THE STAKES IN CONGO – LIVES AND LIFESTYLES: My latest Creators Syndicate column, bumped and updated with breaking news (see below) plus a relevant observation in a recent review.

Column kick-off:

If you advocate electric vehicles and dote on cellphones whose manufacture depends on Congo’s minerals, then the Democratic Republic of Congo’s flawed Dec. 30 presidential election matters because it can affect your digital lifestyle.

Congo’s stability also matters if you value human life. In Congo’s last civil war (Great Congo War, 1996-2003) some three million to five million people died in anarchic combat and from starvation, disease and exposure exacerbated by war.

UPDATE: Riot police deploy in Kinshasa (Reuters).

“We don’t want people to die when they announce (the results), blood to be spilled,” said Kinshasa resident Ohn Kabamba. “We are fed up, we are tired and we are waiting for a peaceful announcement which will allow us to rejoice rather than cry.”

This is a situation where you prefer to be wrong, not right. But my column ends pessimistically, with the thought that if Kabila attempts to remain in power Congo and central Africa should “prepare for a major bloodletting.”

VERY RELATED: Chapter Six, Cocktails from Hell: Anarchic Violence, Cyclic Intervention, and Mineral Wealth. The chapter gets into China’s interest in Congolese cobalt. Check out Glenn’s USA Today review and James Jay Carafano’s National Interest review.

A quote from Carafano’s review is pertinent:

The fifth of Bay’s “wicked problems” is the Congo, where ongoing cycles of violence and meddling by external powers continually threaten to spin out of control. Unfortunately, these conditions don’t describe the Congo alone. Bay could have picked Venezuela or any number of other troubled states.

Congo’s real-time cocktail from Hell is breaking news.