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So most of CSPAM probably has read King Leopold's Ghost, and know about the Congo Free State and the Belgian Congo. In 1960, the last democratic election chose Patrice Lumumba, who was promptly assassinated due to being overly lefty and asking for Soviet assistance, to kick off what is now called the Congo Crisis. This was a time of the high cold war--CIA were trying to secure uranium deposits in the south (where rare earth elements are now harvested in near slave labor conditions to power our interactive cell phone screens THANKS CHINA), the communists were trying to make inroads in the east (Che Guevara narrowly escaped with his life from the Simba), and in the chaos a young military leader of the west, Mobutu Sese Seko, was able to consolidate power and reign for a very long time. Well, he dead. A number of others have held power briefly, including Laurent Kabila (another figure from the Congo Crisis, also dead) and his son, current President Joseph Kabila. Now Joseph, he's ignored term limits for the past two years, but has now been pushed to hold new elections. His named successor its thought would just be a puppet. Meanwhile, the rural poor (i.e., most of Congo) want for the leader of the opposition, Martin Fayulu, to win. So of course, poo poo is going down. A fire burned 80% of the election machines and caused a vote delay of 2 weeks (of course it is an open question whether they will work with the abysmal electrical grid). Also, because of continued unrest in the east, where Hutu militias from Rwanda (remember that?) are still fighting, and there is an outbreak of ebola (lol because of course there is) so two of the larger cities won't be able to vote with the rest of the country. They just happen to be supporters of the opposition. So they rioted, and in the chaos raided one of the ebola isolation centers. Congo. Anyway, read this recent update from WaPo and lets hope for the best. Election should be in 4 days Bilirubin has issued a correction as of 05:42 on Jan 7, 2019 |
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Dec 30, 2018 03:09
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does China have any influence there How dependent is the semiconductor/hardware industry on Congo exports
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Dec 30, 2018 05:18
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mila kunis posted:does China have any influence there Not sure how much influence they have, but they are working hard to develop central Africa (they are helping Rwanda build major infrastructure). Two Chinese companies purchase most of the cobalt mined in Congo IIRC. Here's an article on the cobalt mining e. and another https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2018/02/28/the-cost-of-cobalt/?utm_term=.f0bbf728db09 Half the world's cobalt comes from Congo Bilirubin has issued a correction as of 05:31 on Dec 30, 2018 |
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Dec 30, 2018 05:27
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i'm sure that there are no strings attached... hahahahahah i can't say that with a straight face is Congo still in a state of civil war?
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Dec 30, 2018 05:34
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get that OUT of my face posted:i'm sure that there are no strings attached... hahahahahah i can't say that with a straight face Oh yeah, Kivu is a war zone. In Rwanda kids are learning Chinese in schools. Its a really quiet thing China is doing but it might lead to a massive hegemony in the not too distant future.
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Dec 30, 2018 05:36
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Colonialism is bad when it's not white euro's doing it so i'm PISSED
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Dec 30, 2018 05:44
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I look forward to the CIA backed coup 6 months after the opposition wins.
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Dec 30, 2018 07:33
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there aren't any muslims in the congo so the CIA doesnt give a poo poo
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Dec 30, 2018 07:38
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Fallen Hamprince posted:there aren't any muslims in the congo so the CIA doesnt give a poo poo there's a lot of brown people so they actually give many shits
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Dec 30, 2018 07:39
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Fallen Hamprince posted:there aren't any muslims in the congo so the CIA doesnt give a poo poo There aren't many muslims in nicaragua either
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Dec 30, 2018 07:41
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Byolante posted:There aren't many muslims in nicaragua either of course there are people in cspam who think the anti-austerity protests in nicaragua are a cia plot, because there's nothing the cia hates more than IMF-backed pension reform lmao
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Dec 30, 2018 07:44
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Bilirubin posted:Oh yeah, Kivu is a war zone.
