Congo · Eco-Chick

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Breaking the Silence with Congo Week

Last Sunday kicked off “Break the Silence” Congo Week. (I know, we’re a bit late!) From now until October 25th, students from the US, Canada, England, Belgium, Germany, France, Brazil, Jamaica, Norway, Korea, Ghana, Mali, South Africa, Columbia, and others are running events to raise awareness about what is going on in the Congo.

What is happening there is one of the greatest humanitarian crisis in the world today. The United Nations said it is the deadliest conflict in the world since World War Two. However, hardly anything is said about it in the media; though last weekend, The NYTimes published an article to shed some light on the story.
Basically, militias are being sent into the Congo to break the spirits of the people there through rape and violence so that they can mine and steal the resources of the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) such as Coltan (used to make computers, cell phones, DVDs, kid’s game consoles, etc), copper, and diamonds and then sell it to the corporations.

Guess who some of those are? (It’s companies in the US, Europe, and Asia who supply us with all our cool stuff). How often do you buy a new tech gadget? Are you quick to go for the refurbished tech piece, or the brand spankin’ new edition that gets updated yearly? All those gadgets are made from special base metals in the Earth, and are incredibly valuable in a poor continent like Africa- valuable enough to rape and kill over.

This long-standing war also feeds into the epidemic of AIDS. Through the rapes, the virus has spread. Thankfully, there are inspiring people like YOUTH AIDS activist Suzanne Africa Engo who is taking a stand and raising awareness for the AIDS epidemic. Right now she is on her journey, running 858 miles from NY to Oprah’s studio in CHICAGO. Check out her site and blog to see how you can help her on this journey.

A simple solution of free trade can help disintegrate the use of rape as a war tactic. Pressure manufacturers to reclaim/recycle materials that we already have, and not to finance the militias (take action in a number of ways here). Do we really need to buy a new Laptop or DVD player every year or two or three that is made of raw materials that are gotten through murder, torture, and rape?

I know this is all over whelming but a little bit of effort to make a change goes a long way for any cause. We as human beings need to take a stand for our given rights to love, have peace and own our bodies…for the sake of humanity. Invoke democracy. Speak to others, write to authorities, demand free trade, research, ask for help if you need it. VOTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Be the change that you want to see and help create the world that you would want to bring your own children into.”

conflict, congo, Events, Fair Trade, humanitarian crisi, rape

How to Light Up Africa?

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by Starre Vartan · 09/04/07

In this image from the Smithsonian, you can see the lights of Europe at night, whereas most of Africa is dark.

As an inveterate night owl, reading this article in the Independent really made me think. The piece makes the point that most Africans don’t have access to electricity in the form of a grid, as we do here (where we seem to do our very best to waste it, but anyway), and therefore aren’t able to work much outside daylight hours. I can’t imagine being unable to work half the night away, whether I’m typing away on my laptop, watching a movie, reading, even vacuuming and doing yoga. I would certainly be less productive, and I wouldn’t be able to run this site, period since I do most of my writing for it between 11pm and 2am.

So how do we give the African people the ability to work all night if they want to, without sucking up fossil fuels to run these fun blinking machines? Setting up a grid like ours would not only be an environmental disaster, but it is a financial impossibility for impoverished nations.

Many of the continent’s poorest people are dependent on kerosene lamps or candles, and typically spend at least a 10th of their income on lighting
their shacks. The lamps often kick out more smoke than light, and there are frequent stories of huts going up in flames as they get knocked over. People
with a bit of extra cash may invest in a small diesel generator, but the extra illumination and the reduced danger does not quite compensate for the
noise and the polluting fumes.

The World Bank wants to sell LED’s, and suggests hooking them up to people-powered machines. LED’s use less than a watt of power to create light to read by, and while we may only be familiar in them for small lighting tasks, the technology for LED’s has come a long way, meaning they could provide an answer to part of Africa’s lighting puzzle.

Lighting Africa officially launches on 4 September, when organisers will unveil a competition for the design and delivery of low-cost, green lighting
products for low-income consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 350 companies have already expressed an interest – from Africa-based small
businesses to multinationals like Philips.

Unfortunately, there’s no mention of solar power in this article, though this would seem to be the obvious answer, as much of the poorest parts of Africa are known for their direct access to equatorial (meaning very regular) solar energy. Large hydropower projects ARE mentioned, without any commentary provided on the environmental destruction of this form of energy generation, which would seem to be a major oversight in the article. It sent a shudder down my spine to think of Africa’s largest river, the Congo, dammed along it’s long and winding path, which would disturb all the ecosystems along its route if regular flooding events were to be eliminated. At this point, there doesn’t seem to be money enough for this kind of huge hydropower project, so I’m hoping in the meantime solar panels become cheap enough so that Africans who want to stay up half the night reading don’t have to sacrifice their environment to do so.

Thanks to RemyC for the link!