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Congo’s Crisis Leaves 5.4 Million Dead, Deadliest War Since WWII
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Conflict and humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo have taken the lives of an estimated 5.4 million people since 1998 and continue to leave as many as 45,000 dead every month, according to a major mortality survey, released today by the International Rescue Committee.
“The conflict and its aftermath, in terms of fatalities, surpass any other since World War II,” says the aid group’s president, George Rupp. “Congo’s loss is equivalent to the entire population of Denmark or the state of Colorado perishing within a decade. Although Congo’s war formally ended five years ago, ongoing strife and poverty continue to take a staggering toll. We hope this week’s peace agreement in North Kivu will mean an end to the hostilities and a restart of reconciliation and recovery efforts.”
The latest mortality survey was conducted last year by the International Rescue Committee and the Burnet Institute and covers the period of January 2006 through April 2007. Researchers visited 14,000 households in 35 districts of Congo’s 11 provinces. The final toll combines figures from four previous IRC mortality surveys with data from the newest study.
The survey found that mortality remains highly elevated across the country. “Since our last study in 2004, there’s been no change in the national rate, which is nearly 60 percent higher than the sub-Saharan average,” says Dr. Richard Brennan, director of IRC’s global health programs and one of the survey’s lead authors.
The survey period ended shortly after violence in eastern North Kivu province began to escalate in December 2006. Therefore, the study documents only a fraction of the recent unrest. Brennan points out that prior to the upsurge in violence, there were actually modest decreases in mortality in eastern regions.
“These small but statistically important declines coincided with improvements in security, a more robust peacekeeping effort and an increase in humanitarian aid,” says Brennan. “Unfortunately the gains in the east have been threatened by the violence in North Kivu.” Overall, an estimated 727,000 people died in excess of normal mortality during the latest survey period. Nearly half of the fatalities were among children under the age of five, even though they comprise only 19 percent of the total population.
As with the previous surveys, the vast majority died from non-violent causes such as malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition— easily preventable and treatable conditions when people have access to health care and nutritious food.
Brennan says the findings confirm that recovery from such a devastating conflict is a protracted process, especially when it follows years of economic and political decline.
“When war destroys a country’s economy and infrastructure, there’s no quick fix,” he says. “Significant improvement in Congo’s health and mortality will require years of unwavering commitment from the government and the international community and substantial financial investment.
Sadly, the humanitarian crisis in Congo continues to be overlooked and funding remains disproportionate to the enormity of need.”
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STL Celebrates First Black President
By TIFFANY E. HUDSON
St. Louis Argus Contributor
Revelers gathered at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel Tuesday night to celebrate the victory of their candidate, Barack Obama over John McCain. Many shed tears and marveled at the history-making event
More than 50 years after the birth of the modern Civil Rights Movement and 40 years and seven months to the day after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the United States has elected its first African-American president. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama beat Arizona Sen. John McCain by a landslide with more than 330 electoral votes.
Tuesday night, Obama gave his victory speech in Grant Park in front of a massive Chicago crowd that included a weeping Oprah Winfrey and teary-eyed the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
“If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dreams of our founders are alive in our time; who still question the power of our Democracy; tonight is your answer,” the President-elect told the crowd. “They sent a message to the world that we are not blue states and red states; we are the United States of America.”
Obama spoke of people who had waited for hours to vote. He thanked his campaign staff calling them, “the best team ever assembled in politics.” Also, he spoke kindly of Republican nominee Senator John McCain.
“He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us can’t even imagine,” he said of McCain. “I look forward to working with (him).”
McCain graciously gave his concession speech in front of a disappointed Arizona crowd. He congratulated Obama on a great campaign.
“The people have spoken,” he said.
McCain pledged to do all that he can to assist Obama in the “challenges we face.”
Earlier that evening, at the Obama Campaign election watch party at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel, an optimistic and excited crowd watched the CNN broadcast on big screen televisions, all anxiously awaiting the outcome.
