A response to J. Peter Pham’s New York Times’ article on the Congo November 30, 2012 Toussaint Kafarhire Murhula, S.J. 2012-12-13, Issue 610
Unlike in the past, the current situation in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo (DRC) seems to capture both the media attention and scholars’
opinion and reflection in the West. This rise in interest and attention,
however, is dubious for two reasons. First, the focus has been
gradually shifting away from the alleged plausible causes of the
enduring civil wars in the DRC to advocacy of quick fix solutions – like
in Mr. Pham’s article
of November 30 in New York Times. Second, few if any among these
proposed sustainable solutions to Congolese crises show any concern
regarding what the Congolese people think about their future, and how
they feel about the present situation. The storyline often portrays DRC
as a country that is rich in natural resources with a band of predatory
chiefs who are fighting each other for control of the land to access
these resources, but there are no people with faces, feelings, stories
to tell and dreams to pursue. What kind of country could this be? Pham’s
article that is replete, of erroneous and incomplete narratives,
erroneous diagnoses and solutions ‘[t]o save the Congo’ by ‘[l]et[ing]
it Fall Apart’, is the latest representation of this flawed advocacy
with which take serious issue.
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