Hey, Did You Hear...?

• Did you hear Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher were seen together at a service even though they're separated?
• Did you hear Dr. Conrad Murray said Michael Jackson begged him for drugs saying, "Please, please"?
• Did you hear Rosie O'Donnell has a new girlfriend on her arm?

Did you hear that women in Congo are being raped by men in Africa? No? Shocking.

Why is it that we know all this stuff about celebrities, but are less aware about the serious issues happening internationally? We know all the updates about the latest couples who got married, those who got divorced, and those who had a baby. I had this conversation with students in my class a few weeks ago. I spoke up in class and I'll speak up again. No one cares. Don't comment on this post saying it's not true; you care and you know many people who do. Oh yeah? Did you care five minutes ago before you read this? Do you constantly think about the suffering and pain that Congolese women have to endure at the hands and guns of soldiers? You do? Liar.

I have not even been able to find a CURRENT article speaking about this. I got as close as May of this year. It was study results showing that "Forty-eight women raped every hour in Congo". That statistic is probably higher by now seeing how almost six months has passed and not every woman is going to admit she has been raped. This means that, in Congo, there is almost one woman being sexually abused every minute of every day. It is completely disgusting. You know what, I am going to skip a line - no, two lines - and start a new paragraph so you can wrap your head around that for a bit.


I have a math equation. The study that was published in the American Journal of Public Health found that 1,152 women are raped every day. The United Nations thought there was an estimated 16,000 rapes a year. 1,152 rapes per day x 365 days a year = 26 times more than 16,000 (420,480). Someone in the UN needs a new calculator. They are just as ignorant as and oblivious as North Americans.

For those of you with a little bit of skepticism, wondering if this number is real, if these women are truly getting raped or if they just miss their husbands, check this out:

Women here have so much freedom. We can walk around and live our lives for the most part of not feeling scared, or at least not thinking we are the next one to get raped. I'm not asking you to pass this along to ten friends because I will not promise you good fortune in the next 3 days at 5:47 pm. As gruesome as this sounds, I just hope this pops in your head once awhile. And when it does, please speak about it.

I declare that I will figure out a way how to blow this open, how to help these women, how to get their voices heard so us rich comfortable people can feel at least a little bad for ignoring them all these years.