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Thread: Angola & Cabinda (catch all)

  1. #1
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Angola & Cabinda (catch all)

    http://maic.jmu.edu/journal/10.2/boo...fitzgerald.htm

    Reviewed by Katie FitzGerald [Mine Action Information Center]

    Each photograph expresses the different facets of the Angolans' lives: from families walking for days to wait in line for food donations from the International Committee of the Red Cross to children bathing under bridge crossings despite the dangers of the ever-present landmines.

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    HRW, May 07: Forced Evictions and Insecure Land Tenure for Luanda’s Urban Poor
    In Luanda, Angola’s capital, the government has forcibly and violently evicted thousands of people living in informal housing areas with little or no notice. In violation of Angola’s own laws and its international human rights obligations, the government has destroyed houses, crops and residents’ personal possessions without due process and has rarely provided compensation.

    The evictions have taken place in a city where the majority of the population lives in informal housing areas with lack of clarity over land possession and ownership, and consequent insecurity of land tenure. The victims are poor and vulnerable Angolans. They include women supporting families on their own, elderly persons and children. Many fled to Luanda during the country’s long civil war, seeking shelter and protection from conflict zones or from agricultural areas destroyed by fighting and insecurity. The government’s large scale evictions have resulted in further displacement and left many individuals homeless and destitute with no access to legal remedy.

    This report focuses on 18 mass evictions carried out by the government between 2002 and 2006 documented by Human Rights Watch and the Angolan organization SOS Habitat....

  3. #3
    Council Member Stan's Avatar
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    Default Jungle Rules

    Hi Ted !

    A ton of money and great reading for folks like me with ensomnia. This entire report (it’s a very large file at 103 pages) merely reminds me of Zäire following 3 civil wars. The majority of the foreign community evacuated within weeks and the property, regardless of ownership, fell prey to locals having no other place to go.

    Africans truly live by ‘squatter’s rights’ up and to the point the Minister's henchmen come a callin'.

    Much like all of post-conflict Sub-Sahara, the government officials are having a field day obtaining former foreign-owned properties and performing outright evictions. It’s a Minister’s right (there) !

    I beg to see the legal or otherwise ‘Western-style’ usefulness (yes, I spent way too much time in Africa) in issuing legal warrants to move, knowing only to well, they will never move.

    Nichols and Tom can provide you with WAWA ROE. It’s actually quite simple…jungle rules apply

  4. #4
    Council Member bourbon's Avatar
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    Default Angolagate

    Case goes to trial Monday in Paris.

    Guns, dirty money and French elite on trial, By ANGELA CHARLTON. AP, Oct. 03, 2008.

    Background Resources


    Two reports from Global Witness:
    All the Presidents Men: The devastating story of oil and banking in Angola’s privatised war. 01/03/2002
    A Crude Awakening: The Role of the Oil and Banking Industries in Angola’s Civil War and the Plunder of State Assets. 01/12/1999

    Making a Killing: The Influence Peddlers, By Yossi Melman and Julio Godoy. The Center for Public Integrity, November 13, 2002.

    On Pierre Falcone:
    The Arms Dealer Next Door, by Ken Silverstein. In These Times, December 22, 2001.

  5. #5
    Council Member Tom Odom's Avatar
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    Stan and I tracked the 1993-1994 air movements to Angola through Ndjili International Airport. In a 2 month period, the parking apron at NIA went from 3 or 4 a/c to a fleet of some 30 or so A/C. The mainstay was the Lockheed L-188 (P3 airframe) that serves as a poor man's C-130 with its 4 turbos.

    The most extravagant case was a DC-8 that made a rough field landing, burned its brakes, and returned. Made a 250K profit after repairs. The funniest was an An2 with bovine bedpans--the plan was to fly cows in at $4K a head.

    Prosecutors allege that corruption in the Angolan arms trading case went to the pinnacle of power in France, starting with a nod from the son of then-President Francois Mitterrand, and growing into a tangle of laundered money and parallel diplomacy that left a stain on France's relations with Africa and on the country's reputation in the global arms market.

    Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and 41 other defendants feature in the climax of what the French dub "Angolagate."
    Ah Jean-Christophe--should be called Mr. Genocide.

    Tom

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    Council Member bismark17's Avatar
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    Default

    That reads like a cheap novel. Another example of truth being stranger than fiction....Thanks for posting that.

