Dave Donelson's Blog: OutTakes, page 22

Heart Of Diamonds in New e-Book Editions

What's your preferred reading device? You can now put the new edition of Heart of Diamonds on your Kindle, Sony Reader, Stanza, Palm, or just about any other e-Book reader with just a couple of clicks.

Check your favorite online bookseller, or go to Smashwords.com for a comprehensive listing of available versions. For the Kindle edition, visit Amazon.com.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

Heart Of Diamonds Promotes Congo Aid Groups

I happily started the new year with the release of the second edition of Heart of Diamonds. The revised edition corrects a few typos and slightly updates the text.

Most significantly, perhaps, the new edition recognizes four organizations whose work helps the people of the Congo. A couple of these organizations are large, the other two are small, but the work they all do contributes to the well-being of the citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

HEAL Africa

Women For Women International

G...

New York Schools Lose To Empire City Casino

While New York's schools are scrambling to replace state aid that's being withheld by Governor David Paterson and anticipating even bigger shortfalls in funding for next year, a little-noticed change in a formula in the regulations covering Empire City at Yonkers Raceway is taking even more money out of their budgets. It's part of a bailout just like those that Washington used to save Wall Street banks, multinational insurance companies, and Detroit automakers. But Washington didn't step in...

Banro Teams With Kinshasa To Rob Congo

They won't begin opening the presents until Christmas 2011, but the shareholders of Canadian mining concern Banro received a whopping gift from the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo this year. It was final agreement allowing the company to develop gold mines worth some $13 billion in return for a token royalty of one percent of revenues. The agreement has to go down as one of the worst ever for the DRC, where the bankrupt government of a nation the size of Western Europe can't ...

Sad Flip Side To China-Congo Deal

I've taken a very cautious attitude toward the $6 billion deal between China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. My hesitation to endorse it has been based on the economics of the deal, which calls for Chinese companies to build infrastructure in the DRC in return for large copper concessions. This isn't a gift--the DRC is paying for those projects by not collecting royalties for the copper the Chinese will be mining. The projects will also be completed by Chinese companies, so the profi...

Nitty-Gritty Of Congo - China Reconstruction Deal

One of the more interesting chapters in Paul Collier's thought-provoking work, Wars, Guns, and Votes, discusses the economic effects of armed conflict and the nitty-gritty of post-conflict reconstruction. He talks not about the horrors of rape and the disruption of societal services, but the more mundane but no less disastrous destruction of infrastructure and, perhaps even more importantly, the collapse of industries like construction, which he explains is one of the hardest hit.

Collier po...

Provocative Reading On African Democracy

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I just finished one of the most thought-provoking books I've ever read. It's Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places

Paul Collier, professor of economics at Oxford and Director for the Center for the Study of African Economies, contends that our obsession with democracy as the be-all and end-all of governance for every nation in the world is a big mistake. He points out that voting is good but far from a panacea for developing countries who lack the social structure, legal syste...

New Report From The Scene In Eastern Congo

My associate Joseph Mbangu recently returned from a fascinating, productive trip to his native Congo. His observations are not only cogent but make good reading as well. Check them out at his new blog, The Congo Solution.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic thriller about blood diamonds in the Congo.

CBS Overlooks How Congolese Criminals Fund FDLR

The 60 Minutes report on how illicit gold mines support the FDLR was worthwhile and timely, but it barely grazed the surface of the issue. For another, more in-depth view of the way mineral exploitation is destroying the Congo, read the recent special report to the UN Security Council on MONUC's support of anti-FDLR military operations in North and South Kivu. The report bears close analysis on many issues. Most of the media coverage of the report excoriates (justly) that operation for its...

Video Report On Congo Conflict Minerals

As Representative Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced his bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to help stop the use of conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo in cell phones and other electronic devices, my colleague Rima Abdelkader filed this incisive report.



During McDermott's press conference introducing the bill, the Congressman explained why the continuing conflict in Congo is important to him and to all Americans.



Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds a romantic...