NPR : Update: Congolese Refugee Joshua Dimina
this is a really nice story... and i was really touched by his appreiation of peace in america... i cant imagine what really it would be like to live in a war zone... but it must not be fun... i have heard that it in fact sucks...
they do live ordinace testing here and even though the bombs explode 20 miles away on the other side of a 4000 foot mountain range i can hear and feel them like its next door... there also is the sound of low flying military helicopters and jets too every now and again... to me its not scary.. but i can imagine... at superweek there was a big airshow and the blue angels flew their f-18s really low over the the city for 2 days... it was cool.. but then it got annoying... and then it dawned on me that to some people that was the sound of death... frightening... it wouldnt be fun to hear that sound for days on end and then hear the bombs with it that i know from living here...
in the congo though.. you dont get those sounds i wouldnt think... probably a lot of small arms fire and smaller explosions.. and probably a lot of screaming and yelling... i saw a movie on pbs about the congo and the types of conflicts that they have had... some guys come to your villiage one day and dont say much.. then a week later they happen by again but kill everyone... and the kids they dont kill they carry off with them and force them to become soldiers at 8 years old...stuff like that...
well.. merry christmas!...
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E-- dunno if you get into African grooves at all but if so, re: the Congo, you might dig:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/world/reviews/vario_goldenafrique2.shtml
i have Volume 1 too,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/world/reviews/artistsvar_goldenafrique.shtml
which is West African & it's pretty amazing.
enjoy!
Maurice de Meur
The world should be ashamed of itself for what Africa has become and for what it has not become.
The new pope should have been African, that was the best chance for some immediate intervention.
Maybe Niger should get a nuke, them maybe someone would pay attention.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!
yeah... it depends on your point of view.. buts its all the same action isnt it?... in the wider scope that i intended, the US isnt the only nation to have jets in their military... and its not only the legitamate enemies of an attacking nation who are affected by military actions... for those people its terrible and i feel sorry for them...
and also i find this congolese guy gives some perspective on what it is like to be in a nation "at war"... perspective beyond that framed up by american politics... as much as its popular on sunday political shows and cable news these days to constantly talk about how we are "at war" i think maybe to this guy to be "at war" is something completely different... modern america doesnt know what its like to be at war in the same way that poles or belgians or serbs or congolese know it... lucky for us... one of the many things that we tend to take for granted...
people fight and kill eachother... its shameful, but comepletely normal... and its for this reason that a nation is considered great for its ability to bring peace, not for its ability to wage war... and so the US is a great nation because of the fact the we dont know war... and the fact is that we export, through many channels, this same security to other parts of the world so that the people there can know peace as well...
this is the over-arching good work of the state department...
and governement in general... the CDC comes to mind...
even the local soup kitchen...
ok.. done..
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