WORKING AS A DOCTOR IN ANGOLA

ANGOLA - WHY NOT!

Despite the fact that after returning from Libya, the period of my stay at home was very busy - work, passing various courses, recovering the highest category, everyday problems, there came a moment when I said to myself - that's it, I can't stay here anymore. Each of the doctors who have worked abroad for a long time knows this state of alienation from the poor domestic health care, their infantile country and society, and the inevitable desire to leave them as soon as possible.

I didn’t want to return to Libya, I was tired from many years of work in an Arab country. Age did not allow conquering the expanses of the West, so it was necessary to choose new horizons. And not so many places abroad are open for our doctors. One of the few remaining is Angola.

I heard about Angola when I was working in Libya. However, at that time among doctors - this place for work was not considered worthwhile. Wage problems, climate, malaria - all this did not inspire me to work there. There was also no reliable information about work there. Although, of course, everyone knew that many of our doctors had worked in Angola since Soviet times, some of whom I knew.

Besides, this is the real Africa, which I have always had an interest in. So the choice was made. An opportunity came up and I took advantage of it.

HOW DO YOU GET A JOB IN ANGOLA

The main route for getting a job in Angola passes through the Russian CJSC ZDRAVEXPORT Group, headed by General Director Dalakyan. This is a private enterprise, the owner of which Rachinsky lives in Moscow.

Also, doctors get a military contract through a company probably associated with ZDRAVEXPORT and led by Biryukov.

However, there are other channels for getting a job. These are various companies that hire doctors to serve their employees, religious mission hospitals, doctors working under an individual contract, private hospitals, etc.

VIRTUAL EMPLOYMENT AND DEPARTURE

After I applied to ZDRAVEXPORT with a desire to work as a doctor in Angola, the paperwork and waiting procedure began. Surprisingly, it was short-lived - a few months, and all documents were sent via e-mail. So I have never been to the ZDRAVEXPORT office in Moscow and have not met with its employees, except for those who come or work in Angola. Taking into account the electronic nature of employment, one can assume a high degree of falsification of documents by applicants. This is a direct recruitment, so there was no need to pay for the employment of an intermediary firm.

The date of departure is usually reported 2 weeks in advance, so that there is time to complete all professional and household affairs. The flight to Angola takes place mainly from Moscow, the ticket is free. My group flew on an Emirates flight from Moscow Domodedovo Airport on the Moscow-Dubai-Luanda route with a transfer in Dubai. The flight was carried out by comfortable Airbus and Boeing aircraft and was transferred quite normally.

ROSTANG

This is the name of the historic building of the former Soviet trade mission in Luanda, and now the residence of a private Russian company engaged in air transportation and medical recruitment business in Angola, where we were settled after arriving in Luanda.

The head of ZDRAVEXPORT Dalakyan and other employees made a good impression as friendly and positivist people. During the 2-week stay in Rostang, for some it may be delayed due to problems with employment, newcomers are engaged in the study of the Portuguese language. Classes are taught by company employees, mostly former translators who have been working in Angola since Soviet times.

Education is conducted, in my opinion, according to a conservative method with immersion in grammar, which not only induces drowsiness, but also does not contribute to the rapid assimilation of the language, although I must note that in other countries no one teaches anyone at all - this is a personal problem of the job applicant. And the completely redundant free meals and periodic trips to the ocean beach of Luanda complete the relaxed state in which newcomers are immersed.

However, the idyll does not last long and ends with the signing of a contract with the direction to the place of work by air or auto transport.

BACK IN THE USSA

More than 20 years have passed since the collapse of the USSR, and we in Ukraine, to tell the truth, received little information about life in the former Soviet republics, so it was of interest to me to contact people from the former Soviet republics - Uzbekistan, Belarus, Russia, etc.

I must admit that most doctors from the post-Soviet republics are frozen in the Soviet mentality - a tendency to totalitarian thinking, categorical judgment, anti-Western rhetoric and conviction in the superiority of Soviet and post-Soviet medicine, which is undoubtedly connected with the political situation in these countries.

The organization of the life of the medical community in the field also copies the former Soviet order. All doctors in the provinces of Angola are united in teams led by a leader who is appointed from the medical community. The management of ROSTANG exercises control and management of doctors, organization of living conditions and provision of their transport through these leaders. The degree of this management varies greatly and depends on the character, organizational and personal traits of the leader - the fact is that many doctors leave Angola because of a conflict with the team leader.

Funding for the living conditions of working doctors is also non-transparent, which implies violations at all levels. Living conditions among doctors vary greatly, as some live alone in very comfortable cottages, for which ZDRAVEXPORT pays significant amounts and additional money was also spent on the arrangement of which, while others live in very mediocre living conditions for 3-4 people in the house.

It would probably be fair if all employees were paid a certain amount of money for arranging accommodation, and the doctors themselves would decide what level of comfort they would live in. And the role of group leaders would be only to help with the placement of doctors. The same applies to the provision of transportation for groups-equipment, which I also think is unnecessary, since doctors use it very differently, and there are also quite a few excesses associated with it. If the salary were higher, it would not be a problem for doctors of groups or individually to purchase a car if they wished, and the attitude towards it would be different. Although transport is purchased by doctors mainly for additional work in private clinics. After all, the main problem that existed in the past is not transport and housing, but not the payment of salaries. With a regularly received decent salary, there are no problems to solve everyday issues here.

In general, for me, after the experience of working in Libya, where there was no organizational structure for Ukrainian doctors, and everyone worked on an individual basis and the only boss was the director of the hospital, it was a meeting with the Soviet past.

In the recent past, there were problems with the payment of salaries to doctors, many had to wait for it for 2-3 years, and the debts are still being returned. However, the salary level itself was much higher than the current one - 5 then 4 thousand dollars a month. It is also true that the reason for the irregular payment of salaries is the Angolan side.

At one time, many doctors even managed to catch large fish in troubled waters (in fact, it was theft): they received salaries from both the regional authorities and the Angolan Ministry of Health. Someone returned it, and someone took it home.

The new management of ZDRAVEXPORT managed to stabilize the work. Currently, the Ministry of Health of Angola pays for the work of doctors directly to ZDRAVEXPORT, and it regularly transfers part of this salary - approximately 40% ($ 3,150 per month in kwanzas) directly to the accounts of each doctor in an Angolan bank, and also provides housing and living conditions for doctors. However, it is clear that the price of a stable payment of salaries, improvement of living conditions, provision of vehicles for groups of doctors was provided by a significant reduction in the level of payment for the work of a doctor.

Zdravexport transfers salaries to doctors' accounts in Angolan banks, from where they can be sent home via the SWIFT bank transfer system, which, however, is associated with paper and bureaucratic problems, or sent via Manygram or Western Union. It is allowed to take out of the country no more than $10,000 in cash.

Many doctors in provincial hospitals have part-time jobs in private hospitals, to which ZDRAVEXPORT management turns a blind eye, although the contract states a ban on this. This allows some doctors to double or even triple their income. Recently, however, in many provinces, the hospital authorities themselves prohibit our doctors from working in private hospitals.

Some doctors manage to break out of the orbit of ZDRAVEXPORT and then they switch to an individual contract with the Ministry of Health of Angola and receive a salary of more than $6,000 per month. However, this is not an easy process and is usually successful for doctors who have been working in the country for a long time with a good knowledge of the Portuguese language and good connections and who have received an Angolan residency.

Some, especially doctors from the Central Asian republics, are doing this in parallel with their medical work and non-medical business - they open shops, pharmacies, organize taxi transportation and other commerce that brings them significant income. Of course, all this is done on a semi-legal basis, which is very widespread here.

As for the basic cost of living in Angola, they are low and on average correspond to $ 300 - 400 for life and the Internet, although doctors in municipalities are in many cases provided with food.

ANGOLA AND ANGOLAN

Angola was the latest victim of the Cold War, where the interests of the great powers clashed. As a result, for many years it became a battlefield, which led to huge casualties and the complete destruction of the economic and social infrastructures of the country.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese were not able to carry out the necessary reforms in Angola in time and transform their colony into African Brazil, and in fact it could become a prosperous state. The streets, houses of cities and settlements, which are in a ruined and dilapidated state, speak of the former prosperous Portuguese era, which ended with the collapse and mass exodus of the Portuguese from the country about 40 years ago.

