It is getting to be a long time ago but two of the things that had the most beneficial big picture effect on things in Congo Kinshasa were commercial enterprises, the cell phone companies and the Russian Anotonov operations. The cell phones had a huge effect and the piratical, occasionally suicidal Russians were the ones who had a real economic impact by tying together some pretty remote towns to the rest of the country.

The most important thing the UN did was airport operations and development. Everything else they did seemed useless but the airport development seemed to have some beneficial economic benefits to everybody in the country in addition to giving me decent places to land.

It always seemed to me that the most pressing need that was not being filled in the country was that a lot of the right people needed to be killed. No NGO was going to do that but if one could ever be got to wipe out the FDLR that would have done more good than all the conflict resolution trainers and regional workshops they were so fond of.

The thesis of the article has been covered by several books but that doesn't make it any less true. The book I read (the name of which I forgot) says the dilemma goes all the way back to the Crimean War with Florence Nightengale, do you do things to help people immediately and thereby relieve the govs of responsibility, or do you accept immediate harm so the govs will step up. I don't know. What I observed is commercial enterprises did the most good, international aid did good if it help commercial development and somebody needs to kill some people but they won't.