draft
With
this post we are beginning a new feature on Global Wahrman, a
multi-topic reading list of books that represent some deep background
for my readers in areas that I think are at the very least
interesting, and in a few cases maybe even important as a modern
citizen of our crumbling civilization to know.
We
start with the great title of
Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo
and the Great War of Africa by Jason Stearns
If
you are like me, you are dimly aware that there is a country called
the Congo in Africa and that bad things have happened there in the
past as well as the present. But if you are like me, you know very
little about what the current situation is and whether it is better,
worse, indifferent, what the prospects for them are, how we can help,
whether or not we should help and a host of other issues.
Jason
Stearns lived in Congo for many years and interviewed many of the
protagonists or antagonists of his book and so describes the history
of from about 1996 on in a very engaging way. I simply was not aware
of this war and its relationship to the genocide in Rwanda, not to
mention the role of other countries in Africa, humanitarian
organizations, rebel groups, ethnic groups, and history of all sorts.
It
also brings up a very interesting problem which I was aware existed
but not to the extent. Contrary to what many people believe, the
problems in Congo do not come from Western lust for their great
mineral wealth, says Stearns. But what is true is that the various
wars are financed in large part by various countries and groups
occupying a part of former Congo-infrastructure and making deals with
Western companies to get the minerals out to the market. Thus Rwanda
occupied a part of Congo with certain types of mines and made deals
for the minerals there. In the process of occupying that part of
Congo and arranging this financial deal, the Rwanda Army was guilty
of various massacres in retribution for resistance activity in the
area. We are talking about a thousand people murdered in cold blood
and other incidents.
The
point of mentioning this tiny detail on a much larger tragedy is that
in general we have no sanctions against companies that make deals of
this type and thus end up financing groups that are committing
atrocities or grossly violated the human rights of their workers,
e.g. when that labor is nothing more than abused slave labor. The
point is that it is up to us to change the law so that companies are
held liable in both criminal and civil courts for their support of
groups that commit these crimes. I think it is OK for us to spend a
little extra for our copper or our capacitors in return for not using
slave labor.
Have
I over simplified the situation? Yes, no doubt I have. So I
encourage you to read this book which goes into the context of a
small number of these situations and then go on from there to study
the issue in more detail than Stearns can go into.
One
thing I am sure of, none of these companies are innocent. They are
very aware the circumstances under which these minerals are produced
and, like so many other companies of our modern Globalized society,
are perfectly happy to see people be slaughtered in cold blood and
killed in labor gangs if it makes them a fast buck.
By
failing to criminalize this behavior we tacitly support it and thus
are also, in part, responsible.
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