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Dec 30, 2018 08:28
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Fallen Hamprince posted:of course there are people in cspam who think the anti-austerity protests in nicaragua are a cia plot, because there's nothing the cia hates more than IMF-backed pension reform lmao ugh when is the next charity drive to keep you probated
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Dec 30, 2018 08:55
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Only France should control the central African civilizations.
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Dec 30, 2018 09:03
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Nonsense posted:Only France should control the central African civilizations. you cant trust belgians to run their own country, much less colonies in africs
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Dec 30, 2018 09:40
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The gong show (Cong show?) has started, with missing rolls and flooding.
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Dec 30, 2018 17:34
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This is uh bad
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Dec 31, 2018 11:49
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Bilirubin posted:Oh yeah, Kivu is a war zone. Rwanda is going to be African Prussia btw
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Dec 31, 2018 11:51
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Lawman 0 posted:Rwanda is going to be African Prussia btw What does that mean
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Dec 31, 2018 12:07
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gently caress the CIA forever, and solidarity with the Congolese
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Dec 31, 2018 12:39
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BOTH SIDES WIN! (votes still being counted, except where they will not vote until March, three months after the election is decided) ShriekingMarxist posted:gently caress the CIA forever, and solidarity with the Congolese Yup.
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Dec 31, 2018 18:11
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Kurtofan posted:What does that mean yeah wtf the new prussians are clearly the Kurds, but only if they can manage to found a free Kurdistan in between iraq and turkey
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Dec 31, 2018 22:02
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OK in case you were wondering why no news, its just that the government has shut down the internet and opposition radio to ensure no "fake news" about the elections gets out, because that might lead to unrest. PERFECTLY NORMAL NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT
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Jan 3, 2019 22:03
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The army was getting bored I guess https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2019/01/deploys-troops-gabon-fears-unrest-drc-190105055926860.html quote:US deploys troops to Gabon amid fears of unrest in DRC
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Jan 5, 2019 15:23
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Kurtofan posted:What does that mean They are gonna slice of parts of their neighbors and start another world war
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Jan 5, 2019 16:27
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Kurtofan posted:What does that mean They'll kill to earn their living, and to help out the Congolese
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Jan 6, 2019 00:24
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Sodomy Hussein posted:They'll kill to earn their living, and to help out the Congolese Nice quote:"These deployed personnel will remain in the region until the security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes such that their presence is no longer needed." hahahahaha Also quick history lesson: Operation Dragon Rouge
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Jan 6, 2019 02:14
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Are any of the people trying to lead drc wearing cool suits? Sapeurs are cool and good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2O5yfw20Yg
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Jan 6, 2019 11:14
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Election result announcement delayed
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Jan 6, 2019 18:15
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This seems like a normal and cool country
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Jan 6, 2019 19:45
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Dreddout posted:This seems like a normal and cool country Crushed by colonialism and the cold war. A more detailed story has now been put out by the Guardian. The catholic church's 40k observers say there is a clear winner, the opposition leader Fayulu, and that this might be an attempt by Kabila to steal the election for his preferred candidate.
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Jan 6, 2019 20:27
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Did Trump's tariffs impact on China's ability to nation build in Africa?
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Jan 7, 2019 02:53
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this will end well an unintended consequence at best and bullshit at worst
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Jan 7, 2019 03:00
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The uranium for the atomic bombs we dropped on Japan came from the DRC, the US has been involved there for a while. Also Mobutu was our puppet and got to hang out in the White House with like five Presidents.
