BBC Africa

US to seek stronger ties with Somaliland and Puntland;     BBC

This article discusses the US’s plans on strengthening their relationship with Somaliland and Puntland. The US is hoping this will stop the Islamist insurgents. Somaliland has been through some hard times. For the past twenty or so years they have been under attack and their economic state has been in very poor health. The US is trying to become closer to Somaliland to ward off the Islamic attacks. We, being the US, haven’t aggressively been involved with this situation. We have had a relationship with Somaliland but we have not aggressively watched out for them. Now Obama is deciding to become closer with aggressive acts towards the Islamic attacks towards them. We are supposedly sending more aid workers to Somaliland and Puntland to help them out even further. I personally am frightened with Obama’s thoughts and actions with this situation. This article states that we are going to take aggressive action to stop attacks. What that tells me is the start of another war. Technically we aren’t in a war right now, as far as I’ve heard, but we do still have troops still defending democratic beliefs. We can’t afford another war. I’m talking about financially. We are in incredible debt and becoming involved in another war will destroy us. Sure it’s a good thing we are helping out our allies and everything but we need to think of the consequences. I feel that we need to check our own house before looking in someone else’s.

Book Blog 3 i think

On page 83 the narrator tells us about a scene which involves a fiery river demon, naked bodies, and red horned people holding black feathered object. He says that bronzed breathing quivering naked bodies come from behind trees and he points to the river demon as it is flicking its tail and sending out black smoke. The demon is beating the water with his tail and splashing around. Once he pointed towards the demon all the bodies followed where he was pointing. He also talks about three men with bright red earth plastered on their bodies from head to toe making them look scarlet. They are marching around shaking their horned heads and finally face the river shaking gourd shaped object covered in black feathers towards the fiery river demon. They began chanting words which didn’t resemble any human language what so ever. To me this seems like a dream. I looked up what a river demon is and all I found was that a river demon, which is also known as a river horse, is a type of river seaweed in the southern regions of Scotland. So I don’t think he is talking about that kind of river demon. I think that he is possibly in a tribal region and that he is in the middle of a religious ceremony because of the people with horns on their head and the red mud and the black feathered objects. The bronze bodies are just the other tribe members and the river demon is a fire. It is sending out black smoke and beating its tail which could just be a flame.

Heart of Darkness Book blog thing

"I flew around like mad to get ready, and before forty-eight hours I was crossing the Channel to show myself to my employers, and sign the contract. In a very few hours I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt. I had no difficulty in finding the Company's offices. It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade.The “whited sepulchre” is probably Brussels, where the Company’s headquarters are located. A sepulchre implies death and confinement, and indeed Europe is the origin of the colonial enterprises that bring death to white men and to their colonial subjects; it is also governed by a set of reified social principles that both enable cruelty, dehumanization, and evil and prohibit change. The phrase “whited sepulchre” comes from the biblical Book of Matthew. In the passage, Matthew describes “whited sepulchres” as something beautiful on the outside but containing horrors within (the bodies of the dead); thus, the image is appropriate for Brussels, given the hypocritical Belgian rhetoric about imperialism’s civilizing mission. (Belgian colonies, particularly the Congo, were notorious for the violence perpetuated against the natives.) Fog is also a symbolic part along with the “whited sepulchre”. Fog is a sort of corollary to darkness. Fog not only obscures but distorts: it gives one just enough information to begin making decisions but no way to judge the accuracy of that information, which often ends up being wrong. Marlow’s steamer is caught in the fog, meaning that he has no idea where he’s going and no idea whether peril or open water lies ahead.

DRC: Getting away with rape

Jenne, a nine year old girl from North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was violenty raped by a neighbor. Her parents made a promise to make him pay. They obtained a lawyer from the police. The man tipped off the police to let him out of jail and he got away. He came back once the police left and threatened to kill Jenne’s father. Jenne’s father was staying at home to take care of their other three children while Jenne’s mother remained at the hospital to take care of Jenne. The family ran away and is too afraid to return. The neighbor is staying at home. They now have no place to live and are frightened on how they will survive.


I think that the way the police handled this account was severely wrong. The police should not have let him out of jail let alone unattended. Because the police deliberately forgot their duty to the people have now caused a family grief and for the most part have cost them a home. The neglect makes me sick. The uninvolvement toward statutory rape is unacceptable. There is now a family without a home who has a daughter in the hospital and there is a man who raped a little girl left unattended. Because the police did such a horrible another little girl may be raped as well. Not only is it just a mother, father and a daughter, this affects the way three other kids will survive.

Somalia: Corpses Litter Streets Amid Mogadishu Fighting

Several people were murdered by an attack on a downtown hotel in Mogadishu. This was caused by the clashing of Islamist insurgents and African Union-backed government forces. The death of these Mps and citizens backed up many parts of Mogadishu. This happened on August twenty fourth. One of the citizens said stated that no place in the capital was safe. She also gave information of reports of dead bodies that were scattered along the streets and that these bodies were not being collected since the fighting started occurring on the twenty third of August. She thinks that the two parties want to kill the remaining health of the city. An amazing quote from her was; “Who will they rule if we are all dead? Whoever wins will rule corpses.” One of the ambulance drivers stated that they had collected thirty four bodies and more than one hundred and thirty one injured people littered across various streets. He believes the numbers will go up considering the fact that there were streets that they haven’t even covered yet. My personal view on this is that fighting and violence is usually not for a good cause. In the bible they fought for God and to share their religion with non believers. Today we fight for oil, for money, for women, for irresponsible actions. This is why I don’t only dislike war but I mostly don’t support it. The only reason we should get in a war is to protect ourselves from offensive actions from other countries. If everyone did that then there would be no more war

Book Blog 2

While the unnamed narrator and his ship mates are sprawled out along the deck, Marlow, one of the narrator’s ship mates, begins to tell a story of his own adventures. Marlow's adventure begins in London, where he has recently returned from several years sailing in the East. While recuperating in London, he becomes restless and longs to travel somewhere he has never been. As he strolls about the city, he happens upon a map in a shop window depicting a place he has longed to visit, a region of the world that was still largely unknown to Europeans: the Congo. Though he is normally an ocean-going sailor, he longs to travel the Congo, a freshwater river, deep into the heart of this little-known land. When his attempts to secure a position on a boat with a company that trades on in the Congo go unfulfilled, he enlists the help of his aunt. Through her influential friends, Marlow secures a post as captain of a riverboat steamer, replacing a captain who had recently been killed by natives. Literally, the Congo River is the means by which the Europeans enter the region. It is also their main method of transportation. Marlow equates the river with a coiled snake. Thus, it is a symbol of danger; it lies in wait, ready to strike. It should be noted that Marlow's journey upriver, into the heart of the Congo, is a very time-consuming and arduous. This suggests that the journey into oneself is both a slow and difficult task.