Of Congo’s Deplorable State 3

Congo: Literature About It

Sadly, I didn’t read Heart of Darkness of Joseph Conrad which depicts Congo’s struggle. I’ve read only about Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twains and it wasn’t about Congo. I guess I have to read more and I’ll tell you about it later. Apple, my sister commented that Congo must have been the one referred to in King Solomon’s Mine, a book written by H. Rider Haggard.

Now that I thought about it, there was this poem about Leopold’s horrible deeds and there was this movie entitled Blood Diamond. Gee, guess I have lots of stuff to occupy me in the next few days.

P.S I guess the miseries experienced of the citizens in the bottom of social ladder are mainly caused by those who were on top of the social ladder. Look at Congo, had their leaders been responsible enough, their country would have had the chance of peace a long time ago when they had their first independence. Look at Iraq, the same issue with Congo. Their national problems was made worse when foreign country leaders like US (I’m only blaming the leaders) “helped” with the wrong motives. I’m glad Philippines had Rizal when Filipinos thirsted for freedom. Today, because of our education advancement, Filipinos are prevented in resorting to barbarism (although most of our politicians are not far from those Congolese horrible leaders). I guess Rizal was right after all when he wanted Filipinos to prioritize education…or we could have ended like the Congolese.

Of Congo’s Deplorable State 2

........Now that that point has been established, let me tell you a little about Congo’s political history. Congo was a Belgian colony from 1870-1908. King Leopold of Belgium, professing humanitarian objectives, acquired it as his private property in 1885 and named it Congo Free State. During Leopold’s regime, around 15 million Congolese died due his exploitation. This exploitation is to cater Leopold’s desire for rubber. Rubber was a growing market due to the development of rubber tires. The Force Publique (FP, an equivalent of our Guardia Civil during Rizal’s times) enforced rubber quotas by cutting off the natives’ limbs. (E.D Morel, Roger Casement, Mark Twain, and Joseph Conrad expressed their sentiment. Well, I’m only familiar with Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad, both of whom are writers.)

From 1908 to 1960, condition of Congo improved a little when the Belgian government took over. “The colonial administration implemented a variety of economic reforms that focused on the improvement of infrastructure: railways, ports, roads, mines, plantations and industrial areas” (Wikipedia). But this doesn’t mean Congolese’ human rights improved. Congolese’s lacked political power and faced legal discrimination caused by lack of education. I have to say that their situation was no different with the Filipinos during Rizal’s times. Democracy was out of the question. In 1955, the so-called "évolués" ( the Congolese upper class who were mostly educated in Europe…hmm the Ilustrados in Rizal’s times?) initiated the campaign to end the inequality.

Congo achieved its independence in 1960. It had its own parliamentary president and its own prime minister. Unfortunately, both the president and the prime minister developed a crisis. Such crisis gave Mobutu, army chief of staff, a chance to acquire sentiments and inspired mutinous acts. With the Belgian and US financial aid, Mobutu succeeded in toppling the frail government. Mobutu later became the head of state and would hold election wherein he was the only candidate.

“Relative peace and stability was achieved; however, Mobutu's government was accused of human rights violations, repression, a cult of personality (every Congolese bank note displayed his image, his portrait was displayed in all public buildings, most businesses, and on billboards, and it was common for ordinary people to wear his likeness on their clothing), and excessive corruption. In 1984 he was said to have $4 billion (USD), an amount close to the country's national debt, deposited in a personal Swiss bank account.”(Wikipedia)

Although Mobutu was forced to flee Congo in 1997 but fighting is still continues until today. The illegal extraction of minerals in Congo such as coltan, cassiterite, and diamonds only financed its self destruction.

Of Congo’s Deplorable State 1

I thought Philippines has the most backward implementation of social justice. However, when I read the news about how the Congo women were abused by the armed forces, police, and rebels alike, I can’t help but be thankful I’m a Filipina.

The July 30, 2007 tells of South Kivu’s (a province of Congo) violence against women. To give you readers a clear picture of what’s going on in there, let me quote Ms. Yakin Erturk statement after her 11-day mission.

"The atrocities perpetrated by these armed groups are of an unimaginable brutality that goes far beyond rape," she said in a statement. "Women are brutally gang raped, often in front of their families and communities. In numerous cases, male relatives are forced at gun point to rape their own daughters, mothers or sisters."

The statement continued: "Frequently women are shot or stabbed in their genital organs, after they are raped. Women, who survived months of enslavement, told me that their tormentors had forced them to eat excrement or the human flesh of murdered relatives."

These appalling situations can be blamed partly to their volatile political state.

Very Brief Political History of Congo

I want my readers to bear in their minds that Congo has rich mineral deposits like coltan, cassiterite, copper and diamond mines. So you can just imagine the clamor of the US to “help” like what they are doing now in Iraq. The US along with the Belgian gov’t “help” consisted of financing Mobutu, an army chief of staff, to maintain “order” with a coup.

