The Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of Congo is the size of Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined. It's population is only 60 million though
which is the same as France's population. The Congo is probably the African country most written about. That is because its history is exemplary of a lot of African countries.
Although first contacts with Portugese explorers in the 15th century were peaceful and based on mutual respect and exchange of courtesies, soon after, domination of Whites over Blacks began.
Slaves were traded form the Congo basin to the rest of Africa and the World by Whites, and in the East Arab slavers enslaved entire villages at a time.
Famous explorers like Livingstone and most notably Stanley mapped the Dark Heart of Africa, triggering interest of the Belgian King Leopold II and others.
But it was the Belgian King that managed to claim this vast country as his personal property. After fighting the Arabs, the Belgians installed a reign of terror to force Congolese to harvest rubber and
dig out copper. They used a "divide and rule" tactic amongst the many Congolese tribes and used cannibalistic tribes as allies, promising them the meat of their victims.
Although certainly some good intentions were involved, and parts of the country were developed, everything evolved around exploiting natural richness.
When the Congolese fought for their independance, acquiered now exactly 50 years ago, Belgians kept trying to secure their access to natural resources. They assasinated Patrice
Lumumba and installed Mobutu Sese Seko as president of the Congo. Mobutu turned out to be one of the worst African rulers.
Unfortunately the atrocities, misgovernment, corruption, civil wars, poverty and other horrors found in Congo's recent history are found in other African countries. Many claim
that the ideas behind these terrible things occured first in the Congo, and were then taken over by other countries

Super XIV rugby

Southern Hemisphere Rugby

The Super 14 Rugby tournament is a competition between the top provincial teams in the Southern Hemisphere. This tournament is arguably the best in the world and has 5 South African teams, 5 teams from New Zealand and 4 from Australia. Most of the players of the national teams of these countries play in one of the teams of the Super 14. So that definitely adds to the excitement and level of the games played. The Stormers are the team for Western Province, and play their games in the capital of this province: Cape Town (what a nice coincidence). They have been performing

average in the past years, but this year was their best year ever. For the first time they made it to the finals, but were beaten by the Blue Bulls.

Of course, the fact that it was an all South African final was a huge achievement in itself that was proudly emphasized by commentators here.