Susie writes:
Following on from my post about “Disaster Porn and the Media” and how the media tends to focus on stories which are easy to explain, easy to understand, have plenty of good pictures and are ‘relatable’, this post is about a humanitarian disaster which has been taking place in the heart of Africa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You may have heard a little about this war but given the scale of the conflict and the tragedy which continues to unfold, it is incredible to me that the media gives it so little coverage.
Lara Bingle, Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian make the nightly news, but a conflict where 1,200 people die every day goes essentially unreported by the mainstream media. What does this say about us as a nation? What does it say about us as human beings that we apparently care more about whether Justin Bieber knows the word “German” or Lara Bingle is flipping reporters “the bird” out of her Bondi penthouse window?
Clearly, there are criteria the media use to judge which stories are worth reporting and which are not – that criteria is called “ratings”. There is a saying that we get the media we deserve. For as long as we keep watching Channels 7, 9 and 10 news along with shows like Today Tonight and A Current Affair, we are going to keep getting served up this pop culture, celebrity driven, tabloid garbage. If you really want to know what’s going on in the world, then it’s probably time to start watching ABC and SBS news.
So, back to my original story….The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. More people have died in this conflict than in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Darfur. It is considered to be the most deadly conflict since World War II. Already more than five million people have died and the numbers continue to rise.
Perhaps worse than the loss of life is the staggering numbers of human rights violations – torture, mutilation and sexual violence that has occurred against tens of thousands of women and children.
The most frequent targets of this war are women. It is, in fact, a war against women, and the weapon used to destroy them, their families and whole communities, is rape.
In one month alone (June 2008) 2,000 women were raped.
Where?
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire) located in Central Africa.
What?
The Second Congo War took place between 1998 and 2003. It directly involved eight African nations, as well as about 25 armed groups. By 2008 the war and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people, mostly from disease and starvation.
Despite a formal end to the war in July 2003 and an agreement by the former belligerents to create a government of national unity, approximately 1,200 people die daily from direct conflict as well as easily preventable cases of malnutrition and disease.
In October 2004 the human rights group Amnesty International reported that 40,000 cases of rape had been reported over the previous six years. This is an incomplete count as the humanitarian and international organsations compiling the figures do not have access to much of the conflict area and only women who have reported for treatment are included.
The actual number of women raped is assumed to be much higher. All armed forces in the conflict are guilty of rape, though the militia and various insurgent groups have been most culpable.
Of particular medical concern is the abnormally high proportion of women suffering vaginal fistulae (that is holes in the bladder, vagina and rectum), usually as a result of being gang raped using bayonets, wood and even guns. The nature of rape in the conflict has, beyond the physical and psychological trauma to the individual women, contributed to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, in the region.
According to doctors working in the region, “this is a show of force, of power, it’s done to destroy the person. Sex is being used to commit evil. People flee. They become refugees. They can’t get help, they become malnourished and it’s disease which finishes them off.”
This link will take you to a report by Anderson Cooper of US 60 Minutes on the tragedy of the war in the Congo where the weapon of choice is rape. The story is harrowing to read and contains some distressing and graphic detail about the type of atrocities which are taking place against women in the Congo every day.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/11/60minutes/main3701249.shtml
This link will take you to a recent BBC News story about the use of rape in this conflict:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8677637.stm
This excellent publication from Caritas is called Forsaken Voices and provides some great background information as well as some heartbreaking personal stories.
How can we help?
Women for Women
http://www.womenforwomen.org/global-initiatives-helping-women/help-women-congo.php
World Vision
http://www.worldvision.com.au/Issues/Emergencies/CurrentEmergencies/GlobalUpdateCrisisInCongo.aspx
Caritas
Write to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd encouraging him to continue work at an international level to find a solution to end the violence that is threatening vulnerable women and children in the DRC.
(Information collected from CNN, Wikipedia, Women for Women International, Caritas)
Yesterday after reading this post I was wondering what drive people to do this kind of atrocities, and today I went to Gloria Jeans to have a hot chocolate and the universe answered my question, there of all the places, in a magazine I found an interesting article, that explained everything, is about land division, land title, greed and of course corruption, if you are interested to know more I found the link in the net, and it is at http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2010/0130/Africa-s-continental-divide-land-disputes
love to all ooxx
Thanks WW. You speak the truth!
