Combining Winin Pereira’s book “From Western Science to Liberation Technology” with the trip to DR Congo has a depressing connotation. Former nuclear physicist’s critique of the achievements of the Western science, or rather, the gruesome side-effects of it, keeps resounding in the back of my head throughout the trip.
The extraction of wealth from already poor countries to support filthy richness of a handful stares at me on every step: posh airport shops, large reservoirs of fuel to feed the steel beasts crisscrossing the sky, large bags of plastic waste taken from the plane after each flight, but especially people repeating the rituals of eating the meal, watching the movie and wiping the face with a sanitised tissue.