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So, I’ve figured out a way to get the world to pay attention.

Blame the US for not intervening. Blame it all on US non-intervention. Watch the attention grow.

:angry:

You know “no good deed goes unpunished” - think of Somalia. The US should just stay out of it. The minute Americans can be blamed for it, they will be! And then nothing will be good enough to make up. Keep the US involvement to donating food and medicine, and grants for fighting AIDS, etc. Leave the involvement to the French, the Imperial Belgian military or the great UN.

You see the Brits and Zimbabwe; other than ‘talking’ they can’t do anything about Mugabe’s ongoing starvation of that country. Any action to save lives will be deemed “colonial” or Imperialistic! Too bad the African rulers buy fleets of Mercedes Benz limos, personal jets, shop in Paris and London, while their subjects starve (and the EUniks scream about genetically modified US grain).

Well, you sleep with Dogs and you wake-up with fleas! By the way, what do you get when you Dance with Dogs?

Diana, you got it - US and it’s imperialistic tendencies to ignore Africa! Hmmph!

Sagar, very well said. I am definitely not seeking for the US to interfere in this - I hope the UN will wake up and do one good thing before it dies of irrelevance.

When you Dance with Dogs? You get stamped on your feet by 140-lb Great Danes and spend the rest of the week trying to fix the pulp that was once a foot :beam: Just kidding!

Don’t care, don’t know how to care, or don’t want to care? I’m not sure there’s really an answer to any of those.

UN monitors were killed for caring: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_256783,00050006.htm or at were paid to pretend to care.

Lots of stuff is flying on the radar. It’s very hard to keep the media in touch too especially when they know most Americans would ask, “Where’s the Congo” let alone understand the post-colonial politcs of the country.

Should be “flying under the media radar.” :smartass:

James Baker and the Houston oil boys (or should I say Oklahoma oil boys?) seem interested in Western Sahara . Western Sahara is the subject of a takeover by Morocco. You may recall Morocco —- big ally of ours in the world on terror, allegedly the go to guys when you need some torture done, arrested some alleged Al Qaeda guys a while back. I had wondered why the close friendship with the Bush administration and why Bush /James Baker appear to be going along with Morocco’s takeover. Then I saw this article re
the US oil boys drilling for oil off the coast of
Western Sahara:
http://www.gasandoil.com/goc/company/cna30688.htm

It seems to me that the recent bombing in Morocco might very well be the work of the Western Sahara resistance vice Al Qaeda but the US mainstream media is so busy covering up the business agendas driving the “war on terror” that the US voters will never hear the above info.

Just as they haven’t been informed of Dick Cheney’s long time involvement in gaining US access to the huge Caspian Sea oil deposits — and how the “war on terror” is being used to justify building several US military bases in Central Asia to safeguard Houston’s multi-billion investment there.
of course Houston gets the oil profits and the US taxpayer is stuck with the bill for military expenditures.

The cynical side of me says that we don’t give a damn in the US about most of Africa because intervening in most confilicts there is not aligned with our self interest. Unless you’re blessed with natural resources or a strategically important geographic position, you’re on your own.

And that our more compassionate elements are indeed often overwhelmed by the sheer scope of troubles in Africa, and the ‘blame the US’ factor…where is the upside for us?
No resources to self-fund any such adventures, and no tax base even if we were to become truly imperial.

Sorry to say it, but I think Africa is on it’s own for the most part…and call me nasty names, but looking at least at the former Rhodesia, was competent Empire so bad?

Everyone ignores Africa because frankly, Africa is incorrigible. The place is just not capable of being saved. It’s future is toast, and everyone on the rest of the planet knows it.

If Africa wants to be paid attention to, it should do something worthy of attention.

Anonymous, the question was not why does the US care about the countries it cares for - it was why doesn’t the international community that is up in arms protesting about every little thing that the US does, care?

Paul, you are probably right - I can’t answer the questions of what should be done, like Mike above. I also feel very uncomfotable sitting on the sidelines and watch thousands slaughtered. May be we should build a benign Empire in Africa like David suggested.

Oil Discovered on Pluto!

The US is ignoring the Congo hoping that this will force France, Germany and the UN to get bogged down there while the Bush & Co’s “Capitalist Corporate Police State” goes DRILLING FOR THE OIL DISCOVERED ON PLUTO! Of course, Halliburton and US oil companies get to keep all the profits while we taxpayers pay for the starships to fight the Plutonians. No Blood for Pluto Oil!

