The role of "The Elders" in Africa

Recently, several members of the group so-called "The Elders" were refused entry into Zimbabwe. I, most definately, do not endorse the Mugabe regime. I, in no way, see it as beneficial to the people of Zimbabwe or the advancement of the African continent. Mugabe represents the old, dying lion who tries to hold on to power knowing that his youth and vitality have left him and younger lions know it too. He know at any moment a young lion will tear him up if he doesn't relinquish his power. However, he knows that he is finished should he be forced from the top spot. This makes him roar louder and use all tools available to him to discourage his challengers. Sooner or later, the game will be over. Unfortunately for Africans, and especially the Zimbabweans, that time is taking much longer than is necessary.
Having said that, I feel that Mugabe is much braver than many Africans. We should not be pushovers. I am not endorsing being defiant and always saying no to what western and eastern countries say or suggest to us, I am just saying that we need to bring ourselves to their level. There is still this level of master and servant when it comes to the relationships with western countries. I feel that African countries are always begging for more aid and they are willing to do whatever it is their 'masters' ask of them for it. We need to stop being beggars. We are their equal. We make their economies run. We provide for them. They need us. We need them. Mugabe has stood level with the West and they are making him more of a monster for it. He might have chose the wrong way to do so, but he, nonetheless, did it.
This week he did it again when he stopped Koffi Annan, Jimmy Carter, and Graca Machel from entering Zimbabwe to assess the situation there. Assess?????Who on earth doesn't know what's going in Zimbabwe? Zimbabwe is an economic disaster, not a warzone. The damage done is knowledgeable to anyone remotely interested in that country, let alone the so-called experts.
I am against groups, such as The Elders, who think they know what's best for everyone and they go around raising money and padding their pockets while the people they are supposed to be looking out for go on starving and dying.
Although they might not realize it, The Elders are old lions and lionesses trying to hold on to their positions while refusing to acknowledge that their time has already passed by. What such people should be doing is grooming up the next generation. They are only interested in themselves and how they can retain influences gained in their former positions. Mugabe realized this, after all they say criminals know each other, and kept them out of Zimbabwe. They have not helped any place and they have not raised their voices to stop the atrocities in Congo. I refuse to even acknowledge anyone who professes to care so much about Africa and has no clue as to what is going on in Africa's largest, oldest, and longest-running genocide. We should examine groups such as The Elders and try to find what their motives and driving motivations are. I know who they are and what they accomplished, that was a different time. Today is different, we need a new breed of leaders. We need to raise ourselves. To respect ourselves. That, not old lions and lionesses who still link us to a past we are more than ready to leave behind.

The Situation in Congo

Congo, the beauty that is the tragedy of a continent. A tragedy that, it seems, the whole continent has chosen to cast a blind eye towards for the past several hundred years. Why does it happen in Congo? Why does it go on unseen?
Congo has been cursed by its richness, its natural resources. Since the days when rubber was the hottest natural resource on the block to today when coltan is the hottest thing and it's abundantly found there, individuals and nations have come to Congo for riches. While industrialization has its side effect the increase of greenhouse gases, the side effects of this intrusion has been blood in Congo. I can honestly estimate that Congo's lush rainforests have been watered, for generations now, by its sons and daughters' blood. If you ever go to Congo and you eat fruits or vegetables, remember that blood, more than anything else, watered them.
Unfortunately, vegetation is not the only thing to have been watered by that which gave strength to many in their heyday. Hatred has increased. Greed has increased. Misery has not been hindered from reaping from that which should have been instrumental in building a great nation. I would like to point my objections to people that feel instability in Congo was a result of the flowing in of Rwandan refugees fleeing their country's 1990-1994 civil war. Instability in Congo was there before that. Western powers, on several occassions had to send military aid to Mobutu because he was pro-west.
Lumumba was Congo's best chance at democracy, at prosperity. But, like they did Thomas Sankara years later, the west's choice at the time was to eliminate that chance. A prosperous, democratic Congo that is almost wholly dependent on itself is an idea the western world is not ready to embrace let alone 40 years ago. Congo, through it's Gold, Diamond, Coltan, Coffee, and other natural resources could single-handedly erase poverty on the African continent. However, it has not been able to even lift itself up because of incompetence of its leaders coupled with policies and influences of the Developed Nations Vampires.
After Mobutu, Congo has found itself unable to step out of the deal it made with, unknown to it at the time, the devil. Laurent Kabila thought that the western-backed Rwandan and Ugandan forces were doing so to rid the region of a great instability in Mobutu's regime that was harboring FAR (Forces Armees Rwandaise "Rwandan Armed Forces") and Interahamwe members who were regulary making raids into Rwanda. What he failed to notice was that the West had already calculated the potential mineral wealth and its importance in sustaining its economies. The western cronies, Rwandan and Ugandan goverments, were ready to do its bidding much as Mobutu had done thirty years before when he was still the West's "best hope" for Africa against communism.
When he realized what had happened and demanded that the former friends and comrades respect his country's sovereignty by removing their armies, he was assassinated. In his place is his son who won a legitimate election and is now helpless to battle that which sent his father, and millions of his countrymen, to the after-life.
With the recent fighting it can only add to the toll and misery.