Dr. Earline Butler, a 61-year-old black woman from Ballwin, Mo., was an active volunteer in the Des Peres and Ellisville Obama campaign offices. She said that an Obama win would bring her profound joy. “I will feel like we have an opportunity for the country to be transformed and united. I will be excited and extremely happy,” she said.
Mark Drucker, 61, campaigned for Obama in Texas. He told a story of how a county election board there closed the polls early to keep black people from voting in the primary election. However, the voters’ determination did not waiver.
“It was inspiring to see people waiting two hours outside the polling place to vote,” he said.
Drucker also knows that Tuesday’s victory is a far cry from what he witnessed as a white child in the Jim Crow south.
“It was very shocking as a child to see,” he said of the discrimination and oppression against people of color. Now, Drucker cannot believe that he is going to witness a black man become president in his lifetime.
Younger Obama supporters are looking toward the future.
“I hope that we move towards being more peaceful; out of the war and the recession,” said Meredith Sheth, a 26-year-old Central West End woman.
“I hope he does all the things he’s talking about changing,” said Yordanos Kubrom, a 21-year-old black woman from North City.
“I hope he brings about respect for other countries,” Girmay Kubrom, Yordanos’ 20-year-old brother, added.
Since the beginning, Obama has campaigned on the platform of change. Some of these changes include a middle-class tax cut, reforming No Child Left Behind, a plan to increase America’s energy efficiency and create five million new “green” jobs, reducing health care costs for families, eliminating income taxes for seniors making less than $50,000, expanding the childcare tax credit, paid sick leave for parents and ending the war in Iraq.
Between 75 percent and 80 percent of registered voters were expected to show up at the St. Louis city and county polls. Hundreds of eager voters stood in lines for hours waiting to vote. Even so, by Wednesday provisional ballots were still being counted in Missouri, with Obama trailing McCain by several thousand votes.
With his wide margin of victory in the Electoral College, the 11 electoral votes from Missouri were not needed for him to win. And it looked like for the first time in many, many years Missouri failed to pick a presidential winner.
Clyde J. Mosby, a 27 year-old black man originally from Long Beach, Calif., was eager to get to the polls.
“I got up early. I couldn’t go to sleep,” Mosby said. “I got there at 5:50 a.m. I tried to beat the lines.”
Obama’s grandmother, 86-year-old Madelyn Payne Dunham, lost her battle with cancer on Nov. 3, one day shy of seeing her only grandson, whom she raised, elected into the White House.
Although she did not witness his win, she did get to see Obama’s name on the ballot and vote absentee, Obama told the Tom Joyner Morning Show, who was broadcasting from Obama’s national headquarters Election Day morning.
Democrats also retained control of the United States House of Representatives and expanded their majority in the United States Senate.
“It’s a brand new world now,” said Martilla Davis, a student at Cardinal Ritter High School.
Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America on January 20, 2009.
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World Preferred Obama
By JONATHAN FREEDLAND
The Guardian
(Excerpted from the original, published Sept. 10, 2008)
The feeling is familiar. I had it four years ago and four years before that: a sinking feeling in the stomach. It’s a kind of physical pessimism which says: “It’s happening again. The Democrats are about to lose an election they should win - and it could not matter more.”
In my head, I’m not as anxious for Barack Obama’s chances as I was for John Kerry’s in 2004 or Al Gore’s in 2000. He is a better candidate than both put together, and all the empirical evidence says this year favors Democrats more than any since 1976. But still, I can’t shake off the gloom.
If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for (John) McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country.
A generation of young Americans -- who back Obama in big numbers -- will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn’t work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama -- with all his conspicuous gifts -- could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.
But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.
The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world’s population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favor of a US-friendly League of Democracies.
If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.
For it will have been the American people, not the politicians, who will have passed up a once-in-a-generation chance for a fresh start -- a fresh start the world is yearning for.
And the manner of that decision will matter, too. If it is deemed to have been about race -- that Obama was rejected because of his color -- the world’s verdict will be harsh. In that circumstance, Slate’s Jacob Weisberg wrote recently, international opinion would conclude that “the United States had its day, but in the end couldn’t put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.”
