This week, it is time for young artists of Goma to EXPRESS themselves. They are drawers, painters, musicians, dancers, and they have decided, through their art, to spread the word about the war that is ravaging their country.
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Voices of the youth from Eastern Congo: “EXPRESS” — Condition: Critical
This is a very well-done video about the role music and the arts plays as a form of expression in eastern DRC.
It’s a bit dramatic, but still well-done.
It’s also quite relevant to the Jazz for Justice Project.
News and Notes 5/25 - 5/31
Cross-posted from KnoxJazzforJustice.org:
As of late, there has been a flurry of pertinent stories and happenings in relation to the Jazz for Justice Project.
-Jazz for Justice received some surprising publicity last week when a photo of Rose, a child-mother in northern Uganda, appeared in Newsweek. In the magazine, Rose is seen receiving a prosthetic arm while a donning a yellow Jazz for Justice t-shirt. The University of Tennessee web site covered the unexpected publicity.
-Also occurring last week, a new piece of legislation was introduced in Washington that “requires the Obama administration within six months to come up with a strategy to address LRA violence, and protect civilians from future attacks and also assist communities that have been displaced by LRA attacks with $10 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.” Resolve Uganda Senior Policy Analyst Paul Ronan discusses the proposed bill with Voice of America.
-The World Bank approved a $100 million credit to go towards the PRDP (Peace, Recovery and Development Plan for Northern Uganda). The PRDP aims to assist northern Uganda in recovering from the over-twenty-year war and close the development gap between the north and the rest of the country.
-Despite calls from the U.S. and various human rights groups, the Ugandan army says they have no intentions of embarking on a second offensive against the LRA in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. This statement was made around the same time as new LRA attacks in DRC displaced 12,000 more Congolese civilians.
-Uganda has warned former LRA combatants against renewing the war in northern Uganda. This comes on the heels of reports that two former LRA commanders have been meeting with former rebels in Gulu.
-The United Nations has commited $12 million in assistance to the 200,000 people uprooted by LRA attacks in eastern DRC.
-The SOS Children’s Village has finally opened in Gulu nearly two years since the project went underway.
-The New Vision ran a piece on the difficulties faced by child-mothers when returning to their families in northern Uganda.
-Jazz for Justice’s Lindsay McClain arrived in Uganda last week. You can keep up with her trip here. Next week, both Dustyn Winder and Erin Cagney will arrive in Uganda to begin their projects for the summer. You can go here to find out more about what all three of them will be working on while in Uganda.
Be on the lookout this week for a new page here on the Jazz for Justice web site compiling various examples of music-related projects, and remember that you can find similar art projects on the new Art-Related Projects page.
This and That — Housekeeping
I’ve been somewhat complacent in posting the past week, and so I figured I would take a few minutes and cover some stories that are now old news, but that I had intent of discussing.
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Kenyan sues over sex ban ‘stress’ — BBC
I couldn’t not talk about this. I cracked up when I originally found out about the ban. I never could have guessed the story could be escalated to a greater level of hilarity.
I won’t make any attempt at rewording the story from the BBC — mainly because there’s a link — but it basically goes: A man named James Kimondo is suing the organizers of the sex ban because his wife took part, and as a result, he suffered ”anxiety and sleepless nights”.
Wasn’t the boycott a week-long? Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. If this guy was stressed out after a week without sex, then married men everywhere are scoffing at his expectations.
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Over 4,000 former rebels to receive resettlement package — The New Vision
I’m not going to begin to address a side on the issue of granting amnesty to rebels, but it seems to be sweeping across Central/East Africa, recently.
First Kinshasha and Kabila granted amnesty to rebels from the Kivu provinces — turning the CNDP into a real political party and inviting other rebels into the ranks of the government.
Now, and by now, I mean last Friday, one day after the announcement from the DRC, it’s reported that over 4,000 former Ugandan rebels will receive resettlement packages. I’m not going to comment too much because I don’t know all of the details and The New Vision doesn’t really offer much in the way of specifics… But, I’ll just say, it’s one thing to offer a resettlement package to an abductee, but, and specifically in Uganda, it’s another thing entirely to offer resettlement packages to voluntary rebels or abductors.
I’m just saying.
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And now it seems, as of a couple days ago, that the amnesty deal in the DRC is already backfiring.
