tagged w/ Democratic Republic of Congo
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What do you think of this video?
I caught it the other day and found it pretty interesting.
The video won't play in current for some reason, but it will on the link.
What do you think of this video?
I caught it the other day and found it pretty... more
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Larry talks with musician Pete Wentz and the filmmakers of "Invisible Children".
http://www.howitends.tv/Larry talks with musician Pete Wentz and the filmmakers of "Invisible Children".... more
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On April 25th, Invisible Children will be staging a global event to stand in solidarity with the 3,000 child soldiers in Uganda, and THE BIGGEST LABEL EVER has partnered with Causecast to gather a coalition of bands and musicians to create awareness online about IC’s event, The Rescue.
Currently, over 100 bands have donated a track, available for FREE download in support of The Rescue.
Click the link for more information.On April 25th, Invisible Children will be staging a global event to stand in... more
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99 cities have been rescued.
Only Chicago remains.
SAVE CHICAGO!
Los Angeles was rescued by actress Kristen Bell, New York by filmmaker Jon Turtletaub, San Francisco by former mayor Willie Brown and Atlanta by Jeff Foxworthy. In the interim, the Invisible Children Rescue Riders travel by bus to stand in solidarity with each city that has yet to be rescued, and ultimately, with the child soldiers who will still be held captive when all American demonstrations have ended.
Just a short time ago, Las Vegas was rescued by former Spice Girl Mel B, two days after the initial rally began, and after Rescue Riders from San Francisco and Los Angeles arrived.
Monitor our progress here:
http://nightof.therescue.invisiblechildren.com/99 cities have been rescued.
Only Chicago remains.
SAVE CHICAGO!
Los Angeles... more
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ABOUT THE EVENT
With your help, the biggest lobby day in American history will be history in the making, leading to long overdue peace and safety for the children caught in the crossfire of Joseph Kony’s war. For two days this summer, concerned citizens (and some high-profile cheerleaders) from every corner of the country will descend upon D.C. with one message: the time for peace is now, and this is how it ends. The program will include lobbying trainings, VIP speakers, a kick-off rally and will culminate in an unprecedented outpouring of activism on Capitol Hill, with hundreds of meetings taking place between Members of Congress and their constituents.ABOUT THE EVENT
With your help, the biggest lobby day in American history will be... more
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It’s impossible. But we’re in the business of doing the impossible. Oprah Winfrey came out to the crowd this morning, picked out Jason, Bobby, and Laren, and took them inside her studios to let them know SHE IS COMING TO THE RESCUE by modifying her show to include them today! The three filmmakers will be on in a half-hour locally, and nationally beginning at 4:00PM Eastern. Stay tuned for footage and more details, and congratulations to everyone who’s been a part of the Rescue!
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Re-Air 11:05pm Central 5/1/09 on ABCIt’s impossible. But we’re in the business of doing the impossible. Oprah Winfrey... more
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Kristen talks about a cause close to her heart: Invisible Children ( http://www.invisiblechildren.com ). This E! news piece aired on 4/30/09.Kristen talks about a cause close to her heart: Invisible Children (... more
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this is live media done off laptops with wireless cards!
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Senator Burris of Illinois gave his written support yesterday although he was unable to attend The Rescue.
Check out his personal website here:
http://burris.senate.gov/
This was read to a group of 200+ people at the Bean in Millennium Park in Chicago!Senator Burris of Illinois gave his written support yesterday although he was unable... more
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![CHICAGO’S FINAL MOGUL LIST! [Invisible Children]](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/610/97/U14236_60x45.jpg)
With just Chicago left, the stakes have been raised. This event is attracting an incredible amount of publicity for the plight of these child soldiers. The crescendo in this final city will be loudest by attracting the attention of one of the most powerful media or mogul figures below, and we are confident that this story can and will reach their ears.
What can you do? Tweet these individuals. Create YouTube videos asking them to become a part of the end of this campaign and this war. We need our collective voice to be the loudest its been.
What you shouldn’t do — Phone calls and emails to these people as well as to media outlets in Chicago are not effective at this point. Also, be encouraging in our communication to these people — inspire them to become involved by telling your story and why you’re involved, don’t try to guilt them into showing up.
With that, here’s our final mogul list. These are individuals who can truly affect foreign policy:
1. President Obama
2. Oprah
3. Michelle Obama
4. Senator Durbin (IL)
5. Bono
6. Don Cheadle
7. Vice-President Joe BidenWith just Chicago left, the stakes have been raised. This event is attracting an... more
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Social media helps non-profit 2:47
Invisible Children's 'Rescue Me' event spreads through social media. CNN's Errol Barnett reports.
Source: CNN | Added April 30, 2009Social media helps non-profit 2:47
Invisible Children's 'Rescue Me' event spreads... more
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![5 Remaining Cities [Come to the Rescue | Invisible Children] - video](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/587/17/J21646_60x45.jpg)
Chicago, IL, is headed towards Chicago City Church which is located at 5501 South La Salle Street, Chicago, IL 60620. These 150 participants are in it till the end. Special needs/asks: food and a location, preferably indoor due to the current weather situation. We are expecting numbers to grow as we are sending Rescue Riders their way. Hang in there Chicago!
