More Black Ingratitude

For those who doubt the glory of outright wog-bombing, there are humbler and subtler aspects to the moral miracle that is Britishness: railways, entrepreneurial gumption, Kipling and so forth. The present government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has clearly internalised the Recrudescent Imperium's more obtrusive virtues, notably a healthy scepticism about the authority of mere experts and a relentlessly pragmatic faith in the idea that a problem can always be solved provided one denies its existence loudly enough. In accordance with these staunch and stalwart principles, Kinshasa has refused to take part in a conference aimed at raising money for humanitarian assistance, on the grounds that the crisis in the DRC is being exaggerated by subversive humanitarians. The UN has designated parts of the country as suffering the highest level of emergency; and since the UN is not talking about Britain, the British government believes it. The conference is looking to raise £1.2 billion, and Her Majesty's Government is contributing £227 million, although it remains as yet unclear how much of this amount will go towards mere food, shelter and medicine, and how much will be spent on making genuine and sustainable progress in those truly humanitarian causes which either go bang or make a profit, or ideally both.