War Against Women in (DR) Congo

Last night CBS' famed 60 Minutes weekly newsmagazine aired an excellent segment by CNN's Anderson Cooper, "War Against Women in the Congo." It concerns the systematic use of rape against women and children in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The tragedy of the Darfur region of the Sudan is horrid and should not be underplayed, but it gets far more coverage in the U.S. than the horrors in the DRC--even though both the United Nations and Human Rights Watch conclude that what is happening in the DRC is the worst human rights tragedy in the world, currently. Further, although women have been raped in all wars, this is the most systematic use of rape as a weapon of war anywhere--making even the rape camps during the Balkans civil war which broke up Yugoslavia in the '90s or the rapes in the Darfur refugee camps now look small in comparison. DAILY GANG RAPE is now the norm--and reaches children as young as 3 and women in their '90s--and is leaving entire villages traumatized.

The video is disturbing and not for the squeamish. We need to make ending this a high priority of the U.S. State Dept. and the U.S. and international human rights groups and campaigns. The blog, Texas in Africa, run by a Texas poli-sci grad student whose dissertation is on Congo's health system and who has spent considerable time in Africa, has regular updates on all matters African, especially Congo related.

Pakistan's Bhutto Assassinated

Apparently, she really scared someone. Whether the suicide bomber who killed former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (and at least 20 others) today was sent by the Islamist extremists, Taliban and al-Qaeda supporters, or by supporters of President Pervez Musharraf (afraid that, even with conditions stacked against her, she might actually defeat him in the upcoming election) or just by someone who thought she was stepping too far away from "a woman's place," it is clear that Bhutto frightened someone enough to eliminate her.

My heart and prayers go out to her family, but also to the people of Pakistan who have longed to a return to democratic rule. I do not know enough about Bhutto and her policies when she was PM, or enough about all of the political landscape of Pakistan, to know if she would have made the best president or not, although as a firm democrat, I naturally support alternatives to Musharaff. But I am an outsider and should have no say in who gets to be president there or not. But I am angry and saddened that Pakistanis now won't get to decide for themselves. The violence which killed Ms. Bhutto and 20 bystanders was also violence to the whole of Pakistani society, forcefully removing from Pakistanis the opposition leader who had the most chance of defeating Musharraf--even after the State of Emergency gave him a chance to rig the field in his favor.

I am also angry at U.S. citizens: No, none of us killed Bhutto and the others. But the voter apathy of so many in this country dishonors the sacrifices like those paid by Bhutto and her followers. Around the world, people are willing to risk death for democracy, to stand in long lines for hours for in order to vote. Yet less than half of eligible citizens in the U.S. are even registered to vote--and among the young (18-25), this percentage is even lower. When elections are stolen elsewhere, the people march into the streets and demand recounts or commit nonviolent, people power, revolutions. When elections are stolen here, we shrug.
When candidates debate issues, we look for a ballgame or a "reality TV" show to watch.

Democracy requires an active citizenship: registering to vote, voting, coming to city council meetings, keeping up with the issues, volunteering for and contributing to campaigns, joining civic watchdog groups, writing letters to the editors of local papers, etc. Sometimes it requires risk (our society regularly extols the valor of our military members for defending such rights--even when a particular conflict may have nothing to do with defending our democracy or anothers--but then we cheapen their sacrifice by not being active citizens!) and struggle. Sometimes there are victims: not only around the world, but here at home (think of the martyrs of the Civil Rights movement, for instance). But nothing worth having is free. Those struggling for democracy in Pakistan will continue after Ms. Bhutto's funeral--even if they are defeated in the upcoming election. I grieve for them, but I do not worry about their longterm future, because they are determined to live free. I do worry about our future: I worry that we will continue to let the rule of law be trampled, the Constitution spat upon by those sworn to uphold it, torture and domestic spying, the elimination of Habeas corpus, indefinite detentions, court packings--and all the rest continue, rather than work and bleed and march to end it.

One of my favorite acoustic, alternative, music groups, "Down to Earth," sing "The Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist." It's not about violence, but about social struggle: union organizing, community organizing, marching together, working together--and the role of anger in the work of social love, including the incredible line, "You can be loving and still be PISSED!" We need, they sing, "A lot more love, a lot more heat--a lot more people in the streets!" The chorus speaks to a way to honor Ms. Bhutto and all the fallen heroes and heroines of democratic struggles for justice:

Keep on loving; Keep on fighting!
Stick together and we just might win!
Shout Freedom's name to the heavens above--
And live each day with a fiercer love!

In solidarity with all the global struggles for justice and peace.

P.S. Bluegrass Roots has a good post on McConnell's hypocrisy over Bhutto's death. Now that Fletcher and Northup are gone, McConnell has to be Kentucky's biggest remaining embarrassment.