Avoiding a Congolese tragedy. ByJason K. Stearns

The Congo is at a political crossroads in the aftermath of recent elections marred by irregularities.

I have a recurring debate with a Congolese artist friend that goes something like this. If the story of the Congo were turned into a TV series, should it be a satire or a drama? A variant goes: Which director, Fellini or Spielberg?

The election several weeks ago, as so many events in the Congo, had elements of both genres. Outside shot: peasants queuing for hours in the sun by polling station, women with crying infants on backs, waiting to cast votes. Close-up: a crooked election official enters back door of polling station, pre-marked ballots underarm, stuffs them into polling boxes.

I exaggerate, but only slightly. While the large majority of polling proceeded normally, there were hundreds of incidents that lent a tragically surreal twist to the day. A governor in Equateur province chased observers out of a polling station so he could lock himself in for an hour and stuff ballots; to top things off, he threatened election officials, leading them to seek refuge with the United Nations. In a remote rural area in the east of the country, soldiers arrested farmers on their way to vote, tied them to a tree, then used their electoral cards to go and vote.

The day after elections, I received a phone call from the Congolese artist. “Emir Kusturica,” he said. “Maybe Fellini. Definitely not Spielberg. This is a farce.” He had just heard that a parliamentary candidate in his province had distributed corrugated iron roofing to voters in return for their support. When they snubbed him at the polls, he decided to take his “donation” back from over their heads.

The Congolese electional commissioner dismissed these concerns and declared Joseph Kabila, who has been in power since 2001, the winner with 49 percent of the vote. The runner-up is veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, with 32 percent. The latter promptly rejected the results and proclaimed himself president. Opposition supporters are now being rounded up across the country.

It is not just the opposition that is critical. The Atlanta-based Carter Center panned the polls, saying they “lack credibility,” with the European Union saying much the same. The Catholic cardinal of Kinshasa went further, saying the results “do not conform with either the truth or justice.” The litany is long: ballots from between 2,000 and 4,000 stations have simply disappeared, resulting in the disenfranchisement of up to 1,6 million voters. In one electoral district, Kabila improbably won every single of the 266,886 votes, and the Carter Center found turnout rates elsewhere to be “impossibly high.”

The Congo is at a crossroads. Joseph Kabila was sworn in on Tuesday as president, while Tshisekedi insists that honor belongs to him, and irresponsibly called for his supporters to arrest Kabila. Hundreds of opposition members are being rounded up and there have been reports of dozens of killings, especially by the presidential guard.

It is impossible to predict how events will unfold over the next few weeks. But it is clear we cannot stand by and pretend, as I heard one ambassador lament, that “there were many irregularities, but we don’t know whether they would have changed the results.” Behind this sentiment lies another: the feeling that flawed elections are better than the instability that a lengthy electoral dispute could foster.

Kabila may indeed have won in a free and fair election. But that is not the point, as this ballot did not live up to those standards. We will probably never know how hundreds of thousands of disenfranchised Congolese voted, citizens who are now deeply angry at their government and the donors that support it.

It may, regrettably, be too late to salvage the legitimacy of the presidential poll. Donors should nonetheless work with the Congolese government to set up an independent commission to establish the truth, or at least the main flaws of the polls. They must exhaust all options to ensure the results of the parliamentary poll, which are currently being counted, do not suffer the same disrespect as the presidential ones.

Even larger questions loom for donors. Foreign governments provide $3 billion in aid – roughly half the budget – to the Congo each year, and doled out several hundred million dollars for the elections. Will they be ready to continue funding a body for the approaching local elections that bungled these past polls so badly? More crucially, will they continue to fund the government’s institutional reform projects after it botched its biggest chance of reform?

These are difficult, thorny questions. But we should recognize that intimidation and fraud cannot bring about stability. Looking the other way may be easier, but is not just.

My Congolese friend called again this morning, exasperated. “Not a farce,” he said. “I don’t even think the big screen can do this justice. I’m thinking Sophocles.” A tragedy is certainly unfolding in Africa’s second largest country. Will the United States be an unwitting protagonist?

Jason K. Stearns is author of “Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa.”

Do you even know why you have to kill them?

Angolan Princesse Crowned Miss Universe 2011

Angola's Leila Lopes was recently crowned Miss Universe for 2011, making her the first beauty queen from her country to win such a title, and the first on the continent since 1999.The 25-year-old Miss Angola competed against 88 other hopefuls at the Credicard Hall in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on 11 September 2011.

She becomes the fourth African women to win the prestigious title after South Africa's Margaret Gardiner in 1978, Namibia's Michelle McLean in 1992 and Botswana's Mpule Kwelagobe in 1999. Lopes was joined on the podium by first runner-up Olesia Stefanko from Ukraine, and second runner-up Priscila Machado from Brazil.

