I had expected to get from you more eveidence from the peple and institutions you’ve been accusing,but unfortunately, I’m getting more allegations!
With all due respect, you are a professional blogger who sits in the U.K. with very little actual experience, let alone any international or Africa experience. I find it amazing that you judge me, my colleagues from Liberia and Nigeria, and those who we consider to be educators and friends. One can consider you to be part of an elite group of professional students turned bloggers, who then criticize from afar anything that looks like your version of imperialism without actually having experienced conflict, war, poverty, racism, or any other form of hardship that is daily occurrence in my continent. This is a form of elitism. You had the luxury of “rejecting” your PhD thesis, while many in Congo cannot ever make such a choice.

May I ask you a small question to know what you’ve ever done as a person or the institutions you’ve been working for, to improve the situation in Congo or build the capacity of these common congolese to take the leadership in adressing their country’s issues. It would have been helpful for many people accessing your blogg to share your own experiences in any african country you’ve visited or assisted in adressing issues like armed conflicts, poverty, dictatorship, transitional Justice etc!, then just accusing those who dedicate their time; limited ressources and fly far away from their families and beloved ones, just to help and provide their contribution to make the change possible in our countries. ITS JUST NOT FAIR from you.

I know how easy it can be to blogg and make coments, poinitng fingers from far away, but the most important for us as Africans or Congolese, is not your coments but what you can exactly do to improve the situation on the ground and you seem not to be the right person for this.
I’m just sorry I can’t reply to the attacks against me and the two other colleagues working hardly on daily basis to take care of Millions of people in need, I easily understand the lack of experiences in African and on African issues.Having got these Fellowships from a pool of over 600 applications for 20 places, I think we deserve a little consideration from your side..

You might be aware that Mike McFaul is working for the most liberal administration in U.S. history, and for the first African-American president. Will you still confirm us that this choice is based on imperialism!

I wish you the best in your democracy-manipulation blogging business. In the meantime, I will work on the human rights issues in my country and will work toward participatory democracy here in Congo and the rest of Africa. My internet charges here are far more than what you pay, I’m sure, so I must leave you.
You are most welcomed to come visit my country at any time, and I will host you. But I promise you that you will find life as blogger in Congo far less comfortable. This may be the sort of experience that could launch you to paid work status, as most people value real life experience rather than chair-based analysis. I would be happy to help.
Good day,
Franck

Given his position of preeminence it should come as no surprise that McFaul fails to delve into the inherent contradictions between capitalism and democracy. For example, writing in 2007 with Francis Fukuyama, he noted how “democracies tend to provide more stable physical and economic welfare for their people than do autocracies.” What Fukuyama and McFaul deliberately neglect to mention is that this “stability” is premised on the exploitation of distant others, that is, on the stability of imperialism. Thus they see no irony in adding that: “For every autocracy, such as China, producing fantastic growth, there is an autocracy, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo under Mobuto, producing negative growth.” (p.33) Of course negative growth for some, helps enable positive growth for others.

Likewise, in a talk McFaul gave in 2007, he pointed out how in democracies “you don’t get genocides, you also don’t get famines. These things simply do not happen in democracies.” Again what he “neglects” to mention is that genocides do however happen elsewhere, especially in countries of geostrategic interest to imperial powers, see “Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Propaganda System.” http://www.monthlyreview.org/100501herman-peterson.php

McFaul is in fact does not try to hide from the geostrategic benefits of “promoting democracy,” and openly talks up the financial benefits of empire. Thus in the same talk he says that “when you open up a society through political liberalization that usually leads to greater trade and foreign investment, and as the largest economy in the world we [the United States] benefit from these kinds of openings.” No doubt enabling the imperial exploitation of the Congo will bring large financial compensation to powerful elites, much like the “trillion dollar peace dividend [that arose] from the collapse of communism” for the US economy (McFaul’s words).

Now given that you became acquainted with McFaul when you were invited in 2007 to his Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (Stanford University) as a Draper Hills Summer Fellow, I think it is useful to refer to Edward Berman’s book The Influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller Foundations on American Foreign Policy: The Ideology of Philanthropy (State University of New York Press, 1983). Berman explains in detail how fellowships — like the one you accepted and others that are regularly organized by the National Endowment for Democracy — play an integral role in laying the groundwork for the imperial penetration of foreign countries. Berman writes:

“The provision of fellowships enabling foreign students to study in the United States has long been an integral part of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundation programs [which worked hand-in-hand with the US government's foreign policy establishment]. The Afro-Anglo-American program was a latter-day variant on earlier models. Foundation officials early recognized the importance of these programs in socializing future African, Asian, and Latin American leaders in ways that would make them sympathetic to the interests of the United States and her allies. Such programs provide effective, but generally unrecognized, mechanisms to further the foundations’ cultural hegemony. This is accomplished when the foundations ask the outside agencies or participating universities to assume administrative responsibility for the funded program. This arrangement deflects attention from the role of the foundations themselves and enables their personnel to retain an air of disinterested concern over the programs’ directions, while at the same time denying any influence. The influence is no less real for being indirect, however, for the foundations long ago devised methods whereby students benefiting from their fellowships studied certain subjects at universities whose faculties could be counted on, minimally, to provide the ‘correct’ perspectives.” (p.93)

I guess this elite networking helps explain why Michael McFaul presently serves with you on the board of directors of Actions for Genuine Democratic Alternatives, as do two other people who were invited on your Draper Hills Summer Fellowship program (Kate Sam-Ngbor from Nigeria, and Garrett J. Cummeh III from Liberia).

I also checked out the schedule for your fellowship program (which is now online), and was not surprised to see that Peter Ackerman’s International Center for Nonviolent Conflict (ICNC) had helped participants learn “how democratic transitions occur.” The ICNC’s propaganda spiel clearly worked wonders on you, as you acknowledge the “great contribution of the ICNC in developing and educating common african citizens including congolese on nonviolence culture, peace and harmonious cohabitation after several years of armed conflicts.”

For my detailed criticisms of the ICNC, see “Failure Of Progressive Thought.” http://swans.com/library/art15/barker38.html

Please let me confess you that I’ve worked for African Democracy Forum after serving as Legal Adviser to the D R C Electoral Commission and more than 10 years in congolese civil society as Human Rights and Democracy defender. NED has contributed very significantly on strengthening the democratic process in this country by providing substantial support to CSOs and alligning to the local priorities and not bringing in any kind political ideology of US imperialism . Perhaps if you can provide some evidence, this will halp me understand your opinion on this matter.

I might not be well undertood if I also don’t mention the great contribution of the ICNC in developing and educating common african citizens including congolese on nonviolence culture, peace and harmonious cohabitation after several years of armed conflicts. I do respect the freedom of expression and opinion on the situation in my country, but I just wish you could get some time to watch it from the groung in Congo and from this far, you might get the wrong information.

For having been a Stanford Fellow on Democracy, Development and Rule of Law, I’ve met Prof MacFaull and discussed several issues on the conflicts in the DRC. The last time we met was in Kiev for the WMD General Assemby and I beleive he is just the opposit of what you are describing.

I can not ignore the external responsability in Mining business and armed conflicts in the DRC because several reports including the UN Experts Special Report exist and are enough explicit. However, I stick on what I beleive in because these are great values for me and the congolese society. Before pointing the finger to any foreigners of beiong responsable of our situation, we need to cleen our own house. Lack of political will, Good Governance, corruption, Rule of Law etc, thse the most important issues to adress internally and those helping us to adress them are very welcome.

Once again thank you very much and best regards

Franck

Given that until recently you worked as the Coordinator for the Africa Democracy Forum, which is a regional network of the NED’s World Movement for Democracy, it is ironic that you write that “Congolese people themselves who must rise up” against injustice. I say this because this is precisely what the NED and its well-funded and politically connected democracy-manipulating cohorts do not want.

For a summary of my criticisms of the NED, see “Co-opting Intellectual Aggressors: The ‘Progressive’ Face of the CIA.” http://www.swans.com/library/art14/barker08.html

By its own admission the NED carries out work that used to be carried out by the Central Intelligence Agency — not the murders mind, just the co-option of progressive social movements and “intellectuals.” If you truly believed, like I do, that it is the “Congolese people themselves who must rise up” against injustice, then I would suggest that you stop cooperating with the very elites who profitably perpetrated the genocidal slaughter in your own country. The history of this onslaught is well documented in Edward Herman and David Peterson’s excellent book The Politics of Genocide (Monthly Review Press, 2010).

Furthermore, given the close working relationship you have with the NED’s Michael McFaul, I was wondering how this relates to your “belief that what the Congolese people desperately need is the knowledge and understanding of how civilian-based nonviolent movements have succeeded.” I can only assume that this comment was some form of joke which I didn’t understand. You do realize what McFaul stands for don’t you?

If not, then please take heed of what Muhammad Idrees Ahmad wrote in 2008 for Dissident Voice: “With ties to the arms industry and the neoconservative wing of the Israel lobby, the Henry Jackson Society seems to be assuming the role that the Committee on Present Danger played in the United States. Its Israel-centric worldview, as exhibited by its roster of speakers, predisposes it towards perpetual conflict.” http://dissidentvoice.org/2008/06/fortress-britain/

Until recently Michael McFaul was an international patron of the Henry Jackson Society, serving alongside the former head of the CIA, R. James Woolsey, the former American Assistant Secretary of Defense, Richard Perle, and the Editor of The Weekly Standard, William Kristal (amongst others of a similar political hue).

