A Report From the Congo

"The vilest scramble for loot that has ever disfigured the human conscience”. That is how Joseph Conrad described the situation in the Congo a century ago. In a long and painful article, Johann Hari writes of how different things are now. Bottom line: not different at all. "This is the story of the deadliest war since Adolf Hitler’s armies marched across Europe. It is a war that has not ended. But is also the story of a trail of blood that leads directly to you: to your remote control, to your mobile phone, to your laptop and to your diamond necklace." "...four million people have died in the dark, unnoticed and unmourned. The generations living in the West today have said nothing while the country has been reduced to near-Leopoldian levels of desperation by the scramble for loot, conducted on our behalf and for our benefit. Average life expectancy in Congo is now 43 and falling. I did not see any elderly people on my journey; they do not exist. In a country where the war is laughably referred to as “winding down”, a World Trade Centre-full of people is butchered every two days, and in the lost rural areas I could not reach, bubonic plague has made a triumphant come-back". This is an important article to read if you seek insights into the dynamics at play at the base of the global economic pyramid. Congo War Current Events Politics Human Rights