Even if it’s not ethnic prejudice, but some other aspect of the culture wars, that proves decisive, the point still holds. For America to make a decision as grave as this one -- while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars -- on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, “historical decline.”
Of course, I know that even to mention Obama’s support around the world is to hurt him. If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us -- and, make no mistake, we shall hear it.
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100-Year-Old Pittman Casts Her Vote
By VERONICA L. BANKS
St. Louis Argus Contributor
It was heartwarming to see the look on the face of Ann Washington Pittman displaying aplomb and determination as she prepared to cast her vote to select Illinois Senator Barack Hussein Obama II as the next president of the United States.
Ann Pittman is 100 years old. She moved to St. Louis in 1928 and became a registered voter three years later. On the surface that doesn’t seem like a big deal, until you realize that suffrage for females came about in 1920 and that as a young woman who had recently migrated from rural Mississippi, registering to vote in 1931 was definitely an act of citizenship.
Pittman has participated in selecting a president in 19 races. The first time it was for President Herbert Hoover, the 31st President of the United States. Ms. Pittman said that God had given her “the gift to live long enough to vote for the 44th President – a black man.”
Pittman was born on January 14, 1908 in Yalobusha County, Mississippi. She gave a real-life history lesson to a group of young men who were in awe of her reading the ballot without needing glasses and her spending time over every issue before voting.
“We must vote. It is our right and we must do it. Sometimes we don’t recognize how valuable it is to elect our presidents. I had to vote in person rather than do an absentee ballot,” she said. Despite that affirmation, Pittman said she never thought that she would live long enough to cast a vote for an African American to the highest office of the country.
“Barack Obama. Barack Obama.” Pittman kept repeating his name over and over again.
“I am thankful that I was able to be able to come out so that I could do this. This is the most important election of all time. This is the most important vote that I have made all of my life.”
“I never dreamed it could happen. I was scared to dream about it,” said Pittman as she chatted casually from the car. Pittman gave an interview about her experiences after exercising her right to vote by curbside selection at Metro High School.
Jokingly, her daughter explained that Barack Obama was not her mother’s first choice. For a brief moment the elder had decided to support Hilary Clinton because she wanted to give “women” a chance to lead the highest office in the nation.
“I took her over to the television and introduced her to Barack Obama. She had been listening to Obama on television but never looked at him. She simply never conceived that he was an African American. It only took two seconds, but I could see immediately that she was won over,” said youngest daughter Edda R. Pittman.
The elder Pittman smiled broadly and said, “…and he is sooo handsome. I couldn’t believe it. He’s good on the eyes and even had a lot of answers when asked all those questions. I know he is going to be our next president, she said. As usual, Ms. Pittman’s assertion was correct
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Blunt Congratulates Nixon
SPECIAL TO THE ARGUS
Gov. Matt Blunt has issued the following statement:
““I called Governor-elect Nixon this morning to congratulate him and offer the full resources of my office and the Office of Administration for the transition and as he plans his first state budget.
““The results of this election were obviously mixed. In our General Assembly, there were many incumbents on the ballot for the Missouri House and Senate. Over the last four years, Missourians have demonstrated their confidence in the General Assembly by voting for a Republican majority and demonstrating their support for the many accomplishments this legislature has helped my administration achieve.
““Missourians supported a significant three-seat expansion of our Republican majority in the Missouri Senate and we maintained our strong majority in the Missouri House. We saw similar results in the November 2006 election and in special elections over the last four years in which our Republican majority won 9 of 14 races.
““Missourians also re-elected Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder who has been a tremendous leader for our state and a great ally of my administration.
““With a Democrat governor and strong Republican majorities in the Missouri House and Senate as well as the re-election of Lieutenant Governor Kinder, it is my hope that all will work together for the common good of the people of our great state.”
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Kenya Declares Holiday
Barack Obama’s Kenyan relatives and Africans across the continent sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags Wednesday to cheer for America’s first black president. Kenya will party for two days, after the president declared a national holiday.