You note that: “It is possible that you may also accuse me in your next blog of being part of the conspiracy you have laid out…” I can only respond by saying that this seems like a good idea, but I would be happy to not write such an article. In this regard it would be great if you could demonstrate how your activities promote the interests of the Congolose people and not imperial elites (whether from the West, “the East, North and South”).

I am sorry that I cannot “thank you very much for your contribution” as you did for me, but hopefully this will change when you have persuaded me of the error of my ways.

Michael Barker

As I’m sure you are aware, there are many blogs actually exposing the illicit exploitation of resources in the DRC. What surprises me about many of them, and even some very active international campaigns, is that many individuals and groups offer quite unbelievable, and grossly exaggerated statements about the circumstances here without looking at the reality on the ground. For many people like yourself, it is easy to analyze from afar without living here and experiencing the issues that the people of Kinshasa, Kisangani, Bukavu, Goma, Lubumbashi or Boma must face each and every day. Many of the organizations and people you point to as responsible and complicit for the many problems in my country seem out of place. I must be honest with you. When we begin to put the blame on individuals sitting in New York or Washington, DC, or even in Belgium or China, it diminishes the responsibility that Congolese themselves have to change our own society and rid ourselves of corrupt leaders and equally corrupt global partners.
In so many ways, the problems that we face in my country begin with cruelty, corruption and greed – first from our colonial masters, and later through our post-colonial transitions and turmoil. But Congolese people are survivors. We are admired by all other African countries for our music, our wood work, our traditional food, our creative spirit, our beautiful women, and our lush environment and rich soil. Congolese people are powerful and smart, and in the past, we have acted together, even to resist rebel groups here in Kinshasa.

You state that today, 5 million Congolese have died to enable the West to profit from the Congo’s resources. This may be true, but let us also recognize that the East, North and South profits as well. We face many different “interested” governments in my country, many with the pretense to rebuild and develop, but with the final goal of taking a piece of our wealth. This posting would be too long if I were to begin to name each country – one must simply sit at the airport in Kinshasa to witness the diverse nationalities that enter the decrepit air terminal to do business in different parts of the country. My country is rich in resources, and probably everyone that owns a cell phone or uses a laptop is touching a piece of my soil. So, in many ways, each and every one of us is complicit.

Nevertheless, for me it does not make sense to point the finger at all the countries, or at cell phone owners or bloggers like you. The shift must be made to point to the Congolese people ourselves. Not enough of us have not stood up to our governments to hold them responsible for the partnerships they create in order to line their own pockets. Blaming and naming any one person or organization from the West , notably the United States, simply continues to rob the Congolese of their own responsibility, and their own power, while it empowers the United States. This blame-game does not help us to build the capacity of common Congolese citizens to take responsibility and once more resist oppression. It is an easy escape to point at someone else across the ocean, claim it is their fault, and then continue to live in misery or accept the status quo. My people have the power and spirit to rise up against all our injustices, and we have done so in the past. But comfort in the status quo and the expectation that the international community will save us all, this has created a form of social paralysis. Such paralysis runs against our culture and traditions.

It is possible that you may also accuse me in your next blog of being part of the conspiracy you have laid out, as I have supported the NED through my role with the Africa Democracy Forum. I have also attended conferences and workshops with some of the organizations you mention above. But despite any conspiracies, in the end, we Congolese are on our own. Interested organizations and supporters drop by my city. Western bloggers write about the injustices we face. International supporters come and go. And it is the Congolese people themselves who must rise up and be creative in the fight against violence by rebel groups, government corruption, gender-based abuse, and extraction of our resources by foreign governments and corporations.

The many conspiracies that people write about on the history and current situation of Democratic Republic of Congo only strengthens my belief that what the Congolese people desperately need is the knowledge and understanding of how civilian-based nonviolent movements have succeeded. Part of my work is committed to such education. Why? Because as long as we continue to wait for our supporters to save us, our power and capacity to rise up in one voice, using nonviolent means, will not be realized. And this kind of people’s power is worth much more than any minerals being extracted from Congo today.

Once again thank you very much for your contribution.

Franck KAMUNGA

As the first overseas regional military command set up by Washington in this century, the first since the end of the Cold War, and the first in 25 years, the ///SNIP
Back in the day, seventies, some of us spent time creating large charts hoping to display overlapping board memberships & family connections in an easily digested format, partly for the benefit of whoever was interested, but mostly to help us comprehend the overwhelming information we had discovered.

I’m delighted to see Dr Barker focussing on this kind of connections. Hope to see more, especially about “Zionism as Capital” running amok in Africa.