Congo Independence Day Rape Prescription

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Tuesday June 30, 2009 · 3:29 AM PDT

2009/06/30 · 03:29

As the Democratic Republic of Congo celebrates forty-nine years of independence today, it is time to make some hard choices to stop the epidemic of rape that has infected the nation like an insidious disease. Hundreds of thousands of women of all ages have been attacked and mutilated, publicly abused and often forced into sex slavery. They aren't the only sufferers; their children are scarred by the crime, their husbands humiliated, their villages destroyed.

Some view rape as a symptom of a larger illness that afflicts the Congo, but I believe it is a disease in and of itself—one that threatens to kill the nation. Like many chronic afflictions, it will only be cured when the root causes of the illness are vigorously treated. To eliminate rape in the Congo, three difficult remedies are required.

Dave Donelson

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Thursday June 18, 2009 · 2:54 AM PDT

2009/06/18 · 02:54

The open letter I published last week on Daily Kos convinced computer chip giant AMD Corporation to change a product code name, according to an online report on technology site CNET News. I had complained about the company’s recent decision to name a new computer chip "Congo" because of the connection between conflict minerals used in electronic devices and the brutal war in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dave Donelson

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Monday June 08, 2009 · 2:52 AM PDT

2009/06/08 · 02:52

The recent decision by AMD to name a new computer chip "Congo" has to go down in history as one of the cruelest marketing decisions ever made. What's next, the "Holocaust" chip?

Dave Donelson

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Monday May 18, 2009 · 3:05 AM PDT

2009/05/18 · 03:05

The recently-announced copper/cobalt mining contract between the Democratic Republic of Congo and China--widely proclaimed as bringing $9 billion in development aid to the DRC--looks like another unfortunate deal for Congo. According to my back-of-the-envelope calculations, it is probably even more one-sided than American multinational Freeport McMoRan’s arrangement for Tenke Fugurume that I examined recently.

Dave Donelson

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Saturday May 16, 2009 · 6:06 AM PDT

2009/05/16 · 06:06

Congolese journalist Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu testified this week before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs and the new Subcommittee on International Operations and Organizations, Human Rights, Democracy and Global Womens Issues, moving the audience with her eloquent appeal for US help in stopping terror rape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Dave Donelson

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Thursday May 07, 2009 · 8:59 AM PDT

2009/05/07 · 08:59

While the eyes of the world are drawn to the brutal war over an estimated $200 million in annual illegal mineral revenues in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, negotiators for American and Chinese corporations are angling to control ten times that amount in separate "legitimate" mining contracts in Katanga Province.

Dave Donelson

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Wednesday April 22, 2009 · 4:31 AM PDT

2009/04/22 · 04:31

While the eyes of most journalists and activists are focused on the mineral riches of the Democratic Republic of Congo, another of the country's assets is being exploited with consequences that will be felt far beyond the center of Africa. It's the forest that covers 45% of the nation--the second largest tropical rainforest in the world.

Properly managed and developed, the Congo's timber could be a perpetually-renewable resource that provides jobs, fuel, and food for millions of Congolese while it continues to give the rest of the world cleaner air and combats the effects of global warming. At the rate it's being exploited today, though, the Congo's rainforest could shrink to nearly half its size in the next fifty years.

Dave Donelson

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Sunday April 19, 2009 · 3:46 AM PDT

2009/04/19 · 03:46

Over a century of oppression and exploitation followed by fifteen years of brutal war in the Congo have numbed the world to the importance of that country to the fate of Africa and, perhaps, to the world. What happens in the Congo affects Americans in ways seldom mentioned in the headlines.

Dave Donelson

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Thursday April 09, 2009 · 3:42 AM PDT

2009/04/09 · 03:42

The UN Security Council meets today to discuss the situation in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the civilian population bears the brunt of the fighting between rebel groups including the FDLR, various Mai Mai militia, and the LRA opposed by the Congolese army (FARDC) operating with the Rwandan and Ugandan armies. While recent joint operations were declared successful by the governments involved and the UN hailed the strides toward peace, the people of the region continue to suffer at the hands of <span style="font-style:italic;">all</span> the combatants.

Dave Donelson

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Monday April 06, 2009 · 11:27 AM PDT

2009/04/06 · 11:27

Dead Aid is an interesting, provocative look at the foreign aid industry and its effects on Africa. Dambisa Moyo, who formerly worked for Goldman Sachs and the World Bank, draws a conclusion not unknown to others in the field: development aid (as differentiated from humanitarian aid) has not only done little good for the nations of Africa but has indeed caused great harm. While I don't necessarily disagree with her conclusion, I didn't find her arguments particularly convincing.

Dave Donelson

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Sunday March 08, 2009 · 5:01 AM PDT

2009/03/08 · 05:01

Not every word written about the Democratic Republic of Congo needs to be grim. This International Women's Day is a good time to recognize an organization that's doing some very positive work for the future of the country, the Georges Malaika Foundation.

Dave Donelson

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Wednesday March 04, 2009 · 4:01 AM PST

2009/03/04 · 04:01

Two strong voices for the Congo were heard recently on NewsChannel 8, an affiliate of WJLA-TV 7 (ABC) in Washington, DC. They are Nita Evele, Co-Chair of Congo Global Action, and Kambale Musavuli, an activist with Friends of the Congo.

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