Expected reforms leading to 2005 elections in the hopefully-named Democratic Republic of Congo - formerly Zaire - haven't materialized. President Joseph Kabila has merely shuffled lower-level cabinet ministers, not begun the serious house-cleaning needed to instill confidence in the shaky coalition government that assumed power after a five-year civil war killed three million.

Sounds like a brand-new, top-flight, apolitical health minister is needed: 77 children are dead and 2,600 more infected after an outbreak of gastroenteritis linked to e-coli in Kinshasa, the nation's capital. Reading the story, it seems pretty clear - between the lines - that the water supply is suspected.

Such murderous Third World incompetence invites more despair, and turbulence.

Imagine what we'd be saying if this had happened in Iraq. But the plight of Congo's children can't be laid at the feet of George W. Bush. So who cares?

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 16, 2004 03:27 PM

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