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Your guess is as good as mine. The literacy rate is a full 25 percentage points higher than Egypt's, for instance. 20 percentage points higher than Iraq's.
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I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891 -
77% is quite a high literacy rate for an African country... the country's economy is contracting. But there are reforms being begun by Joseph Kabila. I think Kabila shows promise.For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)Comment
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I think we should send the 4th ID in there and whoop some ass.
Oh and molly keeps posting lengthy articles which don't really say that much.
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. - Abraham LincolnComment
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1995 estimate. Pre-Kabila.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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I have lost touch for years with DROC. Is Kabila still in charge, or has he been killed and replaced by some Elf-puppet ?"I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
"I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
"I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- DisComment
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Ted, Joseph Kabila is aligned with the west... he is enacting reforms.. he isn't like his father, the late Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated.
1995.. was Mobutu Sese Seko still in power?For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)Comment
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I think so. Mobutu was ousted by Kabila some time after the Rwandan genocide (which happened in 1994 IIRC)Originally posted by Fez
1995.. was Mobutu Sese Seko still in power?"I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
"I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
"I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- DisComment
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Same with me, Spiff. Stopped following after Laurent Kabila took Mobutu down. Joseph Kabila, Laurent's son, is now in charge, at least in Kinshsasa.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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You don't need much infrastructure to have decent literacy levels. And even the worst, most corrupt dictators can throw enough money into education such that people can learn to read and write. It hardly means the country is bristling with people that have PhDs......"The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
"you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
"I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - DissidentComment
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At this time the Congolese Government headed by Joseph Kabila controls 40-60% of the country. I put it in the higher 60% range now, as Kabila's troops have been given the upper hand as Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda pull back support. Uganda has been reluctant but has folded and started pull outs of their troops.For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)Comment
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You don't need much infrastructure to have decent literacy levels.
The important point here is what it should bring about. A population with high literacy rates should be more easily administered centrally in a country the size of Congo.
But instead it appears to be mostly a mish-mash of various types of sh!tholiness.I came upon a barroom full of bad Salon pictures in which men with hats on the backs of their heads were wolfing food from a counter. It was the institution of the "free lunch" I had struck. You paid for a drink and got as much as you wanted to eat. For something less than a rupee a day a man can feed himself sumptuously in San Francisco, even though he be a bankrupt. Remember this if ever you are stranded in these parts. ~ Rudyard Kipling, 1891Comment
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I think 77% is a statistical misrepresentation of the reality.For there is [another] kind of violence, slower but just as deadly, destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions -- indifference, inaction, and decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. - Bobby Kennedy (Mindless Menance of Violence)Comment
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Well, I've just read this article (in French), and even though I am too lazy to translate it, here is a short summary of the situation as it was in 2001 :
- Laurent Kabila took power in 1997 after a successful rebellion against Mobutu. He was supported by Angola, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Uganda and indirectly by the US. Each of his supporters wanted to access the mineral riches of Eastern Congo.
- Laurent Kabila was 'ungrateful' to his former allies, and soon was too independant of the countries that supported him. The start of the war, in Aug. 1998 by Rwanda and Uganda. Both countries didn't expect the mess would last that long.
- Zimbabwe enters the war to protect his friend Kabila, and opposes Rwanda-Uganda, on the Congolese battleground.
- Laurent Kabila was killed the 16 January 2001, and replaced the following day by his adoptive son, Joseph Kabila, who begun to implement a capitalist economy in the areas under his control.
- Rwanda and Uganda both were competing for the control of eastern provinces. Such provinces were basically annexed and put under control of Rwandan or Ugandan companies, or sponsored companies. Zimbabwe also uses its corporations extensively in areas that are under its control.
- in 2001, with the rise to power of Joseph Kabila and his diplomatic skills, there was a hope for peace...
Oh, and for the "joke" part : the UN had 5400 observers on this huge territory in 2001. There were talks about reducing this corps to 3000 observers. The UN thought about putting these observers on the internal frontlines, i.e confirming the country's division.
Edit : ah yes, I forgot to tell that Kabila's original rebels now are divided in 3 factions, each of them being a puppet of some foreign country."I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
"I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
"I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- DisComment
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Not necessarily. You're right that it would certainly make it easier than if, say, only 20% were literate, absent any other factors. But the reality is that there are many other mitigating factors (chief among them being different political/power interests both inside and outside the country).Originally posted by DanS
You don't need much infrastructure to have decent literacy levels.
The important point here is what it should bring about. A population with high literacy rates should be more easily administered centrally in a country the size of Congo.
Fez may be right and the number may be overstated, but I don't think that having a 77% literacy level (which is what, a fourth grade education?) should be necessarily idicative of anything else."The French caused the war [Persian Gulf war, 1991]" - Ned
"you people who bash Bush have no appreciation for one of the great presidents in our history." - Ned
"I wish I had gay sex in the boy scouts" - DissidentComment
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Much of the problem is that tribal population distribution doesn't necessarily follow national borderlines. There are many Tutsi and Hutu living in the Congo. After the Rwanda rebellion some of the Hutu rebels hid out in the Congo. The Tutsi armies of Rwanda and Burundi entered the Congo to try and root them out. Their incursion triggered anti-Tutsi violence in the Congo not only by native Congolese Hutu, but by other Congolese tribes as well. Since then the Tutsi dominated governments of Rwanda and Burundi have felt the need to interlope in the eastern provinces of the Congo to protect their own people and their tribal kinsmen in the Congo.
Mentioning the trans-national distribution of tribes in Africa will of cours spur some to criticize the legacy of the colonial occupation of Africa. It should be pointed out that the Europeans weren't to blame for this problem in every part of Africa. IIRC at the time that Europeans made their mad scramble for African colonies in the 1880s and 1890s Rwanda and Burundi were Tutsi kingdoms that had established their dominance of their respective territories by virtue of their alliance with the Sultanate of Zanaibar. The Sultan supplied guns to the Tutsi kings and the Tutsi supplied ivory bearers, usually Hutu slaves, to the Sultans. The Hutu were already living under the domination of the Tutsi when the Germans swallowed up the area. The Hutu and Tutsi living in the areas that became part of Belgian Congo weren't included because those areas weren't part of the two Tutsi kingdoms."I say shoot'em all and let God sort it out in the end!Comment
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