Another Question From A Chicago Reader

This is the second in a series of notes from my correspondence with a reader in Chicago. He writes:

Thanks for the response. My girlfriend is living in Kinshasa working for Voyageur Airlines under the auspices of MONUC. She is a member of a flight crew that transports people and equipment around the DRC as needed. Accordingly, I have been researching the DRC's history and current predicament.

I now understand the point you are making with that figure. My issue with the figure you cited was that it gives the impression that 90% of the DRC enjoys safety and order. My understanding, and you seemed to allude to it, is that even where the militias do not operate, crime and health conditions are nearly as dangerous. Would you agree with that?

I responded:

Yes, that is a good assessment. While there may not be military operations throughout Congo, there is certainly much that remains to be done in the administration of justice, health care, education, and many other areas of development that were retarded by first the Mobutu regime and then the 1998-2003 war. Elections in 2006 were a good step, but a baby one, toward helping the DRC achieve its potential.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

A Chicago Reader Writes

I've been corresponding recently with a reader in Chicago who asks some provocative questions about the Congo. I thought his questions and my answers would shed some light on ways to look at the situation in the DRC.

On Feb. 11 he wrote a short note about my post on the Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra:

from where do you get the figure of 90% as the percentage of the DRC living in relative peace, as you wrote here, and what qualifies as "relative peace"?

I wrote back:

Good question and thanks for raising it. My statement that 90% of the DRC lives in relative peace came from several sources, including Congolese friends of mine who have been in the country recently and a conversation I had with UN Ambassador Ileka Atoki about a month ago. It's not a scientific figure at all, but serves to illustrate the point that the entire vast nation is not at war.

While conditions are far from ideal and tensions exist in many other parts of the DRC, the fighting that's drawing all the headlines is restricted currently to the eastern and northeastern provinces. The situation there is not good, as I'm sure you know, but the rest of the country is "peaceful" by comparison.

I hope this clarifies the post and thanks for following my blog. Please feel free to comment (or discuss matters via email) if you feel so inclined.

We've since exchanged some longer notes, which I'll post in the coming days.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.