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    Interesting discussion thread from another forum on a dirt bike tour through Angola, hat tip to the INTELST for pointing the way.
    This trip was going to be different.

    I for one, have never updated my will before any other trip. And I wasn't alone. Out of the five of us that were going, three updated their wills and/or life insurance policies in the weeks before we left.

    Where were we going?

    Angola
    Lots of great photos in the thread.

  8. #8
    i pwnd ur ooda loop selil's Avatar
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    I know a lot of the AdvRider guys. Not those guys specifically but there are several that have been some mighty strange places.
    Sam Liles
    Selil Blog
    Don't forget to duck Secret Squirrel
    The scholarship of teaching and learning results in equal hatred from latte leftists and cappuccino conservatives.
    All opinions are mine and may or may not reflect those of my employer depending on the chance it might affect funding, politics, or the setting of the sun. As such these are my opinions you can get your own.

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    Council Member Beelzebubalicious's Avatar
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    Default We have not gone away

    Apparently, they didn't get a good enough Gris-Gris. They had a police escort as well...story. Here is a little more background

  10. #10
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default We have not gone away

    The recent ambush on the Togo national football team, just after it crossed the border into the Angolan enclave Cabinda, is a reminder of how 'small wars' can be forgotten and then suddenly re-appear.

    BBC News:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8449319.stm

    Background:http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...ar/cabinda.htm

    Togo's national football (soccer) team decided 09 January 2010 to withdraw from the African Cup of Nations in Angola after its team was attacked by gunmen. At least two people were killed and at least six others were wounded in the attack. The attack occurred a few minutes after Togo's team bus, under Angolan military escort, crossed into the Angolan enclave of Cabinda.

    As of 2009 the Angolan government claimed that the war in Cabinda is over. However, sporadic attacks on government forces and expatriate workers have continued. A peace deal was signed in 2006 between Angola's government and the rebels under Bento Bembe's leadership, but another FLEC faction has refused to sign on.
    Cabinda is Angola's main source of foreign income due to oil, with several interested parties and what a superb - for FLEC - gain.
    davidbfpo

  11. #11
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Part Two

    From the BBC an update and a claim by a FLEC spin-off group:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8454321.stm

    The Togo football team has now withdrawn from the competition.
    davidbfpo

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    Council Member M-A Lagrange's Avatar
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    Default Some details on FLEC

    Here are some interesting stuff on FLEC:
    It's in French, I did not find anything in English.

    A dissident FLEC group claim the attack:
    Apparently our friends from Cabinda are no more united.

    Officials from FLEC denied any responsibilities in the attack and are labeling the FLEC-PM as opportunists.
    http://fr.sports.yahoo.com/12012010/...010111106.html

    Anyways, France and DRC have announced they will dismantle the FLEC groups on their territories.

    FLEC-PM seems to be more vindictive than the FLEC-FAC (the historical one and only official one for the moment).

    It's just a beginning said Rodriguez Mingas, the FLEC-MP leader.
    http://fr.news.yahoo.com/63/20100111...l-5cc6428.html

    FLEC is one of the many insurgent groups I like. I have been monitoring the Cabinda border during 2007-2008. In fact FLEC is a real problem for Angola. And they jeopardized for real relations between DRC and Angola in Bas Congo. We even had Angolian troops entering DRC and raising Angolian flag in a small village once. They claimed they were looking for FLEC members.


    The FLEC site:
    http://www.cabinda.org/francais.htm

  13. #13
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Twist

    BBC report:
    Four human rights activists have been jailed in Angola for reported links with a separatist group which attacked the Togolese football team in January.....The BBC's Louise Redvers says the four men are believed to have met with exiled Flec leaders in Paris to try to set up dialogue with the Angolan government in a bid to seek an end to the decades of violent struggle in the province.
    Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-10857125
    davidbfpo

  14. #14
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default A massacre in 1977

