My fucking internet is down!
~ type1error, speaking to Brighthouse Networks on the night of August 6, 2012
After a half hour on the phone with a shockingly helpful technician at Brighthouse, I was advised to replace the ethernet cord. I won't get around to that until much later tonight, so I'm relying on the stupidity kindness of neighbors to cruise the tubes this morning. Big downside: My neighbor's signal is weak, so today's open thread is not going to be as exciting as what you are used to.
Comments
good mornin'! :D
thank gawd for cool neighbors! :D
here's an article that pissed me off this morning:
Occupy Easton marches in support of activist arrested with 'you're being robbed' sign outside bank
US support for Rwanda wanes amid concern over violence in Congo
Guardian:
damn... i wish we spent as much
time and effort on countries where there is no oil/resources as we do in those that do have exploitable resources... humanitarian concerns outweigh resources to any true humanitarian...
sigh...
We HAVE been spending money, time and effort ...
... on the Democratic Republic of Congo ~ naturally, as it has substantial resources, including strategic resources for the electronics industry.
That's part of the problem ~ if the DRC did not receive the money time and effort of the US government, and other western powers, including the aid go Rwanda to fund the rebels in the east of the DRC, it would be a more pleasant place to live.
No US official "aid" program above the level of the Peace Corps can be shown to have any positive correlation with development over the long term. And that is not surprising: no US official "aid" program above the level of the Peace Corps has any substantial focus on the well-being of the people living in the communities being "aided". US AID is a US export and strategic materials access promotion program.
this is actually a lot more complicated than the UN lets on
I'm no great fan of Kagame but in this case I don't think it is fair for the US/UN to single him and Rwanda out as the cause of instability. Kabila (dictator of Congo) has been supplying the Hutu Rebels that Rwanda has been fighting for years. The two countries have agreed to a summit in Uganda to discuss bringing in the All African peace keeping force as a neutral 3rd party. As a side note, yes, the US was far too slow to act in Rwanda. However, the two countries that bear the greatest responsibility for the genocide are Rwanda and France. France actually had paratroopers on the ground and could have ended the entire thing the first week it happened. Rwanda itself had been through numerous smaller scale events with thousands being massacred but they simply never took serious steps to deal with the issue. Kagame is no great fan of democracy, but considering what he inherited and what he has done in Rwanda I have to give him the benefit of the doubt on this issue.
Kabila's father was ...
... installed largely on the back of the support of the Kagame regime, but the intention of the Kagame regime was never to allow the emergence of a united DRC in control of its own territory. Similar to the theft of DRC land with oil by the Angolans, a weak DRC with a central government with only a shaky hold on much of the DRC territory is the preference of the Rwandan government.
And if millions should die in the eastern DRC as a side effect, well, its not like they are being killed in large enough numbers in any given massacre to draw the world's attention.
should have said
I should have said, "I don't agree with the interpretation that Kabila was installed by Kagame," instead of calling it a false characterization. False has a negative connotation and I did not mean to imply a negative connotation. My apologies.
The elder Kabila was certainly supported ...
... by Kagame against Mobutu, and certainly relied heavily on Rwandans in solidifying his hold on power.
He was not, of course, a Rwandan puppet, but when a country the size of Rwanda is backing an invasion of a country the size of the Congo, you take what opportunities come to hand.
The younger Kabila has always been on opposition ground in Kinshasa, as his power base is in the kiSwahili speaking half of the DRC rather than the Lingala speaking western half.
I wish we spent that time and money
HERE!
We do.
Defense spending, the prison industrial complex, diverting education funding into private schools, both K-12 and two year career colleges ...
... we spend a lot of that money here, in much the same ways.
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