Monday, October 06, 2008

EQUATORIAL GUINEA: Poverty rife in Africa’s “Kuwait”

Equatorial Guinea is one of the world´s top oil produces in the

world, and yet it still lives in devastating poverty. They call

it the the dictatorship that no one talks about. Even though

the government earns billions of dollars in oil every year, 60

percent of its population lives on less than one US dollar a

day.

Many opportunities for job services in the oil industries has

risen, but if you do not have a membership card with the

presidential ruling of the Democratic Party of Guinea, you are

not allowed to fill in those positions.

Less than half the population has access to clean drinking

water, and twenty percent of children die before the age of

five. Medical consultation is approximately sixty US dollars

even though the monthly government minimum wage is 186 US

dollars.

Oil has only made us poorer, states a farmer on Bioko island.

They are dumped in slums with no water or electricity.

International journalists are forbidden from taking pictures of

the hundreds of shanty towns spread in and around the capital

without government-issued accreditation.

Equatorial Guinea suffers from the economic phenomenon of Dutch

disease, where increased oil revenue is linked with a rise in

government corruption and a decline in the manufacturing

sector.

Its amazing that people and governement officials can get away

with something like this. You would think that maybe they would

have a conscious while they are living like kings and their

people can barely see their babies and children survive.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80768

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