Charleston, SC - These 25 dedicated participants are at the corner of Highway 61 and Wallace School Road to be in the public eye during the day and spending nights behind the Barnes and Noble at 1830 Wallace School Road. Their current needs are lights and a generator overnights, and toilet paper for their port-i-potties. In the morning they would love for people to bring ice, water, gatorade, and snacks.
Richmond, VA, is at the Pace Center in Monroe Park 710 West Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23220. They will be here until sunset at which time they are headed to Oregon Hill. Rescue Riders are headed here to join these 20 dedicated souls. They have heard of at least 20 individuals headed their way. They need some water as well as some music to boost their moral and stamina after 50 hours of being “in it”!
Wichita, KS, is holding strong at Metropolitan Baptist Church found at 525 West Douglass @ McLean, Wichita, KS 67203. These 30+ steadfast supporters are in need of blankets, water, and some snacks, such as granola bars. They are stoked to be holding out until told to rescue ride onto the next people that need rescued. We love you Wichita!!
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**EDIT** Las Vegas was Rescued:
[Mel B-(AKA Scary Spice) came out to support the rescue team and brought a lot of press with her!!!]
Las Vegas, NV, is about 100 strong at 1936 Las Vegas Blvd. At this exact location they can’t be sleeping, however there is a hotel at which some are resting. They are across from the court house and are awaiting their mogul. We can’t wait to send them to the next city to provide some encouragement there. They need love sent their way as they wait.Chicago, IL, is headed towards Chicago City Church which is located at 5501 South La... more
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Footage of Tom Arnold, Ben McKenzie, & Kristen Bell... The March. Jason Russell.
[Kristen Bell reads a poem @ 8:33]Footage of Tom Arnold, Ben McKenzie, & Kristen Bell... The March. Jason Russell.... more
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The "abducted" gathered Saturday in Civic Center park — hundreds of Colorado teens, some younger — simulating the plight of Ugandan children taken from their homes in recent years by a rebel army.
They formed a line, connected by a single rope, and walked to Cheesman Park, where they established a makeshift overnight rescue camp. They sprawled on blankets to write letters to congressmen, tied photos of themselves to pictures of African children, and read poetry asking for justice.
"The Congolese child soldiers hold onto a rope when they are abducted from their families," said Katie Schneebeck, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Invisible Children, organizer of the event.
The overnight rally, similarly played out in 100 cities worldwide, aimed to steer attention to guerrilla leader Joseph Kony's human-rights abuses.
By 7 p.m., people had arrived at Cheesman Park, waiting for political leaders and media — deemed "the rescuers" — to arrive to listen to their message.
Colorado State University sophomores Rachel Leston and Lauren Rencoret said they jumped at the chance to be part of a worldwide effort on behalf of kidnapped African children. After reaching the park, they sat cross-legged on the grass and started writing letters to U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. A representative from Udall's office was set to speak later in the evening. Miles Moffeit, The Denver PostThe "abducted" gathered Saturday in Civic Center park — hundreds of Colorado teens,... more
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![A protest overlooked [Invisible Children]](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/578/38/V24478_60x45.jpg)
About 150 people attended the symbolic abduction, where they waited for a political or media official to show up and "rescue" them. Attention from local officials was a requirement for each event to end, according to specifications from the international organization.
"We are symbolically abducting ourselves for the children that have been abducted and are fighting in the LRA," she said. "In the past two years alone, (Kony) has abducted hundreds of children and murdered thousands of innocent civilians in the northeastern Congo … so we are really just trying to build awareness about this war."
Through the night, students, parents and protesters camped out on blankets in the park's soccer field, waiting for someone to respond to their effort.
In response to being ignored, the group marched to City Hall, where they sat and waited for the political or media attention required to "rescue" them and end their protest, Frank said.
Once at City Hall, the group was confronted by several police officers for not having a permit to protest on a weekend, she said.
Kimberly Dimiceli, a teacher at Rio Ranch High School and sponsor of the group, said officers told them they had to sit quietly and not scream or cause a commotion. Officers also made the group move from where they were waiting several times because they didn't have a permit.
Invisible Children has been working for six years to bring world leaders' attention to human-rights violations in Africa in the last two decades.
In Africa's longest war, according to Invisible Children's Web site, the Lord's Resistance Army has terrorized the regions of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Western Equatoria, killing thousands and abducting children to fight in the army.About 150 people attended the symbolic abduction, where they waited for a political or... more
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Angola has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo due to an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus. 13 people in Congo have died, 183 cases are being observed, and 2 are being held in quarantine.Angola has closed its border with the Democratic Republic of Congo due to an outbreak... more
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Nine months pregnant, Vestine was forced to flee one refugee camp for another, where she gave birth to her second child, Solange, on the dirt floor of her tent just days after arriving. The outside world must help the Congolese people by working to address the root causes of the conflict, says veteran journalist Michael J. Kavanagh.
