[lbo-talk] Swimming Upstream in Kongo

[Joseph Wanzala]

SWIMMING UPSTREAM IN KONGO   Inbox        keith harmon snowshow details         Mar 24 (1 day ago)HelloIn 1895 King Leopold began a reign of terror in Congo. is man, HenryMorton Stanley was hired off teh New York Post to oversee theexploitation of gold, rubber and ivory. All the while Leopoldproclaimed a humanitarian campaign to stop slavery in Congo, using tehinternational media. Stanley had soldiers fo the Force Publique cutoff peoples hands and bring them back to show for every bullet thatwas used to enforce the very slavery that Leopold instiututed.Three weeks ago my collegaue and I landed on some of the earliestplantation sites in rural Congo. While there is today an internatinalmedia campaign to stop teh suffering and war in Congo, American andBritish companies are profiting from slavery on these plantations. Wegot the story. We traveld downriver to remote plantations, interviewedthe people, and the management, and finalized a research project Ibegan in 2004.Timber is being stribbed to the tune of over $6 million dollars a day- at te one site we visited (and there are perhaps a hundred suchsites). We visited more loging concessions, run by Americans, anddocumented how the communal forests are being felled against the localpeople: no longer do they even bother signing treaties with cheifs whocannot read: they just take and take. We got the story. WWF rubberstamps the process. They have their little community puppet projects-- its all a sham -- but the people can see right through it. If theycomplain the military is sent in -- WWF knows this -- and they arearrested. When they asked me what they can do I told them... But thisis the death knell on global climate mayhem...And now we have just come from Goma, where we traveled into the remotebloddied bush to meet with soldiers and document mining. While WWF andcerain gorilla conservations organizations are proclaiming developmentand education and healthcare for local peoples -- the reality on theground is very diferent and brutal. This is the nouveau imperialism.Gorillas and chimps and hippos and rhinos-- its not about savingendangered species, as the interviews with insiders will show.(see: http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_georgian_070305_miserable_eyes_in_th.htm)We have got some amazing stories to tell. This, again, is theculmination of 3 years research and negotiations of Congo.Now we are in Bunia, the heart of bloody Ituri, and we will leaveMonday for King Leopold's Gold Mines. Thing is, George Herbert WalkerBush moved to control these mines in concert with the war to overthrowthe long-time US ally Mobutu Sese Seko. That was 1996. For the nextdecade -- to now -- the gold mines establish under Leopold wereexplored, mapped, and targeted by multinatinal companies, includingGHW Bush's Barrick Gold. We are trying to get there.Want an expose on how Barrick entered the fray?Nearby is the Uganda border and on the Uganda side is a mercenary oilcompany that is also working in Iraq. We're talking Texas oilmen inboth cases -- Barrick Gold , its partners Moto gold, and the mercenaryfirms on the Uganda side -- and a contract in partnership with big,bad Bechtel. There are several UK firms and some former officials fromteh Clinton Administration.These areas are in war still, though intemittent in Congo -- and thewar in Northern Uganda is raging. In the US press you get onlyheetical African lunatic tribes capturing children -- on the ground --like Darfur -- its all about oil (uaganda and Congo) and gold (Congo)in these areas. Its remote, there are kidnappings and shootings. Weneed a fixer -- at 30$ a day, minimum, to negotiate the militia, theCongolese military, and the local languages.  We are down to only $600between us -- two white independent journalists -- and daily costs areat least $35 for room, food, and -- a big one -- water. Its hot here,and water is costing us at least $6-10 a day to keep safe.  