Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G
kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:
so we shouldn't complain if outsiders treat africans like dirt (being
polite here)? it isn't really our business just as long as african
leaders are bad?
so who is supposed to stand up for them? if we don't, who will care when
we are abused?
here's the bottom line, for me. when there is an abuse like this, and we
can join an effort to make a change--in this case, align with an
international human rights campaign--we should do so, and not say, it's
their problem, i don't care unless it is me.
ken
On 6/23/13 2:01 PM, Segun Ogungbemi wrote:
> I can't really understand why you are complaining about the Chinese treatment of Africans. Don't we do worse than that to our own people?
> If we respect ourselves people outside we respect us and treat us nicely.
> The kind of people at the helm of affairs of Nigeria don't care a hoot if Chinese treat us well or not. What they are after is petrol dollars to grab and grab until death catch up with them.
> Can Americans or the British be treated like that? Never.
> Go to American Embassy in Lagos and see how shamefully our people behave. Some people who have no business being there are all over the place. How many Americans go to our Embassy like that? None. Poor leadership begets bad treatment.
> SO
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jun 23, 2013, at 12:28 PM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Chinese companies within China get away with the abuse of
>> their workers as well as environmental degradation - so it is no
>> surprise that they perpetuate such ills abroad.
>>
>> To start, we need a bill of rights for the miners of Africa- not only in the Congo
>> but all over the continent - including South Africa. Remember Marikana -
>> where dozens of platinum miners met a fatal end in 2012.
>>
>> I wonder if the African Union can be of use here.
>>
>> Imperative also is unionisation of the miners across the continent.
>> In this regard South Africa is beginning to show the way - especially after
>> Marikana.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
>> africahistory.net
>> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
>> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kapanga, Kasongo [kkapanga@richmond.edu]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 7:15 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese mining in drc criticized
>>
>> Hi Ken,
>>
>> I totally agree with this report which in fact just scratches the surface only. Abuses have been almost out of control especially since the Mobutu regime "liberalized" mining, an empty word that allows Congolese to mine on their own, but which sets wide open the country and the people to intolerable abuses. For more than 25 years at least, peasants and just ordinary people have been complaining, but everyone including the government lends nothing but a deaf ear to simple complains of pollution, noise, misappropriation, extortion, theft ... Luisha for example is just one case, and there are hundreds of Luishas ... Chinese are the newcomers in this sad atmosphere .. Entire villages are being bought for pennies while conditions of extraction hardly respect any environment safety. In the Katanga province (I am familiar with), what is going on now is worse than what the Japanese did in the 1970s in the Musoshi (bordering Zambia) mines where the technique was to take everything (ore) out of the country with very little oversight let alone return. After ten years, the company folded, leaving heaps of rubble and metal structures behind, with no one with the expertise to clean (worse than Flint). Who is behind all this mess? Most likely the same faceless greedy mechanism that changes only the sentinels... Governments should defend their people, and it starts by making sure that the most important asset, the soil, is taken care of and maintained. Kasongo
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 5:35 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue
>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese mining in drc criticized
>>
>> Amnesty International Report on Chinese Mining in DRC
>> Chinese mining industry contributes to abuses in Democratic Republic of the Congo. - Amnesty International. Chinese mining companies operating in
>> the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) need to do more to prevent their
>> operations from leading to human rights abuses, Amnesty International
>> warned today in a new report. Profits and Loss: Mining and human rights in Katanga, examines the impact
>> of the mining industry in south-eastern DRC. The report documents a number of
>> serious abuses involving local and foreign companies including forced
>> evictions – illegal under international law – and dangerous and exploitative
>> working conditions. The report pays particular attention to the role of Chinese companies, which
>> are on course to become the most influential and powerful foreign
>> economic actors in the extractive sector in the DRC – a country with some of the world's most important mineral
>> reserves. China also imports significant amounts of cobalt and copper from the DRC,
>> much of which continues to be extracted by small-scale miners – also
>> known as artisanal miners – using handheld tools, and often working in terrible conditions. "Mining operations in the DRC have
>> resulted in decades of abuse against artisanal miners and the neighbouring
