68On Thursday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said that at least... more
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According to Washington bureau chief for Al-Arabiya TV Hisham Melhem, in a response to the Libyan leader latest telephone address to his people, Qaddafi is grabbing at straws and using the al-Qaeda boogie man to suggest that outside forces and drugs are responsible for the chaos in Libya. Melhem was questioned by MSNBC News about 15 minutes ago on Thursday regarding the situation in Libya, where it is now reported that West Libya is slipping out of Qaddafi's control.
Though President Obama broke his silence yesterday in a two-minute speech regarding the outrageous situation in Libya, he didn't offer anything concrete that would stop the violence against Libyan civilians, where mercenaries have been 'imported' into the country to murder protesters.
The situation in Europe is much different however. Yesterday, on France24, a 30-minute debate ensued with the moderator calling for the assassination of Libya's president. The panel included former CIA Paris Chief Charles Cogan who rejected the idea that the CIA should get involved in such a move. Very early this morning, BBC News tweeted that the time may have come for the UK to intervene militarily in order to save Libyan lives.
Continue reading on Examiner.com: Qaddafi's swan song includes al-Qaeda, hallucinogens as causes of unrest - National Foreign Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/foreign-policy-in-national/qaddafi-s-swan-song-includes-al-qaeda-hallucinogens-as-causes-of-unrest#ixzz1EtfB8nKOAccording to Washington bureau chief for Al-Arabiya TV Hisham Melhem, in a response to... more
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PART ONE...
Reports: Benghazi now in the hands of Libyan protesters
Witnesses: Benghazi, Libya in hands of protesters
By the CNN Wire Staff
February 20, 2011 5:17 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Witnesses report protesters are aided by military who switched sides
NEW: Libya's ambassador to the Arab League resigns
Gadhafi's son will make a speech Sunday night
More than 200 people are reported killed
(CNN) -- Multiple eyewitnesses have reported that Benghazi, Libya's second-largest city, was in the hands of protesters and their military allies after several days of unrest in the nation.
Some of the military dropped allegiances to longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, according to the report.
Obtaining independent confirmation on events in Libya is very difficult. The Libyan government maintains tight control on communications and has not responded to repeated requests from CNN for access to the country. CNN has interviewed numerous witnesses by phone.
Earlier Sunday, new clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Libya killed another 25 people, a doctor at Benghazi's Al Jalla Hospital said, as protesters used an explosives-laden car and a tank to attack a military camp in Benghazi, according to witnesses.
The attack followed a clash between troops and marchers in a funeral procession in Benghazi. Sunday's violence brought the death toll in the recent unrest to 209. Clashes also erupted in Tripoli on Sunday, according to an activist and witnesses.
Libyan state television reported that Saif al-Islam Gadhafi,the son of Moammar Gadhafi, would give a speech Sunday night.
"Our goal is simple: We want Gadhafi to leave. We want freedom. ... We want democracy."
--Libyan protester
Thousands of mourners, some carrying coffins above their heads, crowded into Benghazi streets Sunday in a funeral procession honoring those killed Saturday. The clashes occurred as the procession passed by the Alfadeel Abu Omar military camp, where one man told CNN uniformed troops opened fire on the mourners.
"The situation is very, very grim at the moment," he told CNN. "... What we have here can only be described as genocide."
Libya's ambassador to the Arab League said Sunday he resigned his position on Saturday over "the killing of innocent people." Abdel Ehuni said the protesters are asking for "normal things" and that Gadhafi is "over, finished." He speculated that the Libyan leader has only a day or two left in power because "he lost the people."
The clashes escalated after the incident involving the funeral procession, centered around the military camp. Protesters packed at least one car with explosives Sunday and sent it crashing into a compound wall at the camp, eyewitnesses said. Security forces then fired on the protesters as they attempted to breach the camp.
On the camp's southern side, meanwhile, protesters drove a tank from a nearby army base in another attempt to break in, witnesses said. They have also obtained other weapons, the protester said. Protesters who speak to CNN are not being identified for safety reasons.
