The African Union (AU)-sponsored peace proposal presented to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and its eastern neighbor Rwanda on July 30 continues to offer some seeds of hope to bring an end to 30 years of war and devastation in the world’s wealthiest nation in terms of natural resources.  That war, and the growing number of collateral conflicts associated with it, has cost more than 8 million lives and has displaced over 26 million villagers in central and eastern Congo since the overthrow of Dictator Joseph Mobutu in 1997.  A major obstacle inhibiting the peace is the lack of participation in the peace process of 140-plus rebel groups scattered about the central and eastern Congo and the DRC’s unwillingness to negotiate with the leaders of M23 and the AFC (Congo River Alliance), two of the largest rebel armies. The two rebel group leaders, widely known to be under Rwanda

In a Tuesday press conference,  frustrations readily showed on the faces of some of the state’s greatest crusaders for fair and equitable allocation of available resources. Oleta Fitzgerald, regional director of the Children’s Defense Fund, spearheaded the press conference that shed light on the distorted approach to broadband expansion in the mostly rural and heavily Black  areas of  Mississippi. While the office of the Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi (BEAM) is the creation of the state legislature, it is run out of the governor’s office. The recently allocated $1.2 billion in federal money for broadband expansion in rural Mississippi will likely line the  pockets of the  internet service providers in the rural areas. And it should not be looked upon as a program especially designed to help the underserved and unserved internet users in those rural communities, Fitzgerald pointed out. Organizations like the Children’s Defense Fund depend on federal