
Glencore’s Misadventure in the Congo Threatens Its Cobalt Dreams - jonbaer
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-11-16/glencore-s-misadventure-in-the-congo-threatens-its-cobalt-dreams
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GreeniFi
For reference, credible sources estimate a death toll in the millions in the
Congo in the last 20 years [1]. Abetted in no small measure, this Bloomberg
piece makes clear, by Gertler and Glasenberg’s business practices. Two
douchebags of galactic scale. It makes me sad and angry that such morality
exists.

That said, it would be a wonderful thing if the car industry formed a round
table ahead of this huge boom to put in place protocols to ensure the missteps
of the oil industry are not created again, or do the Glasenbergs and Gertlers
of this world win everything?

[1]
[https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/briefing/2018...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.economist.com/briefing/2018/02/15/congos-
war-was-bloody-it-may-be-about-to-start-again#ampf=undefined)

~~~
hyperrail
There are some positive signs for Dem Rep Congo. This past summer,
President/dictator Joseph Kabila finally agreed to step down and hold
presidential elections, 2 years after delaying them indefinitely in December
2016. But the opposition to Kabila has so far failed to coalesce around a
single candidate to run against Kabila's candidate,[1] and of course there is
no guarantee that even if the opposition wins, Kabila will accept the result
without a military invasion or threat thereof to force him out, the way Yahya
Jammeh in Gambia was pushed out early last year.[2]

It's hard not to be cynical about cycles of former rebel leaders and their
families setting themselves up as the new dictators, but at least here, things
are looking up.

[1] [https://www.voanews.com/a/congo-opposition-supporters-
protes...](https://www.voanews.com/a/congo-opposition-supporters-protest-
against-joint-election-candidate/4654994.html)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECOWAS_military_intervention_i...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECOWAS_military_intervention_in_the_Gambia)

~~~
jeffreyrogers
That's potentially good news, but I'm skeptical much will come of it. Places
like Congo are still quite tribal[0], which is one reason for the large amount
of corruption. When you get power you hand out benefits to your people. In
developed democracies we often think the benefits of democracy are self-
evident, but we forget the long process it took for our own societies to get
to the relatively uncorrupt, pretty well-functioning bureaucracies we have
today. Plus, Congo has almost no state to speak of. The country hardly has a
road network and the government has a hard time projecting power outside of
the cities. I believe the infrastructure was better in the 60s than it is
today, but I would have to check my facts to be sure.

[0]: I think this will get misinterpreted by some people. I don't mean it in a
derogatory way, but as a description of how society is organized in parts of
Africa. People can be grouped into tribes and tend to prefer to grant favors
and power to those within their tribe. It's like nepotism on a larger scale.

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javaIsGreat
Thats how business works in most of the major African countries I believe
based on a few experiences there.

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starbeast
>He bonded with Kabila’s son, Joseph, who was his age and was running the
Congolese army. Within a few years, Gertler had paid $20 million to secure a
monopoly on the country’s diamond exports. When a bodyguard assassinated the
elder Kabila in 2001, Joseph became president—giving Gertler a direct line to
the palace just as global commodity prices were starting a decade-long surge.

Bad bodyguard. That will not look good on the resume.

I wonder if the palace guard was a branch of the army?

~~~
jeffreyrogers
Probably. That's how it works in much of Africa. Usually the private army is
recruited from the leader's own tribe as well.

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55555
FCPA seems naive to me. There no way to compete in certain industries in
certain parts of the world without engaging in corruption and bribery. Maybe
we dont want to compete, or maybe we are just supposed to outsource the grey
stuff, but it definitely hurts US businesses.

What gives US prosecutors jurisdiction over a British company operating in
Africa anyway? Simply that they have operations in the US?

~~~
GreeniFi
What would you prefer?

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beerlord
I hate to say it, but Africa was better off under European colonial rule.

Yes, there were obscene atrocities. But atrocities seem to have been committed
by every group of humans at some point in time.

Instead, the colonialists would take the natural and mineral wealth, and
invest part of it back in the country. They would build infrastructure,
provide jobs and basic services.

Even today, countries which were more heavily colonised have better outcomes.

[https://www.nber.org/papers/w18162.pdf](https://www.nber.org/papers/w18162.pdf)

[https://thealternativehypothesis.org/index.php/2016/04/15/co...](https://thealternativehypothesis.org/index.php/2016/04/15/colonialism-
did-not-make-africa-poor/)

Now, many Africans are ruled by their own corrupt tribal Warlords, where the
entirety of the wealth is stashed offshore, and there is no infrastructure and
no jobs. Whatever mineral and natural wealth there is is being rapidly diluted
by unsustainable population growth rates.

At the very least, the Europeans could have carefully and slowly cultivated a
local elite to take over the countries, instead of rapidly bailing out.

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3679706.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3679706.stm)

~~~
songeater
this is a strange thing to say about the Congo in particular.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_S...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atrocities_in_the_Congo_Free_State)

