Bad colonialism: A forgotten story

 Series of videos on King Leopold's atrocities in the Congo:

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And one reason that this story might be remembered is that Conrad wrote a book about it, and that book inspired a famous movie:

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heart of darkness part two and three

 History lesson of the week:

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the phrase Heart of Darkness comes from Conrad's book: which is partly based on his own experiences.

the book can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg.

Few westerners were aware of this, until the book King Leopold's Ghost was published in 1998.

I am reading it on Everand which is a subscription book service, and their sistersite Scribd also has it... or you can download a pdf,  from LINK, and I also found the audiobook in chapters  on you tube LINK

Sudan genocide again

Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes visited Dafur to report what is going on there.

NYTimes link

Wayback machine link

The atrocities underway near here are an echo of the Darfur genocide of two decades ago, with the additional complication of famine. But there’s a crucial difference: At that time, world leaders, celebrities and university students vigorously protested the slaughter and joined forces to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Today, in contrast, the world is distracted and silent.

and it's not just the war: It is the danger of a massive famine that could kill millions.

This is the BBC resport:

sigh.

Zimbabwe vs pro democracy activists

 Global voices has a long report 

 Pro-democracy activists in Zimbabwe are being prosecuted for ‘public disorder’ Detained activists said they were tortured and threatened with rape Go to link (copyrighted article).

Yahoo News report here:

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe police have arrested 18 political activists and hauled some of them off a plane, their lawyers said Thursday, in the latest clampdown by the government after warning it would crush opposition protests ahead of its hosting of a meeting of the southern African heads of state this month. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights group said it was representing the activists, who were detained on Wednesday. Among the activists arrested is Namatai Kwekweza, a 25-year-old pro-democracy campaigner and the inaugural winner of the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize in 2023. The prize is awarded by the late United Nations secretary-general’s foundation to young people committed to the principles of democracy.

and follow the money: 

Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's first lady and others were sanctioned by the United States earlier this year for alleged involvement in gold and diamond smuggling and human rights abuses.

UN against human trafficking

from a Japanese paper:

 Globally, there is a growing need to address the sexual abuse of children. Taylor said that there has been an explosion of sexual violence in the digital space. This includes an increase in the number of sexual images of children.

Main factors behind this were changes imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased use of the internet by children. In some cases, sexual violence against children takes place via live streaming.

Currently, one in eight adults worldwide experienced sexual abuse as a child, according to one statistic. That rate is increasing in the digital age. Already one in five children has experienced sexual abuse in the digital space in a country, a survey funded by GPeVAC found. The survey was conducted in 13 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.

the wars that are ignored in the western press

in central Africa the wars go on:

>

then you have the attacks on Christian villagers in Nigeria, which the western MSM pretends is poor cattle herders burning down farmers villages so they can feed their cattle, but in reality it is a persecution of the Christians.

and here is a more up to date report from EWTN News:

Zimbabwe's cybercity

 A report from GlobalVoices, from a local independent blogger:

 Zimbabwe's cyberpunk cities fueled by China

Interrogating the narratives behind Zimbabwe’s smart cities

The government is making a suburb. aka New Harare, with full internet integration. The companies behind this are Chinese government linked companies such as Huawei.

What could go wrong?

Forget the old fashioned methods of just tearing down the suburbs where you are not popular, or sending the bully boys to terrorize villages. With China's help, the plan has upgraded to Big Brother. 

New Harare’s plans for omnipresent facial recognition tech combined with AI will usher Zimbabwe into a dystopian era. The technology will be able to match a person’s live images with centralized databases and alert law enforcement when a suspected criminal is detected.

In Zimbabwe, where freedoms are harshly curtailed by the regime of President Emerson Mnangagwa, there are also politically-motivated ulterior motives for this technology. In fact, CCTV (Closed-circuit television) cameras are already being placed in Zimbabwe’s cities where opposition movements are strong.

 

Refugees in Angola (from DRC Civil wars and Ruanda)

at Crux.

how the Catholic church is helping refugees, who lack proper papers, in a country that was poor to start with.

in the past Angola had it's own civil war, and Cuban military helped the winning (minority) tribe win LINK

and in the last two decades, China has essentially taken over their economy (and oil wealth).

LINK

Human rights abuses continue

From Fides:

Harare (Agenzia Fides) - Rigged elections, limited freedom of speech and press, media censorship or intimidation and attempts to control the activities of civil society and NGOs continue to violate human rights in many countries of the world. In Zimbabwe the situation is particularly serious.  ...


Groups of criminals under the flag ZANU-PF have invaded private property, demolished homes and small markets. For the good of the nation, it is essential that all political protagonists and the security sector follow the directives of the President and immediately suspend such violence, as well as being equally important that President Mugabe insists that the government imposes its guidelines....

Awards for Human rights advocates

from the VOA

Two Zimbabwean female personalities, rights activist Jestina Mukoko and National Healing Co-Minister Sekai Holland have been awarded the prestigious French National Order of the Legion of Honour, for what French authorities termed their outstanding virtue

More on Mangoma

from SWRadioAfrica:

...

