A nation barely breathing...

By Dana Muntean

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? In this age of informational revolution and with so many new and innovative multimedia and mass communication products, it often seems so.

The way the interactive started, the combination of music, photographs and the numbers was magnificent, having a very powerful impact on me. Even now in my mind persists the Death Toll in Congo since 1998. Millions of people are victims of the lack of social structure… and when you think that 90 % of them die because of the impossibility to get access to the basic medication.

Although the DRC is Africa's largest diamond producer, Congo’s natural resources remain to be a curse, but not a blessing for its people.

As we can see in this interactive, this society is shaky from its basis. Photographs of suffering, malnourished and ill children are predominant and show how children are enrolled as soldiers (more than 30000), how they die being forced to work in mines or because they do not have access to the basic health services.

The first democratic elections from 2006 do not have the desired results and the elected president Kabila continues to eradicate its opposition and to fight with the rebel groups for controlling out the resources.

In 2007 there were 40000 reported rapes, mainly in the territories with military activities. The scene where the woman whispers about how she was raped for months and how she gave birth to her child in pieces was outrageous!

There are 77,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in Congo and the main part is composed of women (40000).

The interactive emphasizes that the problem of Congo seems to the international community too big to fix, but it provides 2 solutions to it:

1) As consumers, when you buy gold or diamonds , ask where they are coming from, so you could contribute in creating pressure on the industry

2) Education of Congo people. He mentions several organizations, so one of the goals of this interactive, I suppose, is to motivate you to donate more to them in order to make a difference in Congo.

The most impressing element for me was the including of the breathing sound. It is very emotional. If you listen carefully, you understand that there is no way back and you need to become part of the change.

The Democratic Republic of Congo sits atop one of the world's most vast deposits of diamonds and gold; yet it is also home to the world's most deadly war. In Rape of a Nation, photojournalist Marcus Bleasdale explores the connection. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/rape-of-a-nation