The Story of Pascal and Vestine
The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured one of the world’s bloodiest wars for over a decade. More than 5 million people have died, mostly from preventable disease and starvation.
In the last year alone, more than a million people have fled the fighting in eastern Congo.
In spite of a peace accord in 2003, fighting continues and many fear that foreign countries are still involved. Recently, there have been more signs of Rwandan involvement and encouragement of rebels.
The 17,000 United Nations peacekeepers in Congo cannot ease the growing number of casualties as a rebel group threatens to overthrow the Congolese government.
Worldfocus correspondent Michael J. Kavanagh of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and video journalist Taylor Krauss recently visited the refugee camps in eastern Congo. Together with Lisa Biagiotti, they produced this video on one family’s story.
Note: In the weeks since this story was filmed, the camp has been attacked and Pascal was forced to flee a third time. The camp is now deserted except for a small rebel force, and Worldfocus reporters have not been able to locate Pascal and his family.
Giving a Human Face to Congo's Conflict
Michael J. Kavanagh is a journalist with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. He recently reported on the crisis in eastern Congo for Worldfocus: The story of Pascal and Vestine. Here, he writes about his experience covering the conflict.
The conflict in Congo is too complicated to explain in a five-minute video, so we’ve left most of the context out in order to focus on Pascal’s story. For more background on the recent fighting, check out my Q&A on history, rebels and crisis in eastern Congo.
I’ve been reporting on DRC for five years now, and there’s nothing that frustrates me more than the dismissive comments I often get about how conflict in Africa is endemic.
Violence is rarely irrational — it almost always has root causes that can be addressed. We’re often just too busy or lazy to learn enough about a situation to figure out how.
Given the extent of the outside world’s involvement in Congo over the last century, I am of the school that says we owe it to Pascal, Vestine, their two children and the millions who are suffering in Congo to try.
As Taylor Krauss and I filmed in these camps, people were saying they hadn’t eaten in days and they hadn’t received food aid from humanitarian groups in months.
And then there’s the violence. It sometimes seems that every other woman you interview is a victim of sexual violence (we’ll air a piece about this in the coming weeks); an equal number of men have been tortured, killed, or forced to fight in armed groups.
These conditions make reporting in eastern Congo extremely difficult — read Taylor’s account of our detention by Congo’s notorious secret police.
We couldn’t have done our work without the help of many brave and generous Congolese citizens, United Nations staff and humanitarian workers. The International Rescue Committee — in particular, Danielle de Knocke van der Meulen, Lia Pozzi, Fidel Bafilemba and Elinor Raikes — were hospitable and patient with the sometimes burdensome requirements of television.
IRC is one of the few aid groups that consistently sends aid workers into the most dangerous places in the world, even when the danger is most acute. They save hundreds of lives every day.**continues*****Nine months pregnant, Vestine was forced to flee one refugee camp for another, where... more
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Wayne Madsen: Ethnic divisions are being stoked by client states of the US who arm both sides. Part 2
Madsen chronicles how the US via its proxies in Rwanda and Uganda has been instrumental in the destabilization of Congo. Supplying arms, stoking ethnic divisions as well providing covert military and intelligence support systems to rebel groups.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist, author, and syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in The Village Voice, Wired, and CounterPunch. Madsen was a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. He was a communications security analyst with the National Security Agency in the 1980s, and an intelligence officer in the US Navy.He has testified on numerous occasions before the US Congress. He currently hosts The Wayne Madsen Report.
See Part 1 at:
http://current.com/items/89636072/plundering_the_congo.htm
.Wayne Madsen: Ethnic divisions are being stoked by client states of the US who arm... more
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Wayne Madsen: Congo has fallen prey to a lot of people that want to loot its natural resources. Part 1
The crisis in Congo shows no signs of slowing down, as government forces continue to battle rebel groups loyal to renegade General Laurent Nkunda. Investigative journalist and author Wayne Madsen, of "The Wayne Madsen Report," believes that Congo "has fallen prey to a lot of people that want to loot its natural resources."
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist, author, and syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in The Village Voice, Wired, and CounterPunch. Madsen was a Senior Fellow of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. He was a communications security analyst with the National Security Agency in the 1980s, and an intelligence officer in the US Navy.He has testified on numerous occasions before the US Congress. He currently hosts The Wayne Madsen Report.
See Part 2 at:
http://current.com/items/89636146/the_destabilization_of_congo.htm
.Wayne Madsen: Congo has fallen prey to a lot of people that want to loot its natural... more
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![Kristen Bell: Heart of Hollywood - E! News Live [Invisible Children] - video](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/617/69/A21970_60x45.jpg)
![Watch the Rescue in Chicago! **LIVE** [Invisible Children] - video](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/612/95/l31294_60x45.jpg)
![Senator Burris of Illinois Letter to [Invisible Children] - video](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/611/02/V13277_60x45.jpg)
![Clips from The Rescue: Los Angeles [Invisible Children] - video](http://i2.crtcdn.net/images/asset/896/579/71/E22170_60x45.jpg)