Former Congo Rebels Threaten to Re-Start Insurgency Over Pay Dispute — VOA
I don’t think this should come as a shock to anyone. In fact, and I can’t remember where I saw it (I’ll update this if I find it), I’m pretty sure that Didier Bitaki made it quite clear that he was accepting amnesty on the grounds that he could and likely would rebel again. I’m just shocked at his turnaround time.
Apparently, Kinshasha isn’t meeting the demands of the rebels. Wait… Kinshasha isn’t meeting demands? And rebels former rebels demand a lot?
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And just briefly:
Have you written your letter to Oprah yet? — Denialism Blog
Though they’re calling for letters over the O’s support of Jenny McCarthy and her anti-vaccine flag waving, I say let’s steal their idea and write Oprah over her blind support for Invisible Children (here and here).
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I have another post coming up, but it’s recent, so I’ll keep it separate from my housekeeping.
I’m not offering much in the way of personal insight, today, but you really should give this post a close read.
Here’s the first paragraph for a preview:
In the past six months or so, there’s been a concerted push by the Congo activist community (it does exist, believe it or not) to focus on the exploitation of natural resources by the various armed groups and foreign governments operating in the region. Roughly modeled on the campaign to end the use of “conflict diamonds,” the idea is that it’s possible to end (or at least slow) the conflict in the Congo by cutting demand for minerals like tin, cassetterite, and coltan in the global market. Because many of the armed groups rely on access to the mines to earn money with which they buy weapons, the reasoning goes, getting consumers in the West to push electronics manufacturers to stop sourcing these minerals for their products will choke off the money flow to the armed groups, which presumably will convince the soldiers/rebels/bandits to go to UN demobilization camps, turn in their weapons, and return to life as peasant farmers. Et voila! Peace.
It’s nice to see that not everyone has to wrap every problem of the world into a nice, tidy, gift-wrapped box.
Despite the savior-esque name of this organization, I really like the idea behind their work. They’re Congolese founded and run and only have a four-person staff in the States.
From their About Section:
“Recognizing that health problems are the visible symptoms of greater societal ills, HEAL Africa made a commitment to not just improve healthcare, but to tackle these issues at the individual community level. HEAL Africa works with committees of local village and religious leaders (Nehemiah Committees) to develop plans to care for the area’s vulnerable populations through:
- Training rural healthcare professionals
- HIV AIDS prevention and treatment programs
- Public education about the law and human rights
- Micro-grants and collective insurance
- Widows and orphans support structures
- Community reconciliation efforts
Our mission is to provide holistic care for the people of the Democratic Republic of Congo: training health professionals, strengthening social activists and providing physical, spiritual and social healing.”
This excites me and, along with previously mentioned Educate! and (link), really restores my faith in NGO’s.
I’m very interested to dive into this book. Be warned, it’s thick and dense.
Additional troops sent to Garamba
Cross-posted from KnoxJazzforJustice.org:
According to The New Vision, on the heels of the UPDF’s withdrawal from the DRC, 3,000 Congolese troops and 100 MONUC peacekeepers have been deployed to Garamba National Park to take the place of the Ugandan forces.
While the deployment of additional peace keepers is vital for the safety of the residents of eastern DR Congo, additional troops will fail to be beneficial if the same risks of indiscriminate killing of LRA abductors and abductees continue to occur as they did with Operation Lightning Thunder. It’s also imperative that protection is provided to Congolese civilians. Additional troops do far more harm than good when they fail to protect civilians from the violence.
The New Vision goes on to say (bottom of article) that the LRA’s self-appointed spokesperson, David Matsanga, has reached out to UN special envoy, Joachim Chessano, to do what he can to reestablish peace talks with the LRA. Matsanga also claims that Kony has called for a ceasefire in order to reassemble at a neutral location.
While a resumption of the peace talks leading to Kony signing the agreement seem unlikely in the face of history, it’s encouraging to see a move in the direction of peaceful solutions over military means.
A team of clowns has started a tour of refugee camps in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where more than half of those displaced are children.
The four performers, from the Spanish organisation Payasos Sin Fronteras (Clowns Without Borders), are on a 25-day tour of seven camps around Goma.
A spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency told the BBC that the clowns could help the children overcome their trauma.
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this. I’m leaning towards being OK with it, but I’ll decide after the initial shock wears off.
*UPDATE*
After seeing it pointed out by various people and blogs, I’m thinking this is a bad idea. The amusing quality of clowns is not universal.
