"And your point? " <chop chop>
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OK, some background first:
They have had a bad run - first the Belgians, than this freak-clown narcissistic and thieving Mobutu, then Kabila senior killed by his own bodyguard, than Kabila junior who, with his sister and through her own (partially owned) bank, stole a minimum of ~ USD 140 odd M. There was probably more.
Then Kabila rules over 2 terms (maximum allowed), does not want to relinquish power and stays for another 2 years. Finally he goes but before he does so, he cuts a deal with the man who will take over - Felix Tshisekedi. Martin Fayulu who won the election is pushed over. By the way, during that election at least 1M people (that's a conservative estimate) did not get to vote and these people happened to live in electorates which favoured Fayulu. (I skipped Felix's father and some others)
Now we hava a new rich kid on the block from a well-to-do family - that very smartly dressed Felix Tshisekedi who declares that he will get rid of corruption. Little by little he distances himself from Kabila and within ~1 year gets rid of all pro-Kabila members of his cabinet and of the parliament.
He than presents all, ~500?, members of parliament with brand new 4WDs worth USD 50K each (so it's USD 25M just for the cars). Mind you, their remuneration was very good so they could easily afford these 4WDs. And there is more, but let's leave it at that.
You ask me what my point is.
My point is this:
DRC is one of the richest, if not the richest, countries in the world in terms of what they have underground. They should be the ones giving loans to others instead of taking them - the latest IMF installment over USD 200M - which is peanuts really in the scheme of things.
If Felix trully loved his country and really had its interest and his people's welfare in mind, he would have intervened a year ago. All it would have taken were 2-3 phone calls and we would have had the mining licence. We had CATH ready to fund it, more funds would have easily been accessible if required. And the DRC would soon be getting tax revenue. This could also be true in, maybe, some other developments/mines we are not aware of.
Also, where were all these DRC-loving-politicians when the Chinese were supposed to, as part of the deal, build infrastructure (schools, roads, bridges, hospitals, etc)? Of the top of my head it was to be USD 6 or 8 billions worth, but they only built a few hundered mills worth of it.
No oversight whatsoever!
No check and balances in place!
Do you see that?
Whose side are you on?
DRC's / Chinese / AVZ's ?
Should one have respect or contempt for such people?
Cheers
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(20min delay)