more truth about the war in Congo

another eye-opening account (which also refers to the
Madsen report to which i provided a link yesterday):

http://www.lalkar.demon.co.uk/issues/contents/sep2002/congo.html

it's clear from this story that Laurent Kabila (the former
president who was assassinated last year, and father of the
current president of Congo), after he overthrew Mobuto, had
a nationalistic program of reform in the works which would
have rebuilt the infrastructure of the country, and which clearly
had the objective of benefitting the people of the Congo first.

the greedy western powers wouldn't have this, and so they
subsequently paid Uganda and Rwanda to start the civil war
under the pretense of helping them to settle their own
scores with Congo.

(this info begins about 1/3 of the way down the page)

-monz

on the other hand, here's a much more cynical editorial
which, on page 3, paints a much darker picture of Kabila.

http://www.chapmanspira.com/pov/Zaire/Zaire1.htm

-monz

----- Original Message -----
From: "monz" <monz@...>
To: <metatuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, December 27, 2002 10:48 PM
Subject: [metatuning] more truth about the war in Congo

> another eye-opening account (which also refers to the
> Madsen report to which i provided a link yesterday):
>
> http://www.lalkar.demon.co.uk/issues/contents/sep2002/congo.html
>
>
> it's clear from this story that Laurent Kabila (the former
> president who was assassinated last year, and father of the
> current president of Congo), after he overthrew Mobuto, had
> a nationalistic program of reform in the works which would
> have rebuilt the infrastructure of the country, and which clearly
> had the objective of benefitting the people of the Congo first.
>
> the greedy western powers wouldn't have this, and so they
> subsequently paid Uganda and Rwanda to start the civil war
> under the pretense of helping them to settle their own
> scores with Congo.
>
> (this info begins about 1/3 of the way down the page)
>
>
>
> -monz
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Meta Tuning meta-info:
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>

> From: "X. J. Scott" <xjscott@...>
> To: <metatuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 12:27 AM
> Subject: Re: [metatuning] more truth about the war in Congo
>
>
> on 12/28/02 2:09 AM, monz wrote:
>
> > http://www.chapmanspira.com/pov/Zaire/Zaire1.htm
>
> Er, Ok...An article by investment banking consultants on wall street.
>
> Interesting and strange. It describes extremely convoluted and confusing
> scenarios which is probably about what is going on, right? But I had a
hard
> time following the article. It says multinationals and adjacent countries
> and the CIA are all involved in various capacities and Lyndon Johnson
> started it all or something??

the war in Congo *IS* a big, confusing mess ... which is
part of the reason why so many other countries have been
dragged into it, and why so few people are really aware
of what's going on.

the bottom line is this: ever since the 1880s, when the
European colonial powers made their big scramble to own
whatever they could get of Africa, and King Leopold of Belgium
took over the area now known as Congo, it's been common
knowledge that that part of Africa is replete with *enormous*
potential wealth, in the form of diamonds, gold, copper,
cobalt, uranium, timber, rubber, and water (and more
recently, coltan).

the water from the Congo river alone is enough to supply
hydroelectric power for the entire continent of Africa.
in Leopold's time rubber was the most important export.
and of course, the diamonds are overall the most valuable.

it's simply a matter of everyone realizing that the place
is one of the richest spots on the planet. with no real
authority in power at this point, it's a total free-for-all,
with anyone who's willing to risk the danger, able to go
there and take what they can get.

unfortunately, it's not a desert. there have been people
living there for millenia, and their lives (counted in the
millions) are the "waste product" of this greed.

-monz

monz wrote:

>
>
> *enormous*
> potential wealth, in the form of diamonds, gold, copper,
> cobalt, uranium, timber, rubber, and water (and more
> recently, coltan).

what is coltan?

> unfortunately, it's not a desert. there have been people
> living there for millenia, and their lives (counted in the
> millions) are the "waste product" of this greed.

One of the causualties is always the music and not unlike the land is a center
of some of the most elaborate hocket music on the globe.
There are quite a few good recordings from this area. 2 unesco recordings as
well as some issues of recordings done by Hugh Tracy in the 50s. I will play
this stuff soon and let you all know in advance.

>
>
> -monz
>
> Meta Tuning meta-info:
>
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM 8-9PM PST

<snip>
> what is coltan?
<snip>

It is an ore of tantalum, a rare earth element that is used in high quality capacitors. I think it is used in the capacitors that are printed right on circuit boards.

John Starrett

> From: <jstarret@...>
> To: <metatuning@yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 3:31 PM
> Subject: [metatuning] Re: more truth about the war in Congo
>
>
> <snip>
> > what is coltan?
> <snip>
>
> It is an ore of tantalum, a rare earth element that is used
> in high quality capacitors. I think it is used in the capacitors
> that are printed right on circuit boards.
>
> John Starrett

the main reason coltan has become so importantly in the last few
years is because it is a key ingredient in cell phones.

here are two good webpages explaining not only what it is but
also the ugly role its exploitation has played in the Congo war:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/coltan_explainer.html

http://www.american.edu/TED/ice/congo-coltan.htm

note the title of the first one: exactly what Kraig asked.

note also that besides the horrific loss of human life,
gorillas and elephants -- both already endangered species --
have also been killed (for food), and their habitat destroyed.

-monz

----- Original Message -----
From: "X. J. Scott" <xjscott@...>
To: <metatuning@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 28, 2002 10:55 AM
Subject: Re: [metatuning] more truth about the war in Congo

> on 12/28/02 12:25 PM, monz wrote:
>
> > it's simply a matter of everyone realizing that the place
> > is one of the richest spots on the planet. with no real
> > authority in power at this point, it's a total free-for-all,
> > with anyone who's willing to risk the danger, able to go
> > there and take what they can get.
>
> Ah ha! OK, now I get it. It's the America of the 2000s.
>
> - Jeff

i guess what you mean is that the Congo of today is like
the way it was when Europeans began exploiting America
a couple of centuries ago, and then the way the descendants
of those Europeans (as American citizens) themselves
massacred the Native Americans in the westward push.

yeah, basically most of Africa is still up for grabs.
there has been inter-tribal warfare there for centuries,
and the European-drawn borders of the former colonies
has only complicated things further because they often
cut right thru tribal lands.

the big problem now is that there's so much firepower.
in a lot of countries, whoever has the AK-47 is the boss.

-monz