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One topic that I haven't touched on too much yet revolves around all the expats who are living and working DR Congo. It's a screwy thing that I've only started to have a couple contiguous of thoughts about it. Let's start with what's good about the people living in DR Congo.       For one, this is a country that is tough to live in. Beyond the diseases, poverty, and hellish climate (mostly in the west) these are people that have given a chunk of their lives to try and improve the situation in Congo whether through MONUC, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, USAID, Oxfam, or any other number of aid agencies that are operating in DR Congo. Even if people come with the delusion of grandeur that they're going to be saving African babies from the ravages of war, they are still coming to help. This puts them in a class that's above and beyond the vast majority of the rest of us from First World countries who might donate a little bit of money here and there to these causes if we're feeling really generous. This is what is good about these people and a great many of them work for next to no money when they come, so it really is altruistic and genuine.       Then of course there is the bad side, which I can unfortunately spend a great deal more time on. The worst offenders are the full timers for the UN and foreign embassy staff. Those at the embassies are these banal people with no character or life to them. They epitomize the worst of civil servants, except that they love to get massively drunk and lead these dull lives firmly clutched in their compounds and protected areas free of the country that surrounds them. They earn their large salaries and after a few years, they go to another country to repeat the same thing or they go home to do god knows what, since they're most likely not going to earn what they earn when at the embassies.       But, these embassy people came to DR Congo just for the money, which doesn't excuse the way they act, but explains it to a large degree. Those in the UN generally started off with the assumption that they were there to help. Many came in on the UN Volunteer program which are a group that earn very little and work quite hard. Of these people it seems that there are those that came because they wanted to work in Congo and be part of affecting change. Then there are those that came in to be a UNV just so that they could eventually weasel their way in to a permanent position, which pays exceeding well. While not the case or everyone, a permanent staff for the UN can make upwards of $12,000-15,000 a month. Those who are smart, save this money, and work to eventually move to other missions in the UN. Those who aren't so smart spend like maniacs. They contribute to the fact that it costs more to live in a sinkhole of a town like Kinshasa than in Paris. They create a market for houses that cost $8,000 a month because they want to spend that much to feel "comfortable" because they are under the impression that they've earned this.       Beyond the fact that they earn a lot (MONUC does costs one billion dollars a year to run) is the fact that at a certain point whether it be pay level, career level, or just the amount of years spent in Congo, the permanent staff all seem to swallow the UN Coolaid and fall prey to the premise that the UN is making huge changes in the country. In truth, the changes are small, yet I would never say that Congo could better off without the UN. It's just that measuring the success of the mission by the fact that the Congolese don't throw rocks at UN vehicles anymore is pretty sad.       Life for typical Congolese is not easy and I would never propose that an expat attempt to live as they do. But, this life of living in compounds and being completely isolated from the population of the country creates an unavoidable rift that in my opinion makes it impossible for the UN mission to function within any frame of reality. Sure the staff go on missions to make their never-ending onslaught of reports, but then they come back to their cocoon that cushions from the harsh reality of a rough country.       Many people are burned out. Somewhere around two years seems to be the regular amount of time that people stay in Congo before they can't take it anymore and have to leave. So many don't leave though and stay on for five years or even more. Their reason for staying is that they just don't know what they're going to do next, which has to be one of the worst reasons to stay on at a job and it sure as hell isn't doing the Congolese any good. The money is just too much to leave and the lifestyle is one that none of these people could afford to keep in First World countries. A great many of them are after all living in former Mobutu-ist mansions.       My frustrations with all of this are not atypical. Everyone there is aware of it, but once again, they do little to avoid it because that would mean leaving Congo. It's to a point where if some producer were really crafty, making a Real World or Big Brother or Surreal Life type reality show about a group of expats working in DR Congo would be really compelling. They could cover the Idealistic Newcomer, the Burnout, the Networker, the Partier, the Embassy Man, the Undying Savior, and a slew of other types that all seem to wend their way around this country. Are they "saving" it? Not really, but they are providing some form of stability that will hopefully start creating a stable society upon which one of Africa's largest and most wealthy countries can emerge stronger.

It's probably something of a non-event for seasoned journalists and probably even a bit of a pain in the ass to get their press passes, but I would warrant that a great many of them still have the first press pass that they got.       As you can see below, I managed to get a pass from MONUC, which as explained previously was quite useful. It's very cool that it actually comes on a card that will stand up to the test of time. Ultimately though, it's not the most elite of things since you can find guys selling blank case cards on the street which allow you to make any kind of ID that you'd like. It's also the case that often guards don't even look at them. They see that you're a mundele and they see the blue cord around the neck, so it must be okay for you to go in to HQ.       But that's about it. Now I've got a press pass for the DR Congo mission that's good until October. Note that this is only good there. I can't bop off to New York and get in there. That requires a whole new press pass. I suppose this is part of what they mean by, "Restricted Access".

Due to craftiness, advanced knowledge, and the general greatness that is #1 Fan, we were able to get UN press passes from the MONUC office in Kinshasa. Two years ago, it was something of a free-for-all and just about any nitwit could wander in and get press status. They've since cracked down a bit due to said nitwits getting in trouble with local governments for asking the wrong questions and needing to be repatriated. One such case was, Lisa Jackson when she got in trouble in Burundi for doing what Americans do best and walking in to another country with a crude, crass bravado that gives off the air that you're untouchable, which you most certainly are not. So, because of this, we had to be a bit more detailed in documenting our projects while we were there.       One may wonder as to what the advantage of having a press pass is other than having a cool badge that makes you feel somewhat special. The advantages are many. For one, you can actually set foot in MONUC without having to go through all the sign in procedures each time. Then of course you have access to the shuttles that they run so that you don't have to throw yourself at the whims of a Congolese taxi driver. Lastly and most importantly is the fact that as long as you have some kind of press business with MONUC, then you can use their flights to get around the country. This is very important for two reasons. For one, it would have been somewhere around $1,500 for the two of us to fly across the country and back (again I need to remind people that DR Congo is more than half the size of the continental US.) But beyond the cost issue is the crashing issue. On April 15th, a flight from Hewa Bora, the only Congo airline not on the EU blacklist, crashed in to a market in Goma. This had the effect of killing a large number of people on the ground and in the flight, getting Hewa Bora placed on the blacklist, and lastly crowding the UN flights because no one wanted to fly Hewa Bora after that, although a great many people still did.       So, as you can see, getting on the UN flights, while difficult, was quite necessary. There was no way we were going to go east unless we could get on, which required a great deal of patience due to our having lowest priority and getting bumped both coming and going, requiring multiple 5AM trips out to the airport.       Once onboard though, the trip across the country takes awhile. Depending on the route you take, it's anywhere from four and a half (Bukavu, Kananga, Kinshasa) to five and a half hours (Kinshasa, Kamina, Bukavu). The Dash 8 that they're flying these days aren't the fastest things in the world, but because they fly at lower altitudes, you see a good deal of the country and can even take some photos. This is good because there is really no reason to go to the interior. A great swath of it is just plains, endless plains, with some farming here and there with villages that have turned in to the major cities.       Naturally, with no food service or inflight movies, there is little to do, but sit and wait. So, after doing this trip once, I will happily never repeat it again, preferring to see the east via Kigali, Rwanda, which is a much more direct route. But it was still pretty cool to see and get something of a grasp as to the actual, massive size of Congo.