Life experience in Angola: Cabinda in perspective

(From William Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent in Cabinda, Angola, courtesy Ministry of Youth and Sports)

Cabinda, Angola, Jan 15, GNA - One major worry prior to the commencement of the 27th Edition of the Orange Africa Cup of Nations was about living standards in Angola.

Oil rich Angola is tagged as the most expensive country to live in and after few days of working in the once war torn country, it can be confirmed that, the country is indeed an expensive place to live in at least with a few experiences in the capital Luanda and Cabinda, which is said to the hub of the nations oil boom.

Information gathered by the GNA Sports at some selected areas gives credence to the fact that life in Angola is indeed an expensive one, after going through the shopping malls, supermarkets and spending several hours of discussions other Ghanaian journalists as well as other nationals.

The enquiries reveals that one could pay a minimum of 40 US Dollars and a maximum 50 US Dollars for a taxi ride from say Accra central to Dansoman. This was confirmed when four journalists including the GNA Special correspondent picked a taxi from Hotel Tropico to the domestic airport in Luanda and were made to pay 40 US Dollars equivalent to almost 60GHC.

One may be compelled to assume that the group paid such a huge amount because they were strangers but that is the normal charge for such a distance after some investigations.

Following the negative impact the civil war had had on the country, travelling by land to most parts of Angolan, is highly impossible and the only alternative, is air transport. One could pay a minimum of 120 Dollars and a maximum of 135 US Dollars for a one hour flight to Cabinda, which is just a one way flight.

Even a bottle of coke on the street side, not in a restaurant goes for two US Dollars whilst a piece of bread sandwich also attracts the same amount. Three small sized pizza goes for 50 US Dollars with the same going for a carton of big size bottled water. The list is just endless.

In terms of accommodation, one can pay as high as 800 US Dollars a night in any ordinary hotel, with minimum 200 dollars for a night in a hotel many in Ghana call "short time hotels".

A group of Ghanaian journalist lodging in a private residence are paying 100 dollar each night in a room with limited facilities. At the Media Village in Cabinda, each night goes for 300 US Dollars, which by Angolan standards seems quite moderate because it comes with transportation to every part of Cabinda, internet facilities, television with DSTV and a more comfortable environment devoid of armed men.

Life at the Village is a bit comfortable and the minimum one can spend on a buffet is 35 US Dollars but it can go higher if any attempt is made to design the plate with everything on the table, because it will be weighed before the price is determined.

One's attempt to 'fill the stomach' at any ordinary food joint or restaurant can land one into trouble if you happen to carry few dollars on you that is highly graded by Ghanaian standards.

Communication is one challenging area in Cabinda and Angola as a whole. With just two networks operating; UNITEL and MOVIE CELL one can imagine the low level of competition in that sector.

The minimum one might pay is 10 US Dollars for a scratch card which last for only five minutes when you make a call. With this, communication is also on the higher side.

E.tv's Yaw Ampofo Ankrah exhibited about 15 of the used scratch cards he has so far spent in just four days to the GNA Sports, saying you can imagine what will happen in the next few days.

Till Felix Hoffman, a freelance journalist from Germany and Mark Haenberg of North German Radio (NDR) summed up the economic situation in Angola as "you need millions of dollars to live in Angola". Asked by GNA Sports as to how much they brought to Angola to cater for their needs at the tournament, their only response was, "we don't want to talk about it as we are coping with the situation". Their assertion was corroborated by another German journalist Christian Gunther who said its difficult living in Angola. "I spend so much on every little thing. The situation is terrible". He lamented.

Alexandre Le Grand Roumaba, a Burkinabe journalist told the GNA Sports that, "In Cabinda, you have to buy everything and they are expensive".

"Even if you breath or laugh, you pay, walk around, you have to pay because it can never be free. I'm spending so much here that, I might get heart ache if I attempt converting into my country's currency". Even the officials and players are having a great feel of the high cost of living; Happy FM's Joe Debrah told GNA Sports that he had an interview with Ivorian international Salomon Kalou who also expressed the same sentiments.

That is how far the situation is here even if highly paid world class players are feeling the heat.

However if there is any group of people here who seem to have prepared adequately to meet the economic challenges, then it is the Ghanaian journalists and of course a few of the supporters who travelled all the way from Ghana to Cabinda via Luanda.

Ghanaian journalists are well equipped with food. Fante kenkey is the common food with some bagging as many as 40 balls, three tins of 'olonka' of gari and a small paint size container of shito. Amazing! The situation is the same on the supporter's front who have gone the extra mile further by carrying bottled water to the country. One supporter called Polo said, "By Allah, I will not buy anything in this country. I'm well prepared as far as the finals".

Some of the people even came along with bags of rice and rice cookers to match and this tells the level of preparations made by the Ghanaians especially the journalists in their bid to feed the nation with on the spot information.

Pieces of information gathered by GNA Sports from the local people indicate that the high cost of living could be directly linked to the war that lasted for close to three decades.

According to the people, farming and agricultural activities are limited due to the several landmines, hence almost everything is imported from their colonial masters Portugal and neighbours DR Congo and Congo Brazzaville.

For them the war and food importation is the direct cause of the strangulating due to the civil war, but this seem to be duly compensated for by the huge salaries they earn, since security men are said to earn a minimum of 800USD each month, even though it is unconfirmed. As it should be expected, there are great possibilities that, the locals may have a better idea of how to manage the economic situation because they seem to care less.

The local organizers would have however be commended for putting up magnificent stadiums in the four host cities for the tournament, but the sparsely arranged facilities makes it less conducive for effective delivery.

The organizers have indeed made available Media and Olympic Villages where all the four teams have camped in Cabinda, a magnificent Estadio Nacional D' Chiazi with a media center and a functional office for the Local Organising Committee as well as an accreditation center. In spite this it is not convenient shuttling between these facilities in the dispensation of duty.

The distance from the Media Village to the stadium is about from Accra to Tema (using the motorway), whilst the same could be said of travelling from the Village to the LOC offices. The facilities are just too distant from each other making it difficult for effective shuttling taking into consideration the cost involved in transportation.

The same situation exist in Luanda, where the newly build stadium is entirely a journey on its own.

It can even take two hours to arrive at the venue amidst thick traffic. Journalists who covered the opening ceremony arrived at the media centre hours later very exhausted and ended up filing their stories around 2:00 am.

With regards to security, if the presence of high number of security personnel is the definition of adequate and tight security, then one can confidently say that, it exists in Cabinda. One is tempted to believe that, it has been beefed after the Togo incident because any short distant will see a police officer with hands on the trigger ready to fire and it really gets uncomfortable walking around even within the limited areas.

Players and officials located at the Games Village have been given absolute security with motorcades and armoured cars loaded with military personal escorting them to and from every location. Having access to the Games Village to interact with the players and officials is just not possible, because it is a highly restricted area only for specific volunteers and LOC officials among others. Attempts made by the Ghanaian Journalists to visit the team were thwarted by the security officials on duty saying it is a restricted area.

Even though the tournament seems to going on as scheduled, the high cost of living, "too much of security" and scattered facilities seem to have hampered the level of excitement and enthusiasm as media personnel who are supposed to hype up the event are battling with living standards, with the players and officials also obviously been affected. From all indications, one has to make do with the situation, because the economic conditions will not just improve within the remaining days of the competition, just as the sparsely located facilities will not get closer.