I just finished this horrific article in the NYT about the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo.
It's hard enough for me to understand what motivates an individual to commit acts of sexual violence.
How do you come up with an answer for what would motivate groups to do something like this? 130+ years of conflict, exploitation, environmental destruction, and political conflict certainly have contributed to this social pathology. But is this there something else?
Unfortunately it seems that humans have used rape as a weapon of war for as long as we have been human.
This is one of those things that makes me wish for the giant meteorite.
Time for someone to hit the universal reset button.
4 comments:
very sad.
almost feel like we need to just start all over again.
Yeah.
It's sad on so many levels.
The personal/political/existential tradgedy all rolled up into one disgusting ball.
That wikipedia link I posted made mention of a "African World War", and I thought, wow, how right they are.
It's like these mini apocalypses happening day after day. My perception of the continent is just this sociopathological chain reaction that everyone just keeps turning their back on. In a world where everyone is just an email/webpage/plane ride away, how is this not going to catch up with us??
Or maybe that's just my skewed perception focused by the media lens that I use.
It's kind of why I liked talking to Ndesanjo so much. He made me feel like there was something positive and world changing coming out of Africa.
So true. One reason we moved to Jakarta, as you know, is to provide a fuller picture of life here -- not just focus on the bad news. But it's hard. Bad news drives the media world. Editors start calling up asking for it, and pretty soon that's all you're doing. It's hard to portray the world as it is. It's hard to write, and it's hard to sell.
On a lighter note, it's nice to see you blogging again!
One of the things that helps keep things like this in perspective is having friends like you and Chad out in the midst of the real world.
If I can count on anything, it's knowing that I have some friends out there who can give you the news and also show the human story behind the story. It's something I don't get through traditional media.
And it feels good to be back.
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