OURS

http://goo.gl/ePqvzv

From 1960 to 1965, the Congo (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) was a site of the Cold War in Africa. In an attempt to represent this theatre of confrontations, a number of seminal monographs have emerged on the roles of the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as other (major) powers, some of which include Frank Villafana’s Cold War in the Congo; Alan James’ Britain and the Congo Crisis; and to some extent, Odd Anne Westad’s The Global Cold War.  The most comprehensive of these texts is Lise Namikas’ Battleground Africa, a rich synthesis of perspectives from the former Soviet Union, the United States and the United Nations.

Blaming the USSR for the eruption of diplomatic face-offs/confrontations in the post-1945 period have become a cliché of the Cold War literature especially those written from the American/Western perspective.  In all of the aforementioned texts on the Congo, the Soviet Union’s interest in gaining a sphere of influence in the Congo in this decade of African decolonization has been regarded as the external factor that sustained/prolonged the crisis. (Identified internal causes included the hasty decolonization process of the Belgian Colonial authorities, administrative incompetence and personality deficiency of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, crises of secession in the Kantanga and Kansai provinces, et cetera). What I am presenting here is an exploratory attempt to understand the interactions the US and the USSR (with the UN in-between) in the Congo crisis. In the first part of this 2-part article, I am going to engage with the post-colonial politics of the Congo as well as historically situate American interests in the Congo.

http://goo.gl/9Qke83

The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation (LDF) was established in 1998 by famed Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The foundation sees to implement solutions that restore balance to our earths’ threatened ecosystems and ensure the well-being of all of Earth’s inhabitants.

Climate change refers to the century-scale increase in the temperature of Earth’s climate due to the atmosphere becoming overloaded by carbon dioxide; a heat trapping gas. Although there are always those who try to refute global warming and speak against its occurrence there is overwhelming evidence on every continent to show that climate change is apparent.

The LDF brings attention and funding to four different focus areas- biodiversity, ocean conservation, wildlife conservation and climate change. They do this through grant making, public campaigns and media initiatives.

At the COP21 Paris Summit DiCaprio spoke in front of hundreds of world delegates and local leaders to urge them to rise to the challenge and take action against the climate crisis. In his speech he stated that we need to start immediately as we already have the necessary technology and resources:

“Climate change is the most fundamental and existential threat to our species. The consequences are unthinkable and worse, it has the potential to make our planet unlivable… Professor Mark Jacobson and his team of researchers at Stanford University recently proved that we can meet the world’s energy demand with 100% clean renewable energy using existing technologies by 2050. And to avoid many of the unthinkable effects of climate change. To do this local and regional leaders…must move quickly to enact policies that support a transition to low carbon transportation, energy efficient buildings, better waste management, and renewable energy. Model cities like Vancouver, Sydney, Stockholm, and Las Vegas have already committed to using 100% renewable energy in the coming decades. These cities have shown true leadership to tackle climate crisis head-on.

This is a critical review based on the true story movie Rabbit-Proof Fence. Rabbit-Proof Fence “tells the true story of three aboriginal girls who are forcibly taken from their families in 1931 to be trained as domestic servants as part of an official Australian government policy.”

The hypocrisy of how the legal system (ie. government legal policies, human rights legal frameworks) can be constructed to justify mandates and laws which are exclusionary of particular sects , and as a result create this image of the other, are evident in the movie Rabbit-Proof Fence. The passing of the Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 gave the state legal precedence to regulate the residence, the employment, the marriage and family structure of Aboriginal peoples. Beyond removing Aboriginal peoples from their homes and placing them in reserves, Aboriginal children were separated from their parents, families, and communities. This separation, according to the Aboriginal guardian in the movie, was a necessary instrument in training “such” children for the future and in “helping the native.”