Some kickin links from around the internet:
Rob Crilly and Sean Brooks look at Somalia: Rob asks about political parallels between al Shabab and the Taliban, Sean contemplates the potential repercussions if Washington focused on building peace, not building a government, in Somalia.
Reuters looks at tensions in Sudan.
Two that I missed last week: Inside Islam discusses Islam and the shari’a in Northern Nigeria with a researcher, and Louisa Lombard talks about the rebellion in the Central African Republic.
Can I admit to a strange mix of feelings about hearing of all this from the safety of Bangui? My first reaction was relief that I had made it out before all this came to pass. My second approached guilt – I should be there experiencing it all, too, rather than ensconced in the comparative luxury of the capital, with its (occasional) hot water and cafes. After all, the danger was likely minimal for people who stayed in their homes, more or less out of harm’s way. As an anthropologist, I’m supposed to live close to the population and and not erect a protective bubble between myself and the hardships they face. But studying an area home to violent conflict makes that more difficult because, quite frankly, when it comes down to it, I value my life more highly than my research. Unlike in the calculations of altruists like Zell Kravinsky, who argued that the risk of complications in his donation of a healthy kidney (which his wife opposed) was far outweighed by the benefit to the recipient, there would likely be little direct benefit to people in Ndele as a result of me “being there” alongside them as the bullets flew.
Texas in Africa looks for data linking the mineral trade and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and finds none.
But, wait, you might say. There are lots of reports claiming that the mineral trade causes sexual and other forms of violence.
This is true. I certainly do not want to argue that there’s no connection whatsoever. Much of the gender-based violence in the Congo is perpetrated by armed groups that are involved in the mineral trade. We know that just about every armed group in the eastern Congo has engaged in violence, looting, and rape at one time or another, and that many (but not all) of those armed groups also benefit from the trade in minerals. There’s a definite correlation between some of the violence and the fact that armed groups profit from the mineral trade. And we know beyond any doubt that armed groups terrorize populations who live near their respective mines.
But the question we need to be asking is whether the majority of gender-based and other forms of violence in the eastern DRC are actually caused by the mineral trade. As long-time readers of this blog know, I am not yet convinced that the mineral trade causes the bulk of violence in the eastern Congo, or that getting the mineral supply chains under control would end the war against Congolese women and girls.
Rob Crilly follows up with a discussion of DRC here.
Finally, Kal uses the Swiss minarets controversy as a jumping off point for a discussion about Ross Douthat.
What are you reading?
