The Claws of Dictatorship in Zaire

The collective taxi had just passed the square, white Social Security Administration building. One of the two young men next to me asked his friend, “Do you know how much the director there earns? Five hundred thousand zaires (about $7,500 a month) and what an ordinary worker earns? About 12,000 zaires ($16). It is such an injustice.” The other agreed: “There are not two markets for rich and poor. His wife goes to shop at the same market.”

I interrupted: “...