Starter
"A waterfall starts with one drop, and look what becomes of that."- The Power of One.
I think that this quote shows that even the smallest of actions can have drastic consequences. It also reminds me of The Butterfly Effect, which has the same principle. I whole-heartedly agree with this quote as there are several examples of where a part of history that may seem insignificant but can actually impact the current state of the world. I think this quote links to the topic "A Fair World" because it proves that people, governments and nations have the power to change the world for better.
Planning
I think I would choose the third option, which is also the last one to give me a bit more challenge and edge. I also think that the last option will give me more freedom to choose an issue that I am interested in or have more information of, and present it in a way that I think suits best. I think this option will give me more of a chance and experience to be an independent learner.
After creating my success criteria, I went through the topics that I have learnt and chose to work on the topic civil wars. I chose this topic because civil wars often involve many other sub-topics, such as conflict diamonds, child soldiers, forced labour and other atrocities of civil war, particularly the one in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). From these topics, I can link to Fairtrade and other Fair World topics. By selecting this topic, I also get to focus on each sub-topic for a short length and move to another with ease while staying within the same topic. I also selected this topic because I believe there are other forms of atrocities in Africa that may be worse but isn't well known as the others.
Learning Intention:
To understand how the Congo Civil War affected the development gap and how it could've been avoided and how it can be stopped currently
My success criteria includes:
- To be able to layout and plan my work with structure;
- To check my sources with others to ensure that all information is credible;
- To be able to achieve all the goals on Link and a bit off Synthesise;
- And to be able to link other similar topics with the one I am researching on
On the area of researching information, I will mostly find my information on the internet, but I will also use any other form of sources, e.g. books and people where possible. I summarise and record my research on a different document, but sometimes I put information directly straight on to the product. I always check my sources with others to ensure that the information is unbiased and factual. I also ensure that the websites are trustworthy and not a user-edited article.
I have considered using several different ways to present my work, but in the end, I decided to present my information using Powerpoint because in my opinion, a presentation produces information in the clearest manner out of all that I have considered and can be very intriguing if presented correctly. I also decided to make my presentation where the civil war was at its peak of violence to raise awareness and attract attention more easily.
Research
The
Congo Civil War took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known
as Zaire), with the involvement of several countries. The Congo Civil War is
the biggest interstate civil war that happened in recent history. The Congo Civil War started off with various
reasons, primarily a fight over natural resources, such as water and minerals.
Various political agendas also sparked and ignited the war. Multiple
international, national corporations and governments that are interested in the
outcome of the conflict funded the Congo Civil War. Since the outbreak in 1998,
5.4 million people died. The civil war was also recorded the bloodiest conflict
since World War 2. Majority of the DRC’s death numbers were actually caused by
malnutrition and diseases, but if the civil war didn’t happen, there wouldn’t
have been this many cases of diseases and malnutrition. Children account for
47% of the civil war’s death even though they are only 19% of the whole
population. Even though the amount of violence decreased, there are more than
two million people that are still displaced. More than one million displaced
civilians still didn’t receive any assistance. At least 37% of the population
(approximately 18.5 million) have no access to any type of formal health care.
There are only 2,056 doctors for a population of 50 million. Infant mortality
rates in the east region of DRC have risen up to 41% per year. Malnutrition
that occurs to children under the age of 5 have risen 30% in some areas. 2.5
million people live on less than US$1 per day. Some parts in the eastern region
of DRC have people living on US$0.18 per day. 80% of families in rural areas
are displaced. Between 800,000 and 900,000 children are orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
40% of health infrastructure has been destroyed in Masisi, North Kivu. Only 45%
of the population have access to clean water. In some rural areas, there are
some as low as 3%. 4 out of 10 children (400,000 children) do not have access
to education.
“From the time of Belgian colonial rule, the inhabitants
of the region have derived little if any benefit from its natural wealth.
Instead, they have suffered an unbroken succession of abusive political
administrations, military authorities and armed political groups that have
looted the region and committed human rights abuses with impunity. King Leopold
II accrued vast personal wealth without ever setting foot on Congolese soil.
The Belgian rulers of the then Belgian Congo, from 1905 to 1960 used slave
labour to plunder its rubber, ivory and timber.
After independence in 1960, the long presidency of Mobutu Sese
Seko made the newly named Zaire notorious for cronyism and corruption. When
President Mobutu came into office in 1965, a sustained period of
institutionalised corruption and misappropriation of state resources began.
Large proportions of the revenues from state-owned companies, such as the
copper and cobalt company Gécamines, went not to the state treasury but
straight into the pockets of President Mobutu and his closest allies.”
— “Our brothers who help
kill us”—economic exploitation and human rights abuses in the east, Amnesty International Report,
AFR 62/010/2003, April 1, 2003.
The weapons come from Soviet bloc countries and the United
States, along with military training. The US military has been secretly
involved in the conflict along with several American companies (including one
linked to former President George Bush Senior) are funding the war for
financial gains. UN released a report at the end of October 2003, and it listed
approximately 125 companies and individuals that are contributing directly and indirectly
to the Congo Civil War.
Countries that are involved in the conflict are Rwanda,
Uganda, Burundi, United States of American, Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Before the assassination of Congolese President Laurent Kaliba in January 2001,
Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia supported the Congolese government whereas the
rebels were back by the government of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. The reasons
for some regions of Africa in taking part in the conflict are very unclear and
opinion-based.
In places rich of natural resources in eastern Congo,
multiple armed groups uses mass rape and killings as their strategy to
intimidate and scare innocent civilians to mine natural resources for the armed
groups, which results in the conflict continuing because of the purchases of
weapons. The main natural resources that are mined are tin, gold, tantalum and
tungsten. Other main resources/minerals include: water, conflict diamonds,
coltan, cassiterite, copper and timber. Tantalum’s price in the world
increased, which introduced a huge spike and large increase in the mining of coltan
in DRC. These natural resources are also known as conflict minerals, similar to
conflict diamonds. These conflict minerals are found majorly in electronics,
such as cell phones, portable music players and computers. Consumers and buyers
wouldn’t know if an electronic consists of conflict minerals due to a corrupt
system. Nearly half of the 30 million carats of diamonds exported from the DRC
each year are untraceable.
The armed groups have cruel ways of continuing the conflict,
such as looting, which results in killing, torturing and raping, stealing from
medical centres, robbing villages and pillaging food aid. They also disrupt
humanitarian assistance forced innocent villagers to work for them. Sexual
exploitation is also a recurring theme in DRC.
The estimated number of children that are involved in the
war is one in ten child soldiers or 30,000 children in other words. The UN
predicted that 15-30% of the newly recruited soldiers are less than 18 years
old. It is also estimated that 30-40% of the child soldiers are female. They
are forced to commit atrocious crimes. Amnesty International reports that
Kalami, a 15-year-old child soldier was forced to kill a family, cut up their
bodies and eat them. He then says that his life is lost; there is nothing for
him to live for. Female child soldiers are also frequently used as sex slaves.
Child soldiers are usually forced to join the armed groups, and the rest join
the armed groups because they provide protection and provisions. The armed
groups may also be viewed as their only family.
The DRC has ratified several international treaties that protect
the rights of children, but these have no effect on the children in DRC
whatsoever. Child soldiers have a lot of difficulties returning to their
families, mainly because of three reasons. The first reason is that the armed
groups would have probably already murdered the child’s family if the child
were captured. The second reason is that the family won’t accept the child back
in because of all the crimes that the child was forced to commit. Lastly, the
family would not want the child back in their house for the child’s protection,
as other villagers might not be welcome towards the child’s return.
Wildlife is also affected by the conflict. Gorillas are
endangered species yet they are often overrun when the armed groups are
exploiting minerals and natural resources. The conflict caused a huge increase
in poverty which resulted in people hunting wildlife to find food, primarily
apes.
At the end of August 2002, a peace agreement has been signed
to supposedly end the civil war. The only downside on this is that only the
President of Rwanda and President DRC signed the agreement. Predictably, gems
and minerals are still forcibly mined, and the conflict still rages on. For an
issue this big, there are not a lot of people that know about the conflict in
DRC, making it hard for anyone to help the civilians of DRC.
Presentation
Presentation
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Presentation Script
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Final Notes
I checked my work several times to ensure that it flowed nicely. I also checked it with several other sources to ensure all my information is credible.
Bibliography
http://www.brilliantearth.com/confict-diamond-trade/ (At first I wasn't so sure about this website because it was a diamond producer company and because of that, it might be biased. So I checked it with this website: http://www.globalissues.org/article/87/the-democratic-republic-of-congo and the information was the same. The Global Issues website was reliable because it only focused on global issues)
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