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| Be honest: were you aware of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo? |
| Yes |
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76% |
[ 10 ] |
| I think I might have heard about it once or twice |
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7% |
[ 1 ] |
| No |
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15% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 13 |
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Message |
David 
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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| Post subject: Coverage of Africa in the mainstream media |  |
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A continuation of a discussion in another thread. I think this writer is spot on:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/06/ignore-congo-atrocities-africa-drc-horror
| Quote: | We are rightly appalled at a barbaric conflict in Syria that has stolen the lives of 200,000 civilians; and yet up to 6 million people are believed to have perished in the DRC. Not that the mainstream media alone can be berated for this astonishing lack of attention. The left have rightly championed the cause of a Palestinian people subjected to decades-long occupation and subjugation: surely the misery of the DRC does not deserve this neglect.
Although the murderous intensity of the war peaked between 1998 and 2003, the misery has persisted. According to Oxfam, civilians in the east of the country still face exploitation at the hands of armed groups. The UN has labelled the country “the rape capital of the world”. Women, girls and boys have been systematically raped as a weapon of war. Back in 2011, it was estimated that 48 women were raped every hour in the country. Men were raped, too: there are stories of men being raped three times a day for three years. Then there’s the cannibalism: at one point, pygmies in the north east were being killed and eaten by rebels.
It was a war that was remorseless when it came to the innocent: when 45,000 people were being killed every month, around half of them were small children, even though they only represented a fifth of the population. The war triggered devastating waves of starvation and disease which claimed the lives of millions.
Armed militias continue to commit atrocities, and the aftermath of the war has left the country impoverished and devastated. According to the International Rescue Committee, this is “the world’s least developed country in terms of life expectancy, education, standard of living and key health indicators”. And yet this vast country of nearly 80 million people barely punctures our consciousness. Why? |
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Tannin 
Can't remember
Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Location: Huon Valley Tasmania
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Yes, I am aware of it, David, but I am peculiar insofar as I follow events in Africa with interest and have done for the best part of 40 years. Not as closely as I'd like to, but at least I retain a nodding familiarity.
For some reason unclear, Africa has always had a particular fascination for me, just as (for equally unknown reasons) I have never really cared about South America and only have a mild interest in most of Asia.
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HAL
Please don't shout at me - I can't help it.
Joined: 17 Mar 2003
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| Not long. It depends on what the meaning of the word "it" is. Why are you peculiar insofar as he or she follow events in Africa with interest and did for the best part of 40 years. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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I was interested in how the poll would turn out, but what's more telling is how many responses this thread has had so far.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Morrigu
Joined: 11 Aug 2001
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Answered yes
DRC is one of only 3 or 4 countries that the mountain gorillas can still be found!
The wars that have raged there non stop for years have decimated the population and seen gorillas slaughtered for illegal trade, bush meat, and to clear forests specifically in Virunga Park for charcoal burning 
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stui magpie 
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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I took the middle option. It's not something that gets a lot of coverage on mainstream media.
Africa is an interesting case. Over the decades you get a lot of media coverage about the bad white colonists on Africa and how they need to get out. But when blacks are killing blacks it doesn't get the same attention.
Likewise, Western countries are happy to send in money and aid, but don't want to directly intervene. It's just not a good look for the wealthy paternalistic whites to be going in and sorting out those silly blacks. (irony dripping in case it's not obvious)
It's almost like there's a fear to report this stuff for fear of being tagged racist.
There may also be a bit of fatigue. We've been having campaigns to help feed starving Africans for decades now, it sort of loses impact when nothing seems to get better.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Jezza 
2023 PREMIERS!
Joined: 06 Sep 2010
Location: Ponsford End
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Yes I'm aware of the conflict and war in Congo but my knowledge on the conflict itself is very limited compared to what's going on in the Middle East at the moment. It's been a conflict that has been prevalent for nearly two decades now.
There's no doubt that events in Africa don't receive much attention from the Western media as other parts of the world do. I've noticed an increase in media attention of Nigeria and Boko Haram and more recently there was quite extensive coverage on the Ebola crisis in West Africa so it's not like media attention to Africa is non-existent.
