During a speech at the Nat’l Defense Industrial Association's annual Special Operations & Low-Intensity Conflict Symposium, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, then the chief of U.S. Special Operations Command, pointed toward a composite satellite image of the world at night. Before September 11, 2001, said Olson, the lit portion of the planet -- the industrialized nations of the global north -- were considered the key areas. Since then 51 other countries, almost all of them in the arc of instability, have taken precedence. "Our strategic focus,” he told the audience, “has shifted largely to the south... certainly within the special operations community, as we deal with the emerging threats from the places where the lights aren't."

A prime exemplar of the admiral's new purview -- Congo, home to the Congo River... the deepest on Earth with depths in excess of 700 feet & trenches as deep as oceans. Because of it, the river causes turbulent waves, bizarre currents, & deadly whirlpools. An apt environment for the goliath tiger fish sporting teeth sharper than steak knives in a country also cut by deep civil strife.

Maybe to compensate for this, chocolate barsmiths tend to shed light on this origin with a little extra of the sugar white stuff. Take Zotter's 68% Kongo or this 65% from Theo.

Such sweetness packs an ulterior motive: it ingratiates itself to consumers outside of Congo in order to pump revenues back into eastern Congo which, in turn, helps make these parts, according to Dhena Bassara, director of a local Congolese co-op, terrorist & militia-proof.

A bar containing cacáo that's sourced from where 'the lights aren't'... & the chocolate peace corps that is Ben Affleck's Eastern Congo Initiative Foundation.