crisis group
2. What does the Western world find so fascinating about Africa? Specifically, why the Congo region, its river, and its forests?
Resources. There is no regulation or opposition for the Westerners to reap the benefits of Congo's natural resources. I think the Westerners found Africa as a new, explored virgin land full of people they believed were savages and below them. Not only did Congo's region/Africa as a whole provide a safer route to Asia for spices, it also had resources. With their advanced guns and steel they were able to take these resources without much trouble as the native there were unable to compete against such technology.
In the present day, we still are exploiting Congo (mining) especially American companies (exploiting). Its the minerals and lumber and the cheapness of it all that makes Western interest so strong. The four main minerals that are mined in Congo are
- Cobalt
- Diamonds
- Gold
- Copper
These are precious metals that are worth a lot and sell a lot (especially in wealthy, first world countries). As these resources contribute much to the market and the economy as a whole, the first world countries pay much attention, so much that the UN has taken a hand (UN). But these interventions aren't enough because most of these mining areas aren't regulated. Because of this, many surrounding areas such as Rwanda has taken an interest (conflict) and have caused war within the area. "former lobbyist for Mobutu and Kabila’s government in the United States and former assistant secretary of state for Africa from 1989 to 1993 argues, “Having controlled the Kivu provinces for 12 years, Rwanda will not relinquish access to resources that constitute a significant percentage of its gross national product.” (conflict) The miners are paid on average of $1-$5 a day (here). The profits that many owners of these mines are huge.
In regards to its forests, it had been found recently there is an abuse of logging permits (here).
- "The “Artisanal Logging Permits” are designed to allow Congolese communities to carry out small-scale logging in their forests. But in practice, they are being used by foreign loggers to exploit Congo’s forests on an industrial scale, primarily for buyers in China."
- "DRC is the second most forested country on earth and 40 million Congolese depend on the forest for income, food, building materials or medicine."
Congo is exploited, yes, but it is not just being exploited. In a sense Congo is being raped, its resources taken without consent, from its previously untouched land.
Your post gave a lot of hard facts that really lays the root causes of these atrocities out there. It read like a research paper, which is desirable for topics like these. In my question (#5), I also talked about the minerals that we were benefitting from, and suggested that this may be a key reason for our global inaction on this issue.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree that the pull of the Congo's resources may cause us to overlook the detrimental effects that we, as Western nations, are reaping upon the land. Issues of morals then come into play, as profits are reigning supreme over humanity.
DeleteI agree. Nothing like cold hard facts sometimes. It was presented in a very easy-to-read way.
DeleteI think the most disturbing part is that has been going on since 1870 (I looked at BBC's Congo timeline) which is when King Leopold II came in. I haven't heard about how bad things were until recently.
DeleteI like the specifics of what recources we were exploiting and how little we are paying the miners. However, I wish their was more detail about the net worth of the recourses. You could also mention man's inherant need to conquer what he doesn't necessarily understand (the US and the Native Americans for example) as a possible reason for their interest in Central Africa.
ReplyDeleteI like your suggestion but I do think that would be dipping into the philosophy of it, which I didn't necessarily examine. You are right because we (man kind) do tend to conquer things we don't know. In regards to Congo, the Westerns knew exactly what they needed: the resources. The people were the side effects they didn't see.
DeleteI definitely agree with you in the sense that profit and recourses played a major role in the West's desire to conquer the Congo. They were looking into an extremely narrow lens and didn't necessarily want to see the damage.Then again, it was common at the time to have slavery, etc so who knows if it was even seen as brutality and exploitation?
DeleteThat might be a question for Everest, but I would say that they knew what they were doing, they just justified it. I mean, today we're still exploiting Congo. I'm not saying that we should stop, no by all means we should continue to take resources and use those to fuel businesses and the economy. I just think that there's a different between following the logging permits and foresting 11,000 football fields in 2010 alone. Do you think there is anything we can do to create more regulation?
DeleteWell you could have tighter regulations enforced by the World Court and create more drastic consequences for violators (monetary or prison).In terms of the environment, selecting only parts of a forest (new and old growth trees) to cut down at a time would be the best option.
DeleteI liked the specific discussion of natural resources as well as the current aspects of resource extraction in the Congo. I would have liked to have heard more about the Congo river and Western interest in its geography or its massive hydro power potential.
ReplyDeleteActually Matt, I hadn't considered the idea of hydro power potential. Going back and thinking of my research, the river was used more for transport since a narrow piece of Congo is by the Atlantic Ocean. I believe there might be some articles/commentary about such idea, but as for my own research I didn't find anything. Great suggestion!
DeleteGood job including statistics, these made your argument convincing. I also liked the sentence, "In a sense Congo is being raped" because colonialism and the intrusion of Western nations into less developed areas often deliver benefits for the Western nations solely.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a very true and accurate post. Resources are exactly the reason we find Africa so enticing. It is because it will help our economy.
ReplyDelete