Progressive Media Advocates
Georgianne Nienaber: It seemed that while M23 was winning on the battlefield against both the FDLR and the regular Congo Army (FARDC), and had gained recognition by the African Union as a partner in peace negotiations, they had lost the social media and Internet public relations battle.
Shamus Cooke: Instead of Obama denouncing the invasion and the approaching overthrow of a democratically elected government, silence becomes a very powerful action of intentional complicity on the side of the invaders.
t must have seemed like a good idea at the time, when Senators Chris Dodd and Barney Frank drew up the landmark regulatory bill that bears their names. One of its lesser-known provisions required U.S. companies to list the inclusion of any “conflict minerals,” mined in or near the violence-plagued Democratic Republic of the Congo, [...]
Georgianne Nienaber: A more likely scenario has the Congolese government trying to rev up international outrage against Rwanda as control of the east deteriorating.
Matthew Kavanagh: From Twitter trending to the front page of The New York Times to public statements by the White House and the Pentagon, the Kony 2012 campaign has shown the power of social media to affect U.S. public debate – but what about the dangers of oversimplification?
Mac Mckinney: In the 1880s, scores of restless, often unsavory Europeans and other adventurers with appetites for quick wealth stumbled into the Congo in response to the colonial call to “civilize” and develop this unknown territory.
Georgianne Nienaber: The United Nations accusations against Lawal and CAMAC deserve a complete investigation and Congressional hearings might be a good place to begin.
Mac McKinney: Even before the Congo Free State was formally inaugurated on August 1st, 1985, de Winton went about disenfranchising as many native inhabitants as possible from their traditional lands.
Mac McKinney: King Leopold II could actually be characterized as an arguable prototype for various 20th Century, disreputable political stereotypes such as egomaniac dictators, racist imperialists, Orwellian Double-Speakers several decades before Orwell was even born
Georgianne Nienaber: Some rudimentary help is now on the way to Walikale due to a tight-knit Facebook community that rallied to find a simple solution that will not solve the problem, but might save a life or two.
Georgianne Nienaber: God may be sleeping, but the international community is now conscious of the impdending massacre in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ezili Dantò: Since the 2004 Bush regime change in Haiti, US large footprint in “poor?” Haiti keeps increasing. US Embassy in Haiti is the fifth largest US Embassy compound in the world, after Iraq, Afghanistan, China
and Germany.
Georgianne Nienaber: In the months prior to his assassination, Balibuno had repeatedly told Human Rights Watch and others that he was threatened by Ntaganda for refusing to support Ntaganda’s leadership of the CNDP.
Dick Price: “Ruined,” tells the improbably uplifting story of a tawdry haven from an unimaginably cruel world where soldiers and the rebels they fight routinely rape, mutilate, and murder women for sport.
Georgianne Nienaber: The United States has strategic and mining interests in DRC and until the American people wake up and demand that our government do something to actually promote human rights in the Great Lakes Region, we can expect more of the same and press release after press release from Human Rights organizations will swarm foreign news desks like so many hyenas after the kill.
In “Voices from the Wetlands,” veteran reporter Georgianne Nienaber gives a first-hand account of the damage wrecked by the BP oil well disaster on the Louisiana Delta and on the people whose families have lived there for centuries.
Witch-hunts have always created moral panic, mass hysteria, and public lynching of society’s most vulnerable and marginalized.
Don’t be snowed by Kabila and what he will tell you while you are in Kinshasa. It is more important what you will see in eastern Congo.
Since the spectacular failure of Operation Umoja Wetu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Congolese forces (FARDC) have formed a new military campaign with MONUC forces. Dubbed Kimia II, the new operation appears headed for the same fate. After the detention of rebel Congolese Tutsi General Laurent Nkunda by Rwandan forces (RDF) in [...]
On May 18, Turkish diplomat Baki I`lkin sent the Interim Report of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations Security Council. I`lkin’s cover letter sounded hopeful, but resigned. “I would appreciate it if the present letter, together with its enclosure, were brought to the attention of the [...]
The email from a colleague and friend in Lubero territory, Democratic Republic of Congo, came in about four days ago and it was just a matter of time before another round of violence would occur away from the eyes of western media. The security situation in the area is bad. Monuc (United Nations Mission in [...]
Randy Shaw: Obama could regain young people’s support by lowering student loan rates, enacting immigration reform and rejecting the Keystone XL Pipeline, but time—and his political capital—is running out.
Steve Hochstadt: The women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s finally made an issue of fathering. If women were going to get out of the house and into the workplace, men had to change their roles, too.
The Frying Pan: A successful mayor and council cannot be satisfied with merely coping as issues arise, but must be able to anticipate and define the city´s needs for the next four years. As our newly elected leaders prepare for their roles, we´ve asked writers to share their thoughts about what lies ahead for Los Angeles.
PCL offers monthly Open House Events on the 2nd Saturday at 2pm and 3rd Thursday at 6pm. Click here to learn more.
Recent Comments