The state and political system in Angola, despite the political transformation and multi-party system, is still one of the few remaining states of the “Soviet” type and much here resembles the former Soviet, and many of the current orders in modern post-Soviet republics or in the former Libya. For me, it was a continuing journey after Libya's Forward to the Past 2.

The 10-year policy of peace and creation has borne fruit - those who were in Angola even a few years ago will be impressed by new buildings and changes. However, poverty, injustice, corruption and social problems are still screaming. And given that the majority of more than 20 million people are young people and the memory of military hard times goes further into history, it is possible that an “African spring” will arise in the future if the authorities do not draw conclusions. After all, the truth is true, which says that - "history teaches that it does not teach anyone anything." I would not want our doctors to stand at the Luanda airport, like Trypilsky, and say again - "Farewell Africa."

Angolans, as a nation, are in the process of formation and are represented by various groups of peoples and tribes living in very poor and primitive conditions. However, progress is clear and dynamic. The Angolans themselves are a patient people. The Portuguese managed to instill in them courtesy, respect for education and educated people, which strikingly distinguishes the local relationship from the rudeness that is so common in our country. This is striking, especially in hospitals, where even in emergency departments there is no tension and aggressiveness that exists in our country or, for example, in Libya. The Angolan patients were the best "patients" in my many years of practice.

Due to the abundance of social problems and the post-war availability of weapons, the country has a tense criminal situation, as a result of which ZDRAVEXPORT employees and doctors have been subjected to gang attacks more than once.

Due to natural resources (oil, diamonds, etc.), Angola demonstrates high rates of economic growth, attracting like El Dorado, eager to earn money from all over the world. The Portuguese and Chinese are in the lead here.

ANGOLAN HEALTH CARE

The latest report from the President of the World Federation of Public Health Associations states: “Angola is a land of economic and social contrasts. Over the past 10 years, the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day has decreased from 68% to 36%. However, there is a big difference between urban and rural areas. So, if in cities this percentage is 18%, then in rural areas it reaches 58%, that is, the difference is more than 3 times. And this difference is not decreasing, but growing and has a negative effect on health. Child and maternal mortality is very high even in comparison with other countries in a similar socio-economic situation.”

Statistical indicators of the state of health of the population are very tragic. So infant mortality, as the best indicator of the socio-economic condition of any state, is 154/1000 in Angola, one in five children dies before reaching the age of 5. Maternal mortality is 660 per 100 thousand.

The healthcare system in Angola has 3 levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. The levels correspond to the state division: municipality, province and republican level.

The healthcare structure is represented by: rural health centers (similar to our FAPs) - POSTO DE SAUDE, community health centers (similar to district hospitals and polyclinics) - CENTRO DE SAUDE, municipal hospitals (similar to district central hospitals) - HOSPITAL MUNICIPAL, provincial hospitals (similar to regional hospitals) — HOSPITAL CENTRAL. There are also various specialized hospitals - CENTRO MATERNO INFANTIL, SANATORIO - anti-tuberculosis, as well as republican specialized hospitals.

Currently, a state policy is being pursued - the "municipalization" of health care, which implies the strengthening and expansion of this level of health care and giving it a priority role, which, in my opinion, is an untimely step, as it is carried out in conditions of an acute shortage of medical personnel and insufficient funding for health care.

The country attaches great importance to healthcare, which can be seen from the intensive construction of medical institutions, although their funding is still insufficient, corruption also plays a significant role in this. Recently, a number of hospitals have been built in accordance with the most modern requirements. However, the value of hospitals is reduced due to the poor network of roads leading to them.

A serious problem for Angolan healthcare is the lack of doctors - only 8 doctors per 100,000 population (more than 3,000 doctors in total). A significant role in this is played by the drain of personnel abroad - 70% of Angolan doctors left to live and work abroad (according to BBC NEWS). And this despite the fact that the level of remuneration of a doctor in the country is high, especially taking into account the very low standard of living in the country. So a novice doctor receives more than $2,000, and a specialist doctor receives more than $6,000.

Doctors are trained both in their own country (5 universities) and in Cuba, Brazil, and Portugal. The country also has many doctors trained in the USSR. A change in the educational vector leads to the fact that more and more doctors are being trained according to modern Western standards. And their number is increasing significantly every year.

The problem is also that many doctors are involved in administrative work, which exacerbates the shortage of medical personnel in practical health care.

Also, many doctors go into private medicine, which is quite widely developed in the country. There are several large private clinics in Luanda, equipped to modern standards with international staff working in them, providing qualified assistance. However, often, and they are not able to provide specialized qualified assistance, and then the sick (employees of foreign companies, the Portuguese and wealthy Angolans) are taken to Namibia and South Africa, which play the same role here as Tunisia and Egypt for Libya.

The shortage of doctors in the country is total and therefore the country invites foreign doctors to work. Their contingent is mainly made up of doctors from countries historically politically friendly to Angola: Cuba (more than 800 doctors), the CIS - ZDRAVEXPORT (more than 300 doctors), as well as doctors from North Korea and Vietnam. Undoubtedly, Cuban doctors occupy a privileged position here, which is felt both in relation to them and in providing them with the best living conditions.

And the reason for this lies not only in the minimal language barrier and the fact that thousands of Cubans died fighting during the war in Angola, but also in the fact that Cubans demonstrate the best medicine - Western, although this attitude has also changed recently due to typical illnesses of representatives of the "decaying" socialist society.

However, I must state that the choice of doctors to work in the country on the principle of political expediency has a very negative effect on the level of medicine in Angola.

INFERMAIRES

The Infermeiras are Angolan nurses who carry much, if not most, of the work in Angola's healthcare system. In addition to directly nursing and paramedical work, they perform a significant part of medical work. Their training is carried out in medical schools, where for 4 years they become nurses or medical technicians - laboratory assistants, radiologists, blood transfusion service, etc. Their salary ranges from $600 to $1000.

They are able to work independently at the time of graduation, probably also because during their studies they regularly work on weekends and holidays in hospitals. Although, of course, it is still insufficient, as well as their organizational and executive discipline. In fact, in many cases they perform the functions of a doctor. In many places, outpatient appointments are carried out here by paramedical personnel. Doctors often work in municipal (and even not everywhere) and provincial hospitals only in Urgencia departments and in hospitals.

I must say that what impressed me the most was the clinical results of the infermiers, they are much better than what you would expect from the average medical worker. This is due, of course, to the algorithmic nature of diagnosis and the standards of treatment that they are taught. And their main drawback is overdiagnosis and overtherapy. But the system works and is quite efficient.

Most of our doctors are very critical of infermiers, but only in a nightmare can they imagine themselves in their place at a consultative appointment in a peripheral, and sometimes even a central hospital. Even in provincial hospitals, the work of the trauma center is provided by infermiers, and surgeons often do not even show a desire to dress their operated patients, entrusting this work to infermiers, although they are later accused of various complications.

It is quite obvious that the Infermiers are doing a great job in Angola, but it is also obvious that the Infermiers are entrusted with an overwhelming and impossible task in the face of a shortage of doctors - to replace them.

CUBA DOCTORS

“We have American medicine,” a Cuban doctor answered with confidence and pride in a discussion with our doctor. Paradoxical as it may seem, but Cuba, demonstrating militant anti-Americanism in politics, in the practical sphere, and in particular medicine, is pursuing a pragmatic policy. In contrast to the Soviet policy of fighting rootless cosmopolitans and fantasies of the best Russian-Soviet school of medicine in the world, Cuban medicine has historically relied on the Western (American) school, even if this has recently happened through Latin American countries.

In addition, the leadership of Cuba has identified health care as the most important political role and priority development, with the allocation of appropriate funds, including for the medical education system. And the result was not long in coming - Cuban doctors are known in the world as qualified doctors of the Western medical school and are in high demand in Latin America and Africa.

