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There are some positive signs for Dem Rep Congo. This past summer, President/dictator Joseph Kabila finally agreed to step down and hold presidential elections,

There are some positive signs for Dem Rep Congo. This past summer, President/dictator Joseph Kabila finally agreed to step down and hold presidential elections, 2 years after delaying them indefinitely in December 2016. But the opposition to Kabila has so far failed to coalesce around a single candidate to run against Kabila's candidate,[1] and of course there is no guarantee that even if the opposition wins, Kabila will accept the result without a military invasion or threat thereof to force him out, the way Yahya Jammeh in Gambia was pushed out early last year.[2] It's hard not to be cynical about cycles of former rebel leaders and their families setting themselves up as the new dictators, but at least here, things are looking up. [1] https://www.voanews.com/a/congo-opposition-supporters-protest-against-joint-election-candidate/4654994.html https://www.voanews.com/a/congo-opposition-supporters-protes... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECOWAS_military_intervention_in_the_Gambia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECOWAS_military_intervention_i...

jeffreyrogers 8y ago
That's potentially good news, but I'm skeptical much will come of it. Places like Congo are still quite tribal[0], which is one reason for the large amount of corruption. When you get power you hand out benefits to your people. In developed democracies we often think the benefits of democracy are self-evident, but we forget the long process it took for our own societies to get to the relatively uncorrupt, pretty well-functioning bureaucracies we have today. Plus, Congo has almost no state to speak of. The country hardly has a road network and the government has a hard time projecting power outside of the cities. I believe the infrastructure was better in the 60s than it is today, but I would have to check my facts to be sure. [0]: I think this will get misinterpreted by some people. I don't mean it in a derogatory way, but as a description of how society is organized in parts of Africa. People can be grouped into tribes and tend to prefer to grant favors and power to those within their tribe. It's like nepotism on a larger scale.

jeffreyrogers 8y ago

That's potentially good news, but I'm skeptical much will come of it. Places like Congo are still quite tribal[0], which is one reason for the large amount of corruption. When you get power you hand out benefits to your people. In developed democracies we often think the benefits of democracy are self-evident, but we forget the long process it took for our own societies to get to the relatively uncorrupt, pretty well-functioning bureaucracies we have today. Plus, Congo has almost no state to speak of. The country hardly has a road network and the government has a hard time projecting power outside of the cities. I believe the infrastructure was better in the 60s than it is today, but I would have to check my facts to be sure. [0]: I think this will get misinterpreted by some people. I don't mean it in a derogatory way, but as a description of how society is organized in parts of Africa. People can be grouped into tribes and tend to prefer to grant favors and power to those within their tribe. It's like nepotism on a larger scale.