Libyan state television reported the camp was defended, and that protesters were being warned on loudspeakers not to attack the compound. The network called it an act of sabotage.
The protester who described the Benghazi fighting said the military camp is significant because it houses Gadhafi's eastern palace.
"It's a symbol of his dominance here," he said. "And it's the last symbol, basically."
He appealed to nations around the world for help, saying "The situation is extreme here."
Other nations expressed concern about the situation Sunday. British Foreign Secretary William Hague spoke on Sunday with Gadhafi's son and "made clear the U.K.'s grave concern at the escalation of violence," the Foreign Office said in a statement. "He expressed alarm at reports of large numbers of people being killed or attacked by Libyan security forces. The Foreign Secretary told Mr. Gadhafi that the Libyan government's actions were unacceptable and would result in worldwide condemnation."
CONTINUED...PART ONE...
Reports: Benghazi now in the hands of Libyan protesters
Witnesses:... more
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The aerosol program is slowly destroying the planet and all forms of life. Trees, insects, soil, water, birds, crops, oceans, animals, and people are all showing the effects of the metals and particles being sprayed into the air we breathe. Researchers have documentated that in addition to aerosols, the planes are releasing fungi, mold, bacteria, viruses and nanoparticles (see Wayne's World) of varying materials. As this program has been ongoing for decades, the effects can no longer be hidden or denied. In addition to the escalation of known diseases, new illnessess have become epidemics. One such illness is Morgellons.
more with pictures and some good links to check out.
http://beforeitsnews.com/story/408/632/Is_That_Morgellons_In_The_NY.Snow.htmlThe aerosol program is slowly destroying the planet and all forms of life. Trees,... more
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"They brought in the entire press core. The want to sanitize the story!" Sydney Schanberg says in The Killing Fields as the U.S Army brings in the international press score to report on the accidental bombing of Neak Leung.The statement gets to the heart of what The Killing Fields is about, culpability for horrors committed during the Cambodian conflict -- who tries to hide from that, and who stands up. It's a dramatized version of experiences documented by the film's three main characters and real-life journalists: Dith Pran, Sydney Schanberg and Jon Swain. It explores the rule of the Khmer Rouge, the damage caused to Cambodia, and the execution of many citizens.
"They brought in the entire press core. The want to sanitize the story!"... more
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Please read my blogs under Tamils/Tamils in Sri Lanka./videos.
Whole world is keeping quiet.
Killers are being felicitated.Please read my blogs under Tamils/Tamils in Sri Lanka./videos.
Whole world is... more
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Not only did the film Beyond the Gates shoot on the actual site in Kigali depicted as a temporary safe haven during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but a large number of the film's cast and crew were also survivors -- which created a unique situation on set.
"I went out there thinking that this would be a difficult movie to make," the film's star Hugh Dancy told Current. "I was steeling myself for it. And then I got out there, and two things happened. One, it was actually a joyful experience, because there was so many people who were welcoming, and just throwing themselves into the experience with such positivity. And then the second thing was that I actually talked to these people."
Dancy listened as extras, assistant directors, wardrobe assistants, transportation captains, and nurses on set recounted the "unbelievable lists of appalling things" that happened to their families during the genocide -- long laundry lists of relatives lost.
"And they related this in absence of any emotion, in a conversational tone," he said. "What choice did they have? I suppose I thought that if any one of us had suffered this much loss, that we would break. But it was so widespread, the amount of death, so huge. So many people had lost their families, their neighbors, and by default, their entire support networks. It's when you attempted to understand the enormity of why did this happen, or how did this happen, that I saw the beginnings of emotion."
Dancy didn't try to channel the depths of emotions expresed or not expressed, since his character had a unique blend of ignorance and empathy. Joe Connor had only been in Africa for a few months, and had never before experienced anything of the magnitude of the events depicted in the film. "I was tempted to be a bit more nuanced about what was getting through to him," Dancy said, "and to show the balance shifting, but that's not the same as the huge weight of trauma of the people around me. The extras had a better idea than me, because realistically, they weren't having to fake it. I was outgunned."
