THE FAMILY
THOMPSON-ROBINSON 2012 WRAP-UP
The year 2012 proved to be a year of change for the
Thompson-Robinson clan – change of environment, of circumstance with new
beginnings. After 3 years of work
to help strengthen Congolese civil society and their ability to advocate for
fundamental change in governance in the DRC, Eve’s contract came to an end and
at the end of January, she rejoined the National Democratic Institute, www.ndi.org
(NDI had previously employed her in Guinea Bissau) as Resident Director
in the DRC. In that position, Eve
was obliged to overcome her natural aversion to politicians in making the
transition from civil society to politicians as they are NDI’s mandated
constituency under its current grant from the National Endowment for Democracy,
www.ned.org. Her assumption of the post came in the wake of the
disastrous presidential and national parliamentary elections in November 2011
when the majority of the general public in the DRC and the international
community were crying foul and openly challenging the legitimacy of the
election results which saw the re-election of Joseph Kabila and the election of
national parliamentarians, the majority of whose success was widely attributed
to bribery of officials at counting stations or manipulation of the results in
Kinshasa, the nation’s capital.
As one participant in one of Eve’s workshops introduced himself – “I am
[so and so] parliamentarian, massively elected but not declared.” In other words, most unsuccessful
parliamentary candidates felt that they had been robbed. Eve thus found herself thrust into the
center of a political storm in which most opposition politicians and some even
from the majority were asking NDI to organize some form of national dialogue
using a prominent and well-respected mediator – many had called for Bill
Richardson (the former governor of New Mexico) who is widely associated with
having persuaded the late Congolese dictator, Mobutu Sese-Seko, to step
down. After weeks of meetings
spearheaded by Eve and her NDI team to bring all together, the majority refused
to come to the table under orders that came directly from Kabila himself. That notwithstanding, it was clear that
after these efforts, Eve and NDI were on the president’s radar screen. The president actually persuaded his
sister, Jaynet, an enigmatic member of his inner circle (it is not clear how
influential she is with the president and if so how positively or negatively)
to accept NDI’s invitation to the Democratic National Convention later that
year. She is pictured here with
Eve after Eve and a colleague from headquarters met with her to formally invite
her to the convention.
Meanwhile, as Richard continued into the new year working as
the conflict minerals expert for the US Agency for International Development,
he encountered a slight problem on the sporting front with a freak tennis
accident that required an airlift to Pretoria, South Africa. The attending surgeon who is accustomed
to encountering rugby injuries remarked that the several fractures to Richard’s
left pinky were among the worst she had ever seen and his right wrist was also
badly damaged. After just over 2
weeks in Pretoria, despite his continuing convalescence, Richard still made
several trips to Eastern Congo where
he has continued to coordinate pilot efforts to demonstrate that
certification and traceability of artisanally mined gold, coltan, tin and
tungsten is possible to allow U.S. listed companies to source from the Great
Lakes and generate higher revenue for local miners and exporters. He is back on the tennis court now but
has learned to take it a bit easier.
While pilot conflict minerals reform efforts continue to be possible,
the big crisis in the eastern DRC is the rebellion of Rwandan-supported
ex-soldiers which has thrown North Kivu into an ongoing see-saw involving not
only the M23 rebels, but an increasing number of Mai-Mai militia in both North
and South Kivu who have filled the vacuum where the Congolese Army has had to
focus on the rebels. Over a
million people are displaced with looting, rape and child soldier recruitment
common on all sides. The eastern DRC
crisis is really a reflection of the larger governance crisis facing Kabila,
and as we turn to 2013, the outcome does not look promising. We hope that perhaps the dramatic
crisis could generate enough motivation by internal and external actors to
fundamentally shift the direction of democracy in the Congo, which has
deteriorated to repression and corruption worse than under Mobutu.
Major transitions for two of the boys came when Lawrence
graduated from American University and Richard graduated from The American
School of Kinshasa (TASOK).
Lawrence graduated with a degree in Philosophy.
He then returned to DRC to take up an internship with
USAID/DRC and was later retained by them as a research assistant with a 9-month
contract working in the program office.
A major assignment he was given was to make a video to attract USAID
foreign service officers to chose DRC as a work destination since DRC is never
high on the list of country destinations for most USAID staffers compared to
places like South Africa, South America or Asia. The quality of the video was widely praised (you can access
it, complete with an interview with tennis star Eve at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVCBXvQXBwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEVCBXvQXBw)
especially since it brought immediate positive results. Within one week of posting the video
internally within the USAID system, many employees added DRC as a priority
destination!! Well done to
Lawrence! Another big pull for
Lawrence in his return to the DRC was his burgeoning romance with Sylvie
Kashongwe who hails from the Kivus and from an exceptionally accomplished
family of mostly lawyers (her dad and sister – the latter works with Eve). The two young women have been a major
part of our lives in 2012.
