Congo has its first elections in over 40 years

Congo has had its first elections since it was granted independence from Belgium in 1950. The U.N. sees an optimistic future for the war torn country, but I can not say I completely agree with the United Nation's fulfilled optimism. The country has no infrastructure (under 500 hundred miles of 'paved' roads), has no legitimate police force, and its health care system is pretty much non-existent. President Kabila as well as the United Nations should be more worried about setting up a benevolent dictatorship than just trying to setup some type of quasi-democracy. The U.N. is like a naive child who still believes in the tooth fairy; they're being too hopeful and optimistic about democracy, when they should be more realistic about the real policies that need to be implemented in the DRC.

Even when the results of the election come out in a couple of weeks and democracy in the DRC seems to be somewhat pliable, this will undoubtedly prove to be short lived. Democracy in the DRC is just a pipe dream right now, it is way to expensive and expansive of an endeavor for such a poor, illiterate, and unstable country to take on right now. "The election cost $458 million and was the biggest and most complicated the United Nations has ever run." Imagine the DRC's own economy and government trying to put up numbers than big on their own!!! It's just not possible. If the government's going to put that type of money into anything, it will be something more applicable and practical (i.e. national security, education, and health care) not something as trivial (at least for the time being) as the type of government that runs this crime ridden country. The Congo needs an iron fisted hand that is only possible through a dictatorship, to make sure the right policies are pushed through. Democracy in the DRC will be just as ill-fated as it was in Jakarta, Malaysia in 1998 or in Guatemala and the AFC (American Fruit Company) under JFK. Sorry for being such a pessimist.