Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively, American consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to play a positive role to protect and empower Congo’s women. John Prendergast, Can You Hear Congo Now?, Enough, 4-1-09
Congo Crisis: You & I are Intimately Involved in the Catastrophe; We are the Ultimate Benefactors of the Misery, & Perhaps the Only Hope of Ending It
By Richard Power
John Prendergast of Enough, who has done brilliant work on Darfur, has now written a very important piece on the catastrophe in the Congo and how intimately involved in it you and I really are.
Since the crisis in Darfur was not even a blip on the screen of the G-20 Summit yesterday (yes, yes, I know the point of it was to slow down the slide toward a global Great Depression), it might seem as if the crisis in the Congo was light years away on a distant star, but the painful truth is that you and I are intimately involved in that particular catastrophe. So involved, I suppose, that we will never hear our leaders address it in any meaningful way -- unless of course the subject is forced upon them.
Here is an excerpt from Prendergast's Congo paper, with a link to the full text:
Democratic Republic of the Congo is the scene of the deadliest conflict globally since World War II.
There are few other conflicts in the world where the link between our consumer appetites and mass human suffering is so direct.
Most electronic companies and consumers genuinely do not appreciate the complex chain of events that ties widespread sexual violence in Congo with the minerals that power our cell phones, laptops, mp3 players, video games, and digital cameras.
The general use of violence against communities includes forced labor, torture, recruitment of child soldiers, extortion, and killings by armed groups to oppress and control civilians. In particular, sexual violence has become a tool of war and control for the armed groups in Congo on an immense scale. The Congo war has the highest rate of violence against women and girls in the world, and reports indicate that hundreds of thousands have been raped, making it the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman or girl. ...
Because we are all unconsciously part of the problem in Congo, all of us can consciously become part of the solution. Collectively, American consumers have enormous leverage over the companies from which we purchase our electronics. We can marshal that power to press them to play a positive role to protect and empower Congo’s women. John Prendergast, Can You Hear Congo Now?, Enough, 4-1-09
For a Words of Power Archive of Human Rights Updates on the Congo and other Crises, click here.
For a Words of Power Archive of posts on the Crisis in Darfur, click here.
Richard Power's Left-Handed Security: Overcoming Fear, Greed & Ignorance in This Era of Global Crisis is available now! Click here for more information.
Congo,
Coltan, Enough Project,John Prendergast, Medicines Sans Frontieres, Richard Power, Words of Power