AQctualy, the Congo has lots of valuable (and strategic) minerals. No oil, but the world doesn’t depend entirely and solely on petroleum.

Actualy, the Congo has lots of valuable (and strategic) minerals. No oil, but the world doesn’t depend entirely and solely on petroleum.

Gonzalez, are you trying to give Scott Ott a run for his money? ;)

Guillermo, good point.

It’s “cheese sandwich wrapper” that the international community is focused on, Shanti.

That is, when the international community looks at international humanitarian law, the UN Charter, etc, they may as well be looking at “cheese…”

Ah, hell, I’ve explained it in this post, and a previous entry

Good one, Tony - describes the flimsy excuses for Peacekeeping Forces that the UN keeps throwing at the world’s trouble spots perfectly.

Ofcourse, claiming that the US has no role in this conflict is ridicoules on it’s own! Like most african conflicts, this conflict too has - besides the ridicoules colonial borders and the involments of different tribes back then that lead to these eracial disputes - the post-independance cold-war backed conflicts as one of it’s major sources. For example this was definatly the case for Ruanda (It’s well known the Tusti militia’s have for long been US backed) and Somalia (swayed from the russians even, right before the Cold War ended), though often overlooked.

Also, whatever valuable minerals leave the country are still being sold to the rich countries, it’s not like other African countries are buying these or something. And trust me, profits of that are spend on more then a nice day out for the family.

Trust me, you’ll have no hard time pinning this on the ussual suspects (US, Europe and Russia).

Pope Takes Responsibility for Neglect in Congo

Pope John Paul II admitted today that colonialism and US imperialism, responsible for both carrying out while not preventing the upcoming genocide in the Congo as well as for all the ills of mankind since July 4, 1776, are actually both modelled on the Roman Empire. As spiritual head of the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope apologized to President Bush for the unfair scapegoating of his country.

The Vatican also announced it was positioning its aircraft carrier - the Crusader V - off the Congolese coast along with a contingent of 50,000 peacekeepers. Tomorrow, the Pope will parachute onto the Crusader V after ejecting from an F117 Nighthawk. Vatican spokesnun Mary Cheney stated: “Yes, the Holy Roman Empire connection looks tenuous on the surface, but dig deep enough and the usual suspects (freemasons, jesuits) will surely be found. Trust my Dad.”

Anyone who wants to blame the US (and there is no shortage of those) can certainly do so—for just about anything.

Does this mean that the problem is easily soluble by the US—either by omission or commission? Hardly!

It means that human rhetoric twists rather nicely like a pretzel, and blaming the US is a rather tired old shoe. It seems to fit comfortably when lying around the house drinking into a beer gut.

Tiji, I think RB answered you well.

Gonzalez, good stuff :D - I think if we go back far enough, we can blame all Africa’s problem on the Africans who evolved from apes to human beings - if they didn’t do that, there wouldn’t be all these men around causing all kinds of trouble ;)

I’ve only made the point that the “logic” in the posting is wrong. It implied that we ignore Africa because the US can’t be blamed for the situation.

But the US is /directly/ responsible for a whole lot of troubles there. And again, just like Iraq, Europe and Russia are directly involved too. Therefore, this reasoning is false. So we should look for different reasons, that can unmistakably be found (such as lack of public intrest and that american/european intrests are not in real danger)

As for you RB, maybe your attention span is so short you have to call this stuff “old shoe” now, the FACT is that the US has been arming and supporting all kinds of facist-like goverments and groups in Africa for the last 50 years and THUS is responsible, wether you get tired of that or not.

This is not some far fetched plot in wich the Americans use secret wether sattelites to increase icecream consumption in Asia so for some damned reason war breaks out in Africa. This is the direct result of the Americans paying off powerhungry Africans to slaughter everyone who stands in the way of US intrest (wether it’s saving the world from commies or some nice diamond mines), and all the innocents that could stand inbewteen. And it’s not that big of a secret either.

And, as I already said, other countries try and follow ofcourse. But, America being by far the most powerfull surthenly has the upperhand in this.

Tiji - I think you completely missed my point - I am saying the “international community”, i.e., Europe, UN and the rest of the world - not the US. The rest of the world only cares for issues it can blame on the US.

UN Peace Keeping missions almost always fail because they have far too few soldiers, and they aren’t usually allowed to shoot anyone, under any circumstances, even when there is genocide in progress.

And what’s the point of sending food, when the local thugocracy is just going to steal it?

Africans need to develope civil society, then they might have a shot at competent self-government. Rule-of-Law, not Tribalism, is the only hope.

