Thursday, November 13, 2008

The Situation in Congo

Congo, the beauty that is the tragedy of a continent. A tragedy that, it seems, the whole continent has chosen to cast a blind eye towards for the past several hundred years. Why does it happen in Congo? Why does it go on unseen?
Congo has been cursed by its richness, its natural resources. Since the days when rubber was the hottest natural resource on the block to today when coltan is the hottest thing and it's abundantly found there, individuals and nations have come to Congo for riches. While industrialization has its side effect the increase of greenhouse gases, the side effects of this intrusion has been blood in Congo. I can honestly estimate that Congo's lush rainforests have been watered, for generations now, by its sons and daughters' blood. If you ever go to Congo and you eat fruits or vegetables, remember that blood, more than anything else, watered them.
Unfortunately, vegetation is not the only thing to have been watered by that which gave strength to many in their heyday. Hatred has increased. Greed has increased. Misery has not been hindered from reaping from that which should have been instrumental in building a great nation. I would like to point my objections to people that feel instability in Congo was a result of the flowing in of Rwandan refugees fleeing their country's 1990-1994 civil war. Instability in Congo was there before that. Western powers, on several occassions had to send military aid to Mobutu because he was pro-west.
Lumumba was Congo's best chance at democracy, at prosperity. But, like they did Thomas Sankara years later, the west's choice at the time was to eliminate that chance. A prosperous, democratic Congo that is almost wholly dependent on itself is an idea the western world is not ready to embrace let alone 40 years ago. Congo, through it's Gold, Diamond, Coltan, Coffee, and other natural resources could single-handedly erase poverty on the African continent. However, it has not been able to even lift itself up because of incompetence of its leaders coupled with policies and influences of the Developed Nations Vampires.
After Mobutu, Congo has found itself unable to step out of the deal it made with, unknown to it at the time, the devil. Laurent Kabila thought that the western-backed Rwandan and Ugandan forces were doing so to rid the region of a great instability in Mobutu's regime that was harboring FAR (Forces Armees Rwandaise "Rwandan Armed Forces") and Interahamwe members who were regulary making raids into Rwanda. What he failed to notice was that the West had already calculated the potential mineral wealth and its importance in sustaining its economies. The western cronies, Rwandan and Ugandan goverments, were ready to do its bidding much as Mobutu had done thirty years before when he was still the West's "best hope" for Africa against communism.
When he realized what had happened and demanded that the former friends and comrades respect his country's sovereignty by removing their armies, he was assassinated. In his place is his son who won a legitimate election and is now helpless to battle that which sent his father, and millions of his countrymen, to the after-life.
With the recent fighting it can only add to the toll and misery.

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