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January 22, 2009: A BBC correspondent reports that he asked a guide that he hired what he did when people like him were not around. The man speaks five languages, including two European languages fluently. He has a "university-level education and is "resourceful and hard-working," writes that correspondent. The man replied describing what the journalist called cronyism trumping merit and hard work." The correspondent, Mark Doyle, added that a driver he had hired in the country's capital, Kinshasa, "was -- I later discovered to my intense embarrassment -- a fully qualified chemical engineer. He could not get a job because he had not greased the right palms."
Central Africa. Almost one-quarter the size of the United States, with a coastline of only 37 kilometers. Tropical. Capital: Kinshasa
Formerly called Zaire and under the dictatorship of Joseph Mobutu. In 1997 Mobutu was overthrown by a rebellion led by Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001 and replaced as head of state by his son, Joseph Kabila.
Figures unless otherwise stated are from the CIA Factbook.
Estimated per capita GDP:
2008 $300 (only Zimbabwe ranks lower)
2007 $300
2006 $300
Exports: diamonds, copper, crude oil, coffee, cobalt.
Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP: 2.5 (estimated for 2006).
Deaths: 11.88 up from 10.34 in 2007. Births: 43.0 down from 44.38 in 2005.
Estimate for July 2008: 66.51, up from 60.09 million in 2005. Growth rate estimated for 2008: 3.236 percent per year.
More arriving than leaving, for a net gain of 1.24 persons per 1,000 population.
Average life expectancy at birth estimated for 2008: 53.98, up from 49.35 in 2005
Living with HIV/AIDS, ages 15 to 49: 4.2 percent (2003)
Males 76.2 percent
Females 55.1 percent
Roman Catholic 50 percent, Protestant 20 percent, Muslim 10 percent, other 20 percent.
SOURCES:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
Copyright © 2008 by Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.