"It's the sound of the police, you hou, it's the sound that I miss, you hou!"


These fellows are probably going to be busy tomorrow with the same guys who burned the Supreme Court last week. Fortunately, they follow orders from the guy who won.

Mob control is always exciting to watch. From afar, that is.

The electricity company always shines in nightime Kinshasa. Not strong

Congo’s national electricity company, known as SNEL, has its headquarters fully lighted at night. Every night, all floors. Unless of course there is a power failure. And recently, there’s been many.

Like Sunday. Instead of our usual activities we played Skip-bo, a card game, all day. Of course, you have so much time to think about why there’s no juice. Ideas pop up like a bulb above your head. Such as “why the fuck isn’t SNEL privatized yet?”

A third of Kinshasa is suffering from the strained grid. In some neighborhoods, they alternate the power between different blocks of houses to fit everyone's needs. Some people get it at night, the others in the day. Some accidentally die trying to wire their homes. In rain, avoid puddles, since electric wires are often dugged out.

The technical director turned to the donors for an explanation: they have been delaying a new power line in the projects. The donors, again. A Financial Times article from today, one can clearly sense that the world powers are ambiguous about what kind of help this country needs.

Incidentally, the same administration has been helping itself, donors or not. SNEL has been selling guaranteed power to industrials as of the recent. “Fast and easy money. But they are so on the edge of not maintaining their current demand, it's a disaster in the making" a business partner to SNEL told me. They’ve been so cash strapped, another source told me this month, they even secretly considered selling their biggest asset: Inga dam. Damn, that's right.

A missed opportunity? I don’t know the subject well enough. One thing is for sure: the people in power have the opportunity not to give you any.

My "papa" says: the politicians can do whatever, but only God decides when it rains.

For the last few weeks, we have been bracing for mass protests in the capital. These never came. Foreign journalists are now eager to leave "dull" Congo.

The majority of the "Kinois" support the guy who failed to win the elections, the first in over 40 years. Speculations were high of unrest in the capital. Especially since last August downtown strife which killed a few (we never get accurate figures in this country).

Now, the last chance for chaos is when the Supreme Court validates the elections. The sun is shinning although the clouds are still on the horizon. Better keep positive, I say.

A lot of people really want this photo. Here's the bigger version. If you publish it, let me know, so I can have a semblance of fame.

My roomates and I survival stash. There was a huge Nutella jug there too, but I couldn't resist spooning in it.

I have totally ignored the elections these past weeks, but with the imminent final results to Congo's first democratic poll in over four decades, I thought I'd share what it's like around town, in DR Congo's capital.

It's election time when…

• canned goods are selling crazy in the super markets. Btw, who the f*** bought the last jar of pesto at City Market? Arghh... I can't live without the thing.
  
  
• all the white kids left town. The Americans’ travel warning is pretty clear on the subject: you stay, your problem.
  
  
• your friends have new phone numbers in Brazzaville. The city across the river is actually another country and also the main escape route for all of us. Message for Nahalie: don’t go tiger fishing without us! Read a funny article on this activity here, especially the chopper attack on Brazza paragraph.
  
  
• bloggers talk about their "go bags" and forget to update their blogs (Afro Voltaire, come on, you're on the list too).
  
  
• the independent media watchers close down the national television for supporting a single candidate. Fred reports on it here.
  
  
• the two candidates promise not to bash each other up after the results come out. Their promise on the IRIN website. Democracy, I tell you.
  
  
• everyone who is neighbor to Bemba (presidential candidate) is asked to evacuate the area. Aha, you thought it was the safest place when you moved there, didn't you? See a map of the closed area.
  
  
• European choppers incessantly fly over.While the drones resumed after two fatal incidents.
  

Unrelated to the list but funny, I saw this photo of electoral staff working by an oil lamp which made me think of this joke:

What did the Congolese use as lighting before the oil lamp? Click here for answer. Electricity.

The two gentlemen sitting here are the sons of Congo’s last two rulers. Their fathers account for almost four decades of leadership in majestic Congo.

