30,000 People in the Congo Displaced

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Due to the extreme violence and warring factions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, there are now more than 30,000 people in the Congo that are cut off from any humanitarian aid and they are displaced from their homes. This people are unable to be reached because of the potential risk of the violence levels in the area. This is a common event in the Congo according to Mickael Amar, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council. These humanitarian activities are commonly stopped for about 15 days and after those days support levels return to normal.
This is one of the horrible effects of the huge warring factions within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Just having 30,000 people displaced would be bad enough, let alone 30,000 people displaced totally without support. Many of them will die. The United States should be doing all we can to be helping the Congolese people. This does not mean invasion, quite the opposite actually. We should be giving them as much humanitarian support as possible instead of bombing random people in the Middle East. Instead of killing Iraqi and Syrian children with missiles, we should be helping more children in the Middle East and war torn Africa live. This is what I don't understand about US foreign policy. We do things for our own interests, under the guise of fighting for "democracy" and "freedom". Often times, to the Iraqi and Syrian citizens (along with all of the other Middle Eastern and African countries we are currently bombing), we are the terrorists we say we want to annihilate.

DRC National Symbols

Anthem:
"Debout Congolais" (Arise Congolese)

Flag:

Bird:
Congo Peafowl


Animal:
Okapi


Flower:
Hibiscus

Congo police arrest 18 pro-democracy activists: U.N.

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18 protestors were arrested in the eastern part of the Congo on Tuesday. They were protesting the jailing of two fellow activists. Arrests of people who critique the president have been increasingly common ever since President Joseph Kabila didn't step down in December as required by the country's constitution. This is causing an uproar among activists and the government has been using their power to crack down on these protests.

This is a clear violation of human rights and democracy. It is not a Democratic Republic whatsoever. This is obviously a sign of authoritarianism starting in the Congo, as if the situation wasn't bad enough already. I don't mean to connect this back to the U.S. too much, but we are seeing similar things with Donald Trump. He says if he gets power he will shut down anybody who is against him, a clear violation of the first amendment. I don't know much about the Congolese constitution, but there should be something limiting the government if there is not already. This is the first step to an enslaved nation.

Joseph Kabila:

DRC Music

DRC music is largely tropical sounding music from what I heard. It also sounds a bit jazzy. The genre I am referring to is called Soukous, which is a music a popular genre of dance music originating from the Congo Basin. It derived from an earlier Congolese rumba and includes the guitar and various drums. It gained popularity in France in the 1980's

Male Singers

Papa Wemba

Papa Wemba Music Video:

Le Grande Kallé

Le Grande Kallé Music Video:

Female Singers

Barbara Kanam

Barbara Kanam Music Video:

Marie Daulne

Marie Daulne Music Video:
There is no music video but there is a video of her singing one of her songs.

DRC Groups 
I could only really find one DRC music group and it was a record label called DRC Music. They have a bunch of DRC artists associated with them and released one album in 2011.

DRC Music Music Video:

DRC Love Story

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This kind of story is a different kind of love story as I could not find a traditional love story. This is a story is about a woman named Esperence who was sent to get water from the house she shared with her uncle and his wife. As she was on her way, seven soldiers raped her and she couldn't move after the assault. She was badly injured. Esperence eventually found her way to a woman named Mama Jeanne who offers medical care to victims of assault and rape. The doctors had discovered that she was pregnant after they performed surgery to stop the heavy blood loss that was threatening Esperence's life. Esperence now has a baby of two months and calls her Bakara (Blessing).
The true love in this story is Mama Jeanne. I have never heard of this woman but if she does in fact exist, we need more people like this is the world. As Western countries, we have exceeding amounts of wealth while people in poorer countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and South and Central America suffer to the greatest extent. We should not be invading these countries and toppling their governments as some people suggest. If we do anything, we should be doing humanitarian care to the people in these countries who suffer. Take Iraq for an example. We invaded Iraq and killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in order to "liberate the Iraq people and bring democracy". Now Iraq is a huge mess and terrorists groups are massively powerful and torturing the Iraqi people. What we did only exacerbated the original problem. We should have only sent them humanitarian care if we really wanted to help them. Although this is just a small story in the DRC, it does relate to world affairs at the moment and I wanted to point out those differences between truly helping and doing what is "best" for your home country at the expense of foreign civilians.

DRC Story Relating to Les Miserables | Children Cobalt Mines

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Children in the DRC are being used by the more developed countries in a rather harsh way. Children in the DRC, often as young as 7 years old, are sent into mines to mine cobalt, a very valuable mineral used in batteries for devices such as smart phones. About 40,000 children worked in these mines around the country in 2014.
This story relates to the theme of playing the system vs. integrity in Les Miserables. The American companies know very well who they are buying the cobalt from. These cobalt mines in the DRC cause adults and children to work for 12 or more hours a day, often earning 1-2 dollars per day. This is a huge problem and I am also a part of it. Until the American companies mandate that their workers must be adults and are payed at least enough to survive, these mining companies in the DRC will not change their ways. The American companies will also have no interest in doing this because this could cut into their profits significantly. This proves that these companies in the U.S. are playing the system instead of acting with integrity.

