vijay's director of the tricontinental institute for social research. author of 40 books, including two with noam chomsky. their new book, based on conversations they had before noam's stroke last year, is out this month called "on cuba: reflections on 70 years of revolution and struggle." when he was visiting noam chomsky, the brazilian president lula stopped by to visit professor chomsky as well. when we come back, we will talk with vijay prashad about the congo, the democratic republic of congo. it was 64 years ago this week that patrice lumumba gave the historic speech marking congo's independence from elgin. back in 20 seconds. ♪ [music break] amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. it was 64 years ago this past sunday that congo declared independence from brutal belgian rule that began in 1885 when king leopold of belgium created a "personal colony" and brutally forced congolese people to extract rubber, ivory and diamonds. belgium took official control of the colony and continue