Congo Wikis

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Which of these Stories Is from The Onion?

Here are three stories about the Congo. Try to figure out which one of them is fake:

The first is about the Congo's space program, and features an attempt to launch a rat into orbit.
The second discusses the Congolese government's effort to promote economic growth by arming young men with AK-47s.
The third is a touching evocation of the instinctive generosity of the Congolese people, and shows President Kabila giving a $2.5 million contribution to the Haiti relief effort, despite the agonizing poverty confronting his own citizens. The gesture is only somewhat undercut by the fact that the check is a fake: after all, it's the thought that counts.

Quote of the Day

Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, at the Holocaust Museum on December 12, 2009, answering a question about her 2006 call for greater sanctions on Sudan:
I spoke in my own personal view as a scholar at the Brookings Institution in September of 2006 that, if the government of Sudan continued to refuse to allow the deployment of the United Nations force or the U.N.-A.U. force, UNAMID, that it ought to face immediate consequences, including the threat of the use of force.

I believed that at the time, and I think that was a bold, but worthy position. We’re in a different place now.
Well, Rice is certainly in a different place. She never gets around to explaining why the Sudan is.

Compare this to what she said when she was first named US ambassador to the UN: "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again [such as the Rwandan genocide], I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required."

I guess those flames don't look so inviting, from the perspective of someone in power.