On the right, young Mobutu, son of the late famous dictator who ruled for over 30 years. On the left, young Kabila, son of the rebellion leader who deposed Mobutu in the nineties. The Lion chased the Leopard, but their cubs are playful to one another.

Historically opposed pedigrees have joined forces just this week. Mobutu Junior aligned himself with Kabila Junior’s bid for presidency later this month.

Not such an ironic twist, many people are fast to point out. I keep on hearing frightened opinions that make parallels between the corruption of the two regimes. Example to follow.

When asked to comment on the current sudden inflation this week, the Central Bank’s governor explained that the elections are burdening the budget. The IMF has another explanation: the presses have been busy printing extra hard currency.

Same new old really. While one printed his face on bills, the other chose billboards. The spigot is thrusting full force again, like the Congo River in this season of rain. The question remains, is history repeating? Hush hush, take a look at the photo and ask yourself: “Who’s your daddy?”


David, once again, thx for sharing a good snapshot

Top: street kids rioted in town two weeks ago. Bottom: they've been catching them and locking them up since.

Life without street kids is awesome. Last week, my flat mate, Tim, and I discovered the joy of walking free. Kinshasa’s main throughway, the infamous Boulevard 30 Juin, was peaceful. “The city feels like a normal city!” cried out Tim. So fine it was, we went for pleasure stroll, the first in three years.

With the current tense political events and shootings last month, they city’s mood is very shifty. This new change was strange indeed. Suddenly, some 20 000 street souls left the other 8 million alone. Not that they are very dangerous, but they sure fit this definition:

par•a•site, n. :

1.Biology. An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
2.
a.One who habitually takes advantage of the generosity of others without making any useful return.
b.One who lives off and flatters the rich; a sycophant.
Arnaud, the BBC correspondent, told me I was fascist using terms like these. Anyway, where were the kids? I asked him. Taken away by the authorities Brazilian style according to him. Well, less than a thousand got taken away, the rest hid, like my friend Héritier.

The operation didn’t seem to impress any of the Congolese I inquired. Such sweeps have turned out unsuccessful. In fact, I can count two previous occasions. Only, the unwanted come begging back without delay. “You can take the kids off the streets, but you can’t take the street out of the kids”, an Englishman once told me.

And this week they sure did. The begging came back strong. No comment from the Ministry of Social Affairs or the Police according to Radio Okapi. We’re unimpressed.

Nonetheless, I provocatively shared my joy of the sweeps with Josué, a friend of Action Contre la Faim. He runs a street kids program in town. I wanted his views on things. “First they pay them to manipulate them. Then they jailed them. They have no solution. And no one cares, even the World Food Program stopped distributing food to them.”

If no one cares for them, lately, they at least seem fond of one of the candidates for the presidential elections. Everyone gets involved in the democratic process, it’s great.

Indeed. The week before, the kids enjoyed their right to assemble. They threw stones and burned tires. The authorities decided street kids and politics is bad news. Thus, they locked them up.

The situation resembled Lord of the Flies crossed with Apocalypse Now featuring street kids and Big Men. The premiere was long ago, but it’s still showing in Kinshasa.

Only, it’s real and it's now. No news is if it’s not bad news. Arnaud, my journalistic critic, took a hold of the story and pushed the BBC editors to make it prime. Radio, web, tv, the story had the header: “DR Congo children held after riot”. Not a cause célèbre, but a political manipulation.

Or a political campaign by the presidential opponent. Today, I was astounded that the witch hunt continued (photo). I saw two teenagers forced into a civilian police jeep. Gazing at the arrests, I nostalgically thought of my wonderful stroll the week before. And thought: is my freedom of movement more important then their basic rights?


If you want to see more photos of street kids, check out Marcus Bleasdale's collection.

Listen to Arnaud's audio report on the sweeps for the French service.

A reported new lot of toys. 15 of them, or so I heard.

People don't seem to go out that much these days. Kinshasa has thus been quiet lately. Almost eerie. Rumors of weapons coming into town (picture) and last months fighting has kept people indoors.

The authorities are ever more annoying. A constant.

Last week, coming back on foot from a friend's place, stoned policemen on foot patrol stopped my roomates and I. Obviouly they wanted money. Obviously they can't touch the foreigners. So they targeted Françoise, Tim's girl, who's Congolese.