The "medical" appearance and behavior of most of them demonstrate the dignity corresponding to the profession of a doctor. Of course, all this does not mean that all Cuban doctors are high-class professionals or that the Iberian mentality is a model of diligence and that they have avoided the vices of doctors of developed socialism, but that Cuban doctors in their mass look better, more confident and worthy of the rest in all respects. doctors working in Angola, this is obvious.

CIS DOCTORS

In Soviet times, the state organization ZDRAVEXPORT (it has nothing to do with the current one) sent doctors to work abroad, conducting their preliminary training (through special residency, language and specialized courses) or through careful selection (choosing doctors with long experience and high qualifications, heads of departments, employees of clinics). And their behavior and work abroad was tightly controlled - in case of violation, they were immediately expelled from the country. This ensured an acceptable and worthy professional and moral image of a Soviet person abroad.

Totalitarianism played a cruel joke on our peoples, because with the loss of selection, fear and coercion, they found themselves in a very unattractive state while abroad.

All the shortcomings of our peoples: widespread lack of culture, rudeness, public mutual hostility, drunkenness and unprofessionalism were in full view of everyone. And doctors are no exception. I described all this in my article on work in Libya and I must state with regret that all this has happened again here in Angola.

It is impossible to have “almost modern knowledge” in medicine. And if a doctor has not received a high-quality education according to modern world standards, or at least at the cost of great effort, has not independently studied modern Western medical literature in his specialty (and here you can’t do without knowing a foreign language), then this doctor is doomed to be a second-rate specialist in the global labor market .

Some doctors blame the hospitals for this, saying they are pro-Cuban. Although in reality they simply do not know modern standards of treatment. After all, it is difficult to expect from the director of a hospital who studied not in Moscow, Kyiv or any other city of the CIS, but in Havana, Lisbon or Rio da Janeiro, to take the side of our doctors - after all, he received modern knowledge there according to Western standards.

Naturally, after such conflicts, the hospital administration tries to get rid of such specialists, at least by transferring them to a municipal hospital. But I must note that such conflicts are not frequent here, because Cuban doctors still try to be tolerant towards our doctors, although their internal skepticism in relation to our doctors is felt. But I am sure that if Arab or Indian doctors work here, many of our doctors would have a hard time.

It is very typical for our doctors to have an attitude towards a continuous educational process, which is the norm for doctors all over the world. But not for ours. So here, in large hospitals, as in Libyan hospitals, and in all countries working according to Western standards, regular scientific conferences with medical reports, messages and discussions are very accepted. This is especially demonstrated by Cuban doctors, but only from our doctors you can hear the caustic - "they read it from Wikipedia." After all, for most of them, regular reading of medical journals and medical information sites is really terra incognita.

I must state that the level of qualification of most of our doctors working in Angola is low. For example, I can say with all confidence that even after several years of work here, most doctors do not know the modern standards of treatment, for example, for malaria. And how would they know this, because modern, continuously updated standards for the treatment of diseases are published on the websites of the WHO, American or British in English, which our doctors do not know. Yes, and "Soviet pride" does not allow them to recognize many obvious truths, often making them a laughing stock among other doctors and even infermiers.

Undoubtedly, an important reason for the unsightly professional appearance of our doctors is the unprofessional selection of candidates for work in Angola. There are no doctors among ZDRAVEXPORT employees who could carry out at least some kind of selection and selection of personnel, the general level of which is already low due to the backward education system in the CIS countries. As a result, even in provincial (regional) hospitals in inpatient and emergency departments, it is not uncommon to meet our doctors who have only experience working at home in a provincial clinic or village. In addition, the lack of modern basic general practitioner training among our doctors leads to big problems for doctors of narrow specialties when they are put on duty in the Urgencia department, which is widespread here. And only the atmosphere of lack of control and irresponsibility that prevails in many Angolan hospitals saves them.

However, just as in Libya, what comes to the fore in the perception of our doctors abroad is not their professional level, but “the moral character of a post-Soviet person.” And in the first place here is, as usual, alcohol abuse. And if in Libya it was necessary to make some efforts to possess it, then here in Angola it is easily accessible everywhere. The low social status of a doctor in our countries, low personal and social culture, mental archetype, these are the main reasons for such widespread alcoholism among doctors.

It is clear that it is extremely rare to change such a mentality of our doctors, even through high wages. I am sure that only our people could have come up with the idea of ​​a bet on the fact that "is it possible to drink away a monthly salary in a month." I inform you that the Guinness record was not broken here and the arguing doctor could not drink more than $ 3,000.

Common among our doctors working in Angola, alcoholism is a very noticeable phenomenon in the local medical environment with an uninterrupted chain of domestic and professional excesses, often ending in the termination of the contract.

Also very typical for doctors of the Russian team (group) are manifestations of mutual hostility and the emergence of conflicts on various grounds. Of course, there are conflicts in other diasporas, but no one, like ours, makes it public and accessible to everyone.

It is quite obvious that we can learn from the Angolans and other nations working here sociability, politeness and a culture of relationships.

Recently, among our doctors, a "Soviet" disease in medicine has become widespread - extortion from patients, which often leads to unpleasant incidents culminating in the expulsion of the doctor. The same disease of "developed socialism" also affects representatives of the countries of the former socialist camp, who mainly work here.

Doctors from the CIS with a high professional level and decent behavior certainly work in Angola, but the general impression is always and everywhere created by negative rather than positive examples. Increasingly, in different places in Angola, one can hear that they no longer want Russian doctors, and if it weren’t for “special” connections at a high level, then the presence of our doctors here would steadily decrease.

WHITE AND BLACK

Angolans without complexes emphasize that they are of the Negroid race and are proud of it. For a long time living among the people of the black race, you see and understand that racism is a manifestation of social lack of development, lack of knowledge and understanding. And the reasons for the backwardness of peoples are historical backwardness, social conditions, poverty, and insufficient education.

In Angola, as in all of Africa, there is a high population of albinos. Most of them die at a young age. From skin cancer...

ANGOLAN MEDICINE

"Life means nothing outside Angolan hospitals." Unfortunately, this expression is largely true in Angolan hospitals at all levels. And this is due not only to the irresponsibility and emerging cynicism of many doctors, but mainly due to the huge flow of seriously ill patients with their high mortality.

Never in my practice, working in an emergency hospital in a large regional center, in the Central District Hospital in Ukraine and Libya, have I seen such an avalanche of patients, including those who are seriously ill. Working in Angola is like descending into Dante's Medical Hell.

Diseases of the lungs and respiratory tract: pneumonia, bronchitis. Asthma is surprisingly rare.

Cardiovascular diseases are widespread: hypertension and cardiomyopathy with heart failure.

Of the diseases of the gastrointestinal tract - cirrhosis of the liver, viral, toxic and alcoholic hepatitis, gastritis.

Diseases of the musculoskeletal system are very common, which occupy a significant part of the outpatient appointment.

One of the characteristic features of any pathology in Angola is that any pathology will look unusual due to the fact that all diseases will most often be presented in an advanced form, which is explained by the late appeal of patients from the periphery and the very common self-treatment with traditional herbal remedies.

I must say that due to the fact that our doctors of various specialties do not have training in the field of tropical medicine, do not know the local statistics of various diseases, do not know the peculiarities of the course of common diseases in tropical countries, which does not have the best effect on their quality of diagnosis and treatment of patients in Angola.

You can write about tropical medicine endlessly. It is necessary that every doctor who is going to work in tropical Africa, before the trip and in the process of work, study any book on tropical medicine, preferably foreign.

My reference book was CLINICAL PRACTICE IN

THE TROPICS" an abridged edition of the famous American edition of military medicine " Hunter's Tropical Medicine and Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Conclusion.

1. As for my general impression of the work of the “Russian team (group)” in Angola (although in fact they are doctors from the CIS), it does not differ from my opinion about Ukrainian doctors in Libya.

These are disappearing, not in demand "specialists" abroad, due to the low qualifications and low moral and ethical standards of many doctors.

