If you want to know whats going on in Democratic Republic of Congo
Last edited Thu Mar 6, 2014, 08:53 PM - Edit history (1)
I suggest reading The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair by Michael Deibert
Review
The cover of Michael Deibert's examination of Congo bears a striking image of a young woman in flip-flops playing the cello in a bleak, grubby yard surrounded by a bleak, grubby city. She focuses on the notes on a sheet music stand, seemingly oblivious to the potholes and grime and rain-bellied clouds overhead. It is an apt illustration for a book subtitled "Between Hope and Despair", and invites us to wonder if harmony will finally prevail in a country eviscerated by two decades of conflict and chaos.
This ought to be one of the great, burning questions of international diplomacy. The carnage has caused 5.4m deaths, by some estimates, and the toll continues to climb. Fighting in the east last year spilled into Rwanda. Yet central Africa seldom commands outside attention. Its torments play second fiddle to Afghanistan and the Middle East. This is understandable – there are no Islamist or nuclear perils here to frighten the west – but still shameful. Europe and the US bear partial responsibility for Congo's plight, a legacy of enslavement, looting and meddling dating back centuries.
Deibert's book is a scrupulously researched reminder of how this corner of the world became so wretched, and of the multiple actors responsible: Congolese politicians and warlords, predatory neighbours, hypocritical western governments and a hapless UN. "Though far from a paradise before the advent of Europe's colonial adventure there," he writes, "Congo became a place as deeply scarred and deformed by colonialism as any in Africa, and the bloodshed that has befallen the country since then is not the result of some sort of indigenous, irresistible, immemorial bloodlust on the part of the Congolese, but rather has been a tool used by individuals and governments to advance their own political and economic goals."
A vast land stretching from the Atlantic across jungles and savannah to Lake Tanganyika, touching nine countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (as opposed to the smaller Congo-Brazzaville to the west) abounds in timber, minerals and precious stones. These riches have been a curse, drawing parasitic interlopers who ravaged and impoverished Congo under various names: the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, DRC.
more at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jan/02/democratic-republic-congo-michael-deibert-review
I also suggest listening to this NPR interview with Ben Affleck and Russ Feingold:
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/06/286646528/affleck-feingold-draw-attention-to-violence-in-congo
= new reply since forum marked as read
US companies (PDF):
kinshasa.usembassy.gov/media/pdf/american-companies-in-drc--june-2011.pdf
Doing business in the DRC (also a PDF) - discusses the climate, corruption, how to start up doing business there, resources, etc
www.buyusainfo.net/docs/x_9956498.pdf
From here:
http://kinshasa.usembassy.gov/doing-business-local.html
Enlightening information at any rate. Our government tends to gloss over some things 
I was reading the investment one pager on Lesotho on textiles and not a peep about child labor violations there. You'd think it would warrant a mention when discussing how to invest, they did mention though that the corp tax rate is zero percent.
Two dozen men in the Democratic Republic of Congo have launched a group to fight for women's rights in the region, which has been called the worst place in the world to be a woman. "Women's rights don't just affect feminist movements," the members of V-Men Congo said in a statement announcing the group's formation.
"The stakes are global. It's about our common humanity and the future of our society." The group, led by Denis Mukwege, a celebrated doctor known for founding a clinic for rape victims in eastern DR Congo, was launched ahead of International Women's Day on Saturday. Its mission is to combat "shameful" discrimination and misogynistic attitudes, which impede economic development, it said.
"Let's break the silence, let's change the mindset of our sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, and let's put an end to impunity and to sexual violence," it said. The group takes its name from the V-Day movement aimed at ending violence against women and girls, started by activist and playwright Eve Ensler, the author of The Vagina Monologues.
The V stands for victory, valentine and vagina. The cradle of back-to-back conflicts that devastated the country from 1996 to 2003, DR Congo's resource-rich east continues to be ravaged by rebels and militia that rights groups say use rape as a weapon of war. Every day, 1152 women are raped in DR Congo, found a 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/03/08/congolese-men-launch-feminist-group
Thank you Dr Mukwege, you are a hero~!