DRC Food

Fufu & Moambe
Caakiri
Main dish: Moambe
Moambe is a traditional African stew made with a red sauce from the fruit of an African Palm
Ingredients:

• Sauce from the fruit of the African Palm
• Marinated beef, mutton, or chicken
• Chopped onions
• Chopped tomatoes
• Few cups of water

The moambe looks very appealing to me. I would most definitely want to try this. It looks sort of like a stew that would be made in America except made with more available foods that the Congolese people have at their disposal.

Dessert: Caakiri
Caakiri is a dessert similar to that of a rice pudding of the Middle East or India. It is made with couscous (which is from a wheat) today but it was traditionally made from African grains like maize and black eyed peas. It might have been a main dish of sorts originally but it has since evolved to include sugar and has become a dessert or snack.
Ingredients:

• two cups of couscous
• pat of butter
• dash of sal
• one cup evaporated milk
• two cups plain or vanilla yogurt
• one cup sour cream
• one-half cup sugar
• one-half teaspoon vanilla extract
• dash of nutmeg
• raisins or crushed pineapple or mint garnish

Caakiri doesn't seem like something I would enjoy. I am not at all a fan of rice pudding and sour cream doesn't tickle my taste buds in the slightest. I wouldn't be too inclined to try this dish.

Other: Fufu
Fufu is a very popular food in the Congo. It is made from a thick paste of sweet potatoes or yams and is then boiled and mashed. Fufu is usually accompanied by a peanut soup which is traditionally eaten by making a tiny bowl with a section of fufu and scooping the soup into the little bowl before eating it.
Ingredients: 

• Sweet potato or yams paste

Fufu looks like a dish I could enjoy. It doesn't seem too out of the ordinary and I would most definitely like it if it was dipped in the peanut soup as it usually is. I am a big fan of peanut butter and I like almost all starches so I would like to try this dish.

Autobiography of a Congolese Child Soldier

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According to BBC, an estimate of one out of every ten child soldiers lives in the DRC. Michel Chikwanine of the Congo was abducted at the age of five to be a soldier. He managed to escape to Canada and wrote his autobiography about his experiences being a child soldier. He said it was one of the hardest things any human being ever has to go through, which is completely understandable. He was just outside playing with his friends and he, as well as some of his friends, were taken to become soldiers. Once they got to the camp, they were drugged and Michel was even forced to kill one of his best friends! He managed to flee a couple weeks later when the village was raided. In 2004, Michel and his mother moved to Ottawa, Canada. His father was a human rights activist and was poisoned while taking refuge in Uganda.

This man has unbelievable courage to be able to tell his story and let the world know of the atrocities that are going on in the DRC. All sides of the misshapen civil war conflict act like they are manly and better than the other faction when they take children soldiers that fight and do their dirty work. The ones that claim to be the most manly have children backing up their words. This is unbelievable how many children soldiers are in one country. 1 out of every 10 is from the Congo! That is an astronomically high number. Everything in the Congo has to stop. It has gone way too far. If at all possible, the country should just split to be run by the different factions that control the areas in my opinion. It should at least stop some of the displacement going on in the never-ending conflict.

Steve Bandoma, Congo Artist

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Steve Bandoma is a very talented artist from the Congo. He appeals to the Congolese government to try to get more support for the arts and culture in the country. Mr. Bandoma's first solo exhibition in London had to go alone because he was denied a visa into the country. He was obviously rightfully upset by this. He says he wants to defeat the stereotype of African art and be able to popularize it without Western support.
I really enjoy Bandoma's works. His paintings look more modern, and I like the abstract style that he employs. He cares a lot about his work as well as other African artists'. He wants to advance the African culture and allow it to be viewed by everybody without a preexisting stereotype.

                          

Democratic Republic of Congo Culture

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The people of the Congo are very religious. This is due to Portuguese missionaries spreading Christianity in the area centuries ago. Around half of the population of the DRC is Roman Catholic. Although the Catholic church and other Christian denominations are strong, many of the people in the Congo mix Christianity with a belief in the spirit of their ancestors. Many also believe in 'evil spirits' and witchcraft. Music and dance are very important to the Congolese people. Their style of music comes from jazz and rumba bands from the 1940's and 1950's. Most of the instruments are handmade and bands form in the streets of towns and cities showing a sense of community in the culture.
I can't fully comment of the DRC culture as I have not experienced it, but one thing stands out to me that could possibly further harm the situation in the country. A popular belief in witchcraft can be very dangerous to many people as demonstrated in the Salem witch trials. As I said before, I don't know whether this is a big deal or not but if enough people believe in witchcraft and believe a certain person is a 'witch' that could be very detrimental.