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stui magpie
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.
Joined: 03 May 2005
Location: In flagrante delicto
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| Jezza wrote: | Yes I'm aware of the conflict and war in Congo but my knowledge on the conflict itself is very limited compared to what's going on in the Middle East at the moment. It's been a conflict that has been prevalent for nearly two decades now.
There's no doubt that events in Africa don't receive much attention from the Western media as other parts of the world do. I've noticed an increase in media attention of Nigeria and Boko Haram and more recently there was quite extensive coverage on the Ebola crisis in West Africa so it's not like media attention to Africa is non-existent. |
Boko Haram is an islamic force though, so it's easy to demonise them, and Ebola is a disease that could conceivably come to western countries and cause mayhem.
When black people are killing black people, the media has no bad guy.
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Every dead body on Mt Everest was once a highly motivated person, so maybe just calm the **** down. |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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I answered yes but only because "awareness" is a pretty low threshold. I read The Economist most weeks and it gets a modest workout there on a fairly regular basis, but the context is so unfamiliar that it's very hard to really understand it.
the article didn't really light my fire. It seemed to be a hand-wringing demand that the West should do something, without specifying in any way what could be done that would make a real difference in such a murky, benighted context. I suppose it made the journalist feel slightly warmer aboit his intervention.
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Two more flags before I die! |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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I think the point is simply that African issues are underrepresented in our media. Although it's good to see that most people here are at least familiar with it (to be honest, I only knew the basics and don't think I've ever read a contemporary news article about it).
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Bruce Gonsalves
Joined: 05 Jul 2012
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| South Sudan says hello. |
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David
I dare you to try
Joined: 27 Jul 2003
Location: Andromeda
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^ Yes, I was thinking that too. Hardly been a word on it in the mainstream press over the past couple of years.
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All watched over by machines of loving grace |
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Mugwump
Joined: 28 Jul 2007
Location: Between London and Melbourne
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^ the last paragraph suggesting that it should not be "tolerated" seemed like a demand for rather more than that. If "intolerance" amounts to a few more articles in The Age, then let's clear it up that way.
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Two more flags before I die! |
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pietillidie
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
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| Jezza wrote: | Yes I'm aware of the conflict and war in Congo but my knowledge on the conflict itself is very limited compared to what's going on in the Middle East at the moment. It's been a conflict that has been prevalent for nearly two decades now.
There's no doubt that events in Africa don't receive much attention from the Western media as other parts of the world do. I've noticed an increase in media attention of Nigeria and Boko Haram and more recently there was quite extensive coverage on the Ebola crisis in West Africa so it's not like media attention to Africa is non-existent. |
There's nothing wrong with your specialisation, Jezza. Keep it up. Your learning and diligence are clearly motivated by a genuine intellectual interest.
Of course, the obsession with the Middle East for many folk, though, is a reactionary, emotive nationalism which leads to a much darker racist obsession. For many, the inability to "control" the region is a stress, and they try to resolve the stress of "the bastards always causing us trouble" through a dehumanisation which condones the extermination of the stressors.
Africa and Latin America don't cause trouble and don't strike back, so they can be ignored—even to the point that, say, massive problems in Mexico are swatted away with a scoff.
In contrast, Asia can fight back and has to be genuinely negotiated with. That thought is uncomfortable because it makes us feel powerless, so the region is best kept out of mind in favour of the terrorism obsession. Good-over-evil cartoon victories are always much more satisfying than the stress of needing to negotiate with others.
Putin falls somewhere in between. You can push Russia around a bit, and Putin provides plenty of fodder for abuse. But, in the end, you can't push Russia too far because the last thing you want is another war front, which equates to yet another stress and an even greater sense that the world is out of control.
Geopolitical psychiatry is just as interesting as the geopolitics itself.
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Dave The Man 
Joined: 01 Apr 2005
Location: Someville, Victoria, Australia
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I hardly pay attention to the TV News and Don’t Read the Crap Papers so NO I had no idea
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I am Da Man |
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