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The Congo
My friend, Mirjana, is back in the Congo this week documenting the plight of the people there. Even with more aggressive UN intervention, nothing much has changed. It makes me sad. The link below is to an older post I made. Her newest work is visible to friends only on her FB page. There are links to relief efforts and more information available with a simple Google search. https://www.facebook.com/lisa.everhart. … amp;type=3 May 04 16 11:25 am Link Friendly suggestion from an ignorant mind: It is a terrible marketing strategy to have something that is a) of very little interest to most people and b) hidden behind a friends only facebook setting. May 04 16 11:51 am Link Thanks for the advice but it isn't meant to be marketing in a forum listed as other topics and the link is set to public so I am not sure why you can't see it. My apologies that you cannot and I will see if I can figure out why you can't. Photographic journalism is often of interest to photographers especially when it is of human rights matters. May 04 16 01:15 pm Link May 04 16 01:17 pm Link i was able to read the article. if it's true that the US has been funding genocide in order to get resources then that's a pretty horrible trade-off IMHO and something we should all care about. May 04 16 04:23 pm Link Mirjana posted a picture on her page today of a young woman who had been raped and murdered and left naked with a stick in her vagina. I know people have grown a little weary of the Congo and this is why I made the post. Hundreds of thousands of women and children and young men have died there needlessly. Sometimes when there is so much horror we shut our minds off to it and this morning when I saw the image of this one single young women it reminded me that each and every one of us matters. May 04 16 04:32 pm Link The biggest enemy of all Africans is minerals and oil. That draw the bad elements like a moth to a flame. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUZLtkLA0VE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1fJckuXzpc And all this is continuing right through AFRICA to this day. If one analyze all AFRICAN conflicts, deep down, you find the same key players and the same beneficiaries. Same with CAR. Central African Republic. Why do you think is the FRENCH involve there,and hence UN. Simple. They mine Uranium there. And for as long as there is instability, they can mine for free. In AFRICA, its not follow the money trail,no,its follow the mineral and oil trail and it will lead you directly to the bad guys. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChGnmuMNjto May 05 16 12:15 pm Link Lisa thank you for posting this story. As humans I believe we should all care about other humans. Americans tend to be ignorant about Africa in general. May 05 16 03:47 pm Link Marketing on misery should be confronted for what it is, namely taking advantage of the poor. I hope your friend is paying everyone in her documentary. May 05 16 04:35 pm Link Dobias Fine Art Photo wrote: What a terrible observation. You clearly did not take the time to even read the link I posted. Mirjana has made no documentary. She was a UN employee at one time but now she spends her own money to travel there to try and help as she can. The images she makes are not sold to anyone but are her way to try and bring some awareness to what occurs there. May 05 16 05:56 pm Link Lisa Everhart wrote: Lisa, sadly many people don't read or pay attention. They assume. Lets say a film was being made. Most of this type have limited budgets and no one makes a dime. In fact those involved often spend their own money. However true to form, members are negative Nancy's. I admire people like Mirjana. Years ago I was in a third world country. The poverty, filth and sadness were overwhelming folks like Mirjana are wonderful people. Unfortunately so many people on this site and beyond are jaded, uncaring as$holes. May 05 16 06:19 pm Link Tony Lawrence wrote: So it seems Tony. Thank you for your time and comments. May 05 16 06:21 pm Link KOLMANS STUDIOS wrote: Why is "The biggest enemy of all Africans is mineral and oil."? And, a source of wealth to places like Canada, the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, etc. May 05 16 06:51 pm Link Why is so much of Africa poor yet has such large deposits of gold, oil and other resources. Some of this is by design. Some because of the various governments in African countries who have taken advantage of its people. Many African countries were not always lead by its native people and were European colonies. As some African countries took back their nations and lands they were often at odds with others. Two very good films that may help others to understand are Beasts of No Nation and Hotel Rawanda. There are many others but these come to mind and are very good movies. May 05 16 07:06 pm Link Tony Lawrence wrote: I agree Tony. As outlined in the link in my original post, Belgium was the initial outside country that took advantage of the Congo. As time has passed other western interest, including ours, have taken over where they left off. China is now the big player on the continent. This is a good video which outlines how developed nations operate in relation to weaker or under developed ones. May 05 16 07:16 pm Link My ex-wife