h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters05-27-081416.asp?reg=AFRICA#body

http://allafrica.com/stories/200305270293.html

Here are two links with a lot of info to get you going

http://allafrica.com/stories/200305070233.html

The humanitarian statement 7th May.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200305070233.html

The humanitarian statement 7th May.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0522/p09s01-woaf.html

Oh I hope there is only one of these posts *cringe*

Thanks for the links, abbi. Now why do I get the sneaking suspicion that we won't see any "Congo Conflict Policy" affecting discussions on h2g2?

Yep this sort of thing has me frustrated too. The worst things happen while evryone is looking in the same direction(elsewhere)

I saw the a program about this. The US and UK said they needed the help of the whole EU I am not clear what politics are behind it all.
The US and UK have supposedly put the word out and asked for help and recieved none.

It is one slaughter & famine after another. I have often thought the whites recue the whites and it has always been that way. It may be too simple a thought but seems as though history supports it.

Central & South America is another place that does not recieve the attention it needs. I suppose most would say the US (cia)has created much of that

*not a history buff*

"The US and UK have supposedly put the word out and asked for help and recieved none."

Exactly. When an "intervention" might be appropriate in Africa, they drag their feet and expect everyone else to help. When an "intervention" looks profitable in Iraq, they'll go totally unilateral if they feel like it. They don't need any help or even *want* any help (for example, the way they initially rejected offers by the UN weapons inspectors to resume searching in Iraq).

? ?
It seems the U's (us&uk)have taught the wealthy elsewhere the power of privatizing water, and the benefits of having off shore business!

Hi Subcom.
There is some discussion on my page about this topic. It is under *how come* under my intro? U201919
I will post there to let them know you have created this space also

Thanks for pointing me to this page, abbi.

Subcom, once upon a time, long ago, you knew me as "Not Banned Yet." I seem to have returned to h2g2 after my extended leave of absence.

How is it that you and abbi have been the only people posting here? Has the h2g2 community deteriorated to the point where they only care about what's happening in Europe and North America, or to Europeans and North Americans?

About half a year ago, in another on-line community, I commented that is was likely that 80 percent of Americans not only didn't know that Mugabe was a problem, but that half of THEM wouldn't know if Mugabe was a person or a place.

I then found myself in a position to ask a few people what they thought about Mugabe, and found out that I was wrong. Ten out of ten people were unable to tell me if Mugabe was a person or a place.

Okay. That's enough ranting. I'll post again, and actually contribute something here, in the next couple of days.

Maybe, just maybe, if this forum hits the most recently updated list a few times, somebody else will take a look and decide that what's happening right now in Congo is worth talking about. Because it is.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200306260285.html

South-African troops arrived in Uganda on Tuesday night to join the French-led multi-national force in Bunia in Ituri province in the DR Congo.

The 22 soldiers from the South African airforce arrived at 8:00pm at Entebbe Airbase, aboard two South African military transport helicopters.

Capt. Frederic Solano, the coalition forces spokesman, said the South African soldiers were helicopter rescue specialists.

About 150 British troops are expected to join the French-led coalition next week.

Some 300 German troops are also expected in two weeks time.

Up to 1,500 foreign troops had by yesterday arrived in Uganda since the emergency force started operations to stem blood-letting in Bunia early this month.

Capt. Solano said many more countries have decided to join the coalition, but that he does not know the numbers yet.

Of these, 700 mainly French soldiers, have already been deployed in Bunia, according to Solano. The remaining 722 soldiers are at Entebbe airbase.
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South Africans, British, French, Germans...For the grand prize, an all-expense paid vacation in beautiful Liberia, what superpower is missing for this list?
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http://allafrica.com/stories/200306270166.html

Rival armed opposition movements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo remained deadlocked on Friday in their negotiations with the government over the sharing of military positions in envisaged new national armed forces.
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Dead. Locked. Any questions?

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http://allafrica.com/stories/200306280002.html

[United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan]'s letter, released today, refers to his 27 May special report on the situation in the conflict-plagued DRC, in which he had recommended that the Council extend the mandate of the UN Organization Mission (MONUC) for a full year - until June 2004 - and that its military strength be boosted to nearly 11,000 troops. He also recommended that the possibility of imposing an arms embargo be considered in war-ravaged Ituri district as well as the Kivus.
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That would be a place to start. These folks have gotten into the habit of torturing, raping and killing each other. There isn't going to be any easy fix, any more than there's going to be an easy fix for the Israelis and the Palestinians.

