Congo Once Again Descends Into Blood Stained Anarchy

[viper37]

Typical nonsense talk by someone who doesn't know the belgian reality.

Drakken is a federalist, meaning he doesn't believe that inside a border, multiple nations can exists.  Between in the Borg, only the level of technology differs.

[CountDeMoney]

I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes;  golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.

I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts.  That would be cool.

[Barrister]

I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes;  golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.

I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts.  That would be cool.

I did that from the one job I was let go from.

Now, 10 years later, I wish I'd kept some of it.

[derspiess]

I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes;  golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.

I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts.  That would be cool.

When I worked at Bank One we had an employee day at Six Flags in NJ and they gave us these stupid-ass t-shirts we had to wear that had "Bank One-- It's a Great Adventure" embroidered on the back.  I threw mine out in the garbage along with old kitty litter & cat shit I had dumped in the same garbage bag.  Took the bag out to the garbage collection area for the apartment we lived in & threw it in a garbage can.

Two weeks later when I'm down in the basement doing laundry I notice the maintenance guy wearing that same shirt

[CountDeMoney]

I'm dumping all my old clothes from my previous employer at those Third World drop-off boxes;  golf shirts, windbreakers, you name it.

I so want to turn on the news one day, and see an African child soldier with an AK47 and one of my golf shirts.  That would be cool.

I did that from the one job I was let go from.

Now, 10 years later, I wish I'd kept some of it.

Meh, fuck 'em.  Besides, we were on the ass end of an M & A, so it's not like the name exists anymore.

I may keep the raincoat, though.  It's a nice fucking raincoat.  And the golf pullover.  Water repellant.

[derspiess]

If I had kept all my corporate clothes from the different places I've worked, I'm pretty sure I could fill a closet.  I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.

[CountDeMoney]

I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.

Old school sports gear is a totally different beast, my friend.  Don't ever ditch that stuff.

[garbon]

Typical nonsense talk by someone who doesn't know the belgian reality.

Drakken is a federalist, meaning he doesn't believe that inside a border, multiple nations can exists.  Between in the Borg, only the level of technology differs.

The overall country would still be united though.

[derspiess]

I guess if you include now-outdated Bengals crap I've already done that.

Old school sports gear is a totally different beast, my friend.  Don't ever ditch that stuff.

The fat guy in Section 202, whose gut is stretching his 1980s Boomer Esiason jersey, agrees with you.

I don't wear the old stuff, but I just can't seem to get rid of it.  I have this horrible yet probably expensive leather Bengals jacket from the 90s that I'd not be caught dead in.  But for some reason it remains in my possession, in a storage container in my basement.

[jimmy olsen]

To no one's surprise things continue to worsen.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/9689774/Rwanda-backed-DRC-rebels-in-streets-of-Goma.html

Rwanda-backed DRC rebels in streets of Goma

Rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo claimed they had captured the key, mineral rich eastern city of Goma, as witnesses described seeing columns of troops advancing unopposed through the streets of Goma.

Scores of heavily armed rebels were walking through the city unchallenged as United Nations peacekeepers watched and small groups of residents greeted them, Reuters reported.

"The town of Goma fell at 11:33 local time, despite the attack helicopters, despite the heavy weapons, the FARDC [Congo army] has let the town fall into our hands," M23 spokesman Colonel Vianney Kazarama said by telephone.

Congolese army commanders denied claims by rebels from the M23 movement that they had seized the city's airport, a vital lifeline for business and aid flights that stands directly opposite the United Nations headquarters.

Loud explosions shook the area around the airport, and there were early reports of looting in Goma, a city of 300,000 close to the border with Rwanda that is also sheltering tens of thousands of refugees who have fled the clashes.

"I had seen some Uruguayan UN troops and tanks on the streets earlier, patrolling with FARDC [Congo national army]," one Goma resident said by telephone early on Tuesday.

"But apart from them the streets are empty, there is no car, no person, no motorcycle taxi. We are very afraid. If the UN won't stop the rebels, there is no-one between them and us."

Commanders from M23, or the March 23 Movement, had said on Monday that they did not intend to enter Goma, the main city in Congo's east and de facto headquarters for its massive aid effort, unless they were fired upon.

But it appears that they disregarded that promise in the early hours of Tuesday.

Now there are fears of street-to-street fighting in the city, where most people live in flimsy shelters or tin-shack houses that will be no protection from stray rounds.

Aid workers fear they will face massive increases in civilians with war wounds, to add to the humanitarian crisis of more than 50,000 people already fleeing violence earlier this week.

There were also reports on Tuesday of fighting to Goma's west, around Mugunga, where most of those tens of thousands of people had sought safety after running from other camps.

It will be impossible for the M23, whose total strength is thought to number no more than 2,500 soldiers, to hold Goma, security analysts have said.

But there were concerns that Rwanda, which has denied international reports that claim it is funding and arming the M23, could enter the fray in an ostensible bid to "protect" is porous border with Congo.

Goma is a effectively contiguous with the Rwandan town of Gisenyi, with the two halves of the population separated only by the poorly-guarded frontier.

On Monday, Rwanda and Congo exchanged claims that each other's forces had launched cross-border mortar attacks into each others territory.

Rwanda's invasion of Congo, with support from Uganda, prompted a decade of conflict that killed as many as five million people, mostly from hunger and disease.

[dps]

Has it ever ascended out of blood stained anarchy?

Well, on the occasions that it had blood-stained, iron-fisted authoritarianism.