Ugandan rebels suspected in deadly attack in DRC

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In an eastern part of the DRC in a town called Beni, 26 people were killed overnight by a rebel group called the Allied Democratic Forces which has been targeted by the Congolese army and U.N. peacekeepers. Army spokesman Lt. Col. Oliver Hamuli said the attackers' identities have yet to be discovered. This attack comes a week after another attack in the town of Oicha in which the ADF killed nine people. 40 women and 7 boys from a remote village were also abducted last week by a different rebel group called Maimai-Simba. The ADF gets it funding from trafficking timber and gold. The group is accused of rights abuses such as murder, rape, and use of children soldiers.
The greed and the need for power in the DRC is scary. Any group that is against any other group will do anything in order to further their own agenda to gain more power and money. Even if it is just something for their own entertainment, they will ruin other people's lives just to get what they want. Almost every group in this twisted civil war acts like a mean playground bully. They are two focused on their own wants that they endlessly displace and murder innocent civilians and it is simply disgusting.

Congo to hold referendum on third presidential term

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The Congo government announced that it would hold a referendum, a vote on a single political question, on the constitutional change that could allow President Denis Sassou Nguesso to keep ruling in the DRC. He was president from 1979 to 1992 and lost in the next election. He returned to power after his rebel forces defeated the incumbent president's in 1997 and has been ruling ever since. This is supposedly in Sassou's favor as the opposing party is weak and doesn't have media control.
This obviously should not happen. No one person should have as much power a he does and stay in power for that long. He has been in power for a total of 31 years. The referendum should never happen and when it gets voted on it needs to be shut down. If we had a person in power for the United States at president for 31 years, that would be called tyranny. For what's best for the DRC, the referendum can't win.

Democratic Republic of Congo Civil War

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            The situation in the DRC right now is a conflict that involves a large part of Africa surrounding the Democratic Republic. This most recent civil war has been going on for five years and it is the government forces of the DRC supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda. There was a peace deal and a new transitional government although people in the eastern part of the country still fear rape, death, and displacement by the army and militias. The war has resulted in an estimated six million lives either from the conflicts themselves or malnutrition. The war is economic as well as political. All of the sides of the conflict are taking advantage of the anarchist government to gather as many natural resources as possible. A rebel leader named General Laurent Nkunda had signed a peace deal with the government but clashes broke out in August of 2008. Nkunda advanced in the provincial capital of Goma causing civilians and troops to flee while the UN tried to hold the line with the help of the remaining government forces. In 2009, the Congolese government invited Rwandan troops to help fight the Rwandan rebel Hutu militias in the eastern part of the DRC although Rwanda arrested their main rival, Gen. Nkunda. In 2013, the UN secured an agreement to end the rebellion in the east and the group's founder Bosco Ntaganda surrendered to face war-crimes charges previously talked about in a different post.
           This whole civil war obviously would cause the civilians, the main victims, to protest. The Congolese government is treating the population of the Congo very unfairly. Many activists have been killed and captured just for voicing their opinion in a "democratic republic". With many citizens displaced, they are not happy with the current situation with the rebels and government in a civil war and anytime they try to protest they are either imprisoned or shot. This creates a huge amount of unrest causing even more people to want to protest.

Four Congolese Pro-Democracy Activists Sentenced to Prison

Source Found Here

          Four people in the DRC were arrested for "inciting disobedience" and will spend six months in prison. They were arrested for encouraging other residents of Goma to protest against the Congolese holding other activists in detention by whistling and banging pots and pans. The official twitter of the organization which these activists were from tweeted, "The condemnation of our comrades is further proof that in (Congo) there is not justice," meaning that this is just more proof that the Congolese government is not just.
         The government of the "Democratic Republic" of the Congo is obviously guilty in this instance. A country can't claim to be a democratic country if they arrest their citizens for exercising everything that is great about a democracy. These activists should be released and I believe the United States should put diplomatic pressure against countries like this. The U.S. should put some kind of economic restrictions to countries like this and Saudi Arabia if there are any existing connections.

Congo Rebel Leader Denies Criminal Charges, Says he was a ‘Revolutionary’

Source Found Here

 

In the DRC, there has been a civil war between the rebels and the state. The rebel leader Bosco Ntaganda was accused of raping and massacring citizens of the Congo. He claims, though, that he is a rebel, not a criminal. One child who was only 13 years old claimed that being pregnant with one of the senior commanders children was preferable and “a relief” compared to her life before.

Personally, I believe he is guilty. Everybody thinks what they are doing is good in their own way. Hitler thought he was doing the right thing by attempted to exterminate all Jews. This man is guilty for having child sex slaves, sex slaves at all, and massacre.