rejon.org is Jon Phillips.

Lu and I watched Blood Diamond last night and while the movie comes off a bit cheesy on the disney-ification at times, the massive wikipedia search I just led on the subjects brought me to an amazing nuggest about our good ole friend, Pat Robertson of the 700 Club! Check this snippet out from Wikipedia:

According to a June 2, 1999, article in The Virginian-Pilot,^[9] Taylor had extensive business dealings with televangelist Pat Robertson. According to the article, Taylor gave Robertson (who also had business dealings with Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire) the rights to mine for diamonds in Liberia’s mineral-rich countryside. According to two Operation Blessing pilots who reported this incident to the state of Virginia for investigation in 1994, Robertson used his Operation Blessing planes to haul diamond-mining equipment to Robertson’s mines in Liberia, despite the fact that Robertson was telling his 700 Club viewers that the planes were sending relief supplies to the victims of the genocide in Rwanda. The subsequent investigation by the state of Virginia concluded that Robertson diverted his ministry’s donations to the Liberian diamond-mining operation, but Attorney General of Virginia Mark Earley blocked any potential prosecution against Robertson.[14]

Ok, so, my knowledge of this entire subject area is weak except for about Pat Robertson. I am though most interested in African issues now especially after dealing with many South Africans and trying to understand the intracacies there and how this interestingly intersects with Open Source and Open Content communities.

NOTE: Charles G. Taylor as a website for people to donate money to his cause as well as many mp3s of his speeaches - a trove of media for the remixers.

Does anyone out there have any more information on the Pat Robertson linkage above or general advice for getting a large picture view of African affairs. Yes, this is a big request for a big continent with countless cultures, but curious nonetheless.