January 11: Journal Entry #14

The first I article that I chose to use for my midterm SDA was "Plundering peace: Congolese natural resources" which was published the summer of 2004 by Stephen Wertheim, a reasearch scholar of Columbia University. The article details how after the Congolese civil war, in which UN peacekeepers were deployed (The majority of which coming from western countries, Japan, India, America, Germany, Etc) many multinational corporations began to exploit the newly peaceful republic. These companies would commit illegal activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the most detrimental being the "illegal exploitation of natural resources [...] in the DRC." These multinational corporations would begin illegal mining operations almost immediately after peace was restored to the Congo, mining resources such as gold, diamonds, cobalt, and cotan. All of these resources are used in the production, and manufacturing of products such as the iPhone. The corporations to blame for these crimes can be found in countries such as the "United States of America, Britain, Belgium, and Germany." The UN had began investigating these crimes in the Autumn of 2006, but the committee that was leading the investigation was liquidated as a result of "Lobbying by US & European governments." As a result the plundering of these natural resources by western multinational corporations has continued to this day. 

The database I used to find this information was the Gale Power Search, and the keywords I used during my search were Africa, resources, exploitation. 

This article is relevant to my essential question of "How do western influences on Africa affect the utilization of African resources in the continent, and around the world?" because it not only gives an example of western influences affecting African resources usage, but it also explains the larger effects of these influences. This being the usage of these African resources in the production of western products such as the iPhone. 

I think that this article is relevant to the field of study because it analyzes a modern example of western influences on Africa, and also shows how these influences creep their way into multinational institutions such as the UN. 

Source(s):

Wertheim, Stephen. “Plundering Peace: Congolese Natural Resources.” Gale Power Search, Harvard International Relations Council, Inc., 2004, https://go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=T002&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=229&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm¤tPosition=12&docId=GALE%7CA120184948&docType=Article&sort=Relevance&contentSegment=ZAHB-MOD1&prodId=GPS&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CA120184948&searchId=R1&userGroupName=nysl_ca_guild&inPS=true.