The police charged him with abusing public office, a charge that stems from an alleged breach of tender regulations in the purchase of five million litres of diesel from a South African company. He has since been indicted for trial at the High Court on 28th March....

But High Court Judge Samuel Kudya dismissed this claim. He also said the State had no tangible facts to warrant Mangoma’s conviction, a position that suggests the state has a very weak case against the minister....

‘The Judge even alluded to the fact that when Mangoma bypassed the tender procedures, he did so in the public interest to speed up the procurement of fuel which was in short supply at that particular time,’ Muchemwa said.

More MDC staff arrested

from the Independent:

Police have raided the party headquarters of Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, and arrested a youth leader and two security guards.

(no reason given)

Mugabe charges six activists with treason

from RTT News:

A court in Zimbabwe on Monday released 39 people in a 45-member group of political and civil society activists arrested last month on charges of plotting a popular uprising in lines of the ones witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt in recent weeks. The court, however, slammed treason charges on the remaining six....

All of them were subsequently accused by prosecutors of plotting to "organize, strategize and implement the removal of the constitutional government of Zimbabwe" through a popular revolt. But the defendants had denied any wrongdoing, insisting that they were only taking part in an academic debate about African politics....

Zim police claim to foil uprising

from the NewZimbabwe

Arrested ... Munyaradzi Gwisai

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POLICE say they have foiled Egyptian-style uprisings in Zimbabwe after storming a meeting of 46 rights activists in Harare and arresting them, including the former Highfield MP, Munyaradzi Gwisai.

The activists face charges of “plotting to oust a constitutionally-elected government”, said Inspector James Sabau, the police spokesman for Harare province.

Police said they also seized a video projector, a laptop and two DVDs which Gwisai used to show videos from the Tunisian and Egyptian protests which led to the ouster of those countries’ leaders...

Zim AG investigating Tsvangirai

from CNN:

"...

Harare, Zimbabwe (CNN) -- The attorney general in Zimbabwe has set up a team of lawyers to investigate whether Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai can be charged with treason or conspiracy related to revelations by the website WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks published U.S. cables last week saying Tsvangirai and his party leadership were planning with U.S. diplomats for Washington to contribute to a fund to buy-off security service chiefs to achieve regime change in Zimbabwe.

"I want to get the legal opinion of the legal experts to see if I can proceed with prosecution," Attorney General Johannes Tomana said an interview Monday. He said the six-member team would remain secret "to maintain its independence and professional integrity" and would submit its recommendations by end of March...."

SADC court says Zim gov't undermining rule of law

from SWRadioAfrica:

"...The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal last month ruled in favour of Barry Gondo and eight others, who successfully sued the State in the Zimbabwe High Court after being beaten and tortured by security agents. The group argued in the SADC Tribunal that the government was refusing to pay the damages ordered by the High Court, in their cases dating back to 2003 and 2007.,...

"...The ruling comes as an important victory for the rule of law in Zimbabwe, where the State has displayed a decade long disregard for Court orders. The Zimbabwe Human Right NGO Forum, which led the case before the Tribunal last year, said the ruling is a “progressive.” The group added that it supports the opinion of civil society that one of Zimbabwe’s main challenges is “the absence of the rule of law.”

Abuse continues

the Zim independent, via All Africa

"...The MDC-T led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai charged in a statement on Wednesday that at least one of their supporters was abducted in Masvingo at gunpoint by a known assailant, but the police refused to open a docket on the matter on the grounds that the issue was too political for them to get involved...."

Charges dropped against Zim blood diamond activist

AFP reports:

HARARE — Prosecutors have dropped charges against Zimbabwean activist Farai Maguwu, who had been accused of endangering national security by exposing rights abuses in diamond fields, his lawyer said Friday.

EU asks Mugabe to scrap evictions

from SWRadio Africa.

Members of the European parliament on Thursday passed a resolution which called on Robert Mugabe to drop the planned evictions of about 20,000 people from Hatcliffe Extension settlement outside Harare. Residents there were being forced to pay exorbitant lease renewal fees, which the resolution said the residents “simply have no means of paying.”

The vote was spearheaded by MEP Geoffrey Van Orden, who heads the European Parliament's campaign for freedom and democratic change in Zimbabwe. The pending evictions were used as an example of continuing human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and provided a case against Mugabe’s demands that the EU should remove the targeted sanctions against him and close associates.

The MEPs also focused on the state of the coalition government and concluded that: “Robert Mugabe and his close supporters continue to be a stumbling block in the process of political and economic reconstruction and reconciliation in Zimbabwe, plundering as they do its economic resources for their own benefit.”

they send him a nasty letter, threatening to send him another nasty letter if he keeps throwing people out of their homes and destroying houses.

I'm sure he is worried.

Zimbabwe media still controlled by the state

from AlJezeerah.