Learning about Angola has been a particularly depressing experience. Angola is the country that could potentially be the richest African country due to its oil, diamond, and mineral sources (according to Redd Barna). It is however one of the countries with the most problems. Corruption seems to be a big problems and approximately 40% of the government money simply disappears. The country has had a long civil warn ending in 2002 and this has really left the country in ruins. As an example, much of the country’s farmland is ruined due to landmines. This has forced most farmers into poverty and made the country dependent on expensive food import.
People generally live in poverty and according to UNICEF, Angola is the country in the world where kids under 18 years old face most problems. The country has one of the highest infant mortality rates and one of the lowest life expectancies rate in the world (37).
I tried to look at the country from a less serious angle. Like food. Found couple of recipes but all seemed to include to palm oil which I learned was quite unhealthy (and ugly looking). Not that this has anything to do with Angola but this also taught me that many food producers in Norway use this in ready made food. I guess I shouldn’t complain, at least I have food on my table.
I also tried to find some funny stories about the president (which generally seems to be easy with African leaders) but he seems amazingly clean of scandals and there were no traces of questionable past time activities like curing of AIDS. There is of course the whole corruption scandal concerning the government but I couldn’t find much information if he is directly involved or not.
In the end I simply tried to google “Positive things about Angola” as a last resort. One of the first site I found was one that talked about the Miss Landmine competition held in Angola in 2008. What a heartbreaking competition.
The only positive fact so far is actually the book. Just finished it and it was an interesting and entertaining read. More on that soon!
