The Congo has taken over the top news spot..
We've even sent our Foreign Minister, along with David Millibands French counterpart.. off to try and broker some kind of cease-fire between the Tutsi rebel Chief General Laurent Nkunda and the D.R.C.'s elected president Joseph Kabila..
Best of British to both of them.. This 'war' ended officially five years ago.. and the word from a Congolese representative speaking from the UN to the BBC, the Congolese people want the hundreds of thousands of Rwandans who fled from their own country back in 1994. It was somewhat surprising to hear a diplomat speak with such candour.. for he clearly blamed all the current atrocities being reported on a few Government troops caught up in the moment.. perhaps if he'd known he could have cited Lt. William Calley and MaiLai.. however stressed the vast majority of these rapes..looting..killings..are the work of the rebels..
And then there's the UN Peacekeeping Force.. the largest deployment of UN troops in any theater at the moment..
Some 17 thousand of them, and by all reports, they're not sure who they should be firing at..
Tin.. Gold.. Oil Tar..
The Congo is well supplied with these, and fighting or no fighting, international interests are still mining and pumping out that tar. The country has the potential for providing an economy..establishing an infrastructure..developing beyond ancient parochial problems..
But that would mean those businesses already entrenched in active operations.. would have a stable government to deal with.. with Congolese resources demanding parity with the international commodities market.
However.. that is not the focus of the reporting.. We are concentrating instead on the humanitarian issues.. the problems of distributing supplies.. although the rebels have announced they will allow safe passage for relief transports.. Pictures of starving women and children act as the backdrop for reports from the refugee camps..
The latest news..broadcast as this is being typed.. is that rebel troops have attacked a refugee camp which was home to some 10 thousand former Rwandans..killed hundreds, and burnt it to the ground.
Now.
Cast your thoughts, or have a look, at African history as recorded by African scribes and oral tradition. Long before there was contact with any outside influence, a society developed. Perhaps what we might call a Feudal System, the various tribes frequently went to war. Warlords ruled their fiefs, and gave their allegiance to a central figure..The rich were rich.. the poor starved.. the middle class got by.. and, until Christian ethic came upon them, life itself was not 'sacred'. Their belief gave them a peace with death which fit the conditions in which they lived..
While the attitude towards death may have changed in some.. it certainly hasn't in others. And the system of government is much the same.. with the only difference being that those who use weapons have much better toys to play with.. and those in power are getting richer, faster.
It would seem that before the issues in the Congo can be seriously addressed, there must be an agreement for the repatriation of the Rwandan refugees..
Is not the cart before the horse here..?

Coming down to the final sprint for the tape in the US..
It's all been said.. but one point of interest here..
As this race comes to it's climax.. three reporters have been told that because increased campaign staff needed their seats..they couldn't fly with Barak anymore.
They were the reporters from the Washington Times, the New York Post and the Dallas Morning News.. all papers who have come out editorially in favour of John..
Good to have priorities.. the reporters from Glamour and Jet magazines stayed on board..

And never been one to dodge a miscalculation.. it must be said that according to recent reports.. oil is looking at a record drop in price over the next few weeks.. allowing petrol to come down from it's summertime high of $100Am/gallon at the pumps..
$64.61Am/barrel of light sweet is a far cry from the $Am100/barrel we saw just a few months ago..
Let's hope it filters down to the consumer in Britain, soon..