I have just returned from hell I'm trying to figure out how to communicate what I have seen

[seemslikeadream]

I have just returned from hell. I am trying for the life of me to figure out how to communicate what I have seen and heard in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. How do I convey these stories of atrocities without your shutting down, quickly turning the page or feeling too disturbed?

Eve Ensler, Glamour Magazine, August 2007

http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-230THREE%20CHEERS%20for%20Eve%20ENSLER%5B6%5D.htm

THREE CHEERS FOR EVE ENSLER?
Propaganda, White Collar Crime
and Sexual Atrocities in Eastern Congo


Third Draft: October 10, 2007


keith harmon snow

www.althingspass.com


On a visit to Eastern Congo in May 2007, Eve Ensler—the playwright and producer of the Vagina Monologues—was witness to the profound human suffering and unprecedented sexual violence. Ensler came to see what those whose eyes are open cannot deny: the sexual violence and predation in Central Africa is unacceptable, unfathomable, and stoppable. And she has the courage and audacity to write and speak about it.

Three cheers for Eve Ensler!!

Or not?

Through her global campaign to end violence against women, called “V-Day,” and with a nine-page feature article in Glamour magazine in August, Ensler has launched a campaign calling for an end to rape and sexual torture against women and girls in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Stop Raping Our Greatest Resource, Power To The Women And Girls Of The Democratic Republic Of Congo,” Ensler’s web site explains, “is being initiated by the women of Eastern DRC, V-Day and UNICEF on behalf of United Nations Action Against Sexual Violence in Conflict. The campaign calls for an end to the violence and to impunity for those who commit these atrocities.” <1>

Impunity for those who commit these atrocities?

Ensler’s Glamour article is an apt documentary of human suffering and courage. The doctors working to save and heal the survivors of sexual brutality are heroes. The women and girls who have survived are themselves portraits of courage and human dignity.

In her nine-page portrait of heroism and suffering, there is a single half paragraph that ostensibly addresses the roots of the problem. “The perpetrators include the Interahamwe,” Ensler writes, “the Hutu fighters who fled neighboring Rwanda in 1994 after committing genocide there; the Congolese army; a loose assortment of armed civilians; even U.N. peacekeepers.” <2>


THE GLAMOUROUS GENOCIDE

Who is responsible for the brutality?

According to Glamour and Vanity Fair, it is always those rag-tag Rwandan genocidaires who fled justice in Rwanda, or those ruthless Congolese soldiers from the heart of darkness, and the loose assortments of obviously “loose” civilians, and even the U.N. peacekeepers who, in the United Nations Observers Mission in Congo (MONUC), are men from India, Uruguay, Nepal, Pakistan… and in Darfur, Sudan, it is those damned Janjaweed—Arabs on horseback, you know, the usual dark-skinned subjects.


http://www.allthingspass.com/uploads/html-203BD%20Combd%20Final%20July%2021,%202007.htm

Blood Diamond: Double Think & Deception
Naming the players behind the scenes


Guns and Butter interview

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U28joj6d1A&eurl=

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMMQhHuI9_Y&eurl=

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biEXCEOy_vs&eurl=

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPKcgo4Es8E&eurl=

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (5)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIM8kVSN8ug&eurl=

A look at the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (6)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_WEY7xQEhk&eurl=


http://www.slate.com/id/2097314/

On the Trail of the Congo's "Cannibal Rebels"

http://img.slate.com.nyud.net:8090/media/1/123125/122986/2094254/2096262/2097309/2097537/2097538/06_32.jpg



4 MILLION DEAD SINCE 1998 - THIS IS GENOCIDE

[robertpaulsen]

1. 12th R and number one K!

:kick:

Let's keep this up!

:hi:

[slipslidingaway]

2. K&R....

:(

http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/news/dollarsandsense.html

"This is all money," says a Western mining executive, his hand sweeping over a geological map toward the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is explaining why, in 1997, he and planeloads of other businessmen were flocking to the impoverished country and vying for the attention of then-rebel leader Laurent Kabila. The executive could just as accurately have said, "This is all war."

....When Westerners reach for their cell phones or pagers, turn on their computers, propose marriage with diamond rings, or board airplanes, few of them make the connection between their ability to use technology or buy luxury goods and a war raging in the DRC, half a world away. In what has been called the richest patch of earth on the planet, the DRC’s wealth has also been its curse. The DRC holds millions of tons of diamonds, copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, uranium (the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were built using Congolese uranium), niobium, and tantalum. Tantalum, also referred to as coltan, is a particularly valuable resource – used to make mobile phones, night vision goggles, fiber optics, and capacitors (the component that maintains the electrical charge in computer chips). In fact, a global shortage of coltan caused a wave of parental panic in the United States last Christmas when it resulted in the scarcity of the popular PlayStation 2. The DRC holds 80% of the world’s coltan reserves, more than 60% of the world’s cobalt, and the world’s largest supply of high-grade copper.

