Louise Redvers
24 July 2009
Luanda — "Amiga, amiga," the women shout out, "Apples, pears, pineapples..." their cries fading into the beeps and growls of the traffic noise.
All across Luanda, street vendors hawk their goods, selling everything from car stereo parts and locally-caught fish to fake perfume and Chinese flip flops.
Most of these products are imported in giant sacks by groups of women who travel by plane to South Africa, China and Brazil buying up cheap produce which they mark up to cover the customs fees at the airport.
The imported goods are then taken to the warehouses or "armazens" which stretch out for around six kilometres from the city centre up to the sprawling Roque Santeiro Market.
These armazens, also filled with goods imported by boat like canned food and electric goods, stock the sellers in Roque but also the smaller-scale vendors who carry their produce into town by Angola's trade mark blue and white taxis - know as "cadongueiros" literally carrying sellers.
In the city centre, away from the mud and mayhem of Roque, among the shiny glass skyscrapers and oil executives in 4x4s, the price is doubled and, depending on the buyer's skin colour, often doubled again.
Decades of conflict and Marxist-style economic governance killed off Angola's private sector, replacing it with bloated and inefficient state institutions which drove commerce underground.
Roque Santeiro, named after a Brazilian soap opera with cult following in Angola, grew up in the early war years and was formally made a market in 1986.
But its formality stops there. Today, stretching over two square kilometres, Roque is home to tens of thousands of vendors and their diverse wares.
The end of Angola's 27-year civil war in 2002 has launched the country into an economic boom - double digit GDP growth every year since 2004 - thanks to large oil and diamond reserves.
This economic boom however has failed to create jobs for most Angolans: two-thirds still live on less than two dollars a day.
This growth has so far failed to put money in the pockets of most Angolans; two-thirds still live on less than two dollars a day because the boom has created very few formal jobs and the informal economy - believed to account for more than 60 percent of Angola's economy - continues to thrive.
According to the 2009 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), carried out in 43 countries across the world and published this month, Angola has one of the highest rates of early-stage entrepreneurs. One in four Angolans, the study found, were involved in start-ups, significantly higher than other economies GEM describes as production-driven like India and Colombia.
"Being seen to be an entrepreneur is a very good thing in Angola and people respect businessmen," explained Professor Augusto Medina, president of SPI (Portuguese Society of Innovation), which carried out the study in Angola in conjunction with the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN) and the country's largest private bank BFA (Banco Fomento Angola).
But, he added: "This spirit of entrepreneurship is one born out of necessity.
"People cannot find jobs so they have to go out and make their own work by selling on the streets."
Informal commerce has its advantages: the most attractive element is that anyone in Angola's fractured society, be they displaced by the war, a demobilised soldier, or an illiterate woman mother running a household, can have a go. There are no entry requirements and no piles of paperwork.
On the other hand, buying in small quantities can push up costs, lone sellers often don't have secure storage, for example, and some may feel obliged to give family or social discounts which reduce long-term profitability.
Informal entrepreneurs in Angola also struggle to access bank credit which continues, despite some improvements, to be reserved mainly for the wealthy elite with the right family ties.
In a report on Angola's informal markets, the Canadian NGO Development Workshop (DW) noted: "While entry into the informal market economy is open to anyone, regardless of their level of literacy or previous experience, those who succeed need to acquire business skills and sufficient capital to build sustainable enterprises."
A major sticking point was, DW observed, a lack of access to credit which led to people taking private loans with extremely high interest rates which left them in chronic debt.
DW and local partners have been instrumental in establishing micro-credit in parts of Luanda. The Sustainable Livelihoods project (SLP) was based on a model of micro-finance originally developed by the Grameen bank in Bangladesh.
Groups are made up of between 20 to 30 members and have democratically-elected chairs, treasurers etc, a constitution and regular scheduled meetings.
At the beginning, each group follows a 10-week training process to strengthen trust, solidarity and leadership which must be completed before loans are made. Then the loans are made to individuals but guaranteed by the group.
By 2004, SLP had nearly 5,000 clients in Luanda and Huambo and has since evolved to become KikiCredito which has been hailed as a first-rate example of a successful micro-finance initiative.
Access to support like this is needed in Angola.
The GEM survey found that while Angola has the very high start-up rate, it also had the highest failure rate with one fifth of new Angolan companies closing down within 12 months. This was the highest failure rate in the 43 countries surveyed.
The GEM authors made a number of recommendations to support to small businesses through access to credit, education and training, as well as making technology like the internet more accessible.
Back on Luanda's streets however, on the very bottom rung of the entrepreneurial ladder, life is harder than ever, thanks to the provincial government's new ban on street vendors.
Teams of police patrol the crumbling pavements, chasing women from their patches, sometimes seizing their precious produce. The legislation was introduced to "clean up" Luanda and concentrate sellers in designated market areas like Roque Santeiro.
But despite the high risks, traders are defiant.
