Going with the wind

Mutaani Magazine has gone to press

GoingwitheWind — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:11:54 +0000

It has taken a little longer than we had planned, but Mutaani Magazine has finally gone to press. A final couple of days more to wait and then it will be here!!

If you are in Goma, please come to join us at Coco Jambo on Friday night to celebrate the launch of the Eastern DRC first ever glossy youth magazine, get your own copy and have fun!

Cela a pris un peu plus longtemps que prévu, mais Mutaani Magazine vient d’être envoyé à l’imprimerie. Plus que quelques jours à attendre et il sera là!!

Si vous êtes à Goma, rejoignez nous à Coco Jambo vendredi soir pour célébrer le lancement du premier magazine pour les jeunes de l’est de la RDC, obtenir votre copie et vous amusez!

Filed under: CONGO DRC

New start, new project…

GoingwitheWind — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:30:02 +0000

Many people have asked me what I have been up to since I left IWPR. So, just before going on holiday for two weeks, let me give you a little preview of what’s to come. Saying that I am excited would be an understatement…

If you are in Goma on the 16th May, please come to our launch party at Chalet. More details when I am back.

Filed under: Bric-à-Brac

Leaving IWPR

GoingwitheWind — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:57:04 +0000

There are few jobs that can change you the way my work with IWPR changed me. When I started interning at the London office, over three years ago, I was not just inexperienced. I was also insecure about who I was and my abilities to be a good journalist, self-centred and oblivious to the real reasons for which journalism truly matters.

I have wanted to be a journalist, a foreign correspondent, since I was about 15 years old. I wanted the travel, the adventure, the exhilaration of uncovering, discovering, and living on the edge, perhaps. There was a thirst in me for this job. Some will call it a vocation, but it was more like a desperate need, a crave for transcendence through a noble cause. What the cause itself was did not really matter, it only needed being noble and justify my existence on some kind of level. It was about me.

When I was offered the position of radio producer in The Hague office, after my six months internship in London, I was ecstatic to get a first job in journalism at a time when the economy had just crashed and the media industry had been in a bad shape for some time already. I had been preparing for a struggle and I was handed an amazing job on a silver plate.

A year in The Hague, covering the International Criminal Court taught me a lot in terms of doing the job. I learnt how to conduct difficult interviews dealing with complicated legal issues, how to cover a trial, how to produced a radio programme and most importantly I learnt what it means to rigorously pursue a story. I could never be grateful enough to the amazing IWPR editorial team that has never overlooked an inconsistency, an approximation or an unchecked fact in my articles and thus taught me what journalism school never really did. I gained the confidence and the experience I needed.

Face à la Justice, the radio programme I was hired to produce, in collaboration with a Search for Common Ground journalist based in Kinshasa, was a show about justice and human right, initially focusing on international justice and broadcast all over DRC. But after a year of this partnership, we decided to restart from scratch, on our own, in North and South Kivu in order to focus on training women journalists through the fortnightly production of the show. In June 2010 I went to Goma to train 15 women in radio journalism and build a production team.

I met Passy, Constance, Marie, Sarah, Régine, Godelieve, Nicole, Espérance, Lucie, Rehema, Denise, Arlette, Euphrasie, Joséphine and Récente who were soon joined by Clarisse, Francine, Kamerli, Christine, Jacquie, Pierrette, Solange, Magguy, Consolée, Rose, Esther, Gloria et Alboni. Some left, most stayed, and the team we’ve formed has become more than just a team, it is a group of friends who look after each other.

The project has grown over the years too. I was lucky to be given the freedom to shape it largely the way I wanted. We added mobile phone video reporting to the radio and print production. I co-developed www.uhakinews.net and I taught the journalists how to manage it and use social media to promote their work. We transformed our office in Goma into a resource centre for women journalists.

I am proud of having led this project to what it is today. The website is a success and the radio program is a model in many local radio stations’ newsrooms. Many of our journalists have been promoted to reporter positions in their radio station. We highlighted issues that were under reported such as the plea of soldiers’ families, and started debate on issues such as whether women should be allowed to work without their husband’s permission. Though I won’t delude myself into thinking that it is all thanks to me, it is incredibly moving and rewarding to see how grateful the journalists are for all the support and the progresses they have made in their career as a result. Karmeli, who from the expat house where she was working as a cleaner I took to our office one day and signed her up for one of our trainings, is now one of the best journalists we’ve had. Passy, who was struggling between two freelance jobs, is now our star presenter and has taken over Face à la Justice production now that I am gone.

