I don\’t think it\’s a surprise to anyone that Equatorial Guinea is a vile dictatorship but this little bit of copying of one of the worst ideas from elsewhere in Africa leapt out at me:
A teacher told me schools used to make a little money by selling uniforms to parents. Last year, however, Obiang\’s family opened a textile factory and insisted all schools bought uniforms from there, increasing their wealth a tiny bit more and further undermining a poorly resourced education system.
Wasn\’t it Bokassa who did the same, made school uniforms a family monopoly? Then imprisoned and killed those children who protested?
Let’s hope he is not sharing women and diamonds with the French President too.
You have to love the impartial course of French Colonial Justice. At his trial, witnesses said they saw butchered bodies of children hanging in Bokassa’s fridge. But they couldn’t swear they were for dinner. So he got off. On the other hand, when he complained in his auto-biography about French ingratitude, after sharing all those aforementioned women and diamonds (with the possibility that he also shared those children’s meat with VGdE at dinner), they had every copy pulped.
You do learn lots from this blog, don’t you?
Giscard has partaken of the “long pig”.
Simon Mann is not a fantasist channelling Cecil Rhodes but a top bloke.
And UK MPs can’t be bothered to check out their own government website before travelling:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travel-and-living-abroad/travel-advice-by-country/country-profile/sub-saharan-africa/equatorial-guinea?profile=all
blokeinfrance – “You do learn lots from this blog, don’t you?”
Confucius did once say that if he travelled with four people, he could take one as a teacher.
“Giscard has partaken of the “long pig”.”
I think it is more of a possibility than a proven fact. Although I like the idea.
“Simon Mann is not a fantasist channelling Cecil Rhodes but a top bloke.”
In all fairness, you can be both.
“And UK MPs can’t be bothered to check out their own government website before travelling:”
No one else does so why should they?
Points taken, SMFS
Though whether Cecil Rhodes was a top bloke… ?
I see from the FO website that GDP per capita in Equatorial Guinea is $36,000.
Given that most of the population manages to survive on less than $1 per day, and that $36,000 is more than even a Greek civil servant earns, can I propose a new member for inclusion in the euro zone? They need the money, after all.