Shorts r Dropping?, page-126

For those interested below is a reduced extract from an article re-published by Goats and Soda to remind all those that are invested here and even those that are not for that matter it is not okay to allow blatant corruption by past and present governments to continue in silence, and all those that have the ability regardless of agenda should speak out with a loud voice in support, to simply say, enough is enough, its time for change andPresident Félix Tshisekedi must stand up and prove he is the man and leader that he says is, regarding ongoing corruption, which is still allowed to fester under his watch, his rhetoric to date has not been met with appropriate actions imo.
He has now had 4.5 years (president since Jan 2019) to have made substantial inroads into the huge ongoing problems of corruption in his government (maybe it's coming) but there seems little proof of noticeable progress thus far.
The questions (and there are many) that should be asked might be along the lines of, what have you achieved in those 4.5yrs to improve the lives of your people, what corrupt ministers have been brought to justice and locked up (not slapped on the wrist crap)? What new worthwhile reforms are being introduced to benefit your people? and so on.................

Below is an edited (shortened version) from GOATS AND SODA
How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy
February 1, 2023 Heard on Fresh Air Terry Gross

On government corruption preventing change
corruption is a big part of the problem. That's what allows so much of this abuse to persist. And the thing is, imagine the Congo. It's a war-torn, deeply impoverished nation that has been subjected to generations of pillage and ransacking going all the way back, now centuries, to the slave trade. And so when big foreign stakeholders come waving around large sums of money, it's not a long stretch of the imagination to see that there would be corruption. ...

The first democratically elected president of the Congo [in 1960], Patrice Lumumba, made a pledge that the country's immense mineral riches and resources would be used for the benefit of the people who live there. And in short order, within six months, he had been deposed, assassinated, chopped to pieces, dissolved in acid and replaced with a bloody dictator, a corrupt dictator who would keep the minerals flowing in the right direction. So if you don't play ball with the power brokers at the top of the chain and with the Global North, Patrice Lumumba showed what's the outcome, what will happen. And I think that's also a part of this lesson that we need to understand historically when we talk about things like corruption.

On how China came to own most of the industrial mines in the Congo
China cornered the global cobalt market before anyone knew what was happening. It goes back to the year 2009 under the previous president of the Congo, Joseph Kabila. He signed a deal with the Chinese government for access to mining concessions in exchange for development assistance, a commitment to build roads and some public health clinics, schools, hospitals, and things like that — and that opened the door. Before anyone knew what happened, Chinese companies had seized ownership of 15 of the 19 primary industrial copper-cobalt mining concessions down there. So they dominate mining excavation on the ground. And not just that, they dominate the chain all the way through to the battery level. They have about 70, 80% of the refined cobalt market and probably half of the battery market.

Sam Briger and Joel Wolfram produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Gisele Grayson adapted it for the web.

ps this is just a small insight and reminder to Felix Tshisekedi, do you really want to risk China also controlling the Lithium space for the next 50+ years, given the history of what has happened in the past, it's time you honour your mining code, stop .icking around and issue the mining license, you are directly responsible imo for causing the delay and progress of this mine to the benefit of your people.

SY, have a great afternoon and evening all.