Political favoritism can quite literally be seen from space, according to a new study that finds the home regions of leaders become brighter at night after the person comes to power.

The findings apply mostly to countries with weak political institutions and limited public education. One prominent example was Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) during the reign of Mobuto Sese Seko. Mobuto, who was president between 1971 and 1997, was born near the small town of Gbadolite. While he was in power, the town flourished.

“Mobuto built a huge palace complex costing millions of dollars, luxury guesthouses, an airport capable of handling Concords, and had the country’s best supply of water, electricity and medical services,” study researcher Paul Raschky, an economist at Monash University in Australia, said in a statement. Years of satellite data reveal Gbadolite as initially dark at night, brightening under Mobuto and quickly fading again after the authoritarian ruler’s exile and death. (1)

Nowadays everyone wants light in order to see.

We are too afraid of the dark, even though the dark has moulded us from the beginning of time. We are children of the Night, grandchildren of Chaos.

Nowadays we like to be called children of Apollo.
But we are offsprings of the Moon.

We may think of Logic as our greatest achievement, but it is Dionysus who dances every noon inside our heads.

Irrational life.
Irrational cosmos.
Irrational men.
Seek the darkness as if it was light.
Everything will be allright.
The light you seek is only inside.