The Other Raping in the Congo are Natural Resources & Minerals

by Eco.Soul.Intellectual

Copper and Cobalt. It is in every cell phone you used, and if you have a mobile device of any kind then you contribute to the current civil war destabilizing the Democratic Republic of Congo that has left 100,000s of women, girls and boys traumatized from a war culture in which they have been subjected to rape.

The conflict in the Congo is about the control of its opulent natural resources and minerals. Some call it the "Cell Phone War," and the re-colonialization of Africa to others.

It is not just cell phones, but it is a fact that half of the products in your house have a raw material from Africa; especially if it is "Made in China" because China is the #1 trader with Africa.

Lemme give you an example. In 2008, the Congolese government agreed to a trading deal with China in which it would ship 10.6 billion tons of copper and 626,000 tons of cobalt. To harvest these natural resources not only are bodies used, but the removal of people from land is necessary, and the fight of over who gets the profits has been a huge contention.

Women, girls and boys are fodder for a war where the real players have never set a baby toe on any African soil.

With a GDP that totals $13.1 billion, Bill Gates can buy this country by the second round of golf on lazy summer morning in Georgia.

Let me restate that, the whole country of the Congo supplies every cell phone in the world, but grosses $13. 1 billion a year.



Natural Resources of the Congo
Cobalt
Copper
Niobium
Tantalum
Petroleum
Industrial and gem diamonds
Gold
Silver
Zinc
Manganese
Tin
Uranium
Coal
Hydropower
Timber

A Crisis in Haiti: When there's blood on the streets...

Back in the day I could remember as an immigrant from the Caribbean myself when "being Haitian" was the butt of all jokes. What can I say, everybody has to have somebody to pick on I suppose. Considering that Haitians have been placed in such an inauspicious position among us West Indians and practically everybody in the western hemisphere if not the world. It's really great to see the outpouring of support here in their darkest hour. It truly gives me hope and a renewed sense of optimism that one day, the realization that we're all citizens of the world becomes obvious. So much so that we may never compromise the humanity of others as we all share space on this planet.

Honestly, my mind has been all over the place as I watch the portentous media coverage. Watching from a distance as we sit comfortably in our lives, I guess we can agree that there's a sense of helplessness which overtakes our being. A feeling which compels us to act with the greatest of humanitarian spirit, hence the outpouring of support financial and otherwise. I have some thoughts swimming around in my head about this event, but before getting to them, I just want to say that it is truly awesome to see that within the first 48 hours of the earthquake, people have donated funds to the Red Cross in record numbers. Numbers that have surpassed the initial 48 hour response period in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Tsunami in Miramar back in 2004.