One of the complications, however, from having real Rwandans working on the film was that it meant some of those who participated in the genocide ended up working alongside some who survived.
Statistically, there were probably people involved on both sides," Dancy said. "It's a fact of the country. And you can't really ask. It's taboo to ask if someone had committed those crimes. They had instituted a blanket rule that everyone is Rwandan now -- no one is Hutu, no one is Tutsi, and to even talk about being one is kind of a crime."
That's because the current government believes to differentiate between Hutu and Tutsi would be a form of discrimination. "That helps you survive, but it doesn't help you move on," Dancy said. "At some point, you have to be able to look back at the past, but they're stymied for understandable reasons."
The filmmakers were stymied as well, especially when rumors floated around that particular people on the crew had been involved in the genocide in some way.
"At one point, some of the extras started singing, and that wasn't us directing them to sing, they just all knew that song," Dancy said. "And it may have been a song that the militia sang. And there would be people who it would be traumatic for them to hear that song sung. So we tried to handle that with sensitivity, to avoid that kind of tension."
The notion that the people of the country are all Rwandans comes up twice in the film -- once as a positive, and once as a negative. Father Christopher (played by John Hurt) encounters a man making a list of Tutsis, presumably for a list of potential targets, and the priest responds, "Here, we just call them Rwandans," meaning they it shouldn't make a difference which ethnic group to which they belong. Later in the film, after the massacre has begun and the Tutsis are seeking asylum, a French UN soldier blocks them from an evacutation, screaming, "No Rwandans." "They certainly weren't interested in figuring out which Rwandan was which," Dancy said.
Beyond the Gates was shot in Rwanda on the ten year anniversary of the genocide, and the fact that the country was still standing was "amazing," Dancy said.
"There we were," he said, "and we were working with Rwandans who gave themselves completely to the production, despite this terrible, terrible thing. And it must have been incredibly difficult for them. These people have been through horrific experiences, and yet they're not going to impose their gravitas on you when they could be having a good time. They were excited to be on a film set. It was wonderful to work with people who were determined to get it right, and determined to have their story be heard."
Beyond the Gates airs on Current TV on Friday, January 28 at 12 am ET/9 pm PT.Not only did the film Beyond the Gates shoot on the actual site in Kigali depicted as... more
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For nearly 150 years, the voices of Dakota men imprisoned after the Dakota Conflict of 1862 went unheard. But the details of their imprisonment are starting to emerge, in letters written by those prisoners after six weeks of fighting along the Minnesota River Valley that left hundreds of Indians, settlers and soldiers dead.
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Concentration Camps, Genocide, In the U.S? 150-year-old Letters Give Voice to Dakota Prisoners
by Dan Gunderson, Minnesota Public Radio
January 19, 2011
Go read the article - you'll be glad you did.
== EXCERPTS ==========
"We're very cold, and they took the stove away from us," one prisoner wrote. "It's way below zero and we're freezing. A lot of people have died."
The letters add important first-person perspective to a troubling time in history, said professor Bruce Maylath, one of Canku's colleagues in the NDSU English Department. They plan to publish 50 of the letters.
"There's a lot to be bothered by," Maylath said. "This has been a one-sided story to this point. And for the first time this tells the other side -- directly from the Dakota side. And it tells it in the language they were most comfortable in."
The letters also raise uncomfortable questions for historians.
"What happened? Did they have concentration camps in Minnesota? Even today, people don't believe that," Canku said. "People died. They were in prison. They experienced genocide. And when you talk about these things you are going to get opposition saying, no, these things didn't happen. But they did happen."
For Canku, the project is about truth telling. He said it's time for these long silent voices to be heard.
