Ebola Virus in DRC

According to Aljazeera.com, an outbreak of the Ebola virus risks spreading into larger towns of the Democratic Republic of Congo namely the country's capital Kinshasa. The outbreak is believed to have come from tainted bushmeat, and has already claimed 31 lives, according to the article. If the virus were to spread into Kinshasa the death toll could be outrageous because the health sector is crumbling and years of corruption have led to poor infrastructure. Especially Kinshasa, home to nine million people, is not prepared or properly equipped to deal with such an outbreak.

I picked this particular article because it demonstrates the negative effects that colonialism mixed with authoritarian rule can bring to a country. As a Belgium colony the DRC had murder, starvation and a plummeting birthrate during colonial years. Being ruled by an authoritarian leader led to more authoritarian rule after independence, according to the book When Things Fell Apart. Authoritarian regimes lead to exclusion, which leads to poor infrastructure. This is because money is spent on the leader and not on his country. 

Ebola is not something to take lightly. The virus is truly deadly, and the DRC is simply not prepared to deal with it. According to the theories in When Things Fell Apart, authoritarian regimes do not spend money where they should. This results in poor infrastructure and crumbling political institutions that, as the DRC demonstrates, cannot handle an outbreak of any kind. Based on these theories the death toll from Ebola in the DRC will rise significantly in the coming weeks because chances of an authoritarian regime tamping down on an outbreak before it reaches large population centers are slim. It's hard not to be affected by an article like this knowing how much these people have suffered, and it appears that they will suffer some more from Ebola.   

Article link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2012/09/2012913165710650271.html