My friend Eddie Sanders' piece on mining in the eastern Congo appeared in today's Los Angeles Times. It's a really good explanation of the root of most of the DRC's problems. Notice the bit on the "illegal taxation." This - and thousands of things like and unlike it, some good, some bad - is what my dissertation is about. As good as Eddie's words are, though, Wally Skalij's pictures of the crisis, including this one, say more than words ever can about just how sad it is.Eddie and Wally are great guys. We met at the Hotel Nyira in Goma when Wally was climbing around in the garden trying to set up his satellite phone and the hotel staff started wondering (in Swahili) what on earth he was up to. They were nice enough to give me a ride back to Kigali at the end of my time in the DRC, meaning that I didn't have to take another very long bus ride through the mountains.
(Photo by Wally Skalij, Los Angeles Times, October 17, 2005)