But Rule of Law only works when the rulers follow the laws too, which doesn’t seem to be the case on that entire continent.

Until Africans get that down, NOTHING will bring peace to Africa.

It’s not always the fault of governments — not even the U.S. See http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/20/nyt.kristoff/index.html:

“I talked to members of one family who were hungry because their crops had failed from the drought, just 100 yards from a lake. Why hadn’t they irrigated? The risk of being stomped by hippos was one factor, but another was that carrying water is women’s work and tending the fields is men’s work, and this cultural impasse left them stymied — and starving.”

Wow!

Shanti, I think you miss my point. As I explained, the parallels with Iraq are very much the same. A european colonial past, and after independance a big cold-war fight about the country. Lot’s of russians arms there, and a whole lot of them paid for by US dollars. Besides US commercial intrest a whole lot of european commercial intrests too.

In this respect it is exactly the same as the situation in Iraq. If this conflict would be in the international spotlight the international community would have no problem pointing out the country most responsible for the mess in the last 40 years, the US. And why? Because they are, and as always, europe and russia are on a very close second place. With the europeans being responsible for some of the more fundamental issues ofcourse, but further back (the time of colonies).

Therefore, since this is not the reason, there must be other reasons. I named you a few.

Blaming the average african for this mess makes me sick to the stomach. After playing different tribes/people out against each other for hunderths of years, and then after they finally gain independance arming and manipulate as many africans as possible for political and commercial intrests to this very day, there’s no question about it who are most responsible for the current situation.

Tiji, your perspective is indicative of the “blame America forever” mentality that brings no gravitas to the discussion. How is it that the US paid for Iraqi arms ? By buying oil, the only commodity that Iraq has to sell. Show me the figures for aid to Iraq. Back up your statements. Your use of “fascist” gives evidence of your analysis. African governments are not fascist, they are kleptocracies. Enough wealth was stolen by Mbuto during his tenure to have cared for the people of his country. Why is it not the responsibility of the Africans themselves to care for their own ? The problem is not imperialism; it is the evil in the hearts of men. When Africans take responsibility for themselves and their own, only then will the lives of Africans improve. Have you ever been or lived in Africa, or do you expound on these issues based on polemic sources of information? Stop with the blame game; it hasn’t served the Africans one bit. They need to make better choices themselves.

It is not “blame America forever”. Mererly, blame America and the other countries I keep naming, where they are responsible. Denying that responsibility is ridicoules.

In the case of Iraq America didn’t pay directly for weapons (as opposed to for example, the Taliban or the contras, where America bought and smuggled the weapons through it’s own intelligance network), it actually practically gave most of them away to the Iraqi regime, including the well known chemical weapons and helicopters for deploying them.

How can you insist the africans are responsible for their own faith, when other much more powerfull countries are continously messing with that faith?

In that you supply your own excellent examples. How was Mobuto supposed to rise to power and stay there without US backing? Are you really that naive that you believe that didn’t have any influence? Or don’t you believe there is not enough evidence for this either? (haha)

You can’t expect Africans to make their own choices if for economic and political reasons we keep throwing millions of dollars and euros into those countries to make sure those choices serve only our intrests, and not those of the Africans.

I admit, blaming the US and Europe won’t solve the problems. What will be the first step to the solution is making sure there is no longer a reason to blame them! Then you can expect the africans to take their own faith in their own hands.

Honestly, what do you expect? That the africans start to make their own choices while at the same time they have to battle of the attempts of the richer countries whose resources are gigantic compared to their own? And all this while we turn a blind eye to that, because “playing the blame game is old shoe”?

As for facist, I call those regimes facist, as I would call the Iraqi regime facist. But if you want to call them kleptocracies then we’ll call em kleptocracies. But what matters is that they lean (as well as most of the rebel movements) on external countries, who support these for their own intrests, not those of the africans.

You want evidence for this? Just open your eyes for it and you’ll see it everywhere. Ironcally a lot of it can probably be found in US goverment documents made public for all to see.

It’s not my job to educate you on this, because as long as you stand by your view of that we can blame this on the “evil in the hearts of the africans” no matter what I say you’re not going to listen. The only way you’ll be convinced otherwise is if you decide yourself to take a closer at the situation, something you obviously haven’t done yet (no, watching FOX News does not count).

I only blame America, Europe and Russia (fading from the picture currently but rapidly being replaced by China) for what they are to blame for.

(to all: my name it Tijl. That’s with an L near the end. And yes I do blame the US for that!!!11)