Scenes of jubilation broke out in the western village of Kogelo, where Obama’s late father was born. A group of exuberant residents picked up the president-elect’s half-brother Malik and carried him through the village.
“Unbelievable!” Malik shouted, leading the family in chanting, “Obama’s coming, make way!”
Obama’s step-grandmother and other relatives also poured out of the family homestead to salute a man seen by many Kenyans as a “son of the soil.” Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a public holiday on Thursday in honor of Obama.
Many stayed up all night or woke before dawn to celebrate his victory. Obama’s relatives and other villagers gathered around a TV set up in a garden in Kogelo, rejoicing and pumping their arms in the air.
Across Africa, many are hoping an Obama presidency will help the vast continent, the poorest in the world. Obama’s victory was also likely to seal America’s reputation in the minds of many Africans as a land of staggering opportunity.
“He’s in!” said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a Kenyan business student who joined hundreds of others for an election party at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, which began at 5 a.m.
“I think this is awesome, and the whole world is backing him,” Ndimu said as people raised glasses of champagne.
For South Africa’s first black president, Nelson Mandela, the election of America’s first is a symbol of hope.
“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela said in a letter of congratulations to Obama.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is from the West African nation of Ghana, said the vote was a historic event that he had never expected to see in his lifetime. He said Obama’s victory demonstrates “America’s extraordinary capacity to renew itself and adapt to a changing world.”
In Uganda, university students burned tires and hoisted bottles of beer in celebration. Amos Kisita, holding up an Obama poster in a suburb of the capital, Kampala, said he was going to celebrate for “two days, nonstop.”
Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood reared by his mother, a white American from Kansas. He barely knew his late father. But that has not stopped “Obamamania” from sweeping the continent, and particularly Kenya, where his picture adorns billboards and minibuses.
“If it were possible for me to get to the United States on my bicycle, I would,” said Joseph Ochieng, a 36-year-old carpenter who celebrated in Nairobi’s Kibera shantytown, one of Africa’s largest slums.
Samuel Ouma, 36, said Obama’s victory alleviated some of the pain suffered in December after Kenya’s disastrous presidential election, which unleashed weeks of violence here.
Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador, said Kenyans’ love for Obama was palpable.
“With the media coverage over the past few weeks, I sometimes thought this was a Kenyan election,” he told more than 500 people who gathered at his home, watching flat-screen TVs set up in the sprawling garden.
Gibson Gaitho, 14, said he does not believe an Obama presidency will change his life, but he said he was inspired by the incredible rise of a man with Kenyan roots.
“As Kenyans we feel proud,” said Gaitho, who watched the results with scores of other schoolchildren at Ranneberger’s party before heading back to class on a school bus. “Because of Obama, I know — you work hard, you achieve.”
Tendai Biti, an opposition leader in Zimbabwe, said Obama’s victory was inspiring and so was the concession by John McCain, whose fellow Republican George W. Bush will leave the White House on Jan. 20.
“If in Africa, incumbents would accept defeat and would graciously depart from the seat of power, this would be a different continent, and indeed Zimbabwe would be a different place,” said Biti, whose party is deadlocked in power-sharing talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe.
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Gateway Classic Thanksgiving
Staff and volunteers serve a warm thanksgiving meal at the Gateway Classic Sports Foundation
The St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Foundation has announced plans to feed nearly 1,000 people in need from the St. Louis metropolitan area prior to the Thanksgiving holiday. Working with community partners such as the Human Development Corporation Keefe Group and Michael’s Catering, the foundation will host a thanksgiving meal including turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, rolls, cake and punch for adults and children from local homeless, assisted living and women’s shelters.
The 12th Annual “Feed the Hungry” Thanksgiving Dinner will take place Thursday, November 20th, from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m. at the St. Louis Gateway Classic Sports Complex located at 2012 Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. Gateway Classic staff and volunteers from the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark Hotel, Millennium Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Hotel will contribute their time to prepare and serve the meal.
