Bukavu: It reminded me both of Juba, S. Sudan and southern California — needlesstosay, I felt right at home. The Orchid is a beautiful hotel right on Lake Kivu. The Eastern lowland gorillas: in (and, sadly, only in) Kahuzi-Biega National Park. See them while you still can!
Bunia: amazing rolling green hills. I think the pictures say it all (click on them and they get bigger)!
The roads in Bunia (as elsewhere in Congo) were built in colonial times, have fallen into disrepair, and are in the process of being renovated by aid agencies. The myriad of aid agency signs along the routes, take the place of billboards. They advertise not only the absence of essentially any formal-sector business (other than cell phone companies), but also the dominance of international actors as opposed to the Congolese State when it comes to public intrastructure. As we were driving around the roads of Bunia, occasionally we slow down as a barrier across the road (like the metal rod at the entrance to a parking lot) is lifted to let us pass under. The rope is pulled in by a guy in a little shack by the road side and the bar swings up. A sign indicates that a tax is owed by all vehicles who pass on the road. Humanitarian vehicles being exempt, I never get to see the payment process in action, but the guy with a gun seems pretty serious about it. More »
I finally got out of West Congo and into East Congo (the Provinces of Ituri, North and South Kivu to be exact) to see what the other half of this country is all about. They are two totally distinct halves of the country. The populations have had different experiences with/in war: They are made up of different ethnic groups, they have different daily experiences, different needs, and, quite literally, speak different languages (Lingala mostly in the West and Kiswahili mostly in the East, although French will get you by in both places). More »
A few brief notes/questions from the Beijing Opening Ceremony in the Bird’s Nest: Love that they’re using the Chinese way of ordering words, not the alphabet. Mixing it up. I’m not sure if it was Matt or Bob, but the sole comment about Qatar: “Pronounced that way despite the spelling.” Thanks guys. At one point while discussing Gabon one of them also referred to “the wily Bongo.” Love the Iranian team’s open-collar Ahmadinejad-shirt uniform. Where are the North Korean athletes? Those people look like bureaucrats. Putin’s still in charge, apparently. No Medvedev. Go USA for having a Sudanese refugee carry the flag.
Things are my internship are a bit on the slow side at the moment, as everyone is gearing up for the week long holiday in August. No one wants to start a new project right before vacation (understandably!) so I’m left with more time than usual to catch up on world events. This led me to read an interesting column by Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics at Harvard University and former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, in The Financial Times on July 29.
In his column, Rogoff reflects on the past year since the current financial crisis began and asserts that we cannot grow our way out of this problem. One particular aspect of his argument that caught my attention was this question:
“If poorly run financial institutions are not allowed to close their doors during recessions, when exactly are they going to be allowed to fail?” More »
“If you want to steal, steal a little cleverly, in a nice way. Only if you steal so much as to become rich overnight, you will be caught.” — Mobutu Sese Seko
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Another fun weekend thing to do outside of Kinshasa is to visit the Bonobo sanctuary. For those of you who don’t know, there are four great apes: gorillas, chimps, organatangs, and bonobos. The bonobos are the animal most closely related to humans and when you are face to face with them, watching them stand up to cross a stream, or better yet, being splashed by a very amused baby (first photo), the resemblance is striking! More »
So I left a bit of suspense with regard to this story unintentionally, but I’m finally getting around to filling in the details. More »
The Congo River apart from being the transportation and economic lifeblood of much of the DRC is also a great source of fun!! We took the day off for a nice cruise on the river and a picnic lunch on a white sandbar/island. As we were hanging out, jumping off the “cliffs” and generally relaxing, a big boat with a live band and dancers landed on the island. Congolese preformers came ashore and preformed drumb and dance routines for a group of businessmen starting up a new cell phone company. We joined in watching, and dancing, of course! More »