>> communities," said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Issues at Amnesty
>> International. "The DRC authorities have not only failed to prevent mining companies and
>> traders abusing rights, they have themselves violated human rights to
>> facilitate mining operations." When questioned by Amnesty International, several of the companies
>> included in the report attempted to absolve themselves of any responsibility by highlighting the
>> authorities' involvement in the abuse. "The failure of the DRC authorities to protect human rights does not let the
>> companies off the hook for their own actions and omissions. Disturbingly,
>> some companies pointed to police involvement in an attempt to legitimize their own contribution to human rights
>> violations," commented Gaughran. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies
>> have a responsibility to respect all human rights. Governments of countries where
>> companies are headquartered, including China, also have a responsibility to ensure that their
>> companies do not abuse human rights when operating in the DRC. "We urge all companies with mining
>> interests in the DRC to end the excuses and start demonstrating they are serious about respecting the rights of
>> the communities where they operate," said Gaughran. In one case highlighted in the report, 300 families were forcibly evicted from
>> their homes in Luisha when a Chinese company, Congo International Mining Corporation (CIMCO), was given the
>> mining rights to the site in the centre of the town. After a local official gave only two weeks' notice, families were taken to a
>> new site in trucks that community members say belonged to CIMCO. The community was simply left there, with
>> no housing or other facilities. They face an uncertain future, with no guarantee they can remain at the new site. One of those affected told Amnesty
>> International: "We have to start again from scratch…Life is much more difficult
>> here than in the old place." Mining operations have also restricted communities' access to water. On 19
>> April 2012 COMILU, a Chinese-Congolese joint venture, accompanied by
>> police, used bulldozers and diggers to excavate a deep trench about 3 metres wide, blocking off a rural road crossing
>> near Luisha. Local people had used the road for decades to reach their fields
>> and to access water. With this route closed off they had to spend considerably longer travelling to
>> and from their fields and water source. When people protested about the trench, police fired live ammunition in
>> the air and one man was killed by a stray bullet. The majority of mining in the DRC
>> continues to be done by artisanal miners in dangerous and exploitative conditions.
>> Abuses against artisanal miners remain prevalent in Katanga. Scores die or are seriously injured every year. Miners
>> often work with bare hands, without protective clothing and in poorly ventilated underground shafts where
>> temperatures can be extremely high. They receive very little for the minerals they extract and face systemic
>> exploitation. The ore they extract is sold through an opaque supply chain
>> to companies and countries outside the DRC. At Tilwezembe mine 30km from the
>> town of Kolwezi, Amnesty International found evidence of abusive and harmful
>> labour conditions and ill-treatment. Frequent injuries and some fatal
>> accidents occurred at the mine site – including as a result of landslides,
>> falling boulders and asphyxiation due to a lack of adequate ventilation. The artisanal miners at Tilwezembe sold
>> their ore to Misa Mining, a private trading company operating at the site.
>> State agencies, including police, were also present at Tilwezembe to oversee
>> mining but did nothing about the appalling, life-threatening working
>> conditions. Misa Mining claimed it was unaware of human rights problems at
>> Tilwezembe. "Greater transparency in the supply chain could help to prevent abuses
>> such as those we found at Tilwezembe," said Gaughran. "If all companies involved in the
>> extractive industry carried out due diligence checks to ensure that they are
>> not purchasing ore and minerals extracted under exploitative and
>> degrading conditions, this would go a long way to clean up the mineral
>> trade." [Amnesty International]
>>
>> --
>> kenneth w. harrow
>> faculty excellence advocate
>> distinguished professor of english
>> michigan state university
>> department of english
>> 619 red cedar road
>> room C-614 wells hall
>> east lansing, mi 48824
>> ph. 517 803 8839
>> harrow@msu.edu<mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
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>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
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>>
>>
--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
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polite here)? it isn't really our business just as long as african
leaders are bad?
so who is supposed to stand up for them? if we don't, who will care when
we are abused?
here's the bottom line, for me. when there is an abuse like this, and we
can join an effort to make a change--in this case, align with an
international human rights campaign--we should do so, and not say, it's
their problem, i don't care unless it is me.
ken
On 6/23/13 2:01 PM, Segun Ogungbemi wrote:
> I can't really understand why you are complaining about the Chinese treatment of Africans. Don't we do worse than that to our own people?