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#### --READ-- this moving Article HERE (and listen to the audio) ####
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/19/dakota-tribe-lettersFor nearly 150 years, the voices of Dakota men imprisoned after the Dakota Conflict of... more
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You can’t do a movie on genocide without showing a massacre – but how to do it? For Beyond the Gates, about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, director Michael Caton-Jones chose to treat it less like a message movie, and more like a thriller.
“It is a message film in some respects,” the film’s star Hugh Dancy told Current, “but if we start with, ‘This will be our message,’ we’re going to be doomed. The fact that the story is important does not mean it will tell itself. What drew me to the film was the script, and the shape of it, and the structure of it. I thought it did a brilliant job of building tension -- like in a good horror movie, without showing the monster.”You can’t do a movie on genocide without showing a massacre – but how to... more
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The Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to the United Nations warned the council that he feared the possibility of genocide in his country. He said homes had already been marked with tribal identification, and cited recent killings of protesters as troubling signs of the future violence that is likely to come.
CURRENT READERS: This is something worth paying attention to. Though WikiLeaks and bullshit FoxNews is often more entertaining to read about, war and genocide are far more relevant and make a much bigger impact on the world. The UN has 9,500 troops in Ivory Coast, and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) will send troops. The world can work together to stop a bloody conflict, to prevent a possible genocide attempt, and to set an example for the current and future generations.The Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador to the United Nations warned the council that he... more
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A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. EP estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
====== report ===================
By Michelle Castillo, TechLand, on December 15, 2010
Many of our electronic devices are made up of minerals like tantalum, used to make the capacitors in most cell phones, and tin, which makes up the inside lining of some cell phones and is used to solder circuit boards. Unfortunately, many of these materials come from conflict-ridden areas of the Congo, where increasing profits from electronic sales help fund the inhumane treatment of people who live and work in the country. The Enough Project, an advocacy group focused on ending genocide and crimes against humanity, estimates that conflict mining is a $185 million business, which is even more shocking when you consider the World Bank says average the average miner makes only $5 a day.
According to Raise Hope for Congo, more than 5.4 million people have died from the continuous wars that ravage the country. The organization urges people to tell companies that they want conflict free products. Congo's minerals are especially attractive to electronic manufacturers because of unregulated mining practices and cheap labor. Minerals from the African nation cost half or a third as much the same materials from other countries, according to the Washington Post. Though the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Act requires manufacturers to identify and get rid of conflict minerals in their products and similar legislation will be mandated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2011, Congolese mines are often controlled by armed groups and militias. These groups smuggle the minerals out of the country to smelting companies on other continents, which means the origin of the minerals can often be masked even from the company commissioning the product. Even though Congo's president announced a ban on all artisanal mining in eastern Congo last August, the ruling has not been enforced by the country's national military and has even negatively affected the citizens who work in the mines as a main source of income.
A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers, showing their progress in creating products with conflict-free minerals and the steps they've taken to ensure that. Leading the pack was HP with an over 30 percent improvement. The company has endorsed anti-conflict mineral legislation and advocates for strong US regulations for all manufacturers. Apple, who uses tantalum not only in their smartphones but in iPods as well, were given a yellow score, which means there is much room for improvement. (Though several of their top executives have spoken out against conflict mineral mining in the Congo, they did not weigh in on key US conflict mineral legislation.) Toshiba received the worst score of the bunch; they have barely made any changes at all according to the study. Enough Project knows it may be hard for the average consumer to tell whether or not they are helping fund a war over natural resources just by looking at a product. Still, the group hopes that especially this holiday season when people are out shopping for the latest gadgets that by being little more knowledgeable about which companies are taking a stand against genocide and human rights abuses, shoppers can judge for themselves whether or not to support these crimes against humanity.
##### ARTICLE HERE ##################
Is Your Mobile Device or Laptop Funding Conflict Mineral Wars?
By Michelle Castillo on December 15, 2010
http://techland.time.com/2010/12/15/is-your-mobile-device-or-laptop-funding-conflict-wars/A recent report from Enough Project ranked the top 21 electronics manufacturers,... more
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The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic Republic of Congo, where the LRA killed more than 1,000 adults and children around Christmas in 2008 and 2009 and kidnapped hundreds more, to head off feared Christmas attacks by Lord's Resistance Army fighters.
