DR Congo: " Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train "

Charley Kasereka blogs, as usual with Charly's blogs this has been translated by whoever blogger uses to translate and cleaned up by me. Any mistakes are mine alone. As per my policy I have refrained from making any comment on Charly's work.  

A permanent framework for dialogue for peace in North Kivu

                                          Father Arseny was Munembwe Rutshuru (Photo Charly Kasereka)


Peace Caravan, 150 kilometers with more than 500 people, men of God, the local communities in North Kivu want to establish a permanent framework for dialogue to build peace in their province.

The caravan is part of the roundabout sign. Goma July 26, 9:30. A string of thirty vehicles. According to the organizers of the caravan it is to show that after eight months of total liberation of the territory Nyirangongo and Rutshuru, the road is safe.

Thirty MPs elected from North Kivu have come for the occasion for them is part of their recess. The activity is also accompanied by some associations of civil society and international NGOs such as' 'Peace One Day 'which also preparing a major activity of Peace on 21 September in Goma.

Peace, everybody talks about it. After peace in North Kivu, the restoration of the authority of the state is the next challenge. The state was weakened or has been absent for a long time in some areas of the province. Communities were divided. Reconciliation, development and peace building is the challenge of the future for the Congolese government.

After an address to the communities living in Bunagana, formerly the territory of ​​the rebel group M23, a dialog happens on how to live another way without pointing the finger at each other. This is not my place but the Jomba community 150 km north Goma.

For his part, Jason Luneno, elected in Walikale sought the involvement of provincial authorities for the effective return of stability and peace. Approximately 500 people attended the peace caravan to invite the citizens of North -Kivu to capitalize on the gains of peace and consolidate. The organizer of the event, Father Arsene Munembwe, said the peace caravan wants to create a framework to enable the people of North Kivu to launch the opportunities for development and peace after the defeat M23 rebels.




Yeah I know, no comments on Charly's blog. An observation though on  Cat Steven's peace train. New Zealand used to drive that train. New Zealand is hoping to be elected to the UN Security Council later this year. I can see no point in our election to that body if we are just replacing Australia as part of the Anglo Saxon Fist.   

European FUBAR

Chris Trotter at Bowalley Rd quoted Ron Suskind on  the new reality of political ethics.

 “The aide said that guys like me were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.’ I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ‘That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’ he continued. ‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors  . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do’.”

It is an instructive insight into the Bush Presidency and effective when applied to national security threats of the Al Qaeda variety, you can launch a war against terror commit atrocities and walk away from all consequences. As Trotter suggests this is the new ethical reality political leaders espouse. The problem is that real threats to national security ( I am not belittling 9/11 ) can't be solved by creating a new reality as the Europeans are now discovering.

The Guardian reports,

" For two years, Europe has been force-fed a diet of unrelenting austerity. The crisis began in the private sector – in over-leveraged banks and wild financial speculation – but such was its impact on consumer spending, investment and trade that governments have seen their public finances dive deep into the red. Spending cuts have been imposed, pensions have been made less generous, and taxes have gone up. The policy has been an economic disaster. Growth has collapsed, unemployment has soared and – unsurprisingly – budget deficits have been much bigger than forecast. Election results from France and Greece show that it has also been a political disaster: voters have decisively rejected Euro-sadism and made it clear they want their politicians to chart a different course. Democracy has trumped austerity."

So much for a new reality. History's actors are caught, voters in France and Greece have rejected the right wing inspired austerity solution.

" Europe is heading deeper into a double-dip recession, the banks are on life support, and there is nothing resembling a Plan B as opposition to austerity stiffens. As Tristan Cooper, sovereign debt analyst at Fidelity Worldwide Investments, noted: "The irresistible force of German austerity has clashed with the immovable object of Greek popular resistance." There is now a stark choice. Unless the terms of Greece's bailout are made less onerous, it is heading for the euro exit door. The warning signs for the commission, the ECB and the IMF are there: sow the wind and you will reap the whirlwind."

For Greece I can see no other option but to walk away from the euro and that brings in the possible domino effect with Portugal, Spain and Ireland. What have they got to lose ?

" Iceland experienced one of the most severe recessions in the world when the markets crashed in 2008. Economic output fell by about 12 per cent over two years. But the latest report on Iceland by the International Monetary Fund shows that growth is resuming. GDP is expected to increase by a relatively healthy 2.5 per cent in 2011. The Icelandic public finances are on a sustainable path too with government debt projected to fall to 80 per cent of GDP in 2016."

I would expect that the implications are not lost on the nations of Southern Europe.

" Depreciation has helped too. The value of the krona fell by 50 per cent against the euro from peak to trough. This has delivered a boost to Iceland's two main exports, aluminium and fish."

Leaving the euro would return economic sovereignty to Greece