The Blogosphere on Hillary Clinton in Congo

by Michael Bear

category: Humanitarian Relief

Published August 13, 2009 @ 07:17AM PT

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that Clinton is in Africa.  And, kudos to whomever on her staff suggested she visit eastern Congo, to highlight the trauma of rape as a weapon of war.

While there, she announced that the US would spend an additional $17 million to fight sexual violence in the DRC.  Which, granted, is the sort of change one finds in Pentagon couches, but a welcome gesture none the less.

She also said that the US would help train doctors, help build facilities and train Congolese police, and finally  "supply rape victims with video cameras to document violence".

As for the blogosphere - or at least some of my favorite parts therein - Texas in Africa has the most in-depth converage.  She points out that the key to ending rape in Congo is to focus on governance, or the lack thereof.  Helping build a professional police force, a discplined army and a functional court system (all sorely, sorely lacking) would go a long way towards solving the problem.

She also provides a list of solutions suggested by the Congolese themselves, and points out that preventing rape is just as important as helping rape survivors.

As for "camcorders for Congo", she's a little more skeptical: "But video cameras?!? VIDEO CAMERAS?!? We looked at all the immediate and pressing needs of the people of the eastern Congo - 1200 of whom die every day - and someone at USAID decided that VIDEO CAMERAS are one of the things on which those precious resources should be spent?"

Wronging Rights also has some questions when it comes to handing out video cameras: "[W]e are amenable to the possibility that someone looked into this question and found that, in a country without a functioning government, economy, police force, judiciary, army, system of land tenure, prosecutor's office, criminal defense bar, or - we can't help but point out- power grid on which to charge portable electronic devices, the real impediment to the investigation and prosecution of violent crimes is the dearth of video footage."

On the other hand, McClatchy reporter Shashank Bengali points out that the video cameras might not be such a bad idea: "We know how empowering a simple technology like the cell phone can be. I'm no medical expert, but I can imagine how cameras, in the right hands, could help. Doctors would have visual records of certain cases. Victims might slowly come to feel that speaking out about their injuries isn't a shameful thing."

For a more meta-picture, Georgianne Nienaber, writing on Huffington Post, provides a rather insightful, occasionally brutal dissection of how the media covered the trip - cliches, sloppy reporting and all.

Also on Huffington Post, Charles London describes how the Congolese "need more than moral outrage and new technology."

Finally, Steve Bloomfield does a phenomenal job of summing up the overall highs and lows of Hillary's "never-ending Africa trip".

For more information about rape as a weapon of war in Congo, see here.

[Photo of Clinton with Radio Okapi journalists in Congo from radiookapi.net]