Economic and political disaster continues largely unabated in Zimbabwe. South Africa is showing disturbing signs of increasing political unrest and other internal troubles. But at the moment the big news on the continent of Africa is in the Congo.

Congolese rebel leader Laurent Nkunda stated: "I want Europe to know Congo is at the birth of a revolution. It must not muzzle it" (Financial Times, Nov. 15, 2008). But what about the appalling cost in human life and suffering? The stark reality of a festering trouble spot on an already conflict-burdened continent persists unrelentingly.