And this is not their fault, but the fault of the education system in our countries, of which they are a product, without themselves realizing it.

The number of our doctors in Africa will inevitably decline, this will remain the lot of singles.

2. After many years in Angola, I am very pessimistic about the future of health care in sub-Saharan Africa and Angola in particular. Huge efforts are being made, huge funds are being spent, modern hospitals are being built, modern Western standards of treatment are being used, but all this does not give radical results.

And there is only one reason for this - the low socio-cultural living conditions of the majority of the population. Poverty and unsanitary conditions give rise to and do not allow diseases to be overcome. Sometimes despair over the realization of this. And when you find out that in 30 years the population of Angola will double, the pessimism only gets stronger.

"Hell in Paradise" is how I would characterize life in most countries of Sub-Saharan Africa and in Angola.

The future of health progress in Angola depends primarily on improving the socio-economic and health standards of the people.

Angola 2013

Who about what, and I'm all in Africa!
I periodically check information on the Internet about Africa and Angola in particular.
I was very actively looking for information when my mother had just left there ... and last year, before I went there myself. Nothing especially interesting did not come across.

In the news, Angola was constantly listed in combination with the topic of oil.
And the description of the country was reduced to a civil war, which ended 8 years ago.
Neither the first nor the second interested me particularly.
More interesting is what is happening there now!
and the other day I stumble upon an article dated December 12, 2009 on one site and December 14 on another. And the topic of the article interests me a lot.
Further, I copy the article itself, since I do not exclude that it can be removed from the resource!

The work of a doctor in Angola.

Angola is one of the largest oil and diamond exporting countries in the world. It borders with Namibia in the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the northeast and north, Zambia in the east, and the Republic of the Congo (Cabinda enclave), washed from the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Former Portuguese colony. Angola has significant natural resources, of which oil and diamonds are of primary importance, as well as iron ore, phosphates, copper, gold, bauxite, uranium. Territory: 1,246,700 km. The population, according to various sources, is from 12 million to 15,941,000 people. The territory is divided into 18 provinces. The capital of Angola is Luanda. Angola was discovered in 1482 by the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cana. Angola becomes a colony of Portugal. November 11, 1975 Angola declares independence. Agostinho Netto becomes the first president of Angola. However, independence does not bring peace to Angola. A civil war for power in the country began between the pro-Soviet MPLA and the pro-American UNITA, which ends only in 2002. You can read more about Angola on the website: Angola - Wikipedia. site in RuNet, completely dedicated to the Republic of Angola http://www.angola.ru/. The case of writing off the Angolan debt by Russia: http://www.sovsekretno.ru/magazines/article/863

Angolan medicine, education and doctors.

In Angola, malaria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, childhood and intestinal infections, schistosomiasis, and AIDS are common. Each province has its own hospital. These hospitals are different in terms of bed composition. Recently, hospitals have been pompously opened, both in large and small cities, but many of them have not started working due to lack of funding. Smaller cities and towns have hospitals, which are very often understaffed by medical personnel. They employ nursing staff - infermeyry. Infermeires were trained in medicine in provincial centers. Their education, to put it mildly, leaves much to be desired. They work in hospitals, medical centers and continue to study at comprehensive schools. There are no concepts of asepsis, antisepsis. The instrument raised from the floor is considered sterile, gauze wipes are sterilized in a dry-heat cabinet, there are many post-injection abscesses. There are very few Angolan doctors. They were trained in Brazil and Portugal and the USSR. Doctors from Vietnam, Korea, CIS countries work in Angola. Since 2008, there has been a government program, according to which many Cuban doctors and paramedics have come to the country. They have created comfortable living, eating and working conditions. True, Cubans receive 500 dollars a month, Cuba takes the rest of the money.

The work of our doctors. Uzbeks, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Moldovans and Russians work from the CIS countries. There are several ways to get a job as a doctor in Angola. The main one is through the Zdravexport group. http://zdravexport.com/about.html On the site you can find a list of required documents. The site has not been edited for a long time. In the working conditions section for several years it is written: Here there will be information about working conditions. She never showed up. Zdravexport deliberately does not write about the working conditions of our doctors in Angola, because these conditions are far from comfortable. It is still written in the agreement (the Parties to the Agreement are ZDRAVEXPORT GROUP, Moscow, Russian Federation, hereinafter referred to as the "Administration", represented by its representative in the Republic of Angola, Luanda Vasilyev Alexander Olegovich, on the one hand and a specialist) Vasiliev Alexander Olegovich died in May 2009 in Angola. Road to Angola. All the formalities in Moscow were completed, a visa was put in the passport. We are waiting for shipment to Angola. One day they call you from Moscow and say that the flight is scheduled for such and such a date. Departure can be from Odessa, Chisinau, Tashkent, Minsk and other cities. Transportation is carried out by transport aircraft. You get to the airport of the specified city and wait for the representative of Zdravexport. The plane can leave on the same day if you are lucky, but there were cases when people waited in Odessa for 3 days, in Chisinau for 2 weeks. The planes are old, they are delayed due to malfunctions. If you are lucky, you will be flying in an old plane with passenger seats, and if not, then on the benches in a large transport plane where there is no toilet. You hope that you will be fed along the way, as in all the planes that you have ever flown before. Don't hope. The company will not even tell you that there is no drinking water on the plane. And you will dream of quenching your thirst. It’s good if Russian pilots approach your plane at one of the airports and you ask for water. They will bring you a case of mineral water for the whole plane, and your group will quench their thirst. The road is long, so the plane makes several landings for refueling. Our group traveled to Luanda for 30 hours. The flight is exhausting.

Rostang. And here we are at Luanda airport. We are met by representatives of the company and brought to Rostang - the building where the company is located. We are quickly settled into rooms, and we finally fall asleep, exhausted by the flight. The Rostang building is located in one of the districts of Luanda in the Kinashish area, not far from the US Embassy. Our pilots mainly work and live here, who are engaged in the transportation of goods and people. The office of the company is located in this building on the 5th floor. The main activity of Rostang is air transportation. And Zdravexport as a parallel part-time job. The building has a dining room. They feed 3 times a day, not bad, but for $ 25 a day. Our stay in Rostang lasted only a week and we were taken by plane to the province where we will work. During this week we were given Portuguese lessons for 2 hours every day. We have learned something. All employees of Zdravexport are philologists by profession. And since teachers cannot live without students, they will arrange an exam in Portuguese for you in a year, when you go on vacation. Living conditions are tolerable. True, there is always water in the entrance where the management lives, in the second entrance in the toilets and bathrooms there are water containers where you must collect it so that there is something to wash. At the company, you submit your documents and sign an employment contract. According to paragraph 5.4. the specialist pays to the Administration one third of his salary, taking into account urgent, night and scheduled duty and taxes for the entire period of his work in the Republic of Angola. Your documents are translated into Portuguese and notarized. You will be very lucky if you are quickly sent to the place of future work. But there are cases (doctor A. lived in Rostang for 8 months, doctor E. for 3 months). This uncertainty with work exhausts mentally and financially. You get paid $300 a month upfront and you get billed for $25 a day meals = $750 a month. It turns out that you fall into a strong bondage. You have not earned anything yet, and for each month you have $1,050 of debt.

