- published: 22 Oct 2014
- views: 133756
Corruption in Angola is a pervasive phenomenon, hindering economic growth and government-sponsored liberalization programs.
The Soviet press, despite the close relationship between Angola and the USSR, accused the ruling MPLA party of clientelism, corruption, and nepotism, accusing the government of illicitly accumulating US$1 billion. Ogonek said that "corruption has flourished on a scale which is unprecedented even in Africa... the ruling party in Angola... being pro-communist by nature, was ready to sacrifice everything and everybody."
In April 1999 Gustavo Costa, a journalist for Expresso, wrote an article entitled Corruption Makes Victims, accusing José Leitāo, the chief presidential advisor, of embezzling government revenue. Police arrested Costa and charged him with difamação and injúria. The Angolan Supreme Court found him guilty, sentencing him to eight-months imprisonment, suspended for two years, and fined him $2,000.Rafael Marques, a journalist and human rights activist, wrote "The Lipstick of Dictatorship," an article criticizing corruption in the Angolan government and President José Eduardo dos Santos, on July 3.
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Across the vein of night
There cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon
On the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness
And the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow stretch
And land on either side --
either side.
And balanced on the precipice
The moment must reveal
Naked in the face of time
Our race within the wheel
As we hang beneath the heavens
And we hover over hell
Our hearts become the instruments
We learn to play so well.
Wealthy the spirit that knows its
own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays
his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys
the length of the light.
Outside the pull of gravity
Beyond the spectral veil
Within our careful reasoning
We search to no avail
For the constant in the chaos
For the fulcrum in the void
Following a destiny
Our steps cannot avoid.
Across the vein of night
There cuts a path of searing light
Burning like a beacon
On the edges of our sight
At the point of total darkness
And the lights divine divide
A soul can let its shadow
Stretch and land on either side.
Wealthy the spirit that knows its
own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays
his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys
the length of the light.
In a spiral never-ending
Are we drawn towards the source
Spinning at the mercy of an
unrelenting force
So we stare into the emptiness
and fall beneath the weight
Circling the Nexus in a
fevered dance with fate --
Wealthy the spirit that knows its
own flight
Stealthy the hunter who slays
his own fright
Blessed the traveler who journeys