Susie thank you, has been interesting reading, I did not know anything about it, love ooxx
Thanks for the Real News Susie. Your post and all the comments below have been really thought provoking. I am about to look at the links you’ve posted.
This is such an invidious way to undermine a population, the consequences of rape mean that the family structures are totally undermined in a society, noone knows who their true family is and the rapists have left their genetic legacy, as well as the trauma they inflicted, behind them. It does make our problems seem trite in comparison. Great comments on this post and thanks Susie for such an insightful post.
I a speechless…There is nothing I can write that actually can express the feeling in my stomach as I read this. Appalling and so so sad.
I’ve read this, and am refraining from commenting too much. It IS a thought-provoking post, and I would rather not think about it any more.
My husband was in Congo and Rwanda……… I was there for him when he got home. I would dearly love to forget, or at least, not remember him remembering quite so vividly.
Thanks Susie for opening my eyes. I am speechless really. More community-minded posts please, I am so uneducated on this kind of thing.
X
Our Congolese partner, HEAL Africa, provides safe houses for women and girls waiting to get to Goma for fistula surgery, then medical and pyscho-social care for the time it takes to heal.
You can read more about them and support their amazing work through CNEC.
http://www.cnecpi.com.au/HEAL_Africa
Thanks Kim x
I am often truly sickened by what has become mainstream news in Australia. World news is relegated to a 60 second round up somewhere way down on the agenda but a ‘battler’ who has won Tattslotto after a run of bad luck gets top billing. Don’t get me started on kittens stuck in walls/down holes/up trees (and I seriously love kittens)! It appears people are mostly disinterested in anything beyond their own backyard and thus, as you say Susie, we get the media we deserve.
As for shows like ACA and Today Tonight, I’m sorry but they are an insult to the term current affairs. Dodgy builders, dole cheats, single mums claiming too much welfare – give me a break! As in all things, the majority rules so they rate really well – that’s bloody democracy for you!
I get my news from the ABC and SBS but also from various news media websites that I trust. I also try to watch shows like Foreign Correspondent, Four Corners and Dateline that do at least feature international issues because I actually want to know what happens ‘out there’.
How can we as a society empathise with people of other nations if we have no knowledge or background information on their issues? If we had better international news coverage on mainstream TV it would be harder for the media to beat up stories about so called ‘boat people’ for example. We would recognise their struggles immediately and show more understanding.
Understanding can only lead to empathy and compassion and who knows where we might end up? It’s a nice daydream but sadly, that’s all it is.
Now sorry, the matter at hand. What is being endured in the Congo by women, men and children is beyond comprehension. The rape situation beggars belief as does all their human rights violations. The cynic in me can’t help but think if there was oil involved the conflict would get a much better response from world governments. Instead it’s just treated as another poor African nation in a mess. Too hard basket.
I don’t have answers and I don’t think there is any quick fix to be had here but thank you Susie for talking about it. It is only through keeping these issues at the forefront of everyone’s consciousness and raising awareness that these people have a voice. This is were our mainstream media fails us all.
Great comment Louby,
I was thinking as I wrote this piece that if we heard more about this type of thing, the suffering these people endure, perhaps as a nation we would be far more compassionate about refugees…but that’s a whole other post.
x
I’m not so sure…you’d like to think so, that if more people knew what was going on out there, more would be done but I don’t know that information always equals action.
I know plenty of people – me included I’m sorry to say – who have a fair bit of knowledge of some of the atrocities and injustices happening in the world and in our own country in fact, who do zero about it.
Even though I am always up for taking a shot at the tabloid media, I think it is more about human nature.
Just my humble opinion! Interested in debating it if anyone has a different view!
They feed off each other Kate. People’s indifference drives the news agenda and it perpetuates the lack of adequate information and so it goes. I agree, information doesn’t equal action, but it may equal understanding. It’s harder to rail against people when you have all the facts.
Even if it only shakes up half of its audience, surely it’s better than nothing?
Obviously I’m not going to disagree that it would be a bad thing to have more coverage of world issues in the commercial media.
My question was – given human nature, what would that achieve? What do you think it would achieve? If you think it would stop people railing against others, what might the outcome be?
