Today, for a brief moment, The New York Times website had a smokey picture of a refugee camp in Eastern DRC and the accompanying article take main focus on screen.

The headline read: "U.N. blocked from pulling workers out of Congo" whereas the photo cutline, or caption, told the real news: "A boy cooked a mean Tuesday in a refugee camp in Kibati, Congo, near Goma. A rebel war has displaced thousands of people."

Hundreds of thousands of Congolese have been displaced and killed in the longest running war in history. Congo, especially it's mineral wealthy East, has never seen peace. Still, our heads only turn when our own lives are in danger - those of our aide workers.

While campaigning for better aide is a necessity, the true and overall objective is to not need aide at all. The rebel groups in Eastern Congo have, once again, rendered any sort of government or foreign faction of control useless. Our only complaint: they wont let our own people out of the country; the people many hundreds and even thousands of Congolese have come to depend on for food, health and security.

No amount of aide can seem to help. So what will? Putting our own forces there hasn't seem to - especially seeing them complain about not being able to abandon the DRC and its people quick enough. My only hope is that enough people will read this so they can begin to care more than just about our own people who are in danger.

Here - without a touch of editing- is an e-mail I received today from my friend in Goma. I opened it, coincidentally, right after I read the New York Times online feed.

hi roxy!

Make yourself aware.

Make your government aware.

Make them care.

Make a better world.

use this to go to the NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/world/africa/29congo.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin