Confidants: The Phantom Of The Opera

That friend you turn to, or the sibling you can always confide in, those are confidants. A confidant is a common recurring theme in many literary styles, and is found in almost all pieces of literature. However, no piece of literature has a confidant character as complex as the Phantom in the musical "The Phantom of the Opera". The Phantom is a turn from the traditional confidant, who would be a friend of the heroine, or Christine in this case, and turns from a confidant to the main antagonist. The Phantom of the Opera used the Phantom as a confidant to add depth to his and Christine's relationship, and also to be able to contrast the different ranges of human emotion.
At an estimated 24 trillion USD worth of minerals such as cobalt, copper,
and coltan, which is worth about 40% of the 2012 global economy (Meyer), Congo stands poised to be the most powerful nation in the world. But in an UN survey, it was ranked almost last in the Human Development Report. How can such a rich country be so poor?
Although the Democratic Republic of Congo has improved since Leopold's rule, its prospects for becoming a successful modern nation state remain just as bleak as before its independence in 1960. To be successful as a nation state, a nation must have a stable and controllable economy, social stability, and a strong political system with leaders that are able to lead the nation forward. The DRC has failed on all of those aspects. Since the premature decolonization of the DRC in 1960, the DRC has had a turbulent history and it has shown inability to rule itself effectively. After King Leopold's tyrannical rule and then Belgium's rule that wasn't much better, Belgium decolonized the DRC 20 years earlier than planned, and left them with almost no leaders, and also with no one left trained to lead. In 1965, Joseph Mobutu lead a coup against the weaker installed government, taking power for himself (Cohen). Through his entire rule, his greatest accomplishment was to nationalize the copper mines, which then fell through after the Vietnam War as the price of copper halved, and the newly named Zaire went from being $887 USD in debt in 1975 to $10 billion USD in debt in 1990 (Green). When he nationalized the copper mines, he provided an initial burst for the economy to get into the global market, which would normally be a great accomplishment. However, due to his lack of basic economic training, he didn't foresee the risks of having a non-diverse economy, and Zaire fell due to his mistake. After this, whether it was their fault or not, it proved that Zaire was unable to effectively lead itself due to lack of basic training. After Mobutu fell, Laurent Kabila took power and was almost as bad of a leader, if not worse. Laurent Kabila was the leader of the ADFL, an organization set up to hunt down Hutu refugees seeking refuge from the Rwandan genocide that was methodically killing them. After he took power in 1997, his first thing to do was to start the first Congo War, which was started to secure his power and take away all people who threatened him, including the Rwandans that put him in power, leading to the Second Congo war a year later (Green). This against proves the ineptness of the leaders of the Congo. After he gained his power he thought that he had enough power to rule and got rid of the main supporters of his regime in exchange for more power. He tore the Congo further by making them have an unsupported leader for the next few years, causing more instability that still carries through today. His power hungry attitude almost got rid of him and again it proved that the leaders of the Congo haven't helped it, but harmed it further. China has been increasingly investing in the DRC in exchange for access to the extensive mineral deposits underneath its surface.
Although the DRC has turbulent politics and history, it holds one of the greatest potential wealth that exists in the world. Most of this wealth is mineral wealth in the form of coltan, one of the main materials used in the production of cell phones, which China is one of the largest producers of. In 2008, China invested $9 billion in the DRC, with $6 billion going towards infrastructure and $3 billion going towards mining operations, in exchange for 'mineral concessions'. In 2007, the DRC shipping $304.8 million worth of copper to China and in 2008 they exported $1.13 billion worth of coltan to China, which was in influence of the investment (China-Democratic). Although this may seem positive on the surface, these investments show China's obvious interest in the DRC, to exploit their resources. When China invested in the DRC, it wasn't for civil services or helping the country, but the purpose in the investments was to get the minerals out as fast as possible. They only invested in mines, which get the minerals out of the earth, and then infrastructure, which is to get the minerals out of the DRC. China has no interest in the DRC, but only in the minerals beneath
it. The DRC is proving that it can't obtain economic independence because it is allowing China to control it economically. China has been giving repeated gifts to the DRC, including hospitals, stadiums, farms, sugar refineries, and even a national assembly building. Although this is seen as a good thing to some, as it gives the DRC many needed buildings and utilities, there is a price to these gifts. With the gifts come Chinese entrepreneurs and Chinese businesses. In 2007 alone, over 600 Chinese nationals were expelled from the DRC for abusing labor laws (China-Democratic). This again reinforces that the Chinese aren't there to help the DRC, but to abuse it with no thought of the impact they are causing. Also, the DRC has very lax and not very well enforced labor laws. To get kicked out of the country, it would take serious abuse to workers, which the Chinese have shown that they have no qualms about doing. With the Chinese abusing the DRC like it is, the DRC has almost no chance of survival as a modern nation state. The DRC lacks the necessary social stability to become a successful nation state.
After Laurent Kabila started the first Congo War, also known as Africa's First World War due to the many countries partaking in it, things in the DRC got out of control, and the UN had to start MONUC, an organization solely made to stabilize the DRC in many forms. Although some say this is an old problem, being 15 years ago and doesn't have relevance today, this obviously isn't true because MONUC still exists today and the UN still supports it today to try to fix the DRC. In the UN Resolution in 1279, the UN states that MONUC will consist of "multidisciplinary staff of personnel in the fields of human rights, humanitarian affairs, public information, medical support, child protection, political affairs and administrative support, which will assist the Special Representative, shall constitute the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo" (United). Each problem that is listed is one problem that the UN has declared that the DRC wasn't able to handle by itself, all of which play a large role in social stability. By setting up MONUC, the UN declared that the DRC wasn't capable of settling its own social instability and had to have an outside force to ensure social stability was upheld. This carries on to today, as MONUC still exists, proving the DRC isn't able to handle its own problems, and still has to have outside forces to help it, even after 16 years of
assistance from the UN. The DRC has shown no signs of improvement in social stability and is unlikely to do so any time soon.
By the DRC letting China control them economically, it has shown its inability to assert itself as a global economic power and instead shown that it will surrender itself to China. Also, it has time and time again shown its inability to rule itself, with none of the leaders being able to push the country forward. Alongside all of this, there is a trend of lack of social stability. The DRC has failed to establish itself as a successful nation state and has little chance of asserting any power in the next decade.