Provinces . A Zdravexport representative is taking us to the province where we will be working. We go to the office of the head of the provincial health. He greets us and thanks for coming to his province. We are settled in a hotel, and we are waiting for the start of work. Those who got jobs in the center of the province start work the next day. Providing a specialist with housing is the responsibility of the hospital. The housing that is provided to a specialist varies greatly, from comfortable with all amenities to a room with a bunk without a toilet, water or air conditioning. There were cases when specialists were brought in to work in newly opened hospitals, they waited for months for the opening of the hospital, but when the hospital was opened, there was no work again. The hospital is not funded. Many waited for work in the provinces for a year, went on vacation, received little money, and never returned here. It rarely happens, but there are hospitals with good working conditions. But mostly the filth in hospitals strikes. Many hospitals do not have running water, there are no primitive working conditions. We treat mainly malaria, typhoid fever, tuberculosis. These are the main diseases. There are leprosy, schistostomiasis, a lot of AIDS. When last year women with AIDS were admitted to the maternity hospital 1-2 per month, now it is per week. We cope with the work, we work during the day, we have night shifts. It's in the central hospitals. Many of our specialists are sent to remote areas - municipalities. Everything is much worse there, both with living conditions and communication. People work for months without any contact with the outside world. No phone, no electricity, no internet. Yes, electricity is a very big problem here. They use generators, each house has its own generator, which for some reason works all night, rarely during the day. The doctor looks for transport and once a month or two gets to the center of the province, where he buys food for himself, sends money home. And he returns to his municipality. Our doctors work in such conditions, Cubans are not sent there, they will not work in such conditions, they respect themselves, and Cuba takes care of them. The Internet is here. Services are provided by two telephone companies: Unitel and Movisel. Connection using a modem. The price in both companies is almost the same 110 dollars a month, and the quality of communication is equally bad. Mobile phones work relatively well, but where there is coverage. You are required to buy a card 2 times a month. The card costs 900 kwanza, ($1 = 95 kwanza). Valid card for 15 days, after the expiration of the time your phone does not call anywhere, you must enter a new card. Zdravexport does not care at all about the living conditions of our specialists. When doctors said that we live like Spartans, to which the answer was: the Spartans lived more Spartan. The late chief sometimes allowed himself to say on the side of specialists - you are my slaves. It's a big problem for us to get malaria. For many, it is difficult. And the fear that you will get sick in a foreign country is your own healer. One doctor said: I'm alone for 100 km when I get sick, it's terribly scary.

The salary . To date, the salary of a doctor is an average of 470,000 kwanzas. This is the money that the hospital transfers to Zdravexport for each specialist. The firm takes one third for itself, and transfers the rest to a specialist in the bank at the place of work. Previously, Zdravexport exchanged kwanzas for dollars and dollars were transferred to the specialist. Now the company is not doing this, as it has become unbearable for them. Previously, a dollar cost 75 kwanzas, now it's 95, and then only on the street, it's a big problem to buy dollars in a bank. Now you can even get cash in the bank only 50 thousand a day. And in order to get your money earned in a month, you need to go to the bank 7 times. It's good if you get paid. To date, doctors have begun to pay salaries to doctors who have not received it for 3 years. Particularly disastrous situation with wages has developed in the province of Benguela. People did not receive a salary for 3 years, when the question of salary came up with the management of Zdravexport, they were immediately put in their place. You have a part-time job in private hospitals, we will forbid it to you. It is good that people have a part-time job and live on it, but in other places it is not. It has become the norm not to receive a salary for 2 years. Today, 75 specialists do not receive a salary. People are outraged, but to no avail. From the province of Benguela, they wrote a letter to the President of Russia and received a formal reply instead of a salary. The chief came, held a showdown, shouted, threatened with sanctions and left. There was a second letter to the President of Russia (Dr. E.) - they calculated it according to the minimum and sent it home so that others would be discouraged. Under the contract, Zdravexport guarantees the employment of a specialist with a minimum salary in dollar equivalent of at least $1,000. When you go on vacation for the first time, the company will make a settlement with you. First, you will have an exam in Portuguese. What about teachers without exams? And if somewhere you disagreed with the company and showed your displeasure publicly, then you will not pass the exam. So Dr. E. did not pass the exam for writing a letter to the president. It turns out that you were charged 100 dollars every month for the Portuguese language. Those who did not pass the exam lost 1200 dollars. They also withheld $100 from you for the first year so that you would not run away, and your money is already given to you in the form of a bonus for the first year worked. You are charged $25 per day for the days or months you spend in Rostang. They will also deduct $1,900 for an Aeroflot vacation ticket. Flights on other airlines at lower prices are not welcome here.

The company does not want to deal with the issue of wages and the improvement of working and living conditions. It has become the norm at the firm to prevent malaria with alcohol. Some employees go on a binge. After the death of Vasiliev, they did not work at the company, they divided the portfolio. The owner of the company Rachinsky came from Moscow, gave a scolding, but everything remains in its place. He is in Moscow and does not know the true state of affairs. They appointed a new director, the struggle for power seems to have stopped. But no work is visible. Many people who wanted to go to work in Angola turned down such a scam.

I wanted to write something good about the working conditions in Angola, but it doesn’t work out yet. It's a shame for friends who work for a gift and become hostages. They don't give salaries, people don't want to come here, and the company doesn't want to lose its slaves. Maybe she is interested in not paying a salary? No matter how with each specialist, the company has almost 2 thousand dollars a month. And there are more than 300 people working there. As one doctor said, soon only Uzbeks will remain in Angola. All this does not inspire optimism. It is better to work in other countries in more comfortable conditions, without malaria, typhoid and AIDS, than in Angola and without a salary.

October 23rd, 2012

For the second time in our history, our people abroad visited the mysterious Black Continent. Africa still holds thousands of mysteries, and in 2011 we will definitely look at this mysterious land more than once. Crimean Alexei Ivanovich Chumash worked for about three years as an installer, crane operator, and mechanic at a diamond mining factory being built by Russian specialists in Angola. About how he lived in a foreign land, how ordinary Angolans work and live, what surprised Angola - find out in this interview.

with airport security

- How did you get there, Alexei Ivanovich?

By chance. There were many applicants for this place. I was invited by a friend who had known me for a long time as an experienced crane operator. Not for the sake of boasting, I will say, it really is: I have mastered all types of lifting equipment in my life. Even if I met an unfamiliar car, it was not difficult for me to figure out its device and the principle of operation.

arrival

- How old were you then?

56. It was 1996. At that time I worked in Krymsk on a large truck crane. Construction in the city was in full swing, however, these were mostly private mansions. My job paid well and was in demand. It was risky to leave her and go to another country, but as time has shown, it was worth it. In less than three years of work in Africa, I helped children get on their feet, provided the family with everything they needed.

- Did you know any foreign language?

I did not know Portuguese, but we had an interpreter, who, by the way, studied in Russia and was fluent in Russian. During the eleven-hour flight from Moscow to Luanda, the capital of Angola, I read a Russian-Portuguese phrase book and learned the most, in my opinion, the most necessary phrases: how to ask for water, eat, and so on. We didn’t have to show our knowledge, because the living conditions for us were created at the highest level: fashionable housing, food, like in a restaurant, excellent service.

In this country, almost 70% of the population lives on less than two dollars a day, and the cost of a basic consumer basket for a week is $50. It is one of the countries that consumes the most champagne per capita and where mountains of rubbish on the streets side by side with luxury cars. With the fall in oil prices, red flags loomed on the horizon, and the question arose that “oil dependence” could be fatal: analysts warn that it is urgent to diversify the economy.

In the second half of March, the province of Benguela, in the south of Angola, was in the flood zone. Heavy rains led to the death of dozens of people, many families were left without a roof over their heads, and agricultural land was devastated. Hot tropical air. We drive along the road that connects the Catumbel airport and the city of Benguela and look at the wreckage. The poor areas are cut off from the highway by small lakes, so people have to walk on water if they need to get out of their isolated areas. Puddles all around. Roads in potholes. During our walk around the city, we notice sandbags piled here and there.

“It's to hold back the water and protect the stores,” explains Marco Neves, driving his ATV and pointing down the now-dry road. “20 days ago there were no these holes here, everything is now upside down because of the rain,” he continues.

At 33, Marco is a managing partner in the family cash and carry business Martins e Neves, as well as the Food Point supermarket chain. With dual citizenship, Marco Neves is also involved in the export business in Portugal.

“Agricultural land is located there,” he shows us the family plots. “It’s true that agriculture in Angola is outdated,” says a businessman who gives us an excursion into the Angolan economy.

According to him, the demographic pressure in cities is such that land is losing its agricultural value and gaining value as real estate. Therefore, the family is trying to get a building permit.

“In neighboring countries, everything works more efficiently than in Angola: Namibia supplies us with potatoes at a price that I cannot afford. Tractor maintenance is expensive, they have access to credit that they don't have here. There are legislative programs in Angola, but for this you need to have the right patron, but we don’t have one. Incredible efforts are required, it is difficult to break through these channels, you have to “give it to the paw”.

