WARNING **extreme violence**

[lord_darkside_x]

i aagree with confirmed kill... the us has imposed themselves upon the world and said "we are the world peace keepers" yet the us government turns a blind eye to problems that do not help or would potentially hinder america in any way. if there is something the us can use involved, then they are there. otherwise, the country is left to itself. but... maybe this is somewhat right. maybe the united states should butt out of all other countries affaris. i mean look at the trouble our involvement always gets us. we are now one of the most hated countries in a world. i agree that the things that are happening all over the world are very upsetting and very disturbing. millions of people die everyday. but i don't think the us has the right ot impose it's will against mations for what it feels is "right" or "proper" or "the will of God". and even if it does have the right to impose, it should impose everywhere and not be such a hypocritical force. if you can't help out all over, then they shouldn't claim to want to.

[Negative]

Just wanted to give a little background because Congo is a former colony of Belgium...
There may be no oil in Congo, but the economic resources of the DR Congo are immense.

In 1960, Congo became independent from Belgium. Immediately after that, the country faced a coup by the province of Katanga. A year later, Patrice Lumumba (prime minister) was killed by Mobutu's troops. Belgium set up a high court last year to investigate the involvement of the Belgian army in that murder. It's not only the US who are involved in shady business...

And that's where it all went wrong: in 1965, Mobutu seizes power: he renames the country to Zaire. Zaire becomes a base for operations against Soviet-backed Angola, powered by the USA (and, amongst other European countries, Belgium). Zaire and Mobutu became synonyms of corruption.
After the Cold War, The US of A lost their interest in Zaire. In 1997, Rwandese Tutsi's invade Zaire, install Kabila as president and rename the country Democratic Republic of Congo.
Rwanda and Uganda back a new rebellion against Kabilla (supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe). An estimated 2.5 million people have been murdered since then...

The fundings for the war come from the country's natural resources, abused by both parties.

IMO, there's no way to stop a war like this, other than controlling those resources. Belgium controlled Congo's resources for decennia, and all was well (although we abused most of it to enrich ourselves, the situation of the average Congolese was way better than it's ever been after the independence).

The Americans aren't the ones abusing women, and neither are the Europeans, the UN and what more...
It's some power-hungry *******s who think everything is allowed to gain personal wealth... Take away the resources, and they won't bother anymore. Giving those countries charity help is wrong, imo: it's just a temporary solution that only makes the situation worse (as most if it will end up in the hands of the leaders, selling the food to buy weapons - ironically enough, those weapons are also supplied by the ones supplying food...).
The Democratic Republic of Congo is rich enough; they don't need food, they don't need money.
All they need is someone to distribute it well...

[lord_darkside_x]

i agree negative, but who has the right to go in and distribute it? when the US was under british rule (back before the revolution), the colonies were treated unfair. The US gained it's freedom from a hard fought revolution. no one came in and "freed" us. i agree that it is unfair what is going on in dr congo. i would go as far as to say i feel it is wrong. but i am not sure who has the right to get involved other then the people who live there.

[Negative]

lord > Agreed... I hope I didn't give the impression that another country should 'invade' Congo and take care of business. When I said "All they need is someone to distribute it well...", I was referring to the Congolese people themselves. The problem though is that the Congolese don't have a 'democratic' background, they have no-one that is capable of distributing those resources rightfully... Hopefully, one day, somebody will stand up and make it his business to lead Congo to a real democracy...

[fr0z3n]

wow, this is surely a good point.

it makes me realize that the world around me, isn't as good as I thought it to be ..

[Conf1rm3d_K1ll]

Originally posted here by fr0z3n
wow, this is surely a good point.

it makes me realize that the world around me, isn't as good as I thought it to be ..

That's all I was trying to say.

Originally said by Timothy Mcveigh

Look over your shoulder....the revolution is coming

[orions]

the world is small after all...., something on my background..belong to india where ethnic conflicts between the hindus and muslims trace their history back to the british raj times..india like other countries is divided into various states..one of them is alled gujarat, the capital is Ahemdabad, its a nasty city, full of muslim and hindu ghettos, and where even a accidental remark from the other community can lead to mass scale slaughters..riots and massacres, and believe me am not exxagerating the words..there has been particularly gruesome incident during the recent riots..

One pregant muslim woman was caught in the mob fury between warring factions, she tried to hide from the hindu mob, one man a hindu , maybe he was insane..wielding a sword in hand saw her cowering in a burning house, dragged her out on the road, cut open the poor womans belly and pulled out the semi-developed foetus out, he cut the cord and waved it at the crowd, all this while the woman was very much concious, infact while i rite this my hands r shaking thinking abt the act..so inhuman, so shitty..

the woman survived..

the man is arrested and being prosecuted..

i feel ashamed..

[blow]

1st world countries have over the last years given money and food to 3rd world countries-like Congo-. But i think the biggest problem with these poor countries is even though they get help they arent willing to help themselves. They always go back to the same attrocities and start asking for more supplies. Correct me if im worng but the 1st step for 3rd world countries is to with some international help establish stable governments and manage the resources in their land properly.

[Keisha]

When I was 12, I started volunteering in a local animal shelter. I thought it would be neat to help needy animals find good homes, to get to work with them all day. Instead most nights I went home in tears.

I went home in tears because yet again I had watched an animal so terrified of humans that it couldn't even move be put to sleep. Because I had watched another animal so physically multilated that it wasn't even recognizable be put to sleep. Because I had failed, yet again, to socialize an animal, because that animal had terror of humans so imprinted on it that no amount of time would fix it.

Stories like this one remind me of my year there, and I am not surprised. I wish I could be. I wish to every God I have ever heard of that I could say this shocks me. I wish I could say that I believe that some day the world will be a better place.

But I don't.

I wish that I could say that I believe, maybe in my lifetime, maybe in my children's, but someday that the world -will- take a stand. That it -will- say with one clear, loud, undeniable voice "THIS IS WRONG". But I don't. I can't.

Because every time I see an 8 year old African girl on 60 minutes talking about how her rapist thought raping her would cure him of A.I.D.S, I'm reminded of holding a kitten as it died because someone punctured it's eyeballs for amusement.

Because every time I see stories of Rwandan women being gang-raped, or Afghanistan women stoned in the streets for leaving their brutal abusive husbands, I'm reminded of the American statistic, that one women is raped every 30 seconds.

So yes fr0z3n, the world around you isn't as good as you thought it was. It's a shithole, and it's getting worse.

It's not going to get better. Not until it becomes more expensive to our government, and all other governments, and our businesses and all other businesses, to ignore it than to do something about it. Till it costs them more to pretend the problem doesn't exist, than to fix it.

Shaq made more for one Nike advertisment, than their entire Indonesian workforce in a year. It's cheaper to leave people on welfare, than to give them the training to work. It's cheaper to put people in jail, than to create early intervention programs to keep them out of jail in the first place.

I wish I could say I believe this will change.

But I don't.

-Keisha

[mOTA]

Originally posted here by Keisha

It's not going to get better. Not until it becomes more expensive to our government, and all other governments, and our businesses and all other businesses, to ignore it than to do something about it. Till it costs them more to pretend the problem doesn't exist, than to fix it.

I think that we don't have to worry if the World will become better or not... We have to care about our lives and how make them better as possible, and try to make people around you better, not a person who you never seen or meet. If everybody around you can be happy, and they do the same to others, them world would be ok too IMHO...


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mOTA