The UN decided to pull peacekeeping troops out of The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Phase 1 of the departure of the UN-DRC peacekeeping mission, MONUSCO, was completed on June 25, 2024. This plan was executed even though the conditions in the country are dire. Phase 2 ha now been paused but the departure is expected to be completed at the end of 2024.

The movie star Orlando Bloom describes the exploitative conditions he found during a recent humanitarian trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
( He writesCollapse )


Image: On June 2, 2024, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Orlando Bloom hugs an 8-year-old girl, a child conceived through rape, while visiting Panzi Hospital in Bukavu, South Kivu province. PHOTO COURTESY OF VINCENT TREMEAU/UNICEF


Orlando Bloom speaks up about the suffering of children in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He describes how children in the DRC are abused as child soldiers, raped, and suffer from actual hunger, and he criticizes how little public attention it gets in 1st world countries:

As is the case in most conflicts, children and women are most affected. Malnutrition remains critical, with more than 1.2 million children under 5 years of age requiring treatment for severe wasting. At the end of last year, 848 schools were closed due to insecurity, disrupting the education of more than 300,000 children.
The DRC regularly ranks among the top three countries with the highest number of grave violations against children. Last year, the U.N. verified more than 3,750 violations against children, including 1,861 children who were recruited and used by armed groups. These are just the reports that the U.N. was able to verify, and the true number is likely even higher.
Almost no one is talking about these atrocities against children.

He continues:
( trigger warning: rape of childrenCollapse )

Full text and more photos at the source:
https://www.newsweek.com/orlando-bloom-drcs-childrenrecruited-fight-killed-rapedneed-violence-stop-now-opinion-1922532

https://www.jurist.org/news/2024/07/un-peacekeeping-exit-in-drc-paused-amid-risk-of-wider-conflict/

Do you have ideas on what you and I can do to help?
I purposefully use my phones until they no longer function and will probably buy an ethical smartphone the next time I need one. Apart from that I do not have a lot of ideas... Donate? Demand the UN reverses its planned withdrawal of peacekeeping troops?

I do not have a fryer, air fryer or convection oven. Just a standard oven with gas. It is not new, it is not fancy, and it has seen better days.
For years every time I tried to make fries in my oven I was kind of happy because "Fries, how can you not be happy?" but also unhappy at the same time. Because they never turned out as well as I thought they should be and could be. I tried different brands. I tried the specially designated oven fries. I tried curly fries. Sweet potato fries and vegetable fries. Extra-thick fries. Wavy fries. All of them.
Inevitably the thin ones would burn, and the thick ones would be undercooked. I thought the wavy fries would be lifted up from the baking sheet and that would finally do the trick. Nope. The fancy curly fries which looked so appetizing and crispy on the package were just sad and soggy. But last week I made a breakthrough...

Today I bring you the gospel of pommes gaufrettes, Gitterpommes, or lattice fries!

I can not believe I managed to get this old and only discovered them now. I wondered whether they were a new thing so I searched around a bit.

Lattice fries, as near as anyone can trace them, originally appeared in the Ritz restaurant , 722 N 10th, Quincy IL owned by Eddie Spickler in 1921. He served ground tenderloins with a side of lattice fries for $.10. He may not have been the inventor but he did have the tool specially made in a Quincy machine shop at that time. Quincy thus claims the title "Lattice Fries Capital of the World".

Apparently they are old news but I am nonetheless proud of my discovery. I bought them twice now.
So on the off chance you are unhappy about soggy fries as well, get thee to a supermarket and buy some lattice fries! And if you are sitting there shaking your head at the silliness of this post because you knew about lattice fries all along...
You should have told me! Shame on you!

I miss LJ idol. Even if it was stressful to write to a deadline it got me writing and I am really glad I have these entries now. If I can post whenever about whatever.... I have all these half-baked ideas but I never sit down and actually put them to paper (or keyboard). Do you know about another writing community on LJ? Or writing prompts where people actually give a shit?

I dislike it when a guy asks me to coffee. I just don't know what his intentions are. A man I had a crush on for the longest time asked me to go have coffee with him. We have seen each other in social settings but never one on one. And that is fine because he used to be married so I did not think anything could come of it. But now he's divorced. He tells me this in the same email. He also asks me about what I am learning in school because he is in the same industry. Does he want to become closer friends? Does he think this is a date? An informational interview? I would have been thrilled if he asked me out. Terrified but thrilled. As it is I am only terrified.

I associate coffee with work breaks. Maybe a quick chat with a colleague. Not inherently romantic or sexy.
I did not reply to the coffee request. I meet the man some months later and he is dating someone. I am still not sure whether the coffee ask was a date ask.

I feel stupid. Either because we had an opportunity and I let it pass by. Or because I think there was an opportunity when there was in fact no such thing. I dislike it when a guy asks me to coffee.

We are saddened by the news of African and other international students being denied at the border as they attempt to leave Ukraine. We are hopeful that the various embassies could swiftly rectify the situation to help those in need of support.

— BeyGOOD (@BeyGood) February 28, 2022

Background:

After president Vladimir Putin ordered attacks on Ukraine last week, thousands of people have been fleeing Ukraine seeking refuge. Many of these people are immigrants in the country, a good number of them being African. Seeking safety hasn’t been particularly easy for the black and African immigrants in particular as they are being met with blatant bigotry and racism at various borders.

There have been numerous reports about black people being pushed back every time they reach the front of the queue, waiting for days on end.

( first-hand reports and picturesCollapse )


I originally wrote this for ONTD but wanted to have a version in my own journal as well and could not figure out how to cross-post. The ONTD post is here: https://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/122857670.html