Marco's grandfather was engaged in the cultivation and export of bananas. He is the only one of four brothers who remained in Angola after the country gained independence in 1975.

The financial crisis in Angola, caused by the fall in the price of the country's main source of income - oil - has been throwing Marco's accounts off balance since June, as well as many other Angolan and Portuguese companies. Marco has about 200 employees, most of them Angolans. Two out of four Portuguese employees were fired, because "every immigrant is very expensive" - ​​this is wages, plus payment for a house, insurance, an electricity generator ...

Portugal's exports to Angola suffered the biggest drop in five years, and the figures for February were so weak that Angola moved from fourth to sixth on the list of Portugal's top customers. The Portuguese government has even created a €500 million line of loans to support some of the roughly 10,000 companies exporting to Angola that are having difficulty getting paid.

“The veil fell when the country experienced a shortage of foreign exchange, which was hardly the result of the fall in oil prices alone. When there is no currency to pay suppliers, we are forced to reduce imports: but if we don’t buy, the country will starve to death,” he says.

Marco's company is unable to pay suppliers due to a foreign exchange shortage that began in December.

Typically, the company receives eight containers per month; in January there were no deliveries at all, the same thing happened in February; in March, however, four containers were received.

“I have kwanzas in the bank, but the bank itself does not have dollars and euros that it could sell me,” says Marco.

We arrived at the Food Point supermarket, everything here is white: floors, walls, shelves. There is a meat department, fruits and vegetables, refrigerators with fresh products. Taking into account the costs of construction and equipment, the investment in the supermarket is about one million euros, which in Portugal would cost about 250 thousand, says the owner.

The shelves are full of Portuguese products: brands of soft drinks, juices, olive oil, coffee, milk, etc. flash by. Local production is not able to meet the needs of the country, and in this supermarket 75-80% of the products are Portuguese. But if you look closely at the prices, you understand that they are far superior to the Portuguese ones. So, a kilogram of red beans costs about 700 kwanzas (6 euros), a kilogram of rice - 1.1 euros, a chicken - about 6 euros.

“We don't have industry, we import everything from Portugal,” Marco explains as we walk through the corridors of the supermarket in search of the basic food basket for the week. A milk producer puts the product up for sale in Portugal at a price of 60 cents per litre; the person who sells milk to Angola will charge 70 cents for it. Delivery to Angola requires transport, and this company adds another percentage on top. The government has a customs rate and a tariff for milk - the price has already risen to the euro. Importers sell a liter for 1.10 euros, while supermarkets that buy in cash end carry sell it for 1.20 euros.

As Marco Neves explained, there are other factors: in Europe, a juice company technician can board a low cost plane and quickly be in Portugal for a relatively low cost; in the case of Angola, you need a visa, air tickets, expensive housing, etc. So, maintenance costs a pretty penny.
- Despite the costs, does the business pay off?

- Pays off.

The level of sales remains high, while there are still few competitors.

We have started filling the basket. On the shelves with legumes, Marco chooses the cheapest beans, bought by weight in bags of 50 kg. Compared to brands where the product is already packaged, it turns out to be cheaper, since this is favored by customs tariffs.

- What is the logic? If I buy 50 kilograms, I need to hire local labor and create jobs in order to pack the beans into packages, stick labels and weigh them on a scale; if I import an already packaged product, I need only one person to take it out of the box.

The logic, then, is to create jobs and start "producing" something locally.

In front of the beer shelves, Marco Neves talks about quotas, since this type of product is one of those on which the government planned to impose restrictions on imports - this measure was suspended at the end of March, it is not known until when. Purpose of quotas? Stimulate local production. Quota policies are practiced in many countries, including the European Union, and Marco Neves agrees with them, but he believes that they should be preceded by careful preparation and study of the quantity of relevant products in order to meet the needs of the population.

- If Angola consumes as much or more beer than Portugal, it makes sense to develop industry and create jobs here in order to receive the final product without paying other countries all the costs of its production. The most popular beer in Angola is Cuca, but the elite drink the Portuguese imported beers Superbock and Sagres (which, by the way, are the Portuguese products with the largest share of exports to Angola - they spent 143 million euros on them last year).

Is this a sign of status?

“And him too. There is a kind of Pavlovian effect at work here. Since Angola has an air bridge with Portugal, we have developed a close relationship with the Portuguese brands. This is pure marketing, but the subconscious is also involved. If I buy certain products, I remember what I drank as a child.

From December, when the signs of the crisis were most evident, to the end of March, the price of all products, according to Marco's calculations, increased by an average of 10%. Meanwhile, we continue to fill the red cart with essentials, favoring the cheapest alternative.

“People haven’t stopped consuming. But the prices of some products have skyrocketed due to speculation. Chicken, for example, was one of the products that were subject to quotas: the price of it increased and still does not decrease.

The real losses for the business will not be known until the second quarter of this year, Marco explains, estimating that they will be between 10 and 15%.

“Overall sales revenue has gone down because we don’t have as many products available anymore, I can’t buy as much as I used to. There are fewer products in the assortment, some shelves are empty, and people buy less. Previously, I didn’t have to count every penny: we sold products that were not included in the mandatory diet, these were premium products, I took risks and bought them, today I don’t dare. For example, among different types of milk, the most expensive, premium, I no longer buy. We do not yet have exact data, but it is estimated that the decline in sales is 10-15%.

It is not known, however, what proportion of losses is associated with the crisis, and what damage is caused by the advent of competition on the market.

At the checkout, the bill was 50 euros. There are nine products in the basket: powdered milk, 22 euros (included in the basic diet of the population, since ultra-pasteurized milk is more expensive, besides, not everyone has electricity in their homes), chicken (almost six euros), soy flour (4.6 euros), rice (€1.1), beans (€6.2), sugar (€1.09), butter (€2.5), vinegar (€0.90) and soap (€0.50). In the street market, the total cost of the same products does not differ significantly.

According to the World Bank for 2009, almost 70% of the population of Angola lives on less than two dollars a day - that is, such a consumer basket should provide about a monthly existence of a person ($62). An employee at the checkout earns about 500 euros a month - in her opinion and according to Marko Neves, this is a good salary - a food basket designed for a month will take 40% of this salary.

The Miramar district in Luanda is a wealthy area, home to diplomats and embassies. It is located on a hill with a magnificent view of the city: skyscrapers already erected, skyscrapers under construction, a bay on the horizon, a path stretching along the sea where the Portuguese make their evening jogs. From here, Luanda appears as a city of change, like a postcard-sized oilman, an African giant at the head of a group of countries with rapidly developing economies.

It is in Miramar that one of the residences of Juse Eduardo dos Santos is located (José Eduardo dos Santos), a house the size of a block. There is a well-groomed garden with fountains and ponds next to it, but even on weekends there are very few children and teenagers playing here - one or two groups. On the street nearby are car dealerships with Jaguars and other luxury cars. As in many parts of Luanda, glitz and poverty live side by side here. There is a bumpy road in front of the dealership, a garbage dump, and on the lower street there are houses that could easily be called slums.

In March, rains flooded the city, making the smell of garbage unbearable. It is not cleaned due to the fact that the companies concerned do not receive funds from the government due to "lack of liquidity", they also complain about the poor condition of the roads, which does not allow them to reach certain areas. A trip through the very center of Luanda in a normal car can actually turn into a real adventure - in addition to heavy traffic, due to which it can take half an hour to cover a distance of one kilometer, often huge holes open up on the road.

Every time they stop, peddlers run up to the car windows with everything imaginable and unimaginable: cashews, fruit, mobile phone cards, headphones with brand logos, bags of drinking water, down to shower hoses and such unexpected items as caps for toilets. In addition, it is on the street that you can most profitably exchange a dollar - we managed to get 140 kwanzas, while in a bank the exchange rate varies about 110 kwanzas per dollar.