    Pre-publication publicity for a new book 'In The Name of The People' by an ex-BBC journalist, Lara Pawson, an event I cannot recall:
    On 27th May 1977, a small demonstration against the MPLA, the ruling party of Angola - led to the slaughter of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of people. These dreadful reprisals are little talked of in Angola today - and virtually unknown outside the country. In this book, journalist Lara Pawson tracks down the story of what really happened in the aftermath of that fateful day. In a series of vivid encounters, she talks to eyewitnesses, victims and even perpetrators of the violent and confusing events of the 27th May and the following weeks and months. From London to Lisbon to Luanda, she meets those who continue to live in the shadow of the appalling events of 40 years ago and who - in most cases - have been too afraid to speak about them before. As well as shedding light on the events of 1977, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of modern Angola - its people and its politics; past, present and future.
    Link to Amazon:http://www.amazon.co.uk/In-Name-Peop.../dp/1780769059

    Reviews on publisher's website:http://www.ibtauris.com/Books/Humani...3DC9E30B2C4%7D

    This is a long article written in November 2013, by academic and will have to be read another day. Seems like it was an attempted coup.

    Link:http://africafiles.org/article.asp?id=26885
    davidbfpo

  15. #15
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Angola: the pealing of the doomsday bells

    We can currently observe a great variety of ‘morbid symptoms’ of fin de régime in Angola, ranging from the farcical to the tragic. It would appear the government of long-time President, José Eduardo dos Santos, and his ruling MPLA can hear the pealing of the doomsday bells. However, according to the official interpretation, this impending doom is not a result of years of misrule, politics of exclusion, and the recent steep decline in oil prices, which quite dramatically revealed the persistent, gross mismanagement of public revenues, but rather because of the conspiracies of ‘internal enemies’.
    Link:http://africanarguments.org/2015/07/...-jon-schubert/
    davidbfpo

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    Council Member Misifus's Avatar
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    Another exercise in Western-style Intellectualism. This is precisely what got Angola into trouble in the first place. What are we proposing in this thread? The right to go save the place?

    Gringo go home. Leave them alone, they are making progress in their own way.

  17. #17
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Misifus View Post
    Another exercise in Western-style Intellectualism. This is precisely what got Angola into trouble in the first place. What are we proposing in this thread? The right to go save the place?

    Gringo go home. Leave them alone, they are making progress in their own way.
    This thread contains IIRC pointers to information on a country that rarely features in the media and no-one is proposing any course of action.

    As for Angolans making progress, I certainly get the impression those in power are making plenty of progress, very few others are.
    davidbfpo

  18. #18
    Council Member Misifus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by davidbfpo View Post
    ...As for Angolans making progress, I certainly get the impression those in power are making plenty of progress, very few others are.
    Not true. They are making progress at their pace, which is sufficient for them. I've been there much. Angola and Cabinda. I think that was in my earlier posts from a few years back.

  19. #19
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Turbulence as oil price drops

    Angola – where oil accounts for nearly half of GDP, more than two-thirds of government revenue and nearly 98% of export earnings – has an estimated break-even oil price of around US$110 per barrel, and is expected to run a budget deficit of at least 7% of GDP in 2015, despite drastically cutting its 2015 expenditure plans. Luanda is currently attempting to issue debt to global investors to fund its budget deficit. But with increased investor risk aversion due to a more uncertain global economic outlook, emerging-market borrowers – already squeezed by exchange-rate depreciation – are likely to incur higher premiums, making hard-currency debt all the more expensive to service. Meanwhile, Angola’s already impoverished general population has experienced severe shortages in food and medicine, prompting public displays of anti-government sentiment despite notoriously unforgiving security forces. Popular discontent is seen as a factor in President Jose Eduardo dos Santos’s surprise announcement earlier this month that he would step down in 2018 after 37 years as head of state.
    Taken from an IISS Strategic Comment email.
    davidbfpo

  20. #20
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Let me have cake

    Or keep it in the family:
    At the helm of this African oil giant, is President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. A man who has led Angola for the past 37 years and made his country a beacon of hope for others held back by poor infrastructural development. He has declared his intention to stand down from office after elections next year. Stepping down would seem to indicate a loosening of his grip on power and a change of direction, but the appointment of his daughter to a top job, suggests otherwise.
    Isabel dos Santos, the richest woman in Africa, has just been named president of the state oil giant Sonangol. She has a reputation as a slick operator, has interests that range from telecoms, real estate and diamonds and is considered as an accomplished businesswoman in in her own right.
    Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36520290
    Last edited by davidbfpo; 06-18-2016 at 10:17 PM. Reason: 17,416v
    davidbfpo

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