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You won't see much news coverage of a war-torn African nation, not when a few shells rain down on Israel or Palestine or a "mere" dozen or so die in Iraq or a single actor apparently commits suicide; but that does not mean that the damage wrought by the war in Congo and the following strife is any less signficant in human terms. It's important that each event across the world that results in such turmoil and conflict, death and destruction, misery and heartache receive ample air time to inform the world about the necessity of adequate action so that the suffering can be stopped.
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KINSHASA, Congo - War, disease andmalnutrition are killing 45,000 Congolese every month in aconflict-driven humanitarian crisis that has claimed 5.4 millionvictims in nearly a decade, a survey released on Tuesday said.
TheInternational Rescue Committee (IRC), which carried out the study withAustralia's Burnet Institute, said Democratic Republic of Congo's1998-2003 war and its aftermath had caused more deaths than any otherconflict since World War II.
"Congo'sloss is equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the state ofColorado perishing within a decade," George Rupp, president of the aidgroup, said in a statementÂ
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Comments: 10
If the Congo were a market for American goods, if it exported something we need (like oil), or if there were American corporate interests to protect, we would care. The deaths of five million humans and the malnutrition, disease, and loss of hope endured by millions more apparently don't matter.
Perhaps the saddest element in the entire picture is that there is no end in sight.
This has absolutely nothing to do with the War on Terror or your hatred for the Bush administration. This has to do with dealing away with the media bias in their coverage, which deals only with a few select issues such as the WOT.
Rather than show compassion and sympathy for more than five million dead and nearly 60 million that had suffered through that ordeal then and suffer through the result of it now, you show your usual self in trying to turn this into a Bush administration issue, when it was never designed that way nor could ever rationally been seen as such.
This is a terrible tragedy. However, I see very little that we or anyone else can do to stop it. The AU has failed, the African community has failed, and the UN has failed. The US and the EU have had the good sense to stay out. This conflict, in the end, can only be solved by Africans. Eventually, they will realize that killing each other will not solve their problems.
Yes, we cared so much because it was constantly on the news. Would we have been so easily persuaded to go to war the first and second time had the media not jumped on board with both wars? No. Had they shifted their attention to Africa, then it's quite likely that the American people would have persuaded their government to do something diplomatically as well as economically, in coordination with the American dollar vote (ie. not buying any products that came from the Congo or nations that were involved in the exploitation of the Congo's resources during that war). As Dave most astutely put it, the war had a great deal to do with resources, as nearly all wars do. Taking away the economic incentive through community, nation-wide and world-wide cooperation could have greatly reduced the desire for war.
If you truly want to stop conflict, then you have to look at the stories that the media doesn't cover or doesn't cover completely (which is pretty much everything). Your very simple-minded responses show that you are led by the media to a great degree and can only think about what the media talks about, hence your near-obsession with Bush and his policies.
"A lot. . .but as for Africa, we've got decades of Presidents who were too busy breaking shit in other places, preaching to the American public about how imperative it is to be there, all the while millions die under worse regimes."
Yes, but HOW was that able to happen? Who let them walk away from Africa or Afghanistan (and so on) after we were done with the Cold War and no longer needed them? Given your responses, I highly doubt you ever protested to the media or your Congressmen when 45,000 a month were dying in the Congo.
"Oh it has plenty to do with it, you just dont want it to because of your adoration of Lawd Bush."
You'd be crazy to ever think that a Muslim can support, let alone, adore a man like Bush and his administration.