She didn't have her ID. So we had to call her employer's security team. After the stoners understood that we weren't gonna pay our freedom, they just wandered off, not even aknowledging any of what happened.

Sometimes, I wish I had a tank. Not because I want to wage war. Simply because I need to shield myself from Kinshasa's streets these days. Too many annoyances.

David from Reuters sent me this image of Jean-Pierre Bemba's, the runner up of the elections, helicopter. It was destroyed by Kabila's Republican Guard in the latest clashes.

These are expensive toys to lose. This is what the chopper looked like before.

Here are the sites where I get my info:

• David's prompt articles for Reuters
• Dany's French blog with multiple postings on the situation
• radiookapi.net, the UN's radio station's website (103.5 FM in Kin)
• monuc.org, the peacekeeping mission's site with fresh AFP wires

Otherwise, I saw the entire downtown run for their lives today. A cop shot in the air to disperse a bunch of street kids throwing rocks. Suddenly, all of downtown panicked and ran. It was one of the most incredible scene from my balcony.

People are still nervous.

The UN has been playing school teacher. With results: the situation has calmed significantly today, Wednesday.

Yet, the Congolese leaders get zero in oral communication, zero for sportsmanship and zero in maths. No one is talking, no one is stepping forward in the name of peace and no one can count the dead.

Boys, the peace process started in 1999. Then we had another four years to become friends. Then we have the people choose their favorite. Get on with the program!

The peacekeeping mission, assisted by the European force, is currently between the two militias. White APCs with blue flags are spread around the hotspots.

The peacekeepers have notably positioned themselves beside a statue of a dove. The landmark sits in the middle of a roundabout named after Mandela. At one point, the opposing factions were shooting across the dove. I wonder if the symbol got hit.

Meanwhile, Kinshasa’s residents were eager to return to normal routines. The poor have to feed themselves. Two days without income is hard in this city of 8 million.

As for us, the foreigners who live in abject luxury, well, our worker came back today. He cooked and washed our pilling clothes. What a relief. Enough tension, time to get ourselves ostrich hamburgers again.

Tim, my roommate, has updated his photoblog. Many revealing images of our sitting, waiting and watching the action from the balcony.

My laptop is dead, so no webcam. Apparently, Bemba's helicopter was destroyed by gunfire. Here it is flying, in better times.

Sun sets over empty downtown Kinshasa, smoke from an unknown source billowed for an hour. You can see the yellow Post Office, on the Boulevard 30 Juin, bottom left.

Gunfight and loud bangs could be heard this afternoon and early evening in Kinshasa. We are now in a second day of skirmishes between the two favorite candidates to Congo’s first polls in over 40 years.

After yesterday’s election results, and the announcement of a second round of voting, the situation has remained tense. Unconfirmed figures talk about five dead yesterday.

The shooting was near Bemba’s residence, Joseph Kabila’s the runner up. Apparently, Ambassadors have been caught in the residence where they were meeting the big man.

The European force, which came to shoulder the UN peacekeeping force, is apparently brokering a cessation to let the VIPs out.

As for Héritier (guest), Françoise, Tim and I, we spent the day doing the following:

• talking on the phone to find out more
• planning our possible escape routes
• surfing the net, like on this useful other blog from Kinshasa
• playing Virtua Cop
• watching Sex in the City

From my balcony, view on Boulevard 30 Juin. People walk and take rare taxis in between spurts of shootings. The UN was prominent nonetheless and reassuring to us foreigners. Tanks were deployed for the first time as well.

Shooting erupted early this evening and was sporadically heard for over three hours in downtown Kinshasa this evening. Apparently, the tension started when a group tried to takeover a local TV station. It belongs to one of the runner up for the presidential post.

After more than 40 years since Congo’s last election, tonight, 17 million voters waited to see whom they had elected. This was the world’s most complicated poll in the history of the UN. Tension was high.

The main candidate (Kabila) needs at least 50% of the votes to claim victory. Or else, there will be a second round where the two top contenders compete again for the presidential seat. This is a copy of the representative democracy as in France.