"As Miss Angola I've already done a lot to help my people. I've worked with various social causes including poor kids, the fight against HIV, and the protection of the elderly," said Lopes. "I'll have to do everything that my country needs." She added that as Miss Universe, she'll be able to do a lot more for her country.

We are with you!

12 Reasons Why Africans Are Poor, Miserable And Pitiable, By Idang Alibi

Albert Einstein who is acknowledged as one of the brainiest men that ever lived on the surface of the earth once said that the average human uses less than 10 per cent of the brain God has given to him. Whether out of a sense of modesty or he was seriously speaking the truth, he said further that even he himself (who had such a high reputation for accomplishing much with his brain) did not use more than that 10 per cent. . If this assertion is correct and if other races use less than 10 per cent of their installed capacity for production, I can safely say that we Black people use less than one per cent of our installed brain capacity for reasoning, inventing and producing things.

Why do I say so? Our race seems so averse to thinking and this helps to explain why we have achieved so little in terms of socio-political organization, scientific and technological inventions, economic and material development and in all other indices of human progress or development. Please do not accuse me of being harsh on ourselves. I say this out of patriotic anger and disappointment and there is truth in what I am saying. I have said several times that this earth that God has made our habitation is a work-in-progress. God deliberately did not 'complete' creating a perfect world for us his children to just dwell in it without a care for anything but to tend it, subdue it and make it to suit our requirement because he did not intend us to be robots, but to be thinking and creative beings who will be his partners-in-progress.

That is why God did not build houses for us to just inherit and live in, once we are born; but He created limestone, clay, sand, water and granite for us to figure out how we can convert them to building materials and use them in making for ourselves habitable houses. God could have made us furniture but he instead made for us tress so that we can fashion out from them wood and turn them into the kind of furniture we desire. With thinking or creative faculty bestowed upon us we are meant to put our brains to work. But we the Blacks are the least willing or the least able of all the races to put our brains to productive work. Our refusal, so to say, to use our brains and think out solutions to the challenges confronting us is the number seven reasons why we are the way we are--poor, miserable and pitiable.

We Blacks everywhere are too willing to resign ourselves to any situation in which we find ourselves. The Black man can remain in a ghetto environment for centuries without thinking about how to improve his circumstances. Government will not care about him and he will not care about himself. Go to any African country: the same type of grass-thatched round mud house that our ancestors of pre-historic times lived in is the same type of houses many of our people are still living in today. This does not in any way show a people who regard life as a continuing battle to conquer and subdue the earth so we can live a better life than our forebears did. This shows a people who do not sit down and use their brain for their own good.

From the little reading I have done, I have discovered that every great civilisation that has ever been built was done so based on certain ideas: the wise elders of the people of that material time sat together and reasoned among themselves and decided that they needed to follow certain principles of life before they can grow and develop. It is said that ideas rule the world. They indeed do. Every country that is known as great is built on an idea or a set of ideas. Any discerning person who visits any country for the first time, will know what ideas, or if any ideas at all, informed the building of that country. You will know if a country is built to confer the greatest good on the greater number of the people or is meant for the elite or is a looters' haven.

Europeans who fled from religious persecution to the new world of what is today America decided that they will embrace what we call today Protestant Ethic namely frugality, liberty, hard work, discipline and the pursuit of happiness. Employing these principles they proceeded to build a country that has become an empire still bulling the rest of us in the world today. About fifty years ago the tiny city-state island of Singapore was a dirt poor place, even more backward than some of the countries in present day Africa. One man, who can be called the island's philosopher-king according to the prescription of Plato, sat down, thought hard and decided that certain things needed to be done to take Singapore from a backward Third World nation to a successful First World country. That man is called Lee Kuan Yew.

He said the country must embrace a sort of capitalism driven by the state which is in turn governed by a tiny band of highly educated, patriotic, honest, absolutely corrupt-free, disciplined and visionary elite. Today, that country that is smaller both in size and population than Sokoto state is called a tiny titan; it punches far above its weight! Where, I cry, are our own thinkers, planners and executors of the ideas we have for building great African societies? First of all, what are the ideas that we Africans have for building our countries? This is where everything starts: a good thought.

On what ideas is a country like Nigeria founded? From the way our country is run, it looks like this is anything- goes- place. It is a place without rule or order. Do anything you can and anything you please to grab as much as you can. If you like keep your loot here or better, hide it in safe havens abroad. Even if a country is founded to be a rouge haven, there must be guiding rules for roguery so that every rogue can enjoy his loot in relative peace. But no. Dare to call for some kind of conference, whether sovereign or non-sovereign so that our governing elite can sit down and decide what we need to do as a people, and many who are afraid that an inconvenient rule may be made to stop looting may be thought of to spoil their own chance, will not like to hear that. And so we are stuck.

