Angola

My father arrived this week from Angola, for most of those who remember Luanda from 30 years ago it must be a shock... Poverty, degradation, children wondering through the streets selling garbage or stuff they have stolen, little girls prostituting themselves, going to shacks under drooling disgusting old men, children famine who are just trying to survive… Old builds in ruins, corruption everywhere, “business people” living in containers (not mansions has they claim), Chinese working for salaries lower than the own native population…

No idyllic, beautiful Africa, except when you go to the quietness of the savanna, untouched… Everywhere else only pain and suffering, HIV and a strong will of survival, of some hope in the future as present is lacking so much a little window of hope and opportunity… For the greedy, the abusers, in some years there will only be punishment, because unlike what some white and Chinese assume, Angolans are everything but stupid, they know they need help to rise, but they will not forget the price some are paying… Unfortunately, the scenery of this city will remain the same for the next years and most probably the AIDS toll will make the waiting even longer, more painfull…

It is just so revolting to know how much the children have suffered, how much they suffer and how much they will still suffer, to know that men without any scruples will abuse little girls, who subject themselves to eat, even if that means dying of AIDS in some years time, I just hope the bastards who abuse them will die also, because abusing a hungry child is one of the most horrible crimes one can commit…