The Congo. a long time ago, about a century ago, Belgium colonized it. Twas called the Congo Free State. Estimates vary, but about 10 million died. There was a trade, a currency if you will, in severed hands.
That’s where most of the world’s rubber came from, when rubber was first becoming important–bicycle and car tires. So juxtapose those two images in your mind–genocide and a ride through the park in your giant wheeled early-model bicycle.
The ironic thing about this, well one of them, was that most of the rubber went through Antwerp. Antwerp was named after some Greek myth or something, wherein a giant likes to chop off men’s hands. There’s a statue there of a man, a nude man, holding a severed hand, and there’s water coming out of it. It’s a fountain (here’s a picture of it, you just get the profile.)
There’s something about severed hands. They have a great deal of power in Voodoo. I wonder if that had anything to do with it. If someone wasn’t selling those severed hands. You ever see or hear about the trade in Ape hands? Or tiger paws?
So, fast forward through a century of horror in the Congo. Read about it if you want.
I came across this top 25 list today. The top 25 censored stories of 2007. Scroll down to #5. Basically, among a bunch of valuable natural resources, there’s something that is mostly used in cell phones. Something, I gather, that is necessary for cell phones. keyword: tantalum capacitor. Estimates of 6-7, or even 10 million dead in the last 10 years.
There’s something really horrible going on in the Congo. And has been, for over a century.
And this makes me think–This is the general way that things are going in this world. Conversion of biodiversity, of humanity, of ecology, into industry. Machine and plastic trash. Computation and pollution.
Watch the fuck out world, something really big and bad is being born.
I’m not trying to moralize it–it’s a big, really big death. And a really big birth. So keep playing your videogames, it’ll come in handy some day. And try not to feel guilt when you’re tooling around on your (now synthetic) rubber tires, talking on your cellphones, drinking from your plastic drink container.