Despatch from Brazzaville

The heart of the darkness is not found at the end of the trail, but the beginning…

To find a cure, one needs a disease. In order to obtain a disease one must search the mud and other matter-soaked pig farms and certain unscrupulous supermarket suppliers of this world.

Excess rarely brings remorse — oh we pretend it does, but instead wallow in selfish self-pity. As the darkly humourous French comedian Coluche once said, why show us clips of the starving in Africa when I’m eating my dinner? Its not as if we beam pictures of us tucking into our favourite meal while they sit parched and hungry, is it? Let’s be fair…

Yes, the jungles gave us ebola, but the inaccessible jungles also stopped its spread. The cures are not Taliban-type pills of destruction, but a stronger connection to nature. If you think people live badly in Congo, they do — when far from the rainforests.