===== report ==============
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic Republic of Congo, to head off feared Christmas attacks by Lord's Resistance Army fighters, a spokesman said Tuesday.
UN forces will go to a region where the LRA killed more than 1,000 adults and children around Christmas in 2008 and 2009 and kidnapped hundreds more.
The UN mission in DR Congo is also sending extra humanitarian supplies to the region, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters.
A special operation against the LRA has been launched in the Dungu district of Upper Uele region and would carry on until mid-January because of fears of the "holiday season" attacks, Nesirky said.
The announcement came after the UN Security Council called for greater international action against the LRA, which is led by Joseph Kony who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The LRA sprang out of a rebellion in Uganda in the 1980s but now terrorizes communities in Central African Republic, southern Sudan and DR Congo.
The Security Council welcomed an African Union move to set up a joint task force to fight the LRA and deploy joint border patrols.
"It calls for the countries of the region to enhance coordination and information sharing regarding the the threat posed by the LRA," said a Security Council statement on efforts to bring peace to Central African Republic.
Ugandan special forces currently lead the international hunt for Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In December 2008, LRA fighters killed 865 men, women and children in the northeastern DR Congo and in southern Sudan, and kidnapped hundreds of others.
A year later 300 people were murdered between December 14 and 17, also in northeast DR Congo.
The United States has promised to support a new effort to catch Kony and halt the conflict generated by the LRA, but in a report titled "Ghosts of Christmas Past," 19 aid agencies said the Security Council should do more.
The report said LRA attacks remote communities in Sudan, Central African Republic and DR Congo almost four times a week.
"These communities await Christmas with fear," added the groups, who include Oxfam, Christian Aid, Refugees International, World Vision and War Child UK, among others.
The UN refugee agency said in October that the rebels had killed 2,000 people since December 2008, kidnapped more than 2,600 and displaced more than 400,000 in DR Congo, the Central African Republic and southern Sudan.
"The acute suffering and mass population displacement the LRA has generated across international borders is undermining stability in an already fragile region, where southern Sudan is preparing to hold a landmark referendum on secession in early 2011," the report said.
The aid groups welcomed recent steps by the United States and the African Union. But it said kidnapped people had to be helped to return home and villages had to be protected.
The aid groups called on the UN Security Council to set up an expert panel as "there is a chronic lack of information about the motivation, composition and location of the LRA."
The LRA began their rebellion in northern Uganda in the late 1980s, but have not carried out an attack there since 2006.
Since south Sudanese-hosted peace talks broke down in 2008, the fighters have roamed the jungles of central Africa and been repeatedly blamed for the slaughter of defenseless civilians.
The African Union has said the LRA should be called "terrorists" rather than rebels.
############# ARTICLE LINK #############
UN peacekeepers to head off Christmas massacre
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iduTBApHLCmGUF9clnqdrlk-L8TQ?docId=CNG.a3cd72112889141b0229f761dc840322.2a1
(AFP) – Dec 13, 2010The United Nations has ordered 900 peacekeepers to a remote region of Democratic... more
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Leaders from 11 nations in the conflict-ravaged Great Lakes region of central Africa on Tuesday signed a pledge – partly drafted by a Canadian organization – to stamp out the illegal trade of conflict minerals.
Signed at a summit in the Zambian capital of Lusaka by governments including the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi, the pledge commits signatory states to take steps to implement a regional certification system to track such minerals as they are exported from Africa for smelting in Asia.
The summit was called to address mining practices that have helped to fuel mass rapes and massacres in the eastern provinces of Congo. The illegitimate mining of minerals such as coltan, tungsten, tin and gold, which are used in electronic devices, is widespread in the region and often finances armed groups.
Among the mechanisms to be implemented is a “bag-and-tag” system in which minerals are tagged at their point of origin. The African nations also said they would create a database to make it easier to identify and track minerals that originate in areas of conflict.
