Day 140: Congo - Children Torn from Families as we Speak to Fight as Soldiers in Civil War

After being a Belgian colony for over 5 decades, Congo gained independence in 1960. Elections were held and Patrice Lumumba was democratically elected president. He had the interests of his people at heart and was set on pursuing economic and political policies that would empower the population after years of subjugation, suffering and poverty - instead of being a puppet for the US and other major capitalistic powers to keep providing them with Congo's resources. This wasn't to the liking of the international community and if it weren't for the then chief of staff of the new Congo army - Joseph Mobutu - who, with the aid of the Belgian government organised a military coup and had Lumumba killed - the CIA would have poisoned him. From that moment onwards, the situation in Congo only became worse. Mobutu became a dictator and after him Laurent Kabila and his son Joseph Kabila didn't do any better. The country has experienced extreme violence and a 6-year civil war.

Today, a civil war is breaking out again. Robert Musinguzi, security manager of 'WorldVision1' says: "Like most of my Congolese, I feel humiliated by everything that we are forced to go through. I feel disgusted to leave everything behind and flee ... We had a normal life; we could face poverty and many other difficulties, we could manage all with the hope that everything will be fine one day. But now we must flee. Parents and children have to hide under the bed, in the bushes or wherever they would feel safe. Now thousands of parents can’t even protect their children ... this makes me very sad."

In their struggle for power, armed groups are recruiting children to fight as soldiers in their army. Children are abducted from their families and forced to join. Here's some of the horrors that's awaiting them:
"In some countries, like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uganda, a third or more of the child soldiers were reported to be girls. In some conflicts, girls may be raped, or given to military commanders as "wives."
Once recruited, child soldiers may serve as porters or cooks, guards, messengers or spies. Many are pressed into combat, where they may be forced to the front lines or sent into minefields ahead of older troops. Some children have been used for suicide missions.
Children are sometimes forced to commit atrocities against their own family or neighbors. Such practices help ensure that the child is "stigmatized" and unable to return to his or her home community."

While you sit in your warm home, imagine the terror of your child having such a faith - with at any moment the possibility existing that armed men enter your home and pull your child from your arms - probably the last time you'll ever see them.

There are parents experiencing this agony RIGHT NOW. And the reason for these atrocities lies within greed and the lust for power. I mean - that's where it all started. It all could have been prevented if they'd left Lumumba to take care of his people and set the country on a path of recovery, healing and peace - but instead, the 'big guys' decided this was irrelevant and that only THEIR interests were important enough to be protected.

The only way to prevent the abuse by the strong over the weak is to make everyone equally strong through equal economic power in an Equal Money system. It is fascinating how much people object to the principle of equality, considering that this is what all parents initially teach their children. The only reason the lessons don't 'stick' is because they don't see their parents practice what they preach. And eventually, instead of following the spoken word - they'll follow the living word as the living example of who the parents are. Still, we all have an understanding that it is unacceptable to treat another in a way you wouldn't want to be treated - yet, we simply ignore it because we feel we can. To stop war and prevent the possibility of any child to experience it once and for all - we have to make changes on two fronts: to change the economic system so that all have equal power - and to change ourselves so that we practice what we preach to our children - becoming the living word of equality instead of abuse. And to say - "yes, the world is fucked up", then sigh and resume your life as usual is NOT OKAY! and DOES NOT make you a better person. It makes you the evil of this world as you are in your inaction directly allowing gunned men to abduct young children from their homes, directly allowing them to be used as an instrument in war, directly allowing them to rape children, directly allowing them to maim and scar children for life, directly allowing a child to go through the worst hell imaginable, directly allowing a child to live out your worst nightmare.

It's time to stand up and take a stand. This has gone on for far too long. As the developments in Europe show: capitalism is not the answer and the ideal of democracy is currently just that - an ideal, a distant dream. We are here and we have a responsibility. Do you really want to die knowing that you did nothing to stop the suffering of the children of the world?

Visit: www.equalmoney.org and cast your vote for a better world - make a comment, join the forum - get involved. Sign up for the Free Desteni Lite course to re-educate yourself into a principled human being that can be trusted with the responsibility to protect and nurture Life. It's not a hard thing to do - just make two simple steps in the right direction.


http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-884685?hpt=hp_c4 

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