There is hope, though. The Hatfields and the McCoys signed an official truce agreement and declared a formal end to hostilities a couple of weeks ago.

0

Hopes for peace in war-torn Congo rose after President Joseph Kabila and two rebel groups agreed on formation of a unified Army. A special
UN envoy said the deal, in which senior command posts would be divided, also paved the way for a national unity government to be formed "very soon," although he cited no specific date. A joint military was part of an accord signed by the two sides in April, but disputes over who would control which key posts has held up implementation. An estimated 3 million people have been killed in Congo's almost five-year civil war or have died from related circumstances.
http://www.CSMonitor.com

#3 Million human beings in 5 years! How many does it take to get the worlds attention?

More than that. Most Americans still haven't figured out that AIDS is a problem in Africa, where it killed 2.2 million people in the year 2001 alone.

The news isn't all bad, though. SOME people are noticing that there's a problem. They're telling some other people. Maybe, just maybe, something will happen while somebody is still alive in Africa.

And then maybe, just maybe, something (positive) will start happening in a few other places in this world, if enough people tell enough other people what some of the problems are and enough of those other people actually pay attention.

I have to hang onto this hope, or bid my sanity goodbye.

0

Your right.
Aids was/is another situation where too much time passed.

The pharmacuetical companies behaved badly.
Then Bush said that Aids info/birth control/abortion/general health care could not be in the same clinics or even buildings and get the money promised.
Many plans for education and treatment were scraped because seperate buildings and staff were not available and certainly not at an addition cost to the locals!

Doublespeak

Hi, 0. Of course I remember you. Good to hear from you! Every so often someone reads the "War and Protest - Vietnam" entries and complain about it. I try to respond, but always tell them I wish the author could respond.

I hope the 0 doesn't represent the way you feel you've been treated by h2g2 folks. I know you have legit complaints about what conflicts, but giving yourself a name like that seems depressing or depressed. Hopefully I'm all wrong, and you've taken that name based on some kind of inside joke? The Schoolhouse Rock song about "My Hero Zero"?

"How is it that you and abbi have been the only people posting here?"

This discussion wasn't publicized anywhere major. I mentioned it on the "Iraq Conflict Discussion" page, which was only populated by the most hard-core politics-debating researchers.

Also when I started that "Congo Conflict Discussion" page, I was being kind of facetious. I had hoped that people might discuss it, but I was trying to point out the absurdity of having an "Iraq Conflict Discussion page" (and accompanying policy of censoring our discussions) while other wars raged around the world. Researchers who are otherwise obeying House Rules could argue as much as they want about wars in "developing" nations, or even Israel & Palestine, but once we start talking about controversial wars that the UK participates in, suddenly they need a policy to ensure that readers won't be offended by inflamatory topics.

If we started a special discussion page for each war in the world right now, how many pages would we need? How often would we need to add new ones? I honestly can't find anything on the web that would tell how many wars are happening at a given time. Any suggestions? It might be an interesting protest or consciousness-raising project to actually make a set of h2g2 pages for that purpose.

*thinking*

"I hope the 0 doesn't represent the way you feel you've been treated by h2g2 folks. I know you have legit complaints about what conflicts, but giving yourself a name like that seems depressing or depressed. Hopefully I'm all wrong, and you've taken that name based on some kind of inside joke?"

I chose 0 for a few reasons. You've touched on one of them. Another is that, given the events that seem to take place around me, it sometimes feels like I'm at ground zero. And the joke isn't from Schoolhouse Rock, but from the movie "Earthgirls are Easy." Towards the beginning of the movie, one of the aliens asks a woman in a nightclub to dance with him by saying, "Why dance with a hero when you can dance with a zero?" He then proceded to outdance everyone else in the club.

" I honestly can't find anything on the web that would tell how many wars are happening at a given time. Any suggestions?"

http://www2.spfo.unibo.it/spolfo/CRISIS.htm#Africa

It doesn't look like this site has been updated since 1997, but many of the sites it connects to are current.