> If we respect ourselves people outside we respect us and treat us nicely.
> The kind of people at the helm of affairs of Nigeria don't care a hoot if Chinese treat us well or not. What they are after is petrol dollars to grab and grab until death catch up with them.
> Can Americans or the British be treated like that? Never.
> Go to American Embassy in Lagos and see how shamefully our people behave. Some people who have no business being there are all over the place. How many Americans go to our Embassy like that? None. Poor leadership begets bad treatment.
> SO
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jun 23, 2013, at 12:28 PM, "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Chinese companies within China get away with the abuse of
>> their workers as well as environmental degradation - so it is no
>> surprise that they perpetuate such ills abroad.
>>
>> To start, we need a bill of rights for the miners of Africa- not only in the Congo
>> but all over the continent - including South Africa. Remember Marikana -
>> where dozens of platinum miners met a fatal end in 2012.
>>
>> I wonder if the African Union can be of use here.
>>
>> Imperative also is unionisation of the miners across the continent.
>> In this regard South Africa is beginning to show the way - especially after
>> Marikana.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Professor Gloria Emeagwali
>> africahistory.net
>> vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
>> Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Kapanga, Kasongo [kkapanga@richmond.edu]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 7:15 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
>> Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese mining in drc criticized
>>
>> Hi Ken,
>>
>> I totally agree with this report which in fact just scratches the surface only. Abuses have been almost out of control especially since the Mobutu regime "liberalized" mining, an empty word that allows Congolese to mine on their own, but which sets wide open the country and the people to intolerable abuses. For more than 25 years at least, peasants and just ordinary people have been complaining, but everyone including the government lends nothing but a deaf ear to simple complains of pollution, noise, misappropriation, extortion, theft ... Luisha for example is just one case, and there are hundreds of Luishas ... Chinese are the newcomers in this sad atmosphere .. Entire villages are being bought for pennies while conditions of extraction hardly respect any environment safety. In the Katanga province (I am familiar with), what is going on now is worse than what the Japanese did in the 1970s in the Musoshi (bordering Zambia) mines where the technique was to take everything (ore) out of the country with very little oversight let alone return. After ten years, the company folded, leaving heaps of rubble and metal structures behind, with no one with the expertise to clean (worse than Flint). Who is behind all this mess? Most likely the same faceless greedy mechanism that changes only the sentinels... Governments should defend their people, and it starts by making sure that the most important asset, the soil, is taken care of and maintained. Kasongo
>> ________________________________
>> From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of kenneth harrow [harrow@msu.edu]
>> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 5:35 PM
>> To: usaafricadialogue
>> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - chinese mining in drc criticized
>>
>> Amnesty International Report on Chinese Mining in DRC
>> Chinese mining industry contributes to abuses in Democratic Republic of the Congo. - Amnesty International. Chinese mining companies operating in
>> the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) need to do more to prevent their
>> operations from leading to human rights abuses, Amnesty International
>> warned today in a new report. Profits and Loss: Mining and human rights in Katanga, examines the impact
>> of the mining industry in south-eastern DRC. The report documents a number of
>> serious abuses involving local and foreign companies including forced
>> evictions – illegal under international law – and dangerous and exploitative
>> working conditions. The report pays particular attention to the role of Chinese companies, which
>> are on course to become the most influential and powerful foreign
>> economic actors in the extractive sector in the DRC – a country with some of the world's most important mineral
>> reserves. China also imports significant amounts of cobalt and copper from the DRC,
>> much of which continues to be extracted by small-scale miners – also
>> known as artisanal miners – using handheld tools, and often working in terrible conditions. "Mining operations in the DRC have
>> resulted in decades of abuse against artisanal miners and the neighbouring
>> communities," said Audrey Gaughran, Director of Global Issues at Amnesty
>> International. "The DRC authorities have not only failed to prevent mining companies and