These minerals are vital to maintaining U.S. military dominance, economic prosperity, and consumer satisfaction. Because the United States does not have a domestic supply of many essential minerals, the U.S. government identifies sources of strategic minerals, particularly in Third World countries, then encourages U.S. corporations to invest in and facilitate production of the needed materials. Historically, the DRC (formerly Zaire) has been an important source of strategic minerals for the United States. In the mid-1960s, the U.S. government installed the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko, which ensured U.S. access to those minerals for more than 30 years.

Today, the United States claims that it has no interest in the DRC other than a peaceful resolution to the current war. Yet U.S. businessmen and politicians are still going to extreme lengths to gain and preserve sole access to the DRC’s mineral resources. And to protect these economic interests, the U.S. government continues to provide millions of dollars in arms and military training to known human rights abusers and undemocratic regimes. Thus, the DRC’s mineral wealth is both an impetus for war and an impediment to stopping it..."

[WildEyedLiberal]

3. I have no idea what the article you linked to is trying to say

Is it commending Eve Ensler for shining a light on genocide and rape, or chiding her because the perpetrators of said genocide and rape are "the usual dark skinned subjects," whatever the hell that's even supposed to mean? Are we not supposed to point out rape and genocide if "dark skinned people" are doing it because it's "racist"? I really have no idea what point that paragraph served. Not everything bad that happens in the world is white Western people's fault.

That unfortunate paragraph aside, thanks for posting this and drawing attention to the horrible plight of these innocent people - this should truly be a global outrage.

[seemslikeadream]

4. I believe keith is saying she's blaming the wrong people

listen to the guns and butter interview you'll understand

[stellanoir]

5. Eve Ensler wrote the most profound piece I've read in these long and grueling

nearly 7 years. . .

It's worth a repost IMHO. . .

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eve-ensler/please-dont-go-back-to-s_b_3865.html

[undergroundpanther]

6. The rapists

need to be shot.every last one.
If they refuse to stop and keep it up. They should be hunted down and killed. No one should ever be raped.

I hate all rapists and wish every rapist dead.
And I am not one bit ashamed to say it.

Rape is a CHOICE.Rape is a power trip. Rape is wrong evil and way too tolerated by the male dominated cultures like ours and the congo. Rape must stop.To stop rape rapists must get it through their stupid heads that committing rape will cost them personally.Rape must be made too risky for the rapist himself,to even think about doing it.
To stop rape you make the rapists hurt or die until they realize rape is not worth choosing.

Rapists CHOOSE to rape.

Being victimized by a rapist is not a choice it is NEVER a choice.
And a trauma like rape can psychologically torment the survivor for YEARS after the incident and possibly ruin her life and ability to form good relationships in the Congo her body is destroyed as well.

But a survivor can decide to not tolerate rape culture, hate rapists hate rape,and if need be KILL rapists that threaten her or her community. It's called self defense.Women have a right to self defense too.

Those raping monsters in the Congo need legions of snipers watching,ready the minute they try to rape, to put a bullet put in the rapists heads.

If enough rapists end up dead the raping assholes will figure out rape is risky,and that they are not as powerful as they think they are .The rapists might get it that they had better stop choosing to rape lest their brains get blown out next try.
Wanna stop a rapist kill him. No more rapist.

I myself HATE being in a body.Bodies are vulnerable,fragile and really not equipped for the viciousness this world has in store for it.It gets hurt it can be tortured, drugged raped tied down, overpowered. Bodies are horrible things for a consciousness to be trapped inside. Being born a female this makes an already vulnerable body be double vulnerable.Bodies are miserable vile things.I hate living in this flesh bag in this callous,bully filled,sick ,sad,violent world. A human body is not equipped to survive in this world really it gets cold,gets wounded gets sick, gets old,gets pregnant, it lacks claws and fangs to defend itself from the predatory assholes in this world.If women had razor sharp claws, fangs and more strength,and vagina's ringed with sharp teeth, would rape be so common? I doubt it. Men would respect that no means no if females were armed that way.For if he chose to violate such a defended body's consent he may find himself bleeding.

And that is what rapists need to learn rape is unacceptable and if a rapist does it it will get him into a world of hurt and his body will not seem so powerful anymore.He will have to choose to be a respectful person lest he suffer more.

[silverojo]

7. I wish I could recommend your post

It truly says it all....

[keith harmon snow]

8. EVE ENSLER STORY

Hello

Read the full story...
keith harmon snow

[Forkboy]

9. Tough read.

Thanks for posting it.I'll watch the vids later on.Have to take this stuff in small doses or my brain will pop out of anger, and it takes a couple hours for my blood pressure meds to kick in.