| Let me start with Generose Nambuhro. She experienced torture, murder of loved ones, and rape. You will when reading Kristof encounter three paragraphs about her that will shock you - it shocked me, and I do not shock easily, being s student of history. I was tempted to say it will turn your stomach. I felt as if I had been kicked in mine.
Lisa Shannon came to know Generose, her "sister," because of Oprah, whose show exposed her the forgotten war in Eastern Congo, characterized by mass rape and murder. That show transformed Lisa's life, costing her a good business, a beloved fiancé, and a comfortable home in Portland, Ore. - but giving her a chance to save lives in Congo.
That brought Shannon to Generose, whom Kristof met with her in a shack in a shantytown. Generose is a nurse who despite what she has experienced is generous to others in need, as are so many women in the Congo.
One more thing, before you read the Kristof. Remember when you read the horrors about Generose that ultimately this is a story of hope, even as Kristof properly reminds us of how many have had to acquiesce, and why.
Now feel free. In fact, if you have not done so already, click here to read Kristof before continuing with what I have to say.
I hope you have read the whole piece. I want to finish with the hope. But I find I must start my own remarks here, with what Kristof writes after noting that Shannon has tried to reshape her life to represent the generosity of the ordinary Congolese she has met. It's true. While for years world leaders have mostly looked the other way, while our friend Rwanda has helped perpetuate this war, while Congo's president has refused to arrest a general wanted by the International Criminal Court, while global companies have accepted tin, coltan and other minerals produced by warlords - amid all this irresponsibility, many ordinary Congolese have stepped forward to share the nothing they have with their neighbors.
I will return to the generosity at the end of that paragraph. Consider point by point
world leaders look the other way around the world we here little about this conflict
Rwanda helped perpetuate this war - a country which itself saw horrors beyond belief, yet whose own slaughters pale in comparison to the tragedy of this conflict
Congo's president refused - the International Criminal Court, like the U. S. Supreme Court, has no enforcement power. the ICC is even weaker because of our refusal to fully participate. Our insistence that we exempt our military may give license to leaders in other nationsw
global corporations - responsible to whom? This was already a major international issue, and it we do not address it there may be far more to worry about than the influence they may try to exert in our elections
Darfur had oil. That we could understand. But coltan? I had to look it up. From Wikipedia, Coltan is the industrial name for columbite-tantalite, a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium (formerly "columbium") and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral is columbite, hence the "col" half of the term. The mineral concentrates dominated by tantalum are referred to as tantalite.[1]
Columbite-tantalite is found in major quantities in the Congo, which possesses 80 percent of the world's coltan. When coltan is refined it becomes a heat resistant powder with high permittivity. Refined coltan is a vital element in creating capacitors, which are used in a vast array of small electronic devices, especially in mobile phones, laptop computers, pagers, and other electronic devices. Tantalum from coltan is used in consumer electronics products such as cell phones, DVD players, video game systems and computers.
I read that, and stopped. In this house are two Macbook Pros and two I-Phones. We have two desktop computers and a DVD player. If 80% of the current world supply comes from the Eastern Congo, we are in part responsible for the slaughter. Therefore we cannot look the other way.
I realized before I wrote this that I would be asking something, first of myself and then of others. I would first ask you to follow a link at the end of Kristof's column, to the website of Run For Congo Women Take the time to watch the video. Then click on this link to contribute It will take you to a general fundraising page for Women to Women International. Perhaps you will take a moment to look at the other causes. If you decide to direct your contribution there, I cannot complain.
I cannot ask what I am not myself willing to do. Right now we - Leaves on the Current and I - are under great financial duress, despite both making good salaries. I look at our situation and then at something like this and I am shamed. I am writing this on a MacBook Pro, whose innard probably contain the minerals that help fuel the conflict that led to the murders, mutilation and rape that should have destroyed any hope or generosity for Generose. Perhaps I can only offer a nominal amount, but I found that I had to do so. I gave $20.10. Not much. The kind of amount we would give politically to indicate a netroots contribution. Because this IS my political contribution. This is political, because this is a basic moral issue.
It is also a question of how large one's heart can be. I have written in the past that opening one's heart can mean it gets broken, but I would rather have my heart open like a flower to the sun than to be clenched like a fist.
I was shocked. I was angered and saddened by what I read. But I was also inspired. Here is a reason that Kristof has twice won Pulitzer prizes.
I ended with hope. Let me remind you of the hope that Kristof offered. That she will soon have out a book that will tell this story, called A Thousand Sisters - I will read it, and I hope others will as well. As Kristof writes about Shannon near the end: She earns psychic pay when she sees a woman here who named her daughter Lisa. After we visited Congolese Lisa, I asked American Lisa about the toll of her Congo obsession - the lost business, man and home they had shared.
"Technically, I had a good life before, but I wasn't very happy," she mused. "Now I feel I have much more of a sense of meaning."
I respect that. Wanting to have a sense of meaning in what one does is a major part of why I became a teacher. I deal with hope every day.
I do not have to confront the horror that moved Lisa Shannon, who with the women she has gotten to know continues to offer hope.
Let me end as does Kristof: On this visit to Congo, Lisa is organizing a Run for Congo Women right here in Bukavu, for Feb. 28, with Congolese rape survivors participating. You can sponsor them at www.runforCongowomen.org. And one of those participating in the run, hobbling along on crutches and her one leg, will be Generose.
Peace. |
