Dear Nicki,
I welcome you to Angola. I am a journalist and
human rights defender who has been at the forefront of exposing the dictatorial
ills of the regime, whose first daughter and princess of state-looting,
Isabel dos Santos, is your host.
Moments ago I received a message on my cell phone,
from an UNITEL operator offering me a ticket to your concert tomorrow
with the purchase of a 900 kwanzas (US $4.50) phone credit. That is for your
concert "for the people" in the Coqueiros Stadium, with a capacity of
20,000 people. UNITEL is the company jointly owned by Isabel dos Santos
and the Angolan state, which is paying your fees.
In spite of all the advertising campaigns
undertaken by UNITEL to promote your concert "for the people”, sales have
been in a slump. At 900 kwanzas per ticket, the concert is basically free, yet
people are still not coming forth. The UNITEL message, 24 hours before the
concert, giving away the tickets, is a sign of passive resistance by the youth
who may actually like your music. They should have been entranced by your fame
and the alleged generosity of our own Marie Antoinette, Isabel dos Santos, and
flocked to the gates of the Coqueiros Stadium.
First, let me explain why I refused to take a stand
against you. Western presidents are known for courting my dictator. Recently,
the French President François Hollande visited Angola, and had only praise for
President Dos Santos. Angola currently sits on the UN Security Council as a
non-permanent member, and there has been no outcry to unseat it from such a
distinguished institution. Even the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, recently
had kind words for the Angolan regime, with which the US has a strategic
dialogue partnership. There has been no international uproar because of
the succor Western leaders provide to the Angolan regime, and against the
multinationals that do opaque business deals in the country. So, why should I
be concerned for you taking some hundreds of thousands of dollars from this
regime while singing for them?
I can only wonder while the Banco de Fomento de
Angola, half-owned by Isabel dos Santos, does not allow me to withdraw my US
$3,000 to contribute to my mother’s urgent surgery in South Africa. The
argument is that they either pay after the hospital performs the surgery or I
must have an approved ticket to travel abroad to be able to withdraw US $2,500,
because the country is facing a major crisis in foreign currency. The South
African hospital wants me to pay up front. Some people have been
waiting for several months for such payments to be made. But there is plenty of
foreign currency to pay you to come here even if the tickets are being given
away now for free. Like me, most Angolans are feeling the impact of the
looting of the state by the president’s family and friends, which is behind the
current economic crisis. As I write to you, the army and the police forces,
which are the muscles of the regime, are yet to receive their salaries for the
months of November and December. Hospitals are now lacking in basic medicines.
I remember how during the worst years of the civil
war, we would have the president happily smiling for the cameras while enjoying
the coronation of Miss Angola in pageants sponsored by his wife. Call them
insensitive. So, you come to show that the insensitive presidential family has
not changed.
Although I do not know your music, and I am not
interested in you personally, I find it amusing by the contribution that you
are making to revealing our president for what he is: a dictator.
Recently, the venerable BBC named billionaire Isabel dos
Santos as one of the 100 most influential women in the world,
and interviewed her with soft questions giving her respectability for her
ill-gotten gains. But weeks later, it also reported on the Human Rights
Foundation’s campaign call for you to cancel your trip to Angola. The BBC even
mentioned that Isabel dos Santos had been named by Transparency International
“as one of 15 symbols of grand corruption worldwide.”
Dear Nicki,
I would have been more upbeat if Angolans, within
civil society, had organized a campaign to boycott your concert. That would
have shown how Angolan society is articulate in its stand against the dictator,
his daughter, and the human rights offenders. But every move the regime makes
shows how it is falling apart anyway.
So, let me go and check you out on
YouTube. Festas Felizes!
Photo Credit: Glamour.com, Post Credit: Sahara reporters
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