And that is the fate of many African countries. We are afraid of even thinking about the way forward. What a tragedy!

George Fox University Graduation

Why Western democracy has failed in Africa

“Who is the judge?
The judge is God.
Why is he God?
Because he decides who wins or loses. Not my opponeent.
Who is your opponent?
He does not exist.
Why does he not exist?
Because he is a mere dissenting voice of the truth I speak!”
- “The Great Debaters”, one of the coolest movies ever made.

Ten years ago, towards the end of 2001, I was on stage in full school uniform about to embark on one of the defining moments of my life. It was the Finals of The Nairobi Inter-Schools Debate Competition and my school was up against some feisty chicks from State House Girls School in a 3-on-3 Westminster-style face-off.

The motion was read out to the entire hall: “Western Democracy Has Failed in Africa” My team was selected to propose the motion and I was the third man therefore I was the one doing the closing arguments.
The nerves. The lights. The millions of eyes fixed on you. The quick shuffle of cue cards. That final deep breath. Then the moment of truth. It’s been a while since that memorable debate but I still feel just as passionately about the issue then as I do now.


One of the problems we have always had as a continent is our uninhibited belief that what the West sets as the benchmark must be the one and only universal way of doing things, therefore if the West says that democracy is the best form of government, we embrace democracy even though in actuality, what we practice is plain oligarchy and dictatorship. I strongly believe that our leadership problems will only be solved through violent confrontation with the agents of oppression. The reason is that the agents of oppression sustain their reign of terror through violence and thus the only language they will understand is violence and indeed only violence can wrest power from them. So, in the spirit of Vladimir Lenin, we must call for an alliance of the military, the workers, and the peasants in this march to freedom land.

By arguing that Western democracy is failing in Africa, that doesn’t mean I am against democracy or its ideals. I am however against a type of government that has resulted to unrestrained squandmania, the elevation of some to the position of owners, and the reduction of the greater majority into a class of slaves. I am also against the fouling of our communal air by the corruption bloated politicians such that foul smell has become the perfume of all of us.

Perhaps the idea of a type of government where the electorate empowers the elected, while the elected listen to the opinion of the electorate was probably what the proponents of Democracy had in mind. Unfortunately, it has become an unrealizable feat in Africa. Furthermore, I would argue that instead of forcing democracy to succeed, Africans within their diverse societies have the capacity, flexibility and rationality to study their own societies and consequently evolve their own workable systems of government.

From diasporadical

Africa needs all its sons and daughters

When I hear stories like that of a woman being refused to become a chief, simply because of her gender (female), when she clearly qualifies to hold a position of power, it awakens something hard to explain inside of me. Let me try explaining it in my own ways; basically, I am sick and tired of these “traditionalists, patriarchic oriented” losers who cannot see past their own personal, Stone Age and stupid beliefs that say a woman is “inferior” and therefore should be treated as such. When on the other hand, these are the very “men” who spend an entire day sleeping, playing games, drinking coffee, while their wives go fetch the wood, clean for theme, cook and take care of the entire family even when they are sick! I am telling you even donkeys take a break! Most of these women work to their deaths partly because of their motherly love, and partly because they have no other choice.

It is one thing to say someone does not qualify, and another to say she qualifies, but won’t be given a chance because she is a woman. Seriously, what’s truly more ignorant than this way of thinking? But what’s even surprising is the fact that some of these men saying and believing in such ways of doing business are educated! Or educated? I don’t know how to qualify them at this point. I don’t know if I should say it is fear, or selfishness or simply being stupid enough, not to understand what’s better for the self. Honestly, I just can’t imagine someone tying a hand that helps him wipe his butt, put food in his mouth, scratches his back when he needs it, protects him when he is defenseless and the list goes on! In what world does this make sense? Weren’t these very “men” brought onto this planet they now think they own by the very woman they have now branded “inferior?” it is truly hard to digest.

Again going back to my question, which is better? Allowing an unqualified male take charge and screw everything? Or put in a qualified woman who can make things better for the entire village? If these “men” don’t know or understand the value of smart women (not necessarily meaning educated women) and what they bring to the table, I would suggest they go to Sud Kivu, Darfur, Lusaka and some other places, and take a good look at how much women hold the economy and families of that area together. I have seen women carry loads big enough to hold a small pick up truck down! Or maybe that’s a little bit of exaggeration, but you get my point; these women are constantly working to feed their children and husbands, villages and towns, cities and countries, which means, they are also capable of feeding the entire continent (if they aren’t doing that already behind the scene) in their own ways, but they have to be given equal opportunities.

At this point in history, a time when everybody is needed in order to make Africa better, we cannot afford watching our bright mothers and sisters being undermined by the very “men” who have done nothing more than cruelly holding onto power, causing sufferings of all kinds while calling themselves “leaders.” Time has come for those feeling concerned enough about the progress and future prosperity of Africa, to rise to the occasion and not only support, but also empower our women to be the best they can be for the sake of our continent and people.