I’m just interested to tease out the issues a bit more, rather than shake our heads at the lack of values in commercial media – and its consumers.
I actually think we are lucky in this country to have so much quality information available in the media. Sure, you won’t get it on commerical TV or in the tabloid papers but ABC, SBS and a whole world of good print and online media is available freely.
Some great writing in my first sentence there! – I meant, I am not going to disagree that it would be a good thing.
I think there is an interesting debate to be had about this Kate.
I think that one benefit of this sort of news being more widely covered would be that people would by virtue of the fact that they understand what people are escaping from, they might be more sympathetic about refugees.
It doesn’t behove the commercial media to improve relations or understanding. If they do that then they can’t whip people up about boat people for example. If people respond compassionately then there is no heat in a story.
That is just off the top of my head….
Yes I agree Susie – and the commercial media is there after all to make profits.
I think it would be good to have more coverage of all sorts of issues – no doubt about it.
I just wonder what real impact it would have on the state of the world? Would people change their behaviour?If they knew a little more about the situation in certain countries, would it change the way they vote?
I think it might. There is a bit of chicken and the egg to this I think.
Does the media give us what we want or do they set the agenda and we follow?
Would people vote differently if the media focussed more on policy and world events rather than whether a politican had an affair for example? The affair is a bit more “interesting” and salacious. What the politician’s views on refugees might not be as interesting to the masses.
I haven’t got time for a long reply but in a nutshell, I really don’t know what better/more coverage would achieve and have no way of finding out, but I’d like to see it happen so the question can be answered once and for all. Human nature doesn’t have to be bad. Sure, people like to link it to greed and selfishness, but it is also the root of our compassion and empathy.
I am not sure we can blame the media totally for the lack of information. It is up to each of us to seek out more on the world around us. We, more so than any other generation have more access to information than ever before. We can look up facts and figures in an instant, we can follow people twittering as bullets fly past their heads and we can watch live footage of soldiers at war. We really have no excuse to not know what is going on. No excuse except for apathy.
Absolutely Mackenzie. There is plenty of information out there and individuals have a choice to access the information or not.
Perhaps you are onto something there Mackenzie (love your name by the way).
Confronted with the depth and breadth of problems in the world, don’t we all sometimes become overwhelmed and switch off? And that can look a lot like apathy.
I think a lot of it comes down to “Well what can I do?” in the face of how complex and global all these issues are.
That’s why I applaud Susie’s efforts in putting this together – and Steph for posting it – for thinking well, I AM going to try to do something about this issue. Admirable. Very impressed.
Yes I’d like to find out too!
Let’s put it on our To Do list for when one of us gets to be benevolent dictator, along with all those other wonderful things we decided to do.
My comment was responding to Louby, looks a bit weird as a response to Susie/Mackenzie! How do we make our comments pop up below the one we are replying to??
Wonderful comment Louby, thank you, love ooxx
Susie thank you very much for this great post, so much pain! I wonder why this kind of horrific news does not get into our newspaper and TV, they will not make any rates, sadly! thank you again, and thank you for providing also a link to help this women, love to all ooxx
When I read stories like this, I’m reminded of two things. Man’s inhumanity to others, and I believe it was Margaret Thatcher who said something like “The veneer of civilisation is very thin”. How true.What is so bloody hard about getting on with others? I wish I had the answer…………
I think that DQ’s comment further down highights a very important issue. Some people are BORN into conflict and spend their entire lives fighting – not just in this case, I am thinking of the Middle East for example. How do you change that mindset? Frightening and disheartening.
The Middle East conflict will never be settled. The Israelis and the Palestinians both feel that THEIR cause is the right one. I can’t see that ever changing………..No one is prepared to compromise, so where do they go from here?
I agree Fender. It’s a lost cause. Entire generations have been born and died through it all. So entrenched and deeply connected to not just resources or power but religion. Hate to sound negative but I think the truth is, there will never be peace.
Having said that, peace has apparently broken out in Northern Ireland,where they’ve agreed to power sharing. Unfortunately, Palestine is mainly about territory, as well as religious differences…………I live in hope. An Arab-American has just won the Miss USA pageant. I wonder how that will go down ?
Fender. You have just disproven the theory that men cannot multi-task. Discussing the Middle Eastern conflict while keeping an eye on the Miss America pageant. I am impressed.