The move by the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region comes as governments in the United States, Canada and Europe consider legislation that would make roughly 6,000 manufacturers, including BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd., responsible for tracking the minerals used in their products.
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PLEASE GO AND READ THE ARTICLE !
IAIN MARLOW AND OMAR EL AKKAD
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 2:02PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2010 6:57PM EST
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/african-leaders-pledge-to-wipe-out-trade-of-conflict-minerals/article1839121/?cmpid=rss1Leaders from 11 nations in the conflict-ravaged Great Lakes region of central Africa... more
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Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the struggle of the native Lakota people -- appalling, and largely ignored -- compelled him to refocus. Five years of work later, his haunting photos intertwine with a shocking history lesson in this bold, courageous talk from TEDxDU.Aaron Huey's effort to photograph poverty in America led him to the Pine Ridge... more
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Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another incident reported in August... estimates indicate many thousands of women and girls are brutalized each year on a gross scale ...for the creature comforts of civilized society. Efforts to combat illicit mining of coltan and other minerals are gaining traction, as politicians in Canada and other Western governments look to establish tough penalties against the practice. When we glance at the holocaust in Congo, with about 7 million dead, the clichés of Africa reporting tumble out: this is a "tribal conflict" in "the Heart of Darkness". It isn't. The United Nations investigation found it was a ****war led by "armies of business" to seize the metals*** that make our 21st-century society zing and bling. The war in Congo is a war about you.
(Mash-Quoted from various articles included below. When you see 5.4 million quoted, that is up to 2007, estimates for up to today are at 6.5 to 7 million.)
"Dr. Mukwege [see below] believes the number of women who have been raped since the beginning of the conflict is far higher than the U.N. estimates of 200,000-300,000, saying the real figure is more like half a million."
Over 6,000 rape incidents a year (in recent years) are conservatively estimated based just on what gets reported.
And we do not see the continuing dismemberment and murders (possibly decapitations), nor much footage from the few doctors you may read about working in the tranches.
"Exploited African oil, coltan, chocolate, bauxite, gold, coffee, platinum, chromium, iron, gas, flowers, agriculture and animals are dripping in the blood of African people, making billions of dollars for Europe and America. "
"In the end, it will be consumer education and pressure that will make the difference."
Lets wake up. There's more we can be doing...
Over 10 years, and its still going strong... "The mining industry in that country relies on slave labour, violence and sexual assault. Since the popularity of smartphones has risen, warlords in the country have taken control of the mines to retrieve the precious metal, then sell it on the international market to manufacturers of the gadgets that will ultimately end up under our Christmas trees." more at this link-->
http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/smartphones-the-new-blood-diamonds/
Consider how much of this is about our cell phones and laptops, DVD players, computers, digital cameras, video games, vehicle air bags, jewelry (gold and diamonds), chocolate, and more... all the things so many feel they cannot live without [sic].
And so what can we do? What are we doing? Are we forgetting to keep an eye on this?
The main article prompting me to post is marked as such below. I have included a lot of links to other interesting articles, almost all within the last couple months. There are a couple of key things we all can be doing...
- we need to keep an eye on manufacturers and govt actions behind the statute in the Dodd-Frank bill discussed below
- there's a really provocative video in my third post below, please check it out... the ideas expressed there seem to make very good sense for changing things that matter.
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Q&A: DR Congo conflict (first, a little down and dirty overview)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11108589
"In November 2009, a report by UN-commissioned experts said UN involvement had done nothing to quell the violence - with rebels continuing to kill and plunder natural resources with impunity and claims the rebels are supported by an international crime network stretching through Africa to Western Europe and North America."
Timeline: Democratic Republic of Congo
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1072684.stm
Prevalence of Rape in E. Congo Described as Worst in World (sep 2007)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/08/AR2007090801194.html
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MAIN ARTICLE
IPS: Activists Slam World's "Grotesque Indifference"
http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/nota.asp?idnews=44965
The following are Excerpts - go read the article:
"TORONTO, Canada, Dec 3 (IPS) - International lust for the enormous mineral and resource riches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) abetted by international indifference has turned much of country into a colossal "rape mine" where more than 300,000 women and girls have been brutalised, say activists."