The announcement was planned for 8pm, but only came before midnight on national TV.  Instead of the immediate results, we got a lengthy and boring speech by some guy from the election board.

A priest then took the mic in a funky orange shirt, the color of the election board. He’s currently Congo’s most important person and one of the most protected as well, according to this BBC article.  Important and protected not by God, but by his position: he heads the election board. He also holds the Truth, as in the elections’ results.

So, he promptly listed which candidate got how many votes. Bemba (TV station guy) gets 20%, Kabila 44%. This means a second round. I can tell you, everyone is relieved of this scenario.

If Kabila had passed with 51%, many would have turned on the EU observers. They noticed irregularities in last month’s polls, but couldn’t say what margin of error that would have entailed.

The view from my new flat. You are looking at Kinshasa’s busiest corner, which is also sometimes called Wall Street because of the many mamma's who do currency exchange. Read more on money here.

Back in Kinshasa. Back on Mars. In fact, I returned just in time for the announcement of last month’s election results. Will the Congo have a new president tonight? If the leading candidate doesn’t get 50%, there will be a second round.

As I write, three things are happening:

• Cops are shooting their AKs on the Boulevard. We hear explosions near by.
• Tim and Françoise are walking on their four legs
• Héritier, an ex street kid and friend, is playing Virtua Cop on the computer beside me.

Confusion tends to reign in such situations. The streets are empty except for police cars. MONUC, the peacekeeping force, has sent troops to patrol now. We’ll find out what the fuss was about, probably after they announce the results.

Like the European countries having jets streak the skies, this single Russian mi-24 flew over Kinshasa today for Independance Day. This 30th of June marks 46 years of self rule for the Congolese.

Unfortunately, the most important day of the year has become a day of protest more than celebrations. I've never seen downtown so quiet. So we stayed at home, watching the funny bird in the sky.

Can anyone tell me when 30 Juin stopped being celebrated?

I seem to make a good collection of these type of images. See an army plane here, and a someone's helicopter here.

Soldiers performing a Rambo like demonstration for my camera.

If you’ve read the Congo Diaries of Che Guevara, you realize soldiers haven’t really changed. If they managed to discourage the revolutionary leader, they still manage to annoy most Congolese.

I’ve met good and bad soldiers in DR Congo. I’ve drank beer with some, shared thoughts with others, I even spent new year’s eve with better ones. I can both admire and despise the men in uniform.

A soldier in Congo is basically anyone who has fatigues and a gun. Like anyone with a camera can claim to be a photographer.

So there, you have a gun, you’re a soldier. Your boss (who drives a nice 4x4) takes a cut of your salary. That is, if you get a salary. In better days, you get twenty bucks a month.

They give you no food. You’re hungry, so you go see farmers and others. You’re gun is a good argument for them to share the little they have.

In fact, the gun is the reason you enrolled. It gives you power you otherwise could never get. So you develop the attitude of importance. Everyone else is shit and thank God you’re not doing all the physical labor other people do.

Your routine is to keep guard of a road, a building or important people. The army is for hire: if you need security, you can call on them. But much of the task is boring.

Then there’s trouble. You hear a few bullets, and you make a run for your life. It’s not worth 20 bucks to stick around. Tomorrow is another day, and you wanna be there to see it!

Everyone ran away like you. Chaos reigns. The bullets are far away now. There’s no more authority. Pillage time. Rape if you can. This is your chance, make the best of it.

Lionel has some more dignified photos of soldiers.

In October, Radio Okapi published an article concerning illegal taxes by the soldiers pictured here.

"Palu" supporters are as old as their favorite candidate.

Antoine Gizenga was once a prime minister in this country, back in the days when politicians had a cause. First imprisoned, then forced into exile by late Mobutu for almost thirty years, he came back when the dictator had promised national reconciliation.

Today, at 80, Gizenga paid his 50 000$ fee of candidacy apparently didn't even have to pay his 50 000$ fee of candidacy. He will face tough contest from many others. June 2006 promises to be an historic moment: the Congolese will chose who will ransack their country for the next few years, if not for the next decades.