Comments for Peace X Peace

Comment on We Are a Grassroots Feminist Media Monitor by Claire

Claire — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:07:45 +0000

What a great movement! It reminds me of Miss Representation in the US. What great work you’re doing, you’re brave to be standing up to the media!

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Women in DRC Remind The World of A Local Voice’s Power « Global Thoughts

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:12:14 +0000

[...] was inspired by this Peace X Peace post that I read the other day. It reminded me of an important concept that many people forget. As [...]

Comment on There are already Palestinian Gandhis — they’re women by patricia smith

patricia smith — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:21:21 +0000

This interview is amazing and so heartening!

Comment on We Are a Grassroots Feminist Media Monitor by patricia smith

patricia smith — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:17:17 +0000

You are brave and powerful. Thank you for your work and commitment.

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Cameron Macauley

Cameron Macauley — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:46:42 +0000

Very nice article, very inspiring. However, I find it odd that you say “The women are not opposed to international assistance. However, they want international entities to work in cooperation with the government.” This is a government that has actively promoted violence against women! The government army, the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), is one of the main perpetrators.

I do see the need to work with the government in order to facilitate change, but change takes time and lives are affected every minute of every day.

Thanks for your good work.

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Samuel Maruta

Samuel Maruta — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:23:19 +0000

Thanks Christina for the very empowering article – clear and to the point. We at the Southern Institute of Peace-building and Development (SIPD) share the same sentiments and operate on the premise that for any sustainable intervention at community level, beneficiaries are the primary actors. Please visit our website or the link http://www.sipd-zw.org/?q=system/files/Beneficiaries%20are%20actors%20too.pdf for our recent publication entitled “Beneficiaries are actors too.”

Comment on Can a Smile Achieve World Peace? by rima tahri

rima tahri — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:06:33 +0000

great experience for a lovely lady and friend that i am personnaly inspired by her good luck aya and i wish you all the best

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Patience Kabamba

Patience Kabamba — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:54:04 +0000

Thank you Christina for your posting. I wrote extensively about the behavior of international NGOs, Western diplomats and academics. I can summarize my conclusions in three points:

First, International NGOs people, Western diplomats, academic and UN personnels in Congo imagine themselves as purveyors of those necessary goods of modernity, such as ‘freedom’ and ‘security.’

Second, they make the crucial move imagining themselves as capable of moving across social spaces without being subject – in any sense – to those same social spaces.

Third, they are then a sort of global actors engaged in the elaboration of what may very well be a new or incipient kind of global governmentality, for whom Congo and Congolese are purely objects – and never properly historical subject – upon which various formulations combined ‘compassion’ and international and military policing must be directed in the presumably correct proportions in order to maintain or reinstitute law and order.

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Patience Kabamba

Patience Kabamba — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:51:52 +0000

Thank you Christina for your posting. I have wrote extensively about the behavior of international NGOs, Western diplomats and academics. I can summarize my conclusions in three points:

Second, they make the crucial move imagining themselves as capable of moving across social spaces without being subject – in any sense – to those same social spaces.

Comment on Congolese Women: We’re Not Just Victims by Rose Gordon

Rose Gordon — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:38:21 +0000

Thanks for the well done article. Its so important not to paint people as helpless, hopeless or broken when they have suffered traumatic experiences and responded with courage, resiliency and determination. Often, particularly in the West, we have been “trained” to respond to others when we see them, and not just their experience, as tragic or pitiful. That doesn’t do anyone any good. These women are heroic. As survivors they have “returned” from their experience bearing “the scars of warriors” and their hard-won wisdom, persistence and work deserves respect. As does their assessment of what is needed.
I remember an old peace corp story about bringing water into each village home, becuase the “poor women” had to wash clothes at the well in the center of a village; only to discover that the women returned to that place to wash clothes because it served not just a functional, but a social function. Their conversations at the well brought cohesion and strength to the community. Kudos to the Congelese women for maintaining their dignity and self-respect.