When Prime Minister Enrico Letta offered to make Congo-born medical doctor Cécile Kyenge the country’s first black national official ever by appointing her to be minister of integration, it should have signaled a new era of political diversity in Italy. After all, the country’s immigrant population is growing, doubling…
Are you generous? Rich? Both?! Boy, do I have something to show you!
Armed conflict among Congolese, Rwandan, and Ugandan militias has spawned an epidemic of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and perhaps most disturbingly, civilians too have begun to assault one another at higher and higher rates.
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Lisa Shannon became an activist in Africa after watching a moving episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Alice Walker has played a key part in the feminist movement for years. Recently, they shared their thoughts on rape in the Congo.
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Early this morning, Christiane Amanpour hosted Dr. Denis Mukwege, Annie Rashidi-Mulumba and Leymah Gbowee at The Daily Beast's Women in the World conference for a difficult discussion on rape as a weapon of war, and what to do about it.
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New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has invited his readers to weigh in whether he should have named a nine-year-old Congolese rape victim who was also featured in a video. The ensuing Facebook debate is surprisingly thoughtful.
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• This explains so much: researchers have found that sunbathing gives the male libido a boost - mainly by upping their testosterone. Just an hour of sunlight can provide a 69% jump in testosterone levels. •
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A new photo book by Daniele Tamagni explores the phenomenon of sapeurs, a clique of extraordinarily dressed dandies from the Congo. In the midst of war and abject poverty, these men dress in tailored suits, silk ties, and immaculate footwear.
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[Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo; August 11. Image via Getty]
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At first the media said Hillary Clinton's visit to Africa was overshadowed by her husband's trip to North Korea. Now the work she's trying to do — including stopping rape in Congo — is overshadowed by coverage of that overshadowing.
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[Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, August 11. Image via Getty]
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[Goma, Congo; August 10. Image via Getty]
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The fact that an audience member reportedly asked Hillary Clinton "what her husband thought" about a matter of policy in a Congolese town hall meeting today hints at some of the underlying issues Clinton was there to address:
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Hillary Clinton will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo next week to focus attention (and hopefully resources) on the ongoing scourge of rape. And so it seems a good time to focus on some of the victims of that scourge.
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This week, as Hillary Clinton visits no fewer than six African nations, American media outlets are running a spate of stories about the ongoing problem of sexual assault as a weapon of war in one of those countries: Congo.
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• In an attempt to make the odious tradition of throwing the bouquet a little different, an Italian bride had her flowers flung from a plane. Unfortunately, they got sucked into the plane's engines, causing it to crash. •
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"Because women are at the center of this horror, they must be at the center of the solutions and peace negotiations. Women are the future of Congo. They are its greatest resource." [CNN]
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