""Rape is being used as a deliberate tool to control people and territory," said Eve Ensler, a celebrated U.S. playwright and founder of V-Day, a global movement in 120 countries to end violence against women and girls."
"This "blood coltan" - akin to blood diamonds -
**generates billions of dollars of sales every year for electronics manufacturers in rich countries***
and brings
****hundreds of millions of dollars to rebels and others who control the coltan-producing regions.****
Coltan is also produced in other countries, and the DRC's "blood coltan" is often transported to those countries to give it a sheen of conflict-free provenance. "
There is a lot of news brewing if you look for it. I am disconcerted to seen almost none of it on Current. So you will forgive me if I post what may seem like to much information... I don't think you can have too much of this information and awareness about this.
What is ailing them is not isolated to "them over there". WE are a strong hand in their lives, and deaths, and suffering, by what we do, and what we fail to do.
Do you think it matters to be making an effort during your news sojourns 'out there' to find and read some news in/on Africa?Hundreds of women and children were raped over and over during 3 days in July, another... more
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'Unfortunately I've asked Hollywood folks and they always say, 'Ah, nobody wants to see a movie about Africa',' the actor revealed how much he needs support.
Read more: http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/w0008624.html'Unfortunately I've asked Hollywood folks and they always say, 'Ah,... more
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The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations have defamed the elderly thought criminal, Helen Thomas, as a 'vulgar anti-Semite' and ordered journalism schools, professional organizations to no longer recognize the former White House correspondent.
“I can call a president of the United States anything in the book but I can’t touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank,” said Thomas. “No Americans would tolerate that – white-only roads.”The Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish organizations have defamed the elderly... more
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In this exclusive new unseen video interview for Prison Planet.tv subscribers, New Jersey Pastor Clenard Childress of BlackGenocide.org discusses how The Negro Project was the foundation of today’s industrialized abortion industry and how its pioneer, Margaret Sanger, who is still lauded by liberals as a human rights crusader, deliberately set out to sterilize blacks and encourage abortion of black babies in pursuit of a eugenicist drive to create a racially superior master race, a goal she shared with her close friend Adolf Hitler, and one that continues to reverberate through the generations as over 1,700 black babies are killed in the United States every day.
Childress explains how the public school system’s encouragement of adolescents to have sex by handing out condoms is circumventing the authority of parents, which has led to an epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and promiscuity. Childress leads the fight against the normalization of abortion, noting that after just a few weeks it’s now established that babies in the womb have heart beats and brain waves. Childress highlights how the Negro Project, Margaret Sanger’s eugenics plan for black Americans, targeted the systematic genocide of blacks through the promotion of abortion.
Childress explains how Sanger, a devout racist who wrote letters to and received praise from Hitler, was an advocate of social Darwinism and believed that a master race should be bred while ethnic groups deemed inferior, including African-Americans, needed to either be exterminated or their numbers reduced greatly. Sanger’s sterilization and abortion programs targeting the African-American community were set up in such a way so that the victims did not become suspicious of her true intentions. Sanger knew that to offset any distrust of her motives she would have to hire black religious leaders to deliver her programs and message, which is exactly what transpired as Childress highlights.
The eugenics drive to cull the black population was also achieved by withholding benefits from blacks who refused to be sterilized or have their baby aborted, thereby using coercion to force compliance with Sanger’s eugenics programs. After the end of the odious Tuskeegee experiments, wherein which African-American sharecroppers were deliberately infected by the U.S. Public Health Service against their will with syphilis and not treated, eugenics went underground and re-emerged through organizations like Planned Parenthood.
so much more at link...
Black folk...I got your back!In this exclusive new unseen video interview for Prison Planet.tv subscribers, New... more
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