“The Gateway Classic Sports Foundation has served this community for fifteen years through the issuance of scholarships and programs for the betterment of the community, said Earl Wilson, Jr., President and CEO of the foundation. “There is no better way to reinforce the philosophy of giving back to the community than to offer a warm Thanksgiving meal for those less fortunate during the holiday season.”
The “Feed the Hungry” Thanksgiving Dinner is the first community-related event sponsored by the Gateway Classic since the American Family Insurance Gateway Football Classic held late September at the Edward Jones Dome. The event includes transportation accommodations courtesy of the Human Development Corporation for individuals at centers such as the Christian Service Center, Salvation Army Harbor Lights, St. Patrick’s Center and the New Life Evangelistic Center.
Rodney, who was a resident of the Christian Service Center and a guest of last year’s event, commented that he was grateful to have the opportunity to come to the foundation. “Mr. Wilson has always been a gracious man and we are thankful that he takes the time to recognize us, provide us a meal and take care of our transportation to and from the foundation.” Many of the guests choose to personally thank the volunteers and Earl Wilson for such generosity.
For more information about the foundation’s upcoming events or to become a volunteer, call 314/621-1994.
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Will Missouri Lose Its 100 Year ‘Bellwether Status’?
By VERONICA L. BANKS
St. Louis Argus Contributor
Will Missouri lose its 100-year status as being a bellwether state? That is the million-dollar question across the “Show Me” state following the resounding national win of Barack Obama, the first African American elected President of the United States.
In a state that appeared to have gone for Sen. John McCain by a small margin, for the first time, Missouri may not be able to stand on its bellwether status.
The “Missouri bellwether” status is defined by Wikipedia as a political phenomenon which records that the state of Missouri has successfully selected winners since 1904 in every U.S. Presidential election, except the race in 1956 when Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson claimed Missouri over Republican President Dwight Eisenhower by a margin of fewer than 4,000 votes out of 1.8 million cast.
According to University of Missouri political analyst Dave Robertson, the outcome of this week’s presidential election poses no risk to Missouri’s status as a bellwether state. With all precincts reporting results, McCain led Obama by 1,436,745 to 1,442,613 votes. There were more than 2.9 million votes counted -- a difference of 0.2 percentage points.
According to the Missouri Secretary of State office, an estimated 7,100 provisional ballots are still outstanding across the state of Missouri.
Provisional ballots are cast when voters’ names can’t be found on the books used by poll workers. The ballots are counted only if it is determined later that the voters were eligible.
The fate of Missouri as a “bellwether state” will hang in the balance until the results from the provisional ballots are known. Authorities predict that the information should be released either before or after Nov. 18.
Authorities at the board of elections report that far fewer than half of the provisional ballots cast in Missouri actually end up being legitimate, said Secretary of State spokesperson Laura Egerdal. She said that there is no reason to believe that this election will be any different.
Obama spokeswoman Anita Dunn said that it is believed that the majority of the provisional ballots were cast for Obama.
The resounding platform of the president-elect has been “Change We Can Believe In’. Until mid-November, Missourians will have to conceive that one of the changes will be that this state loses its bellwether status.
Obama beat McCain by 52 percent to 46 percent and also claimed nearly two-thirds of the Electoral College.
By Wednesday afternoon Obama had garnered 349 electoral votes compared to 173 for McCain, with only North Carolina, Missouri and Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District as states undeclared
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A Worthy Cause - Guns
& Hoses Boxing Benefit
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay (center) is teaming up with Police Chief Daniel Isom of St. Louis (far left) and Fire Chief Dennis Jenkerson of St. Louis to promote the annual Guns and Hoses Boxing Benefit. The benefit includes matches between local firefighters and police officers and will be held at the Scottrade Center on Wednesday, November 26, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. Proceeds from this charitable event go to BackStoppers, who provide financial assistance to the spouses and children of police officers and firefighters, who have lost their lives in the line of duty. For ticket information please call 314-713-6031
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