Very good Susie!! x
I cannot believe I didn’t get a bite out of Fender on that one. Very disappointed
Hang ON ! I’ve only just caught up! Too many damn blogs to read. Besides, I sleep now and again. You’d be surprised at how many things I am capable of. I can even tie my own shoelaces………..
Steph and I were talking about this the other day. What ever happened to empathy? why must people be so bloody mean?
Good question Ggirl. “We” as a society seem to go from nought to nasty in 60 seconds. Again, I think tabloid media have had a lot to do with that as well. Calm, educated, informed discussions don’t sell papers or get clicks.
That topic really interests me Ggirl – pretty much all the tragic situations out there in the world, once you take away the details, come down to people’s behaviour.
It’s fascinating – and a bit scary – the human nature discussion. When I win tatts and can go back to uni fulltime for the rest of my life and study whatever takes my fancy, I will be doing some psychology for sure!
Thanks DQ for your comment re the reptilian brain, very interesting.
Great discussion everyone. Thanks again Susie and Steph.
Thanks for posting this Susie and Steph, will be reading the links when I get home. Whenever I come across stories like this on either TV or in print I make sure I sit my 3 kids down and make them watch or read it as well. Coming from such a privileged country I think it is important that my kids grow up understanding that not everyone lives in such a calm peaceful, plentiful place and that there are others out there that have very different childhoods and lives than they do. I hope that they will grow up with an understanding of the world and that it is not all sunshine and roses.
xxoo
So true Mackenzie, raising our children to have compassion for others and appreciation for what we have in this country is so important.
x
how horrific. just one of many things you never hear reported
http://tinyurl.com/I-hate-war
Welcome to “Get Real” Mary. Thanks for taking the time comment.
Hey mary ! Welcome, drop by again sometime ! x
There is nothing nice about his post, is there? It’s hardly a topic you want to chat about with your girlfriends over coffee or when getting one’s toes painted at the pedicure shop. This kind of information makes me angry to the core that I cannot stop it from happening right now. Why is it that women continue to be overpowered and degraded by men in some parts of the world like this. We really do need a global sisterhood that will give women united power to stop all atrocities against women from happening.
You’re right Rowe, much more pleasant for the general populace to discuss a celebrity or similar…. sadly….
Thank you for this very clear and moving explanation of this conflict and its terrible effect on women. A little time reading the stories of survivors of these horriffic attacks is enough to make me despair. So much horror and grief is hard to fathom. So I particularly appreciate that you’ve included ways to contribute something positive.
Hey Spilt Milk!
Thanks for joining in the conversation! Really appreciate your perspective.
x
Such awful and horrific things that these people have to endure. Makes me wonder why the world can be such a terrible place with so many injustices and inequality. It makes my heart bleed (similiar to watching children living out on the streets on a doco i watched last night, which is happening in Australia, so very sad and cruel). I just cant understand why there is so much bad in the world.
I am sick of sensationalism. We see it far too often these days. And it’s always about useless shit. I too watch SBS and ABC news when I get a chance. It’s a bit shocking to say the least sometimes, but we have become so desensitized from watching other news shows that seeing real news is a wake up call. And that’s what’s needed now.
Thanks Susie, this is so well thought out and written so one can understand.
You know – when I was at high school it all seemed so black and white – if people were being persecuted, slaughtered, “ethnically cleansed” then why the hell wouldn’t everyone want to do something about that?
It used to be so shocking to me that the whole world didn’t condemn Hitler immediately when the knowledge of what was happening to Jews in Germany and Poland got out. The war could have been stopped before it even started if the rest of the world stopped it.
Now I understand that my teenage belief system was quite naive. Things are never simple, there is never a good side or an evil side. In war there is no honour – it seems that peace is a mini miracle rather than the norm.
What is it about human nature that is so ugly and evil? Is there some sort of primitive urge for violence that dwells in the ancient, reptilian part of the brain?
We like to think that human beings have evolved beyond this but it seems we are more likely to be “civilised” when we have security – economic security, social cohesion, respect and knowledge gained through education and positive experiences. When a civilisation breaks down, violence and force rear up again.
