I found more notes from the seminar with the wonderful expert on sex- and gender-based violence. I think I’d decided to skip them because I was tired of myself idolizing the speaker, but then my computer broke down and I was finally forced to read an informative book on Congo’s history that Butters had loaned me many, many moons ago.
In light of those notes, enlightening passages from the book, and arguments I’ve had with myself and basically everyone around me, I thought it was important to rage fruitlessly outline my thoughts and feelings around the state of this world. Remember that my tribute to the speaker is reflected in the use of her words as much as possible.
In light of those notes, enlightening passages from the book, and arguments I’ve had with myself and basically everyone around me, I thought it was important to
“Does the world stop when the money stops? These are your people, your languages, your villages. You have all the material you need, even without the money!”
“Mobutu said to ‘take care of yourselves,’ and we still live in that mindset! It’s up to us to change our families. We may feel that we have good intentions that come up against a bad system, but it’s still our responsibility. Right now, we’re staying comfortable in a situation that is destroying us! We are in contradiction with ourselves – we say one thing and do another…”
“Remember that life is not a fight between men and women. We’re together in this. The point is not to shake the tree so that all the fruits and flowers fall to the ground. The point is to strengthen the tree so that it produces good fruit.”
Another highlight was when my group members unanimously confessed admiration over the fact that Rwandan public transport actually displayed the number of the police service – to call in case of emergency. After a minute of silence for the death of trust within this country’s borders, we continued on with our group work.
The following quotes are from David Van Reybrouck’s Congo – The Epic History of a People. They are long, but they describe the leopard we face.
“In response to a state that was withdrawing from its citizens, the citizens withdrew from the state. ‘Article 15’ they called it, in reference to a fictitious article in the Zairian constitution that read: ‘Debrouillez-vous!’ (get it while you can!). Often enough, this involved illegal activities (contraband, theft, fraud) – but what does illegal mean when the country itself is criminal? Grassroots corruption was the best way to counter corruption at the top, for faithfully paid taxes would simply evaporate up there anyway. Hadn’t Mobutu… himself more or less promised to turn a blind eye? During a huge rally in Kinshasa’s soccer stadium, he had said: ‘If you must steal, then steal a little bit and leave a little bit for the nation.’ He should not have said that… The country was as leaky as a sieve, and the state lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. It went little by little, just as the president had suggested, until nothing more was left... The country was living on borrowed time, but at least it was alive. The economics of pillage, of course, could not endure. Congo was being cannibalized…”
“The new leaders did not do a particularly good job; they emulated the abuses of Mobutism with a zeal that would have startled Mobutu himself. While crucial dossiers dealing with military reform and the electoral process awaited action, one of the first laws to pass through parliament stipulated… higher wages for the members of parliament… In 2005 the members of parliament as a whole (620 souls) treated themselves to a respectable vehicle: each representative was given a brand-new SUV valued at $22 000 – the terrible condition of Kinshasa’s roads, after all, called for solid coachwork. That those same roads could have been repaired for that money seemed hardly relevant. Rather than opportunity for a lasting reconstruction of society, political mandates were still the fast lane to individual financial gain. There were no incentives for good governance, not as long as corruption was so rewarding, both financially and socially: it was considered praiseworthy. “You musn’t forget that our politicians are the children of poor people” … While corruption in the West is viewed as unjustifiable, in Congo it is seen as extremely justified: it is the person who misses out on a perfect opportunity to feed his family who is acting in a completely unjustifiable fashion.”
“Many Congolese go abroad to escape the suffocating family ties. The oft-praised African solidarity has something touching about it in times of crisis, but in times of reconstruction it generates an infernal logic that makes long-term projects impossible: the little bit of money that is available is immediately distributed to feed many hungry mouths. Reinvestment and planning are not highly valued. [Abroad], things are much easier. There are no uncles and nephews to accuse you of sorcery when you refuse to share the little bit of money you’ve earned; witchcraft in Congo is the ultimate argument for enforcing solidarity.”
I was recently called out for attacking the idea of African solidarity. But, if pushed, I will do it again. And again. And again. Until people in this part of the world realize that many, many cultures pride themselves on nationalism, loyalty, hospitality, and generosity and don’t have quite so many recent genocides or ethnic wars on their hands.
Ohhhh, you say. Low blow.
And it is, so I’ve twisted my sharp tongue in my mouth to keep from snapping it during group discussions. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
Speaking as an immigrant, I have seen that many of the things my family has praised of the old country are also the things that make it a relief to live in Canada.
“These people don’t care about each other” easily sounds like “At least Ms. So and So isn’t keeping tabs on everything we do,” depending on the situation.
“These people don’t care about their work at all” quickly becomes “I have three weeks’ vacation and flex days and…” depending on the mood.
This is not to say that either Canada or India has the market on human kindness, gossip, work ethic, or mental health. It should show that any strength can also be a weakness depending on the lighting, on the words you use to describe it.
In this way, ‘corruption’ can be called ‘an arrangement.’
‘Nepotism’ becomes ‘solidarity.’
I can understand why Africans have had to rely on each other – their leaders have washed their hands of the situation. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve discovered some utopian bliss. In fact, I would say that the negative aspects of African solidarity reign supreme here. And no amount of offended patriotism will cover the corpses of the past decades.
In exchange for some mythical ethos of togetherness and an edict to fend for oneself (the smallest unit being the family rather than the individual), this country has completely shot the idea of short-term suffering for long-term gain - possibly because it has seen quite a lot of suffering as it is. In the process, it is slowly killing itself. The example of the failing, leaky state is the large-scale effect; the small-scale cause is that families of eleven welcome the birth of another blessing – the mark of their effort and their name in a world where life can be unmercifully short - who will be the responsibility of a relative in the city or an elder sibling. Neither of these options paves the way for success for any of the people involved, but there’s that sweet baby with the shiniest eyes and sweaty, cotton-fluff hair…
…The sooner we admit there is a problem, appropriately defining it, the sooner we have a chance to remember how to fix the system for the health, safety, and care of that little one.