Sandrine has been such an outstanding employee of Eve’s that Eve has
been engaged in a tug of war for her with her former organization to whom
Sandrine is currently on loan in Haiti.
The Kashongwe girls are featured below in Richard's graduation picture – Sylvie on the left and Sandrine on the right.
Richard finished TASOK with a bang and throughout his high
school career was widely praised as a leader and peace maker at the
school. A relationship that he
initiated during a model United Nations session in Nairobi with a leading young
Kenyan activist, Boniface Mwangi, led to Richard arranging an internship at
Boniface’s organization, Pawa254, http://www.pawa254.org/
. After the internship
in Nairobi where he stayed with Boniface and his young family, Richard returned
to Kinshasa briefly before heading on to his first year as a Banana Slug at
University of California at Santa Cruz, which he is thoroughly enjoying.
The family minus Christopher celebrated Lawrence’s and
Richard’s graduation with a trip to Bombolomeni (about 2 hours outside of
Kinshasa) as one last field trip before Richard headed out and Lawrence took
over his bedroom.
Meanwhile, Christopher worked extremely hard as a food runner
at St. Arnold’s restaurant in Cleveland Park, Washington, DC, http://adamsmorganbar.com/. His
girlfriend Mayra Villanueva hails from El Salvador and Christopher says she
brings out the best in him! He
plans to continue working in Washington and begin taking college courses again
in 2013. He has learned a lot
about the lack of good management in the restaurant business and through Mayra
has learned lots about El Salvador.
Lawrence’s and Eve’s graduation from university were
separated by exactly 30 years and so just after Lawrence’s graduation, Richard
Sr., Eve and Lawrence headed to New Jersey for Eve’s 30th reunion at
Princeton where they take reunions seriously. Lawrence and Richard were a bit blinded and overwhelmed by
all the orange.
On the other
hand, they loved the different seminars, one of which featured this amusing
video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDhf9qwiA34
The height of the year for Richard Sr. by far was his
15-day, 3000 kilometer trek with
14 other colleagues in four 4 x 4 vehicles across the Congo from Kinshasa to
Lubumbashi. None of the locals
could understand why anyone would want to undertake such an adventure without
having been forced to do so! You can see the tales of Richard’s adventure on
his facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.4148088354292.158969.1646331825&type=1 as well as on the US Embassy Kinshasa
website, http://kinshasa.usembassy.gov/highlight_english_10242012.html
It was also sister bonding time for Eve this year when she
met up with her sister Gail, another avid tennis fan, in Istanbul to witness
the final weekend of the WTA tour finals where the top 8 women of 2012 fought
for the top honor of women’s tennis.
That honor went to Serena Williams – no surprises there. Another great sparring match was
between Gail and Eve, who has been devotedly playing three times a week in Kin
on our wonderful clay courts at the Cercle de Kinshasa.
Then later in the year, Eve and sister, Gail sponsored
sister Tracey to join them in Paris as a gesture of thanks for Tracey’s
tireless efforts in caring for Mom and Dad as the only sister left in the US. It was their first ever sister trip and though rainy – it
was still Paris!
And lastly, a work highlight for Eve was her/NDI’s response
to a request by the US Embassy to organize an election watch event related to
the US elections on November 6th. The biggest logistical challenge was how to keep folks
entertained from 7pm (Kinshasa time) on the 6th through to when results
would start coming in given the 6 hour time difference. In the end, the multiple activity
event was hailed as a resounding success with a turnout of approximately 700,
about 150 of which remained until 5:30 in the morning when the results were called. We were mostly overwhelmed and moved by
how so many Congolese were so invested in the outcome and overjoyed by the
result. We were also proud
that kids from TASOK made a significant contribution to the event by creating
booths to educate visitors about the history of Republicans, Democrats and 3rd
party participation in elections.
Needless to say, we as Americans, were all delighted at the
election outcome given that from our perspective as “citizens of the world”,
Obama was far more palatable as an international interlocutor vis a vis the rest of the world. Like everyone else, he did not meet our
expectations during the last 4 years and we hope that he will feel more free to
be bold in the next 4.
We also look ahead to 2013 with renewed optimism for the
Congo as internal change may
develop and more pressure is being brought to bear on the US and other major
international stakeholders to do more to help save the country from the
predatory forces from within and without.
As Richard’s contract with USAID has been renewed for another 2 years
and Eve’s with NDI extended at least until November, we will remain in Kinshasa
for awhile. All
visitors are welcome and we wish all a fruitful and glorious new year!
Our year ended with a reunion in New Hampshire with all five
Thompson-Robinson’s with all of Eve’s family, a treat we have not had for some
time. This is the beginning of a
rare “home leave” of six weeks where we will be able to catch up with friends
and family in the U.S. through the end of January. We also look forward to breaking ground on our
retirement and southern hemisphere base at Noetzie, Knysna on the Indian Ocean
Garden Route early in 2013.
Best wishes to all for our collective future,
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