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Jan 7, 2019 05:06
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Fallen Hamprince posted:there aren't any muslims in the congo so the CIA doesnt give a poo poo the majority of muslims in DRC are in Kisangani and points further east, but the US embassy in Kinshasa had to shut down last month because of credible terrorist threats from an islamist group I worked in the DRC for 5 years as a consultant (non-military) for the US government, ask me anything
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Jan 7, 2019 05:19
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curried lamb of God posted:the majority of muslims in DRC are in Kisangani and points further east, but the US embassy in Kinshasa had to shut down last month because of credible terrorist threats from an islamist group how are the roads? i read a book a while back about a guy who went from bukavu (iirc) to kisangani on the N3 and he had to do it by dirtbike
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Jan 7, 2019 05:32
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curried lamb of God posted:the majority of muslims in DRC are in Kisangani and points further east, but the US embassy in Kinshasa had to shut down last month because of credible terrorist threats from an islamist group Any decent geological maps? Fallen Hamprince posted:how are the roads? i read a book a while back about a guy who went from bukavu (iirc) to kisangani on the N3 and he had to do it by dirtbike I have my grandmother's journal from when they made that trip (Kisangani to Goma, then down to Bujumbura via Bukavu) after WWII. She was not a fan of the road quality (or much of anything else TBH, I think her Swahili name translated to "the screaching one")
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Jan 7, 2019 05:51
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The roads are... not good, but surprisingly decent in places. The best ones I saw were in the Lubumbashi area, which makes sense since it's the economic powerhouse (copper mining) of the country and their former governor, PPRD (Kabila's party)-turned-opposition candidate Moise Katumbi*, poured a ton of money into infrastructure. Another city with surprisingly great roads is Kindu, which is the capital of Maniema province but otherwise an irrelevant little city, but Kabila's Prime Minister Matata Ponyo is a native and he thus bestowed a ton of infrastructure money onto his hometown. I lived in Kisangani for the first 4 1/2 years and the roads were largely crap outside of the city center, although buses and freight trucks regularly make the trip from there to points east on the main "highway" out of town. I've been told that it's possible to make the trip to Mombasa, Kenya via that road in two-three days, but I have my doubts. My last 6 months were spent in Kinshasa and the traffic is utterly horrid, but the roads in the downtown area and to the airport are pretty good, at least. FWIW I drove myself around Kisangani on a motorcycle, but had a driver in Kinshasa since the traffic is bewildering and other drivers are so bad *RE Katumbi, I was actually in Lubumbashi during his failed attempt to return to the DRC in August. I had to visit two farms in the area, one in Likasi 2 hours to the north, and the other half an hour south of town on the "highway" to Zambia. I was lucky enough to visit the latter farm on my first day there, since that road was utterly slammed the following day due to Katumbi's anticipated arrival. Riot police attacked protesters in Lubumbashi on that day, but I was thankfully in Likasi when the worst took place. I don't have any good maps, sorry!
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Jan 7, 2019 06:07
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on a scale of 1 to 10 how strong was ur urge to go colonel kurtz in the jungle somewhere 1 being a desire to leave asap 10 being your posting from a satellite link in a war camp rn
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Jan 7, 2019 06:25
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RE: Hutu militias, the ex-Interhamwe were pushed across the border from Rwanda into the DRC, and many (along with their families) are still living in refugee camps near the border since Rwanda sure as gently caress doesn't want them back and I'm sure other countries don't want to welcome ex-genocidaires into their country. Rwanda borders North and South Kivu provinces, and the former has a lot of ethnic Tutsis, so the Hutu families are in camps as much for their safety as anybody else's I worked for an agriculture project in collaboration with the Congolese Army (to help feed them, basically), and my job site was on an army base in Kisangani. In 2014, the UN decided to temporarily transfer ~800 Hutus from the FDLR and their families from the Rwandan border to this base, where they were supposed to stay for a couple of weeks before repatriating them to Rwanda. Of course, once they arrived in Kisangani, they refused to go back to Rwanda due to fears of incarceration (or worse), and they've been living in the barracks since then. Out of those 800, maybe 110 were/are militants, and the rest are their wives and children. They haven't been able to leave their part of the base since arriving, also for their own protection - Kisangani residents loathe Rwandans due to the atrocities their army committed in the Second Congo War in 1999. Although I didn't have any involvement in the operation of their camp, I did get to visit when the former US Ambassador passed by in 2015. The UN mission in the Congo (MONUSCO) had provided food and health care until October 2018, when they handed over that task to the Congolese government. Thankfully, it looks like they were repatriated to Rwanda in November, and it looks like the Rwandan government is trying to reintegrate them into society.
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Jan 7, 2019 06:30
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