RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Bankers talking it up and hoping for financing dealsAnd that's what some fear, and what Johnny was saying, that the DRC will go the way of Venezuela and Bolivia. The difference here is, firstly, in these countries, there is a lot of socialist populism, with mining collectives; and, secondly, that the leaders of those countries were essentially off their rockers. Whereas in the DRC, the politicians always act ignorant and almost foolish in public, but I assure you that each one of them is as smart as a fox. They will negotiate their fists all the way to your nose hairs, in the Lockian sense. Indeed, as Mr Bristow has commented, in the DRC, 90% of the time, commercial considerations prevail. And thus it shall be, I believe.
The risk here is that political turmoil boils over to full-scale civil war, which ignites a regional conflice, a Third Congo War, and a Second Great Africa War, which lasts, at the outside, 5 or 10 years. That may be unlikely, but as order deteriorates today, I for one cannot say with confidence that it will not transpire. But I believe after that you will be reinstated, your rights asserted, and, time-value of money, it will cost you a little.
As far as Venzuela and Bolivia sharing a political idiology with China, they are socialist in name. But the first two are socialist in the traditional Marxist sense, of labour's power over capital, with military hegemony, and exorbitant privilege at the top. China is socialist in the Orwellian sense, as a totalitarian big brother state, but with extraordinary excess privilege at the top, connected with party position. The economy is based on public-private partnerships, which is more akin to fascism. This term has evolved and been generalised since the time of Mussolini. Wikipedia defines it as "a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterised by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and control of industry and commerce." This sounds to me like a good definition for "communism with Chinese characteristics".
By the way, no offence is intended to any of Chinese ethnicity. This is only a comment about a form of political organisation, which has by the way accomplished a great deal from the standpoint of material prosperity, from the time of mass starvation under Mao during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 70s, to modern times where the country enjoys the benefits of being one, if not the foremost, of the world's major industrial powers.