Confidants: The Phantom Of The Opera

That friend you turn to, or the sibling you can always confide in, those are confidants. A confidant is a common recurring theme in many literary styles, and is found in almost all pieces of literature. However, no piece of literature has a confidant character as complex as the Phantom in the musical "The Phantom of the Opera". The Phantom is a turn from the traditional confidant, who would be a friend of the heroine, or Christine in this case, and turns from a confidant to the main antagonist. The Phantom of the Opera used the Phantom as a confidant to add depth to his and Christine's relationship, and also to be able to contrast the different ranges of human emotion.
At an estimated 24 trillion USD worth of minerals such as cobalt, copper,
Although the DRC has turbulent politics and history, it holds one of the greatest potential wealth that exists in the world. Most of this wealth is mineral wealth in the form of coltan, one of the main materials used in the production of cell phones, which China is one of the largest producers of. In 2008, China invested $9 billion in the DRC, with $6 billion going towards infrastructure and $3 billion going towards mining operations, in exchange for 'mineral concessions'. In 2007, the DRC shipping $304.8 million worth of copper to China and in 2008 they exported $1.13 billion worth of coltan to China, which was in influence of the investment (China-Democratic). Although this may seem positive on the surface, these investments show China's obvious interest in the DRC, to exploit their resources. When China invested in the DRC, it wasn't for civil services or helping the country, but the purpose in the investments was to get the minerals out as fast as possible. They only invested in mines, which get the minerals out of the earth, and then infrastructure, which is to get the minerals out of the DRC. China has no interest in the DRC, but only in the minerals beneath
After Laurent Kabila started the first Congo War, also known as Africa's First World War due to the many countries partaking in it, things in the DRC got out of control, and the UN had to start MONUC, an organization solely made to stabilize the DRC in many forms. Although some say this is an old problem, being 15 years ago and doesn't have relevance today, this obviously isn't true because MONUC still exists today and the UN still supports it today to try to fix the DRC. In the UN Resolution in 1279, the UN states that MONUC will consist of "multidisciplinary staff of personnel in the fields of human rights, humanitarian affairs, public information, medical support, child protection, political affairs and administrative support, which will assist the Special Representative, shall constitute the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo" (United). Each problem that is listed is one problem that the UN has declared that the DRC wasn't able to handle by itself, all of which play a large role in social stability. By setting up MONUC, the UN declared that the DRC wasn't capable of settling its own social instability and had to have an outside force to ensure social stability was upheld. This carries on to today, as MONUC still exists, proving the DRC isn't able to handle its own problems, and still has to have outside forces to help it, even after 16 years of