Headline July 9th, 2012 / ''Angola : Ever The Optimistic Nation!''

"Angola : Ever The Optimistic Nation!"

The monitoring Group, Transparency International puts Angola up and down the seventh place in the world for for the 'dodgiest' state! Yes, while this is bad, very bad, the silver lining is that corruption here tends to be on an individual level of small bribes!! 

The government has been much smarter than many many other countries in negotiating the Oil contracts. In the past The President played companies and countries against each other. He never allowed a single country to gain too much of a foothold. Angola, in other words, has not been taken for a ride, as other countries have been. 

It is well known and understood that the IMF and World Bank used to drive the fear of God into governments across Africa and the developing world. Today they battle and struggle to be listened to. The IMF spent years negotiating a ''transparency agreement'' with Angola, not too long ago,---money in return for a commitment to political reform--- only to be told hours before the deal was to be signed, in March 2004, that the government was not interested in the money. 

They had secured instead a pound 1bn soft loan from China, with no strings attached. Since then the Chinese have dominated investments over the past many years, cornering the market in buiilding roads, bridges, and railways. They bring in entire work troupes, and get things done far more quickly and efficiently than anyone else.

In 2008, the Global Financial Institutions provided a bundle of remarkable data. Growth was 23/cent in 2007, way ahead of China, India and other emerging powers, anad Angola, was expected to hold top spot for 2008, with the economy increasing by 20 to 25%. 

In one projection GDP in 2010 was likely to be more than pound 50billion, putting Angola at par with with middle ranking Latin American and Asian states. Obviously the size and speed of the boom was hard to take in. It's also hard to plan for. The considered judgement and conclusion was 'that nobody could take in this kind of growth. 

Even if the government was run by Swiss, it would still struggle. Two extremes were at work against each other. No matter how huge the Oil revenues, the task of rebuilding a shattered economy was to take a very very long time. It was not just the economic infrastructure. Economic production was geared to fighting. 

The social damage was enormous. All that happens in Angola should be seen in this context. People now tend not to talk about the war, unless prompted, but everyone has sad tragic memories. No one now asks which side they were on. But by the end of the war nobody knew why they were fighting. 

This is one lesson so completely lost to the world. One expat mugged and robbed on the Marginal, the main Promenade in the center of Luanda, sums up philosophically: ''It may be a shit hole. But it's my shit hole!'' And, So, welcome to the students from China, Japan, Bulgaria, Bolivia. You all made it to the Top Ten Honours!! Share us forward with the whole world. Make haste! Hahaha!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of the Voiceless