Crooked Cops

The article I’m choosing to blog about comes from allafrica.com. It’s out of Harare and is entitled “Who will police the police?” According to the article, a scary new trend recently is for police to be involved in armed robberies and other crimes they are supposed to stopping. According to Joyce Moyo in the article, the society has become a very worrisome one. Some say the root of the problem is that the police aren’t being paid enough and their low salaries are pushing them to commit crimes instead of prevent them. Recently, there was an arrest of seven policemen who went "rogue" or went criminal I suppose. It says that these are not the first arrests of policemen and won’t be the last either. These police are committing and/or serving as an accomplice to criminals in armed robberies because they are being promised large rewards which is attractive to these policemen because they don't have as high as salaries as they hope for and in some cases need. Some are even using their service weapons to do commit crimes. The policemen who were recently arrested are suspected of killing three people in the process of one robbery that they did. Crimes have been happening country wide, not just in one area either. Andrew Phiri quoted in the article said, “We do not choose if you are a doctor, teacher, soldier, policemen or vendor. We will arrest you if you break the law.” I think he put it very well.

I think this article is really depressing. These people can’t even trust their own policemen when illegal things are going on. I know there are crooked cops in the States too, but this is a huge problem in Harare right now. Many, many police are believed to be involved in these crimes, even murder, not just robberies or petty thefts. They’re really doing a horrible thing I think because these men are supposed to be people you can trust and call for help when you need it and they themselves are the criminals, who use their weapons that are provided by the government and that are supposed to protect you, to harm you. Armed-robberies, murders, and money crimes are all being done by the local policemen. It makes me thankful I'm from a small place with low crime numbers.

Poaching is a Problem

I'm choosing the topic of poaching as my one blog on animlas. The article I’m choosing to blog about is from Kenya. It is named “Elephant Poachers Go Hi-Tech to Stay Ahead of Rangers.” I found the article on allafrica.com. The article is about people who are poaching elephants and rhinos for ivory from the elephant’s tusks and the rhino for their horns. There are four major African countries that are the main focus of the problem, but the source to the article declined to name them, because while they’re the major problem, all of Africa is having the problem. According to sources in the article, in 2007 there were 47 elephants that died and in 2008 it rose to 145 elephants. In 2009 the number of dead elephants was 216 and now in 2010 that numbered has been surpassed before the year is even over. In South Africa, there were 122 rhinos counted dead last year and this year they’ve lost 210 and it’s only October. A charity in South Africa is really trying to draw attention to this problem; they’ve even enlisted the help of American rapper 50 Cent to create global awareness. The ironic part of this poaching problem is that it is INCREASING now that we have more technology than ever to stop it! The crime is now even being considered as organized crime so that the punishments can be harsher.

I chose this article because I am an animal lover, I may not have ever had an elephant or rhino, but to me any animal is precious. I think that animal poaching is a huge problem everywhere. In Africa it’s elephants and rhinos, in Iowa it's deer and pheasants and everywhere has an animal they can say is poached. People don’t like to follow the rules and have no sense of what they are actually doing, everyone is just focused on themselves instead of the world as whole, which can be blamed for global warming and things like that. They are endangering the species by poaching simply because they think they can get away with it because there aren’t enough rangers to patrol every herd of elephants and rhinos or every acre of hunting ground. I’m not sure on regulations, but I think that buying ivory and rhino horns should be illegal, if it isn't already, especially if we know that it’s coming from poached animals. What is so important about the ivory and rhino horns that can’t be made artificially or from some other source? These are such beautiful animals and they only live in Africa and their numbers just keep decreasing. It’s a shame that so many African countries are controlled by insurgents who use things like ivory and rhino horns to fund their evil.

Mass Rapes in Congo

The article I am blogging about was found here on allafrica.com and is entitled Congo-Kinshasa: UN Seizes Leader of Rebel Group Presumed Responsible for Mass Rape. The article is explaining who was arrested for being involved in rapes and how they were involved. "Lt Col" Mayele was arrested and being held responsible for the rapes of over 300 people in Congo’s east. According to the article, the attacks took place usually after dark in the Walikale region between July 30^th and August 2^nd.  The known victims include 235 women, 52 girls, 13 men, and 3 boys, some of these victims were even raped multiple times. There were over 900 homes and 40 businesses looted and 116 people were taken captive to work in forced labor by this rebel group. There were some 200 attackers involved. The government responded quickly and arrested Lt Col Mayele ensuring that those who were involved will be held accountable for their actions.

I chose this article to blog about because it was so disturbing and really just scary. I found this article to be quite shocking because over 300 people were raped and/or sexually assaulted! It really proves what a dangerous place Congo can be, especially after dark where there are probably not lights in alot of places, especially remote places. Rebels are present in many African countries and are known for things like this, but what a massive amount of people to be affected! 900 homes looted, 300 people raped and 100 taken captive, all by 200 rebels. It’s something I can’t even imagine. 900 homes, I’m not sure if there are many more homes than that in the small town I live in. I do think it’s a positive thing that the government has responded to the event and made an arrest right away, it proves that they care and aren't just standing by and letting the rebels do whatever they want to. Those rebels need to be held accountable for what they did to all those people and homes and the government has made the right step in doing so by making an arrest of one of the rebel groups leaders and not just an individual member. Hopefully it can bring some peace of mind to those poor people affected.

I'm not sure of it's reliability, but if this video was really the translations of these men then it was really disturbing. They are discussing raping women and blaming it on being away from women too long and saying it isn't their fault. Here is the link.