headlines in brief

Politics Peace is uneasy in the Congo as dissident forces are increasing violence and… Politics Peace is uneasy in the Congo as dissident forces are increasing violence and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced.

The Congo government issued a decree last month demanding the rebel armies to disarm or “face the consequences” despite dissident Tutsi supporters threatening to resurge a war in the ethnically charged region, according to NPR.

colleen: It’s sad that most Americans’ knowledge of the conflicts on the African continent is limited to a few key catchwords: Darfur, “Hotel Rwanda” and apartheid.

It took a rather intense class for me to even understand the conflict in Rwanda, despite having had “genocide education” in high school – and I’m telling you, as much as I respect Don Cheadle, “Hotel Rwanda” is not enough, nor is thinking the Rwandan genocide to be the same conflict as the genocide in Darfur or the conflict in the Congo.

Conflict in the Congo had been going on for more than 10 years before a delicate disarmament was reached in the nation in 2003.

Despite a strong national army and the largest U.N. peacekeeping force in the world, rebel factions have held a strong influence in the country for a very long time, and everything boils down to ethnic relations. It’s not racism as we understand it in this country – these are ethnic divides that run very deep within the region, and it requires a combined understanding of the region’s history, culture and ethnically based political system in order to take steps towards solving the conflict.

We need to pay attention to what’s happening here because it could have dire effects on the region and its peoples. You can’t pick and choose pet projects when it comes to humanitarian aid. If we can take steps toward preventing any kind of atrocity, including war, then we should. Period.

peter: It’s true that many Americans don’t know enough about foreign (especially African) culture and conflict. I’d be impressed by a group of Americans who could even point out the war-torn nation on a map.

It’s also true that Americans have a lot to worry about right now, from our very own war in Iraq to the problems with the environment and the continually sinking dollar, but an interest in international conflict would do us some good.

When it comes to international humanitarian aid, the people of this country seem to sit along the great divide. One, often vocal, camp claims that the United States has enough problems of its own, and any money we can muster should stay within our boundaries. The other sees the United States as a highly developed nation that should be sharing its good fortunes with those who aren’t fortunate to have the same quality of life.

There’s no doubt that this is a personal opinion, but I feel that the United States (and other developed nations) should be doing more to help the citizens of war-torn and impoverished nations.

In many cases, the people who have it worst in the developed world still have it better than those who have it best in some third-world nations. As for semantics: I use the term “developed” world because I feel that much of the burden does seem to fall to the United States. While we are extraordinarily fortunate, there are other nations that have higher standards of living and wealthier per capita incomes than America.

That said, it’s time for the citizens of the developed nations of the world to join together and help bring third-world nations into the 21st century through increased participation and humanitarian aid. Technology Web-based retailers will be offering special online sales and promotions starting “Cyber Monday” – the first Monday after Thanksgiving – and following through until the end of the shopping season.

The promotion is intended to increase sales for what is projected to be the weakest holiday sales season since 2002, according to MSNBC.

colleen: I generally try to avoid the mall for about a week after Thanksgiving, and I definitely avoid Wal-Mart like I do the plague until about Jan. 10. So, I think the Internet retailers have the right idea to try and allure shoppers to their websites, especially from a consumer standpoint – that standpoint being from the armchair facing my television.

If you trust the Internet enough with your credit card information, online shopping is the best way to knock everyone off your list, mainly because it means you can avoid being knocked over by the gajillion other people at the mall all trying to buy the same things.

I would definitely rather buy something online than in the store, especially if it was included in a special online-only sale, because it means I get to avoid having to face the malls at Christmas time and their creepy, sweaty Santas.

peter: Call me old fashioned, but until this year, I’d never bought a single thing online, and the only time I do is when it’s something I absolutely can’t find anywhere else.

Sure, technology can make life more efficient in a lot of ways, but if you ask me, it’s not worth discarding some of the simple pleasures in life to shave a few minutes off of your schedule.

That said, I’d definitely rather receive a letter than an e-mail. Give me the black-and-white Sunday sports page over scrolling for scores on a BlackBerry any day.

And call me crazy, but the hustle-and-bustle rush of shopping during the Christmas season is something special that’s only experienced once a year.

I say there are some things in life that are worth what may seem like an added inconvenience, because in the long run, sitting in front of a computer with no human interaction is no way to live life – but I certainly see it in our future. Entertainment Activision, the production company for the popular video game “Guitar Hero,” is being sued by rock band The Romantics.

According to Rolling Stone, the band cites that the electronic version of their song “What I Like About You” sounds “virtually indistinguishable from the authentic version,” and, along with recovering punitive damages, is requesting that the game stop being sold in stores.

colleen: Can I please see this printed in an issue of The Onion? Something this funny is too good to (not) be made up – because when I hear that terribly annoying song, which hails from a decade of other terribly annoying songs, I can immediately tell you who wrote it – yeah, right.

I had to do some iTunes research before I could even tell you who The Romantics were. The one-hit wonders should be happy that someone liked their song enough to keep playing it somewhere.

Cheekiness aside, the ongoing debate over who owns intellectual property and creative output continues to manifest itself – i.e. the Writers’ Guild strike and the Red Hot Chili Peppers suing Showtime – and is quite intriguing to me. Isn’t the idea behind art that creative aesthetic is meant to be shared, appreciated and given to people for their enjoyment and own personal elevation?

Obviously not all art is created with this intent and not all artists hold this intent. Music, specifically, is created a lot of the time with the sole intent of selling records to make a profit. But you can’t foretell or control how popular one particular song is going to become, such that it winds up on a video game 20 years later any more than you can control how many times Britney Spears is going to enter, leave and re-enter rehab.

As long as The Romantics are properly cited on the video game for their song, I don’t think that they have a case against Antivision.

peter: I’ve never played a single game of “Guitar Hero” in my life, but I do know who The Romantics are, and I certainly have heard the song before.

I’ve also had no legal training, so I don’t know much about the right to use a song’s likeness on a video game.This sounds to me like a simple case of greed. The Romantics’ 1980 hit “What I Like About You” is certainly their greatest impression on

American music, and if you ask me, I’d say they’ve earned their share of royalties on the song already, as it has been used in everything from commercials to movies to its very own television series starring Amanda Bynes.

If I were a member of the band, I think I’d be happy that my song was being introduced to a new generation via a method that will truly reach a young audience.

The Romantics should just lay off and avoid looking like stiff, has-been rock-‘n’-rollers just scraping for every penny they can.