It seems that Congolese authorities are looking for the lowesttemperatures at which to ignite the vapors of political and socialdiscontent hovering above the country. And this week they just foundtwo of these flashpoints: UNIKIN (the University of Kinshasa) and theBandundu Province.At UNIKIN, academic authorities decided to raise exam registrationfees, no doubt forgetting that the unemployment rate of students'parents stands at about 95 percent. As one could expect, students wenton a rampage, burned a section of the main administration building,before...
Friday, 29 April 2011
Monday, 25 April 2011
Easfer Sunday of Etienne Tshisekedi aka Tshitshi aka Lider Maximo
Posted on 04:32 by Unknown
Twenty-one years ago yesterday, a tearful Mobutu stood in front of TVcameras at N'Sele, a suburb of Kinshasa, to announce to the nation hisresignation as chairman of the Party-State and the beginning of themultiparty system.Etienne Tshisekedi, then and now at the helm of UDPS--the historicopposition party--was quick to appropriate that date as marker for hisparty.This time around, April 24 fell on Easter Sunday and 'combatants', asUDPS party members are called, thronged at the no less historic TataRaphael Stadium, the setting of the Rumble in the...
Thursday, 21 April 2011
From his jail cell at The Hague Jean-Pierre Bemba fires François Muamba, acting Prez of his party
Posted on 04:32 by Unknown
Just as Cosa Nostra dons continue to run their businesses from prison, Jean-Pierre Bemba, an ICC prison inmate at The Hague, fired early this week MP François Muamba as head of the MLC bloc at the National Assembly and as acting president of the party.Thomas Luhaka, Muamba's erstwhile deputy, is now in command of the party, after hastily convening MLC founding leaders to apprise them of Bemba's decision.Hpwever, Muamba refused to abide by that decision and insists that a prisoner can't make a legally-binding decision. Hence, Muamba claims, he's...
Friday, 8 April 2011
Abidjan Endgame: Attrition at Fort-Gbagbo
Posted on 08:06 by Unknown
There are two prisms through which one could look at the endgame unfolding in Abidjan, where, uncannily, Laurent Gbagbo and Alassane Dramane Ouattara have, in a perfect symmetry, swapped positions.The first prism is provided by flicks straight from the Western Channel and suggested by the French daily "Libération" which called Gbagbo's residence in the Abidjan Cocody quarter "Fort Gbagbo."Unable to dislodge the incumbent bunkered at Fort-Gbagbo, the recreant forces of Ouattara have simply resorted to a "blockade" in the hope that, worn out by attrition,...
Tuesday, 5 April 2011
A tale of woe from the boonies: ranting on my stolen Blackberry
Posted on 04:02 by Unknown
Two weeks ago I was boasting to my buddy Al, who was complaining to me about his stolen mobile phone, that such misfortune would never befall me. Behaving like a pedant, I told him that, as I always wear jeans and as I always tuck my phone in the hip pocket of my jeans, I'd never be a sucker to Kinois thieves... Little did I know that just a few days later, this mischief would be played upon me at the family house where I live in this city teeming with sociopaths and kleptomaniacs whose callousness knows no bounds.The irony was compounded by the...
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