It has been an honour to work with these women, a privilege to be given the chance to nurture such deep relationships with a group of individuals who are not just good journalists, but also beautiful, brave and inspiring human beings. It is a cliché to say, but the truth is they taught me more than I taught them. They taught me humility, the importance of the community, what it means to care not just about a story, but also about the people who are part of the story. While I only taught them how to hold a recorder and write a script, they taught me the real value of journalism.

Taking the decision to move on was hard, and going freelance is daunting, but I am taking with me the greatest lesson of all: that the story will never be about me, and therefore there will be no failing. There will only be possibilities for change.

Filed under: Bric-à-Brac, CONGO DRC

Kabila’s speech in Goma- April 2012

GoingwitheWind — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:00:05 +0000

DRC president Joseph Kabila seems to have finally emerged from wherever he has been hiding in the past months, although it took nothing less than the threat of a rebellion led by Bosco Ntaganda to make him move. He arrived in Goma on Monday, to personally handle the security crisis, and took advantage of a meeting with the civil society to announce that Bosco Ntaganda should be arrested and tried. It was a very low-key event, more “work meeting” than “head of state’s address to the nation”, and I have a feeling that Kabila wasn’t really expecting international press coverage since I was literally the only foreign media correspondent at the meeting and got in more or less by chance. Kabila spoke in Swahili, so it was hard at times for me to understand the subtleties of what was being said, but luckily I was standing next to a helpful Congolese journalist who translated for me.

The speech was channelling two main messages 1. Kabila is “tired of forgiving” and wants to reaffirm his leadership 2. He wants to decentralize institution and give more power to the provinces to deal with their own issues (read: stop blaming Kinshasa for everything that goes wrong).

He started by saying that he is not there to defend himself, but to answer people’s concerns about the security situation.

Defecting officers: indiscipline in the army is intolerable, without exception, and those who are not disciplined will be court marshalled. He added that the situation was now 100% under control.
Bosco Ntaganda: Kabila mentioned the ICC warrant and said Bosco does not need to be sent to The Hague, but can be tried here in Goma, adding “I do not work for the international community, I work for Congo”. Now, he hasn’t said exactly what Bosco would be tried for, I don’t think he made references to war crimes or crimes against humanity but seemed to imply that he could be tried for the defection and “indiscipline” of his troops in the past weeks. Later on in the speech he said “I am tired of forgiving”.
Tutsi minority: Kabila insisted that the issue is not a community issue, but rather individual, and that communities should not be instrumentalized (NB: the president of the Tutsi community made a statement on radio Kivu One two weeks ago in support of Bosco). Making sure Rwanda’s on board?
Decentralisation: he said that there would be a transfer of institutional power to the provinces soon, to allow the local authorities to deal with the most pressing issues such as roads and free education. Essentially, Kabila asked for local authorities and the civil society to stop blaming Kinshasa for every problem they face and take matters in their own hands more. He said that “if the problem comes from Kinshasa, we will intervene, but if the problem comes from North Kivu, you have the answer”.
Fabrice: the singer was kidnapped during the election campaign and rumours were that it was because he refused to sing for Kabila. Apparently Kabila was very offended by these accusations because he dwelled on the matter for quite a while, saying how it was all lies and baseless accusations that were proven wrong after Fabrice was found a couple of days later.
Mines: Kabila said he regrets that he had to suspend the exploitation of the mines, but traceability is needed to avoid fraud and allow the people to benefit from the trade through taxes perceived by the state. He gave the example of Katanga where the minerals trade is financing development.
Elections: He admitted that the CENI made mistakes and that there had been problems. He promised that parliamentarian elections would be reorganised in Masisi (Wonderful irony here).
MONUSCO: Kabila wants to put together a road map to “free” the UN of its engagement in Congo so that it can go on save the world elsewhere. Generous.
Investments: “There can be no investors in Congo if we still have armed men in the hills, the priority is security”.

Filed under: CONGO DRC

Extroversion, an oppressive standard?

GoingwitheWind — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:36:27 +0000

Introversion — along with its cousins sensitivity, seriousness, and shyness — is now a second-class personality trait, somewhere between a disappointment and a pathology. Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women living in a man’s world, discounted because it goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality trait, but we’ve turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.

— Susan Cain in Quiet, one of 7 great books by TED 2012 speaker s.

A resonant quote, for someone naturally introverted and constantly fighting the urge to hide in a cave What do you think? Do we live in an extrovert world? And more importantly, does it prevent certain people from being themselves, and therefore, happy?

Filed under: Bric-à-Brac