We have asmall backup in Kinshasa but the city is in a war right now -- renewedfighting between dictators -- and the little we have cant betransferred to us here becuase people are being shot in banks andbullets riddle buidlings -- the city is again destroyed....If I can get a few donations I can transfer some cash by WesternUnion. We are already skipping meals. This, again, is an area wheremillions of Congolese and Uganda civilians have died in the past tenyears. The fixer is our ticket to secruity -- can you help out? A $30donation covers our fixer for one day and we need about 7 days in thefield. The fixers get $100 a day for CNN and BBC -- but we will talkthem down to $30 a day to work with us -- money that BBC and CNN andNew York Times have and can afford to throw around.If you want independent news, if you want the truth, please help outif you can. If you dont like the Bush Dynasty and want to see somehard news documenting their role in plunder and pillage -- yet again-- please help out if you can. Donatins can be made throughwww.allthingspass.com -- or by check to keith harmon snow at 6 HydeHill Road Williamsburg MA 01096.Of course, I wouldnt be here at all if not for those people who havehelped out in the recent and/or distant past. Thank you. I'm trying tomake a difference, doing the best I can. I hope, the Congolese puttheir hope in me, and I put my hope in you.I recently challneged the Congo Global Action Coalition -- see mychallenge below. They are purportedly trying to bring peace andjustice to Congo. But they do not report on the true thieves; or thetrue theivery -- they are always blaming the victims -- the people ofCongo who, most of the time, suffer in silence, and die out of sight..The Congolese on the plantations, in the forest, around the gold minesare being paid as little as 1000 francs Congolese (2$) per month.After 100 years there is nothing -- no health care, no development,and everything is poise dto have exactly the same now. Its all beingcovered over by propaganda.But you cannot eat propaganda, and you cannot eat hope, and you cannotlive on 2$ a month. And people do not. Its like Mobutu. Who madeMobutu possible? Who benefited under Mobutu? The same players and somenew ones, as are involved today. But all we hear is the one worddismissal of decades of exploitation: MOBUTU (did it). What is to bedone? What could be done? It was Mobutu. It isfinished.Hardly. It is just beginning.In solidarityblessingskeithp.s.Don't miss my upcoming expose (co-athored) on BLOOD DIAMONDS. Watchfor my soon to be published interview with Hotel Rwanda hero PaulRusesabagina. -- where he confirms that genocide in Rwanda did NOThappen as it has been told -- and indeed is happening now. And pleasebe sure to read my expose on Darfur -- OIL IN DARFUR? COVERT OP INSOMALIA? THE NEW OLD HUMNITARIAN WARFARE IN AFRICA.p.s.s.So here's my challenge sent last week to the big humanitarianorganizatins -- becuae they have no trouble getting the press to turnout for their public relations -- at refugess camps, with some whitesavior always standing ready...I will swim across -- traverse' -- the Congo river, and back, to raiseawareness of the plight of the people of Congo. The river is wide andthe currents dangerous -- ask any Congolese. The water is dark anddeep (up  to 20 meters) and the snakes and crocodiles deadly. Thereare prehistoric electric fish like you aint never seen, eels and otherunimaginables, and massive barges steaming down river with Congo'sforests on them. And there are river blindness and trypanosomiases andmalaria and parasites and mysterious fevers and worms and socialmaladies as prehistoric as is Mr. Kansteiner's thinking...If the Congo Coalition organizations really care about the people ofCongo all they need do is insure that the Western press will cover the"event" en masse. That's it. Its easy. The IRC and CARE and UNICEFhave no problem getting press coverage of "refugee crises" -- alwaysadvertising their logos and some white person as the medical savior--so they have the capacity to organize a little press coverage of somewhite man swimming across the Congo's very heart of darkness. I willdo it at three places along its long path, on three different days,swimming alone or with a crowd.We all know perfectly well that sometimes all it takes is somemonumental (sic) feat (sic) of courage (sic) by some crazy old (47)white mazungu swimming across some wild primordial African river tobring attention to the maladies of Africa.In the true memory of Lord Jeffrey Amherst and Henry Morton Stanley --and legitimately for the people of Congo, not against them.keith harmon snow--All things pass, so too will ikeith harmon snowUSA: 413-626-3800http://www.allthingspass.comhttp://www.stopexcision.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <../attachments/20070325/4d335971/attachment.htm>