was in Ghana and was stunned to see all the Chinese restaurants there. I read a good book which spoke about the vast black market that exists in Africa with Chinese made goods. Africans will sometimes spend days at airports to get super cheap tickets to China. Once there they buy cheap things to sell for a profit back home. Things like phone cards. As Americans its hard to comprehend no clean drinking water. (Mich. aside). We debate the merits of the ACA but in many poor countries there are NO doctors and only the rich get help. None of this is entertaining though and on MM its all about the entertainment and put downs. Lisa's link is a good one. While some might say hey its good that Africans are making money by reselling cheap Asian goods. It has a negative effect. African start ups cant compete with the less expensive Asian ones. Very often the cheap products are poorly made and sometimes even with food products poisonous. May 05 16 07:33 pm Link Two different people have told me they can't view the link. Since it is set to public it must be a setting on their end but for reference this is the text minus all the pictures that go with it. HUMAN RIGHTS: The Democratic Republic of the Congo. Contributors: You (owner) and Mirjana Anic-Havoic Updated about 8 months ago "I do not want to miss a good chance of getting us a slice of this magnificent African cake.” Leopold II King Leopold II (April 9, 1835 – December 17, 1909) succeeded his father, Leopold I of Belgium, to the Belgian throne in 1865 as Leopold II, King of the Belgians, and remained king until his death. For over 120 years the West has raped the Congo. First King Leopold II who actually owned the country https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx2Sj1fhSso, then the colonization of the Congo by Belgium, then dictator after dictator sponsored by western governments primarily the US and England, and most recently by a democratically elected government and the neighboring countries of Rwanda and Uganda. Mirjana Anic-Havoic is a photo journalist and model from Croatia. She received her PHD in Philosophy from the University of Zagreb and has worked with the United Nations Human Rights Watch. She currently lives in South Sudan. Over the past several years she has written about and photo documented the plight of the people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Along with her images and accompanying reports, I am posting several You Tube videos that will better inform you of what has, and is still occurring there. In March of 2013, United Nations peacekeeping troops were, for the first time, allowed to pro actively engage in protecting the civilian population using force if necessary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z08sQ05g_Ik This helped bring an end to the M23 Rebellion, one of many long term ongoing conflicts in the Congo. This has had limited improvements on conditions but there are still heartbreaking, daily atrocities occurring in the region. Since the Rwanda genocide in 1996 and the subsequent exodus of the Hutu peoples from Rwanda to the eastern Congo, it is estimated that well over five million non combatant civilians have been killed by armed conflict or died due to starvation and disease in the Congo, one half of these being children under the age of five. During this same time frame estimates as high as 400,000 women and children were raped each year. Though the US has not directly been involved in these atrocities and crimes against humanity, our government has actively supported the governments of Rwanda and Uganda sending over two billion dollars of aid to these governments during this time, much of which has almost certainly been used to buy arms and ammunition which supplied the soldiers, gangs and militias responsible for a large portion of the killing of civilians. Our Secretary of State has the power to solely deny this aid. No one ever has. The Congo is considered to be the richest country in the world in natural mineral resources, including copper, cobalt, diamonds, gold, and the conflict minerals cassiterite and colton. Coltan is a critical mineral in the manufacture of modern digital electronics from cell phones to computers. However, the people of the Congo are among the poorest. Do your own reading and decide for yourself why this is. I am no journalist but I am a woman and a mother and my heart aches for these people. Please take the time to learn about this situation and write your congresspersons to demand that we take an active role in stopping this madness. Mirjana and others like her who have seen this travesty first hand and who have the courage to try and tell and show the truth of what is happening have my deepest respect. It is only because of the West's financial interest and lack of concern for people of color that this has been allowed to happen. This has been the largest loss of life due to armed conflict that has occurred on the planet since World War II and I was ignorantly uninformed until these past few days. Once again, the main stream press has completely failed us and it is only due to the beautiful soul of Mirjana Anic-Havoic that I can now speak up. I hope you will do the same. Mirjana is currently in South Sudan trying to help another terrible situation. I will share her work there with you another day. May 05 16 08:33 pm Link |