Part I
Part II
“Mobutu said to ‘take care of yourselves,’ and we still live in that mindset! It’s up to us to change our families. We may feel that we have good intentions that come up against a bad system, but it’s still our responsibility. Right now, we’re staying comfortable in a situation that is destroying us! We are in contradiction with ourselves – we say one thing and do another…”
“Remember that life is not a fight between men and women. We’re together in this. The point is not to shake the tree so that all the fruits and flowers fall to the ground. The point is to strengthen the tree so that it produces good fruit.”
Another highlight was when my group members unanimously confessed admiration over the fact that Rwandan public transport actually displayed the number of the police service – to call in case of emergency. After a minute of silence for the death of trust within this country’s borders, we continued on with our group work.
The following quotes are from David Van Reybrouck’s Congo – The Epic History of a People. They are long, but they describe the leopard we face.
“In response to a state that was withdrawing from its citizens, the citizens withdrew from the state. ‘Article 15’ they called it, in reference to a fictitious article in the Zairian constitution that read: ‘Debrouillez-vous!’ (get it while you can!). Often enough, this involved illegal activities (contraband, theft, fraud) – but what does illegal mean when the country itself is criminal? Grassroots corruption was the best way to counter corruption at the top, for faithfully paid taxes would simply evaporate up there anyway. Hadn’t Mobutu… himself more or less promised to turn a blind eye? During a huge rally in Kinshasa’s soccer stadium, he had said: ‘If you must steal, then steal a little bit and leave a little bit for the nation.’ He should not have said that… The country was as leaky as a sieve, and the state lost out on hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. It went little by little, just as the president had suggested, until nothing more was left... The country was living on borrowed time, but at least it was alive. The economics of pillage, of course, could not endure. Congo was being cannibalized…”
“The new leaders did not do a particularly good job; they emulated the abuses of Mobutism with a zeal that would have startled Mobutu himself. While crucial dossiers dealing with military reform and the electoral process awaited action, one of the first laws to pass through parliament stipulated… higher wages for the members of parliament… In 2005 the members of parliament as a whole (620 souls) treated themselves to a respectable vehicle: each representative was given a brand-new SUV valued at $22 000 – the terrible condition of Kinshasa’s roads, after all, called for solid coachwork. That those same roads could have been repaired for that money seemed hardly relevant. Rather than opportunity for a lasting reconstruction of society, political mandates were still the fast lane to individual financial gain. There were no incentives for good governance, not as long as corruption was so rewarding, both financially and socially: it was considered praiseworthy. “You musn’t forget that our politicians are the children of poor people” … While corruption in the West is viewed as unjustifiable, in Congo it is seen as extremely justified: it is the person who misses out on a perfect opportunity to feed his family who is acting in a completely unjustifiable fashion.”
“Many Congolese go abroad to escape the suffocating family ties. The oft-praised African solidarity has something touching about it in times of crisis, but in times of reconstruction it generates an infernal logic that makes long-term projects impossible: the little bit of money that is available is immediately distributed to feed many hungry mouths. Reinvestment and planning are not highly valued. [Abroad], things are much easier. There are no uncles and nephews to accuse you of sorcery when you refuse to share the little bit of money you’ve earned; witchcraft in Congo is the ultimate argument for enforcing solidarity.”
I was recently called out for attacking the idea of African solidarity. But, if pushed, I will do it again. And again. And again. Until people in this part of the world realize that many, many cultures pride themselves on nationalism, loyalty, hospitality, and generosity and don’t have quite so many recent genocides or ethnic wars on their hands.
Ohhhh, you say. Low blow.
And it is, so I’ve twisted my sharp tongue in my mouth to keep from snapping it during group discussions. But that doesn’t make it any less true.
Speaking as an immigrant, I have seen that many of the things my family has praised of the old country are also the things that make it a relief to live in Canada.
“These people don’t care about each other” easily sounds like “At least Ms. So and So isn’t keeping tabs on everything we do,” depending on the situation.
“These people don’t care about their work at all” quickly becomes “I have three weeks’ vacation and flex days and…” depending on the mood.
This is not to say that either Canada or India has the market on human kindness, gossip, work ethic, or mental health. It should show that any strength can also be a weakness depending on the lighting, on the words you use to describe it.
In this way, ‘corruption’ can be called ‘an arrangement.’
‘Nepotism’ becomes ‘solidarity.’
I can understand why Africans have had to rely on each other – their leaders have washed their hands of the situation. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve discovered some utopian bliss. In fact, I would say that the negative aspects of African solidarity reign supreme here. And no amount of offended patriotism will cover the corpses of the past decades.
In exchange for some mythical ethos of togetherness and an edict to fend for oneself (the smallest unit being the family rather than the individual), this country has completely shot the idea of short-term suffering for long-term gain - possibly because it has seen quite a lot of suffering as it is. In the process, it is slowly killing itself. The example of the failing, leaky state is the large-scale effect; the small-scale cause is that families of eleven welcome the birth of another blessing – the mark of their effort and their name in a world where life can be unmercifully short - who will be the responsibility of a relative in the city or an elder sibling. Neither of these options paves the way for success for any of the people involved, but there’s that sweet baby with the shiniest eyes and sweaty, cotton-fluff hair…
…The sooner we admit there is a problem, appropriately defining it, the sooner we have a chance to remember how to fix the system for the health, safety, and care of that little one.
Part I
Part II
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