>> traders abusing rights, they have themselves violated human rights to
>> facilitate mining operations." When questioned by Amnesty International, several of the companies
>> included in the report attempted to absolve themselves of any responsibility by highlighting the
>> authorities' involvement in the abuse. "The failure of the DRC authorities to protect human rights does not let the
>> companies off the hook for their own actions and omissions. Disturbingly,
>> some companies pointed to police involvement in an attempt to legitimize their own contribution to human rights
>> violations," commented Gaughran. Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, companies
>> have a responsibility to respect all human rights. Governments of countries where
>> companies are headquartered, including China, also have a responsibility to ensure that their
>> companies do not abuse human rights when operating in the DRC. "We urge all companies with mining
>> interests in the DRC to end the excuses and start demonstrating they are serious about respecting the rights of
>> the communities where they operate," said Gaughran. In one case highlighted in the report, 300 families were forcibly evicted from
>> their homes in Luisha when a Chinese company, Congo International Mining Corporation (CIMCO), was given the
>> mining rights to the site in the centre of the town. After a local official gave only two weeks' notice, families were taken to a
>> new site in trucks that community members say belonged to CIMCO. The community was simply left there, with
>> no housing or other facilities. They face an uncertain future, with no guarantee they can remain at the new site. One of those affected told Amnesty
>> International: "We have to start again from scratch…Life is much more difficult
>> here than in the old place." Mining operations have also restricted communities' access to water. On 19
>> April 2012 COMILU, a Chinese-Congolese joint venture, accompanied by
>> police, used bulldozers and diggers to excavate a deep trench about 3 metres wide, blocking off a rural road crossing
>> near Luisha. Local people had used the road for decades to reach their fields
>> and to access water. With this route closed off they had to spend considerably longer travelling to
>> and from their fields and water source. When people protested about the trench, police fired live ammunition in
>> the air and one man was killed by a stray bullet. The majority of mining in the DRC
>> continues to be done by artisanal miners in dangerous and exploitative conditions.
>> Abuses against artisanal miners remain prevalent in Katanga. Scores die or are seriously injured every year. Miners
>> often work with bare hands, without protective clothing and in poorly ventilated underground shafts where
>> temperatures can be extremely high. They receive very little for the minerals they extract and face systemic
>> exploitation. The ore they extract is sold through an opaque supply chain
>> to companies and countries outside the DRC. At Tilwezembe mine 30km from the
>> town of Kolwezi, Amnesty International found evidence of abusive and harmful
>> labour conditions and ill-treatment. Frequent injuries and some fatal
>> accidents occurred at the mine site – including as a result of landslides,
>> falling boulders and asphyxiation due to a lack of adequate ventilation. The artisanal miners at Tilwezembe sold
>> their ore to Misa Mining, a private trading company operating at the site.
>> State agencies, including police, were also present at Tilwezembe to oversee
>> mining but did nothing about the appalling, life-threatening working
>> conditions. Misa Mining claimed it was unaware of human rights problems at
>> Tilwezembe. "Greater transparency in the supply chain could help to prevent abuses
>> such as those we found at Tilwezembe," said Gaughran. "If all companies involved in the
>> extractive industry carried out due diligence checks to ensure that they are
>> not purchasing ore and minerals extracted under exploitative and
>> degrading conditions, this would go a long way to clean up the mineral
>> trade." [Amnesty International]
>>
>> --
>> kenneth w. harrow
>> faculty excellence advocate
>> distinguished professor of english
>> michigan state university
>> department of english
>> 619 red cedar road
>> room C-614 wells hall
>> east lansing, mi 48824
>> ph. 517 803 8839
>> harrow@msu.edu<mailto:harrow@msu.edu>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
>> For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
>> For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
>> To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
>> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
>> unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
>> ---
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>
>>
--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
distinguished professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
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