Forget all about the Mayan Calendar coming to a screeching halt on
December 21 of this year; on which day--New Age shamans and
survivalists and astrophysics buffs and crooks warn us--a perfect
galactic alignment will trigger doomsday events worldwide: End of
Times! Rapture!

What gives me the heebie-jeebies these days is the "trivialization and
cretinization of American politics"--to use The New YorKer Jon
Cassidy's phrase-- which is likely to give the world a faineant
Planetarch name of Mitt Romney, who itches to nuke Iran to smithereens
as a teaser for his presidency.

I won't be ranting today about… ( Read on! )

By appointing as prime minister Augustin Matata Poyo Mapon, who turns
48 in June, President Joseph Kabila signals a double clean break: 1)
firstly, a generational break; and 2) secondly, a break with Congolese
politics as usual. 3) But more important, Kabila has arguably
jumpstarted his last presidential term in a dramatic fashion.

1) In the run-up to the appointment of the new prime minister, pundits
of all stripes, who speculated about the profile and even provided a
bevy of names of those that stood a chance of being appointed as
premier, didn't even once mention the name of the "respected… ( Read on! )

Kabila couldn't have chosen a better time to announce the promotion of
current Finance Minister Augustin Matata Mponyo to premiership in the
evening of this Wednesday, August 18: during the half-time of the
Champions League semi-final match pitting Barcelona against Chelsea; a
match that was being relayed live on government-owned TV channel
"RTNC" (as of this writing, the match was still being played at
Stanford Bridge stadium in London).

Prime Minister Matata survived almost unscathed the plane crash in
which Augustin Katumba Mwanke died this past February.

A brilliant move by Kabila to… ( Read on! )

Kabila couldn't have chosen a better time to announce the promotion of
current Finance Minister Augustin Matata Mponyo to premiership in the
evening of this Wednesday, August 18: during the half-time of the
Champions League semi-final match pitting Barcelona against Chelsea; a
match that was being relayed live on government-owned TV channel
"RTNC" (as of this writing, the match was still being played at
Stanford Bridge stadium in London).

Prime Minister Matata survived almost unscathed the plane crash in
which Augustin Katumba Mwanke died this past February.

A brilliant move by Kabila to appoint at… ( Read on! )

According to Kinshasa grapevine of Radio-Trottoir, Joseph Kabila is
about to appoint Georges Buse, sixtiish, as prime minister.

Geoges Buse was the chief of staff of Laurent Kabila, the assassinated
former president and father of the incumbent.

Buse, aged between 65-68, is from a prominent family of Kisangani, the
provincial capital of Orientale Province.

Two of Buse's young brothers achieved national notoriety in their own right:

1) One was the the auxiliary bishop of the Catholic diocese of
Kisangani. It's rumored he didn't make to full bishop because he's a
womanizer who's fathered a number of… ( Read on! )