I don't know if anyone knows about Anthony Bourdain, but he has a new series called "Parts Unknown" and I saw his episode about Congo and it was really impressive. It was his dream since way before he got into TV to go and you can tell he really loved the country and studied it. I loved his thoughts!
I don't know much at all about Congo and Belgian colonialism, and it was sad. I've learned so much though!
I've never even seen what Congo looks like and it's really something.
One part that struck me though was when he traveled by river for days to the agricultural research institute. It was made by the Belgians, but after independence it was abandoned and now it's taken care of by a few men who get paid little or nothing. They showed equipment that was state-of-the-art back in the 1950s and old books that they organize. What really struck me though was when they showed a room and said, "This is where they type up letters for funding." They send them to anyone they can even if they don't know if the letters even arrive. :/
Bourdain talked to the man in charge, who was there in its hey-day, and he asked us, "What do you tell a man who thinks that the colonial days were the good old days?" Ugh, what a question. I've definitely had that come up before, especially for Peru. You never really know what would it have been like without colonialism, yet you see people happy that it did at one point. It's interesting...
There was also a sad part about the only train that works there, it runs once a week, and how they try to keep it alive.
He had such an adventure and learned a bunch of positive and negative things, and I loved his last line that went something like, "But when all is said and done, I wanted to go to Congo, and I did it." What a feeling ^^
He also did a "Parts Unknown: Peru" but I didn't like it at all. It focused on selling chocolate and "shamans," and it made it seem as if shamans were a huge deal in Peru. If you want to see a good show about Peru then watch his "No Reservations: Peru" because that was really, really good. I'm going to re-watch it on Youtube.
I don't know much at all about Congo and Belgian colonialism, and it was sad. I've learned so much though!
I've never even seen what Congo looks like and it's really something.One part that struck me though was when he traveled by river for days to the agricultural research institute. It was made by the Belgians, but after independence it was abandoned and now it's taken care of by a few men who get paid little or nothing. They showed equipment that was state-of-the-art back in the 1950s and old books that they organize. What really struck me though was when they showed a room and said, "This is where they type up letters for funding." They send them to anyone they can even if they don't know if the letters even arrive. :/
Bourdain talked to the man in charge, who was there in its hey-day, and he asked us, "What do you tell a man who thinks that the colonial days were the good old days?" Ugh, what a question. I've definitely had that come up before, especially for Peru. You never really know what would it have been like without colonialism, yet you see people happy that it did at one point. It's interesting...
There was also a sad part about the only train that works there, it runs once a week, and how they try to keep it alive.
He had such an adventure and learned a bunch of positive and negative things, and I loved his last line that went something like, "But when all is said and done, I wanted to go to Congo, and I did it." What a feeling ^^
He also did a "Parts Unknown: Peru" but I didn't like it at all. It focused on selling chocolate and "shamans," and it made it seem as if shamans were a huge deal in Peru. If you want to see a good show about Peru then watch his "No Reservations: Peru" because that was really, really good. I'm going to re-watch it on Youtube.
Definitely not my favorite version, but it's still cute and I like how they added the lines, "I've always dreamed that it would happen like this. Now it really has. I don't ever want this night to end." "Neither do I." Aw~
