decolonization through peregrination

Richtig toller Einblick: Kulturkrieger in Kinshasa! ZDF: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prFQMMSoYSU

Great visual insight on what is going on in the East of the Congo from Vice.   Auch mit deutschem Untertitel! Doku über den Ost-Kongo: Conflict Minerals, Rebels and Child Soldiers in Congo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYqrflGpTRE "Congo is one of the most under-reported stories of the world. And now we understand why. It is so insanely complicated that its hard to see where to start. We did, however, see some progress. But it is a fragile progress, where anyone with a gun and an agenda can basically have his own little kingdom. So until the government in Kinshasa takes control of its territory, and shows that its army is the only one operating in the jungle, Congo will continue to be a war-zone. And instead of being a blessing, the minerals that fuel this conflict, will continue to be a curse".  

The Congo experience has left me an aid-sceptic. Too much harm and not enough good has come out of the outside 'well-meaning' involvement into affairs they do not take the time to understand. Furthermore, accountability of most NGO rests with donors far way from the place of action... and comprehension. Last but not least, Schumacher's argument on the general philosophy on aid should lead us to think in other ways about what we go out to work on as development practitioners.  He writes (in Small is beautiful) : "Could it be that the relative failure of aid, or at least our disappointment with the effectiveness of aid, has something to do with our materialist philosophy which makes us liable to overlook the most important preconditions of success, which are generally invisible? Or if we do not entirely overlook them, we tend to treat them just as we treat material things – things that can be planned and scheduled and purchased with money according to some all-comp

  We made it out of the DRC and were just on time for X-mas.   It will take some time to 'digest' it all. As before, Gerard Prunier   (Af rica’s World War: Congo, the Rawandan Genocide, and the making of a continental catastrophe , 2008) helps to shed light on the situation (including the craziness we went through to leave) the Congo, when he writes: “With an insufficient tax base and a negative balance of trade, public finances still rely heavily on aid (over 40 percent). Whatever is not in the peasant self-produced and nearly nonmonetary sector of the economy is under direct foreign perfusion. The only services available to the people are foreign-created, foreign-run, and foreign-financed. The UN and NGOs together spend $3 billion a year running hospitals, providing transport, paying the army, and supporting the school system. The only media organ with a national reach, Radio Okapi, is a UN-NGOs joint venture. One of the main problems of this aid, and a problem typic