My New Honey, Part 1

I have dark circles around my eyes that made me look like a raccoon. My only consolation is that raccoons are cute.

I blamed the raccoon look to stress (well, that’s when I tell my friends when they asked me about my eyes). I love reading and I concluded that washing my face afterwards must be the cause of my raccoon look. I didn’t mind it back then when my skin is healthier and I have other things to worry besides my look.

As I said, it never bothered me before until now. I can’t help but be convinced by the ubiquitous beauty magazines that healthy eyes will make me look years younger. Now that I’m 26, the area around my eyes has gone noticeably transparent which made the dark circles more apparent. No amount of sleep was able to lessen the dark circles. I stopped washing my face with water blaming it for the dark cirles. Effect? Nada. I even resorted to Avon eye cream. I think the Avon made it worse. I started to feel itchiness in my eyes and i only find relief by rubbing them. I know the “beauty law” against eye-rubbing but I can’t seem to resist it. There are also times when I find my eyes very painful as if pricked by tiny needles and my eyes becomes watery for no apparent reason. That’s when I decided to stop my Avon eye cream. Fortunately, the pricking sensation stopped but the itchiness remained. Now that I think about it, I’ve experience eye-itchiness long before I used the cream. The cream only magnified it. I lived through the itchiness until my readings pointed to the itchiness as the culprit of my not-so-cute-anymore raccoon look.

My reading gave me a pleasant surprise. Who would ever think that honey has been used as antibacterial and anti fungal long before the scientist came to prove its worth? I guess I found an all-in-one solution to my beauty problems. Here’s what I found out….

The itchiness of my eyes may be due to an infection of my conjunctiva (conjunctiva is the thin, transparent tissue that covers the outer surface of the eye. It begins at the outer edge of the cornea, covering the visible part of the sclera, and lining the inside of the eyelids. It is nourished by tiny blood vessels that are nearly invisible to the naked eye. The conjunctiva also secretes oils and mucous that moistens and lubricates the eye, blah blah blah). Eye rubbing may have caused the tiny capillaries around my eyes to burst. To make it non scientific, the dark circles around my eyes are simply bruises, sort of debris of dead blood. The first step to eliminating my raccoon look is to cure my conjunctivitis.

Recipe for Conjunctivitis :

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon warm bottled water

This post is unfinished. I still have lots to share about honey for overall healthy body.

http://itotd.com/articles/218/honey-as-medicine/; http://health.learninginfo.org/benefits-of-honey.htm; http://www.geocities.com/mutmainaa/food/honey_cure.html

Filipino Social Cancer: Prevalent Disease

I hated studying for history subject way back in high school and college. I just don’t see the point of memorizing all the facts when I knew that after the exam, my brain won’t be able to remember it. Exams were usually composed of identifying obscure dates or names of persons which has no personal significance to me except to comply with my course requirements. Although it reflected my poor emotional quotient at that time and it consequently made the teacher conclude that I have poor IQ (which I vehemently disagree, he he he), my not memorizing everything sort of made me feel smug. Maybe because I’ve managed to convinced myself that I was right.

Six years after college, I still feel the same way about the exam but not about learning history. When I say learn, I mean really learn history by heart. Not just being able to memorize dates and people. The reason for my change of heart is that I finally read “life and Works of Dr. Jose Rizal” (by Zaide). By doing so, my patriotic heart awakened in me. I even wished that if only Filipinos were half as patriotic and principled as Rizal, our country would be a better place.

Rizal proved with his life that Filipinos can be as great as any race. He testified this with his poems and novels and many other endeavors. He’s right. Filipino’s are ingenious and talented when given the chance. However, most Filipinos of today fall short on Rizal’s patriotism.

If I look at our country now, it was not better than the Rizal’s time. True, our government was administered by Filipinos but what of their value for our country? Philippines has remained the milking cow for people who wants to advance their personal interests. It’s as if the Spanish had simply shed their race and become Filipino so they can continue abusing the poor Indios. I say Indios because we are still ignorant despite our education. We failed to learn what Rizal and the other heroes had valiantly fought for: justice for every Filipino. What’s more saddening is that the injustice comes from Filipino.

The history of this social problem is very complex to trace. However, I can think one cure: patriotism. If only we love and value our country as much as Rizal, our social problems would be healed.

P.S. of course, this is for those Filipinos causing the social cancer and for those who remained complacent despite their power to do something.

Earning through blogging

Just made a discovery that is making me a little lightheaded. You can actually earn money by just blogging! …

I finally decided to take writing seriously by blogging. To my delight, the blog site I came across has an option wherein you can insert into a template automatically an income generating ad powered by google.

But to get you started, you still have to have a blog. You can search for a site that gives you a blogging space for free. If you’re interested to learn more about earning money while doing your pastime, please take the time to visit my site at http://emeraldtobias.blogspot.com to see for yourself how i did my blog or e mail me at emz_81@yahoo.com Now we can be egotistical then getting paid for it. He he he.