This is just one of the contrasts in the city, where there are houses that are rented out for 25 thousand dollars a month, and opposite them, dwellings without basic sanitation. Angola has one of the lowest human development indices (149th out of 187 countries, according to the latest UN data). And even today, 13 years after the end of a civil war that lasted 27 years, the country continues to invest more in defense than in education and health - according to Exame Angola magazine, the budget of the Ministry of Defense is almost five times higher than the funds allocated for health care and education combined.

The capital Luanda is one of the most expensive cities in the world. Lunch at a restaurant of the same rank in Portugal would cost no more than 8 euros, while in Luanda it could cost 20 euros. For an overnight stay in a cheap hotel in Portugal, they pay no more than 15 euros, in Luanda it costs 150.

The high cost of living in Angola is attributed to factors such as the high cost of economic growth due to the lack of infrastructure,” explains economist Manuel Alves da Rocha, director of the Center for Research and Research (CEIC) at the Catholic University of Angola. “And the already created infrastructure leaves much to be desired. This leads to an increase in the cost of running the economy. Then there are a number of problems that, I don't know if they can be resolved in Angola, namely generators and water. Everything runs on generators, which causes huge production costs, and the cost of water entering the houses is high, because its sources are located too far from the city. We have a low productivity economy, inefficient transportation systems and a number of factors that add up to all the hardships and 27 years of civil war.”

There is also dependence on imports and “oil dependence”. Oil makes up about 95% of exports, 75% of tax revenue and 50% of GDP. As one of the largest oil producers in the world, Angola has invested little in other areas such as agriculture. Therefore, the fall in oil prices has caused such a tangible domino effect in the Angolan economy. This is not the first time this has happened, analysts say. The first shock from the sharp change in oil prices took place during the civil war in 1998, recalls Manuel Alves da Rocha. The second shock came in 2008 and 2009, when the fall in oil prices was the result of the global crisis. At that time, the intervention of the International Monetary Fund was needed.

Now, with the third shock, it remains to be seen what will happen, says Alves da Rocha, who does not believe that the price drop is temporary. “If nothing happens in the international oil market, the Angolan economy will face difficult times,” he predicts, recalling that the government has decided to reduce public investment, the second growth factor in the country, after oil exports. But “even then, there will be a significant budget deficit.”

In this year's revised budget, the government's forecasts for production growth have been changed from 9.2% to 6.6%, the economist says - the first draft budget for 2015 was based on $80 a barrel but has been recast to match the price. halved, $40. However, the most pessimistic forecasts by some agencies point to a growth rate of 2.5%, while others speak of 3%. In any case, it is assumed that "the intensity of growth will decrease." With regard to public debt, this is not a problem: "There is room for improvement in this area, the state can continue to build up public debt to finance public investment."

“While dependence on oil remains the same, problems remain,” said Carlos Rosado Carvalho, head of economic weekly Expansão, private group ScoreMedia. Sitting in a newspaper office with Expansão covers hanging on the walls, Rosado Carvalho says: “The state of Angola carries a lot of weight through public investment and employment. If his income and investments are reduced, this leads to serious difficulties from an economic point of view, and the currency becomes the main problem.

But he makes a reservation: "Angola's current problem is a bit like a fever - it's not a disease, it's an infection, and oil dependence is a symptom, since the main problem is the lack of competitiveness of the economy."

In another area of ​​Luanda, Talatone, where corporate offices and malls are located, Jaime Fidalgo Cardoso, editor of Exame Angola magazine, comments: “In Portugal, when we think about the crisis, we imagine spending cuts, paying off debt.” , but “nothing like that happens here,” he says. “There is no debt crisis as Angola's debt is extremely low, 36% of GDP. Also, there are no cuts in the social sphere, because there were no such expenses in sight. What is there is a liquidity crisis - it's like in business: the economic balance is one thing, the treasury is another.

The budget revision resulted in cuts in sectors such as agriculture (from 12.3% to 7.9%), industry (from 11.2% to 6.8%) and construction (from 10.5% to 6% ) - according to Exame. This has hurt Portuguese construction companies - the civil engineering union has already issued several warnings about late payments to contractors and workers in Angola. A major Portuguese construction company had to relocate its workforce from Angola to other countries, an administration official told us on condition of anonymity, but the drama was tempered by the company's extra caution in investing. Another construction company has not received state payments for six months, ”an employee who wished to remain anonymous also said.

The first symptom of the crisis was currency exchange, recalls Carlos Rosado Carvalho. “There was a shortage of foreign currency; emigrants who needed to make money transfers started having problems.” The volume of remittances from Angola to Portugal has been falling since September. In January, they amounted to 15.3 million euros, which is 24.5% less compared to the same period in 2014. Rosado Carvalho emphasizes that this phenomenon has also affected "the Angolans themselves who want to travel, send their children to study abroad or get medical treatment."

In other words, the crisis hit not only the lower classes. Luís Fernando, chief executive of the private group MediaNova (which owns the Exame magazine and O País newspaper), has no doubts: "The crisis is not in the papers or the talk of economists, it's here, it's real." It affects the lives of the middle and upper classes - today it is more difficult to go on vacation, use credit cards, get medical treatment abroad - "although people have the means, no one agrees to do more serious treatment in Angola," he says.

On the day of our conversation, at the end of March, Luis Fernando tried to “save his niece, who is studying in France”: “Because of the crisis, she almost ran out of pocket money, and then she remembered her uncle as her last salvation, and I didn’t care there was no way to help her. This is not about a situation that can wait, we are talking about a person who is starving.”

The MPLA activist remarks that the problems with oil, which eventually becomes a curse for the country, "happened at the right time." “Angola has the best pastures in the world, but if you go to check those pastures, you won't see cows grazing there. If money is spewing from oil platforms, then it is easier to buy meat abroad. This country produces absolutely nothing, not even combs. The situation in which 24 million people eat imported food is not normal. In our production, everything is tied to foreign goods. If I am raising chickens, there are bound to be links in the production chain that depend on imports, even the technical side of things. If I don't have foreign exchange to import cars, I'll run aground, go bankrupt. We created a culture of petrodollars.” Therefore, it is urgent to deal with the diversification of the economy, but this will require several generations.

To find out exactly which segments of society are currently suffering from the crisis and its consequences, some say, we need to wait a little longer. Some, like Belarmino Jelembi, director of the development NGO ADRA, argue that “the problem is not only that the price of oil has gone down,” but that the structure of government spending is huge and too concentrated on the centralized structure of the state itself. The crisis affects some Angolan companies that provide services to the state in the field of food, hospitals, garbage collection, he analyzes.

Estimates of the impact of the crisis and its perception vary. Some resort to comparison. For Portuguese people like José Rodrigues, director of human resources at DHL, this crisis is not as severe as the one that happened in 2008, when he went without pay for several months while working for another company. Now there is a decline in the volume of goods transported by DHL, but he does not consider it legitimate to "exaggerate". With the exception of higher prices for one or two products, he hasn't noticed a significant difference in his personal bills—his monthly expenses, which don't include the company's rent, still hover between $1,300 and $1,500. He opines, "Companies can use the current circumstances to clean up the mess, cut employees they don't really need, and invest a little in local talent."

It is rather difficult to obtain accurate information about the extent of the crisis. In Angola, there is a “problem with statistics that either do not exist at all or are released with a very long delay,” comments Rosado Carvalho. The fact is that the country cannot continue to be oil-dependent, it is necessary to work on eliminating “factors that undermine competitiveness in Angola - bureaucracy, corruption, lack of skilled labor. This is something that does not require financial costs: on the contrary, structural reforms themselves can generate profits and save resources.”

Along with this, and in view of the “very close relationship between Portugal and Angola”, the journalist believes that “a paradigm shift is taking place, namely the realization that Angola, regardless of the fall in oil prices, needs to diversify and establish domestic production of products imported from other countries, including Portugal. “For a country that has no industry, it makes sense to provide some protection to some sectors of the economy; what seems wrong to me is that this protectionism has no time limit. Many of the things we buy in Portugal we can buy from other African countries – and Angola can serve as an outlet to wider markets.”