"I will continue selling here," Paulo Silva, 18, said, clutching a cardboard sheet covered in sunglasses, "People aren't going to Roque as much anymore, our customers are here and we can make more money here."
In Angola, where the trickle down of oil riches doesn't quite reach the bottom, these vendors are likely to continue fighting for a share in their country's economy for many years to come.
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Trickle down is from the worker, and its real form is productive employment of other workers. You cannot get much of that from export-oriented extractive industries. Your economy must reorient itself to domestic usage first- easier to do with oil than diamonds. You must produce goods first for your nation, then for export when there is a surplus.
At the grassroots level: practice rainwater harvesting and container gardening. Both of these are practical in both urban and rural environments. You can be wealthy without diamonds, but not without fruits and vegetables.
At the national level, produce your oil more for domestic usage. Not an overnight change, you and your business partners have commitments that should be honored. But over time, convert to an almost "domestic only" production scheme on the notion that Angolans of the future could use some oil. If you will notice, the foreign money that exporting oil brings does much less good and far more harm for a nation than seems reasonable at first. But to stay in import/export most of that foreign money must be used to import goods that will compete with local production. You can be wealthy without foreign money, but not without fuel.
Use your diamond money to import capital hardware to produce goods you would otherwise import. Trickle down is from the worker, and you will have more of that when fewer of you are unemployed.
1. The Bakken Oil Field Find
2. 55 gallon drums fulls of unprocessed diamonds.
* These are just a few of the suppressed world riches this beautiful world created by God (Jehovah, Father of Jesus Christ)..
3. Minister Lindsey Williams has known for 30 years of a major oil find in Alaska.
* He says that he sat in on meetings of the rich and powerful. These men decided not to use this oil to help America.
* Beware Africans, the wolves of deception are always around riches.
* Hosea said we perish for two reasons. Most people only remember one reason why we perish.
- Hosea said MY PEOPLE PERISH FOR LACK OF KNOWLEDGE
- AND…because they REJECT KNOWLEDGE
- In other words, they DON’T KNOW & THEY DON’T WANT TO KNOW !!!!
4. For those who want to know I suggest you guys who can get the Internet do these things :
a) Listen to broadcasts like : Alex Jones (Infowars), Derry Brownfield, The Power Hour
(Joyce & Dave), Jeff Rense, and other broadcasts on the Genesis Communications Network.
b) Here’s an appetizer of information on the subjects I have just written on :
• Do a search use IX Quick search engine .They don’t record your computer’s address ; protect your privacy [ http://ixquick.com/]
• Here are three(s) separate subjects that I mentioned that you can search for
(i) – Bakken Oil Field Find
(ii) – Lindsey Williams (YouTube videos)
(iii) – Janine Roberts :Glitter & Greed : The Secret World of The Diamond Cartel
Our only enemies are in Hell , waiting for their life-sentence of damnation.
You are in my prayers. Pray for each other too
Have Faith in God and Love for each other. May The Lord God Bless You real good
[This inspiring poem was featuring in the movie “Coach Carter ”]
Our Deepest Fear Is Not That We Are Inadequate, Our Deepest Fear Is That We Are Powerful Beyond Measure. It Is Our Light , Not Our Darkness That Most Frightens Us.
We Ask Ourselves, Who Am I To Be Brilliant, Gorgeous, Talented, And Fabulous ?
Actually Who Are We Not To Be ? You Are A Child Of God.
Your Playing Small Doesn’t Serve The World.
There Is Nothing Enlightened About Shrinking So That Other People Won’t Feel Insecure Around You.
We Are All Meant To Shine, As Children Do.
We Were Born To Make Manifest The Glory Of God That Is Within Us.
It’s Not Just In Some Of Us; It’s In Everyone.
And When We Let Our Own Light Shine We Unconsciously Give Other People Permission To Do The Same.
And As We Are Liberated From Our Own Fear, Our Presence Automatically Liberates Others
- Marianne Williamson -
[NOTE – BEING AFRAID AND REFUSING TO GET INVOLVED WON’T STOP US FROM DYING. BUT BEING AFRAID CAN PREVENT US FROM LIVING]
(Nkosi Sikeleli Africa )
God bless Africa May her glory be lifted high Hear our petitions .
God bless us, Your children God we ask You to protect our nation Intervene and end all conflicts Protect us, protect our nation, our nation.
From the blue of our heaven, From the depths of our sea, Over our eternal mountain ranges, Where the cliffs give answer.
Sounds the call to come together, And united we shall stand, Let us live and strive for freedom, In South Africa our land.
[Enoch Mankayi Sontonga]
[http://www.infowars.com/infowars.asx] / [gcnlive.com] / [http://alexjonesringtones.net/]
WAKE UP ! STAY UP MY BROTHERS & SISTERS !
BE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
- Life Is a Game. Have Fun. [ Luke 18:17 / Isaiah 11:6 ]