THE CONGO QUESTIONHitler, Mussolini, Stalin, so vile,
Millions bloodletted at rogue altars,
Before them all a rider men named Death,
King Leopold of Belgium others call’d,
Transforming Congo, uranium-rich,
Into a personal slave plantation,
Extracting fat resources from vast lands,
Enforc’d by workcamps, crude executions,
Bloody tortures, body mutilations,
Robespierring deadly genocide,
Crushing a dozen millions to dust,
Stakes drove in place, grating tentacles entrench’d
Today, as the mighty Congo River,
Thro’ gorgeous Grand Inga roaringly flows,
Some magic, megalithic megadam
Could power all of Africa, such force
Unleash’d by holy torrents! But progress
Halted & hounded, grossly unfunded,
Look at how Three Gorges raises China!
Hydropower breeds importance, self-worth,
Cutting off imperial stealth taxes,
Saving those three-in-four primary kids
From homework in the dark – switches on lights,
With power spare to show an old cartoon.