Commentary: Congo, where foreign aid matters
No territory on Earth has been plundered so long and severely as the land that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. The first thefts were of human beings. For hundreds of years, slave traders from the Arab and Islamic world raided what's now the eastern part of the country, bordering several of Africa's great lakes. From its west, the Portuguese shipped huge numbers of captive Africans to Brazil.
In the late 1800s, Europeans began eyeing other riches. First came ivory, tremendously valued because it could be carved into everything from statuettes to piano
