I might find some way to make fun of a band of dreadlocked outlaws in shiny track suits and Laker's jerseys eluding capture on the Congo countryside if it weren't for the fact that the gang, called the Rastas, is responsible for some of the most horrifying, disgusting acts against women and children I could ever imagine.
There's a rape epidemic in the Congo, and its a horror that has gone from being a weapon of war to what researchers call a widespread "social phenomenon."
Denis Mukwege, a Congolese gynecologist, cannot bear to listen to the stories his patients tell him anymore.
Every day, 10 new women and girls who have been raped show up at his hospital. Many have been so sadistically attacked from the inside out, butchered by bayonets and assaulted with chunks of wood, that their reproductive and digestive systems are beyond repair.
“We don’t know why these rapes are happening, but one thing is clear,” said Dr. Mukwege, who works in South Kivu Province, the epicenter of Congo’s rape epidemic. “They are done to destroy women…”
“The sexual violence in Congo is the worst in the world,” said John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs. “The sheer numbers, the wholesale brutality, the culture of impunity — it’s appalling.”
This might be a bit heavier than usual Stereohyped fare, but after I spotted this story on Jezebel, I couldn't not post it. Still, I could barely finish the article. Reading about babies being burned and three-year-olds being brutally raped will do that. And it brings to mind the age-old question — at what point in a person's life does he completely lose his humanity? How many bad things have to happen to you that your soul just becomes completely destroyed?
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Heavy, but a story that needs telling and telling again and over and over until the powers that be wake from their greedy, selfish stupors to help these people.
I just…have no words for what is going on there. Where is the U.S./U.N. to help fight what is happening in the Congo?
US is in Iraq-Germany-Japan-Afghanistan-Korea. UN really isn't trying to do anything anymore. Their peacekeepers can't do much. Like if they see you about to kill a person, they can only chase you away with a baton or something. They get killed quickly and there's really no point in sending them anywhere since they accomplish nada.
…and um, if US isn't going to get involved or invested in Sudan where the body counts are far greater, why would they get involved in Uganda? This country does very little for its own rape victims.
Let's also not forget that the US basically runs the UN. Bush & Co. have castrated the UN. No one makes a move without US consent and as long as we have Bush (an admitted hater of the UN) in office the UN will only a. do the bidding of the US or b. be an audience for the political theater that is US foreign policy.
As far as action goes though, UN has always been slow. They are really built for long-term solutions, not swift actions. They accomplish neither. Thanks to Bush, they have the luxury of saying "f— you" to us and just doing what they want to do. What are we going to do about? If there was ever a time to completely ignore the US, it is now.
I think it's the other way around. We say fuck you to them. They won't stop us from going to Iran. The G8 will do what we want them to. Look at what's happened. The new british prime minister and the new french president are both sympathetic to the US even though the people in those countries hate us. There's a reason for that. Regardless of what heads of state get on TV and say…they are still our allies. Look at Putin. He gets on Russian TV and basically does a Hugo Chavez everytime he talks about us, but when he comes to the US he's vacationing at whatever Bush home he wants. It's all a sham. We run the G8 and we run the UN.
We're not going to Iran. It's not that we're so smart that we know better. We just don't have the manpower.
They might have a sham running, but we're (or Bush) the fools. The new UK PM is supposedly some super-ally, but 50-100% of their troops are leaving next year. Allies my a–.
Side note as this has gone waaaay off topic: I wonder what Bush thinks his legacy will be. Worst president ever is more than a t-shirt now. Nixon lied about a robbery and his shady butt had to resign. Clinton lied about a BJ and was impeached. Where do you even start with the dishonesty, bad decisions and plain shadiness in this admin?
Only women's health and rights org are going to do anything that resembles action in this case.
WOw, it's so very sad. It needs to be posted somewhere.
Shouldn't American black males do something? Shouldn't they get together and speak to these savage black males who would treat women like that? I think so. They're very good at telling the world we are niggaz, bitches, hos, skeezers, etc…
thanks for posting this story - i had no clue.
Perhaps part of the consequences for the "Rape Dat Ho" group should be to watch this documentary, or better yet, be dropped off in the Congo to fend for themselves. How disgusting that "rape" has no meaning to these kids, but it is a word with immense and devastating power to those who truly experience it.