Worst News of the Day
October 7th, 2007This article is the worst I’ve read in a long time. I won’t do it the injustice of excerpting it, as you should read it. Basically, a mass, violent rape is going on in East Congo, which is terrible after they spent five hundred million dollars democratizing that country. A few thoughts:
1. The scope of these crimes is astounding.
2. 500 million dollars? For an election? Are you kidding me? That’s about what our Presidential election costs. That’s ourtrageous by our standards — and completely baffling by theirs. What, did they blow all that cash on private planes? Attack ads for the televisions that people don’t generally have on airwaves that don’t generally cost you millions to advertise on?
In The Price of Loyalty, Paul O’Neill talks about building a well for an African country — I believe Ugana — and how a private business had told them, “You will have to pay 30 million,” or some outrageous number, and O’Neill looked everything over and said, “This is two, tops.” Point: someone got really rich off of their elections, and it’s a disgrace.
3. How long can this go on? At this rate? When the Darfur genocides began, I said to myself, “How long can this go on? I mean, they can’t kill people forever, can they?” but they have. And I find that incredible, that the Darfur situation hasn’t at least gotten better, if only marginally. How long will this brutality go on before anybody steps in? And why isn’t it talked about as much as the conventional, non-sexual violence in the Congo from awhile back?