We cannot wait for a world war in order to see the importance of our mothers and sisters, which is what it took mostly for women to be given a chance in the West. Today, the strongest of economies have powerful women included in them. I look around and see some of the greatest and most powerful politicians, CEOs, Economists and the list goes on, and feel bad that there are hardly any Africans mentioned, except for a very small number, most of whom have either a Western education, or are a wife of someone powerful in their country.

However it does not mean that there are no educated, capable women in Africa or capable, smart African women around the world who can perfectly do the job, even greater than the very useless “men” who are no better than greed and idiocy. It just means that we (the “men”) are doing our best in terms of preventing these talented women from reaching their bests, which is one of the main reasons why we have not progressed, or be successful as a people, a country and a continent. Africa needs both its sons and daughters for its economic growth, education, peace and a better future. Time is now!

Annual Achievement Award Show youth prep!

When in Rome.wmv

South African business Women outdo global peers

South African women occupy 27% of senior management positions in the local workforce, according to recent findings in the Grant Thornton International Business Report.The South African average is way above the global level of 20%. Although the latter was 24% in 2009, it dipped to its lowest since 2004 in the most recent results. This was revealed on International Women’s Day. The survey for the report was conducted at private businesses and governments in 39 countries in both developing and developed countries.

Jeanette Hern, partner and head of corporate finance at Grant Thornton said: “The fact that South Africa outperforms the global average can be attributed to the emphasis placed by government on gender equality and employment equity. “However, while the South African government holds an impressive record with many women in senior positions, the private sector business community still has a long way to go, particularly in the roles that women play.”

April Mackenzie, global head of public policy and external affairs at Grant Thornton, added: “It is disappointing to see that the global proportion of women in senior management has shown no sign of growth, reverting instead to 2004 levels.” 

Although South Africa’s percentage of women in senior positions shows how government policies on gender equality and employment equity have worked, the private sector still has fewer women in senior positions at 23% compared to the global average of 38%. “We can't afford to be complacent by relying on the fact that we are outperforming our global counterparts. The recent economic crisis has highlighted the need for businesses to be flexible and open to change in order to survive. The different perspective that women can bring is so important in our ever-changing and complex world," said Hern.

Be proud of who you are as an immigrant!

Let's start loving and supporting one another, because together, we are a force.

Stop making excuses and start making steps

Lumumba: An icon's last words; Africa will write its own history

As Africa this week pays tribute to Patrice Lumumba, one of the continent’s greatest men of all time, we bring you an excerpt of his last letter written to his wife, Pauline. This masterpiece, composed as he inhaled his last few breaths while he solemnly waited to be sent to the slaughter, continues to peal with potent force half a century after his untimely death; A monstrous assassination that was orchestrated to perfection by a kleptocratic colonial master. The beauty of Lumumba’s profound expression of love for his native Congo and Africa is a political legacy that transcends time.

 

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Patrice Lumumba, the first Black leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as the Belgian Congo. Patrice Lumumba’s assassination was ordered by the colonial power, Belgium, in concert with CIA agents. Although Lumumba was at the helm of state affairs for less than six months, he is remembered as a hero whose charisma, oratory and insight will remain a beacon for many years to come.

My dear companion,

I write you these words without knowing if they will reach you, when they will reach you, or if I will still be living when you read them. All during the length of my fight for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for a single instant the final triumph of the sacred cause to which my companions and myself have consecrated our lives. But what we wish for our country, its right to an honorable life, to a spotless dignity, to an independence without restrictions, Belgian colonialism and its Western allies-who have found direct and indirect support, deliberate and not deliberate among certain high officials of the United Nations, this organization in which we placed all our confidence when we called for their assistance-have not wished it.

They have corrupted certain of our fellow countrymen, they have contributed to distorting the truth and our enemies, that they will rise up like a single person to say no to a degrading and shameful colonialism and to reassure their dignity under a pure sun. We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese. They will not abandon the light until the day comes when there are no more colonizers and their mercenaries in our country. To my children whom I leave and whom perhaps I will see no more, I wish that they be told that the future of the Congo is beautiful and that it expects for each Congolese, to accomplish the sacred task of reconstruction of our independence and our sovereignty; for without dignity there is no liberty, without justice there is no dignity, and without independence there are no free men.

No brutality, mistreatment, or torture has ever forced me to ask for grace, for I prefer to die with my head high, my faith steadfast, and my confidence profound in the destiny of my country, rather than to live in submission and scorn of sacred principles. History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach, but that which they will teach in the countries emancipated from colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history, and it will be, to the north and to the south of the Sahara, a history of glory and dignity.

Do not weep for me, my dear companion. I know that my country, which suffers so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa!