tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post4514920666276003890..comments2024-02-24T06:10:42.255-08:00Comments on Congo Siasa: Congo's Mining Contracts Still Shrouded in SecrecyJason Stearnshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11454449854081540397noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-28831175400595787652011-04-19T02:35:10.060-07:002011-04-19T02:35:10.060-07:00Update
Lundin Mining said in a press statement ye...Update<br /><br />Lundin Mining said in a press statement yesterday evening that the president finally approved the TFM contract. Lundin has a 24% stake in TFM, Freeport has 56%, Gecamines 20%. <br /><br />http://cnrp.marketwire.com/client/lundin_mining/release.jsp?year=2011&actionFor=1429284&releaseSeq=0<br /><br />An official at the Ministry of Mines told me in December the TFM amendment would be published as soon as the presidential decree is issued. If effectively published, we'll get to 3 disclosed contracts for the copper belt instead of 2. Even so, the bulk of agreements remains confidential, unless the Government decides to take advantage and publish them all at once.Elisabeth Caesensnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-34938037317996126202011-04-18T09:23:53.664-07:002011-04-18T09:23:53.664-07:00The mining website is back up since today. The fou...The mining website is back up since today. The four contracts (2 copper, 1 tin, 1 gold) are available here: http://mines-rdc.cd/fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=92Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-8335807500216420132011-04-17T13:42:55.554-07:002011-04-17T13:42:55.554-07:00@ jason belcher -
Thanks for the interesting insi...@ jason belcher -<br /><br />Thanks for the interesting insight.<br /><br />I can say that any killing habit is a crime and war is a situation whereby individuals’ drift towards criminal activities becomes more alive, where they find breeding ground and favourable conditions to bloat.<br /><br />What you have described for WWII, Iraq Rwanda and many other conflicts is not very far from the kind of crimes we experience in our societies on a daily basis; the only difference is that the quality and quantity of these appalling behaviours are aggravated in an armed conflict situation.<br /><br />Communities in the Great Kivu region have lived for years with relative levels of ethnic tensions but never as much as to the point of engaging in mass killings as those experienced during the recent conflicts. Anthropologically, I am yet to see any ethnographic evidence supporting the existence of wide spread killing habit among indigenous cultures in those places now so reputed for killing and extreme violence habits.<br /><br />Ref # “What we need to know is how does the habit of killing spread, and can the spread be stopped?”<br /><br />I do not think there is a simple answer to your question. However, there may be a complex procedure where one would need to control for aspects related to the individuals/groups’ psychology, the historical/political context and many other socio-demographic profiles – for both individuals and groups of individuals – to assess the extent to which one can say the ‘killing habit’ prospers in situations characterised by extreme violence and conflict.<br /><br />One of the answers could be further explored around the fact that, for instance, a war situation can provide thousands of ‘reliable’ cover/excuse for individual’s responsibility when committing criminal behaviour.<br /><br />Here we do not even talk about the different types of violence (killings) state violence, individual violence etc…<br /><br />RichRichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01301460106025447019noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-11003067446205411482011-04-17T05:19:28.443-07:002011-04-17T05:19:28.443-07:00http://lnfaw.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_1998.h...<a href="http://lnfaw.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_1998.html" rel="nofollow">http://lnfaw.blogspot.com/2011/04/blog-post_1998.html</a>SunTurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00125257575715936507noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-47666869900260840582011-04-16T14:18:15.060-07:002011-04-16T14:18:15.060-07:00I like your book Dancing in the Glory of Monsters,...I like your book Dancing in the Glory of Monsters, it addresses a question I am looking at in my PhD research on killing as a habit, or really as a normal part of life. For some, it is. I saw it in Iraq in 2006. Same for Afghanistan in 2008. Institutions, regimes, culture etc of course have a role to play, but in the end many individuals choose killing as a way of life. Your death squad interviewee who stated that "For us soldiers killing is easy. It is part of life" reminded me of a similar sentiment by a paratrooper in WWII. The man, who drove a milk truck before the war, shot a Nazi officer in Italy in 1945 because the captured German refused to surrender his pistol. The paratrooper wrote: "He refused to surrender his pistol, so I killed him. Its so easy; it solves your problems, theres no questions asked. I think I'm getting the habit." We like to believe there is some force (a dictatorship/etc) which compels people to kill again and again; but in many cases there isn't. They kill because its easy, and it solves their immediate problem. They don't have any guilt, or remorse, or worries. There was a trigger man in Iraq who right after blowing up a marketplace full of civilians went to his kabob stand and complained that his usual lunch wasn't spicy enough. Thats what was on his mind after committing mass murder. You can't fix that mentality with foreign aid, or a more democratic government. The problem isn't structural, its in human nature. There is no policy cure for that. No government can change it. You don't have to be talented, smart, athletic, or rich to kill effectively. So we think killing as a way of life is terrible, but not too terrible as long as it happens in far away (to us) places like Rawanda. What we need to know is how does the habit of killing spread, and can the spread be stopped? In the twentieth century mass killing required the apparatus and resources of the state combined with individual willingness; in the twenty first century a state apparatus is no longer necesary. Even worse, that mechanism may no longer be able to stop the killing habit once it passes a certain threshold. Its no longer far away from us; just look at Juarez.jason belcherhttp://www.globalkentuckian.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-76437983242320505962011-04-15T09:42:32.832-07:002011-04-15T09:42:32.832-07:00@ Adam - thanks for sharing, it's a beautiful ...@ Adam - thanks for sharing, it's a beautiful project. Do you know what date the concession shapefile goes back to?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-76862126825061144552011-04-15T09:37:18.774-07:002011-04-15T09:37:18.774-07:00One element of the scandal is that nobody has been...One element of the scandal is that nobody has been pushing hard for disclosure of the revised contracts -- not civil society, not government, not the World Bank. And we know that there are all kinds of new payments to Gecamines, Pas-de-porte, and other constraints that may not benefit the central government.Peter Rosenblumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12150617996952952590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-16450716008809385962011-04-15T08:54:01.919-07:002011-04-15T08:54:01.919-07:00@Adam - this is extremely helpful, but it seems th...@Adam - this is extremely helpful, but it seems that some of the concessions are off - SHAMIKA's concessions are in Kalehe, for example, not in Lake Kivu. Any ideas about how precise the map is?Jason Stearnshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11454449854081540397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-62937043628022007822011-04-15T08:21:46.372-07:002011-04-15T08:21:46.372-07:00The World Resources Institute has come up with a t...The World Resources Institute has come up with a tool for visualising DRC's natural resources...it defaults to show forest zoning but can be set to show mining licences:<br /><br />http://www.wri.org/tools/atlas/map.php?maptheme=drcforest<br /><br />Great post by the way.Adamnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1209670742820403516.post-21335962344134085952011-04-15T07:32:41.026-07:002011-04-15T07:32:41.026-07:00Incredibly detailed update and analysis, Lies. Che...Incredibly detailed update and analysis, Lies. Cheers!Erinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07127749268539391492noreply@blogger.com