Imagine if you have lived in a violent country since birth. If you were a 14 year old girl in the Congo, you would probably not know of any other way of life. If your mother had been raped and murdered, if you had spent great chunks of your youth fleeing from violence you may not understand that elsewhere in the world you would be able to go to school, be respected and feel safe.
If you were a 14 year old boy who had been kidnapped at the age of 9 and forced into a rebel army, who had been a victim of violence and seen others rape and murder, you really wouldn’t feel you had a choice either.
Will human beings ever evolve to a level when we could all be caring, co-operative and respectful? Are we doomed to always fight over territory, resources and religion?
I live in hope. I do believe that foreign aid money is so important – if that aid leads to better education for all, especially women, if it can support fledgling democracies and lead to stability in a region it surely benefits all of humanity.
Thanks for that thoughtful comment DQ.
x
DQ great comment, when you say ” reptilian part of the brain” what do you mean by that? love ooxx
Hi Wollywally
the reptillian brain is the oldest part of the brain – including the brain stem and the amygdala. These are the parts of the brain that control our basic reflexes, survival instincts and responses.
Our base emotions lust, love, fear, anger are generated here, as is our fight/ flight response.
Over 10′s of 1000′s of years the rest of brain has evolved and developed on top of this lower part of the brain.
It’s called the reptilian brain ’cause it is the same part of the brain we share with reptiles and other animals.
We have the wonderful frontal cortex that has developed and we use it for higher reasoning, controlling emotions and assessing risk- unfortunately in times of stress or panic we tend to revert to the reptilian part of our brain and not use our reason and judgement.
(alcohol also affects the function of the frontal cortex)
DQ thank you very very much for your answer, love ooxx
Great comment DQ. x
Susie,i think you are spot on in what you say about needing to find a balance…you are right,we simply could not function if we fully took in and became overtaken by the need to help rectify every tragic situation we learnt about.
But it seems we-or me,anyway-go to the opposite extreme and do nothing,thicken our skins to the point of not really taking it in at all.
I wonder how others feel about their own level of caring about a problem and actually doing something about it?would be interesting to hear.
What an informative,well written and incredibly disturbing post.
Why are we ok with the knowledge that things like this are happening?is there a pyschological concept that explains why humans dont do more for others…how it is that i can read something like this then go back to what i was doing before,with only a feeling of unease and sadness and maybe an email to a politician to show for it?
I guess we all feel powerless in the face of the complexity and hugeness of the worlds problems.
Thanks susie for the prompt to think beyond our own lives and to steph for posting this.hope to see more of this kind of thing coming our way!
I’ve often thought the same thing Kate about levels of empathy. I think it is human nature that we can read about things like this and whilst be disturbed by it, can return to our normal lives very quickly. If we were able to fully absorb the tragedies of life it would be hard to function. It’s finding that balance of being compassionate and wanting to help but not being broken or overwhelmed by the sadness of it all.
Interesting topic though Kate.. thanks.
Thanks for this Susie.
It’s great to see GetReal covering some important topics. I’ll have to read the links later – too too busy, but I do want to read more.
It’s hard to watch any news with 3 very small people in the house.
This is brilliantly written and more importantly, properly researched, it’s not just an ‘oh my’ – it’s also a ‘this is how you can help’ – which I love.
I could never have done this – thank god I have Susie … Love you more than rainbows Sus ! xox
Susie – thank you for being part of the community to give these women a voice. Off to check out the links now x
I wonder what the attitude towards/availability of safe terminations is?
Good question Clare. I suspect that there are very few resources for these women. Medical help is scarce. Many women do not report their rape because, tragically, being raped makes them an outcast in their village. It’s an horrific situation.
The 16 year old girl with polio in that CNN clip just killed me. She was clearly so devastated, not only by her rape and resulting injuries, but then adding a pregnancy on top of all that….I can’t even imagine. That’s why I get my crankypants on when feminism is referred to as irrelevant or unnecessary – maybe for us and our (perceived) equality, but what about the women in the rest of the world? Aren’t they worth fighting for?
Clare feminist for me is irrelevant when discussing if to have husband last name, is important or not,it bored me this kind of discussion, when in the world there are women suffering this atrocities and we do not do anything about it to stop it, like Rowe says we do need a sisterhood to help women around the world, love ooxx
I totally agree WW!