Portugal is currently Angola's largest supplier, ahead of countries such as Brazil, the US and China.

Therefore, according to Rosado Carvalho, either Portuguese companies will choose a different type of product for export, or there will be a natural decline in export volumes. “It is too early to assess how this will affect the Portuguese community. Portugal cannot look at Angola as an opportunity. Angola has a huge potential, and if this potential materializes, there will naturally be more need for the Portuguese and even Portuguese imports, but not of the same type of products that have been imported so far. We are talking about a country with 24 million inhabitants, with an area 14.5 times the size of Portugal, and with a GDP equal to half that of Portugal: Angola's economy will grow. Now this growth depends on the diversification of the economy”, which “will take a long time”.

Despite falling prices, oil continues to enrich the country. The export of oil alone in January, out of ten fields, brought about 160 million euros. And so we moved off the dirt roads to admire this wealth.

From the top of a night skyscraper, in the light of lights, Luanda seems to be a cosmopolitan city. DooH Bar, the bar of entrepreneur Isabel dos Santos, is lined with magazine-cover guests on the veranda, and the ladies' toilets are distinguished by a sophistication that is no longer often seen in Portugal. There are chocolates and glasses with drinks on the tables. The guests are dressed with all the care appropriate for the Easter celebrations. Champagne is sold only by bottles here: it costs about 250 euros. The Portuguese manager of one of the major champagne brands, who asked not to be named, says that the impact of the crisis is only noticeable at big parties: where there used to be three a week, now there is only one.

However, product turnover has grown over the past two years - distribution and logistics capabilities have increased, delivery is also made to cities other than Luanda, where 90% of business is concentrated. In supermarkets, where a bottle costs about 80 euros, the crisis is not felt.

And therefore it turns out to be “profitable” in Angola to have access to all sectors of society, because “by nature, the Angolan consumer needs products of this category, because choosing expensive brands for social self-affirmation is still a priority,” the manager continues. “Unable to conduct market research due to lack of information, we are able to do this through our daily practice. I can say that there are events here where a group of people come and ask for 50 bottles of champagne at once. We see that they will not drink all 50 bottles, especially in one party, but they insist on this ritual. The need to demonstrate their economic potential is very strong in these people - everyone knows that this is repeated every week and with enviable regularity.

Fitting into this pattern is the fact that the country where about 37% of the population lives, by Angolan standards, below the poverty line of 40 euros per month (according to a BPI study for 2013), at the same time has the largest share of champagne consumption. per capita: sales amounted to about 40,000 cases per year (240,000 bottles), destined mainly for the Luandan public, estimated at 300-400 thousand people. "Too much champagne for so few people."

The materials of InoSMI contain only assessments of foreign media and do not reflect the position of the editors of InoSMI.

Chelninka Lyudmila Lukyantseva, together with her husband, visited Angola this winter. Today she shares her impressions of this African state with the readers of New Week.

Visit the end of the world

- In Angola, we have friends - Sergey and Svetlana Martynenko, who work there under the contract as surgeons. They invited me and my husband to celebrate the New Year in Africa. Agree, it is unusual and romantic! We flew first from Begishevo to Moscow, then from Moscow via Hurghada - there was a refueling station - to Luanda, the capital of Angola. The entire flight took 11 hours. And we stayed in this country for a little over two weeks.

Initially, I had slightly different ideas about Angola. First of all, I was struck by the fact that poor areas are visible even from the window of the plane. True, we did not see kimbos. Kimbas are the huts of the poor, they are built from "bricks" carved from clay or even from simple earth, and the roofs are covered with straw. In general, a hut from improvised material. But at the same time, everyone has TVs!
A fairy tale, not a road!

Friends met us at the airport, and we drove to Benguela in their car. The road was eerie: darkness descended, and the track was not lit at all; oncoming cars blinded by high beam headlights. They seem to have their own rules...

The Martynenkos work under contract in a hospital near the village of Kubal. We drove there from Benguela another 140 kilometers. The road was built literally two years ago, and unlike the others, it is just a superhighway: with storm drains and high-quality pavement. On this road, we somehow got caught in such a heavy tropical downpour that we had to stop the car - nothing was visible within a radius of one meter. The water level reached the bottom of the car, but when the rain suddenly stopped, in just 15 minutes the road became dry again - stormwater works so well! This highway, by the way, was built by the Chinese, honor and praise to them. They even installed reflective reflectors on the dividing strip!

The most expensive city in the world

The capital of Angola - Luanda - we saw mainly from the window of the plane. But even this made it possible to see many multi-storey buildings under construction. They are erected by workers from China, whom the locals call "shineza". We also saw a decent-sized stadium - after all, all Angolans are big
football fans. It is said that the Angola national team in this sport has reached certain heights. What the Chinese built and what the Angolans themselves built are significantly different from each other. For some reason, the Chinese are prone to the construction of tall buildings, striking in their size.
Consulting company ECA International named Luanda the most expensive city in the world for tourists and visitors. For example, the price of a liter of milk here reaches three dollars, renting a two-room apartment - up to 7 thousand dollars a month.
At one time, the city was the largest center of the slave trade. In the VIII-XIX centuries, about 3 million slaves were taken out of Luanda. In the 20th century, Luanda became the center of the liberation struggle. Portugal granted independence to Angola in 1974, but even today the situation is unstable.
There has been no fighting in Angola for eight years. But, for example, in the village of Ganna, where we once stopped, there are still unrepaired buildings,
who suffered from bullets and shells during the revolution and the expulsion of the colonialists. The latter brought civilization to the country, they built a lot of things, but two opposing parties that appeared in Angola from local residents who did not want to work began to divide it all among themselves. Alas, by military means ...

This is the hospital

Not far from the village of Kubal is something like a tent city. This is the hospital. Its main building is under repair, and this repair has been going on for more than two years. They are preparing an operating room, they are going to equip medical offices, but it is not known when all this will be. And now all doctors have to work in tents. They serve mainly women in labor, which are very numerous in those parts. Girls get pregnant before they really reach puberty, and then give birth almost every year. This adds work to a married couple from Moldova: a gynecologist and his wife, an anesthesiologist. The local population, as a rule, deals with various fractures, appendicitis, hernias ... And since the operating room has not yet been completed, serious patients were only examined and then sent to Benguela.

Labor "diligence"

The local population is mainly engaged in agriculture, growing corn, mangoes, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers... Even children collect carrion from mango trees and sell it. Like, what I collected is mine, and I will sell it myself! Some of the more prosperous Angolans have livestock. And some, not particularly rich, even have good cars.

Diligence in work among the citizens of Angola is manifested only when the task is clearly set - "from the fence to lunch." If not, then no one will be eager to do anything on their own initiative. Often you can observe such a picture - five people are sitting, resting, and one selflessly digs a hole. That is, his front of work is indicated, while the rest do not, or their time to dig has not yet come.
There are no medical specialists in those parts, since education in Angola is at the lowest level. There are very few educated people. Maybe there are institutes and universities in Luanda, but I personally saw only those students who fly to study in Moscow. They say that it is cheaper than getting an education at home.

For water - to the column

Martynenko now speaks tolerably Portuguese, one of the main languages ​​in Angola. Spanish and Kibu are also spoken there. And those who live in the mountains communicate in their own special dialect, incomprehensible to the rest.

The attitude towards Russians in Angola is good. Many studied back in the USSR, some are still studying in Russia and Ukraine. By the way, Angolans do not distinguish between Russians and, for example, Ukrainians. They say: "I am now studying with you in Russia, in Kharkov." This does not mean that they do not know geography. They know. They also called the Soviet Union Russia. And we are all Russians for them. Local residents understand the mission entrusted to Russian specialists, and treat them very friendly, they always say hello when they meet them on the street. Here it is customary to greet first, even with strangers, if fate has brought you together. Such is the European approach to the rules of decency. When you say hello, they always answer with gratitude: “Boa tarde. Obrigado", which in translation means: "Good afternoon. Thanks".

Sergey and Svetlana's apartment is located on the top floor of a three-story house in the village of Kubal. Living room, two bedrooms, kitchen with gas stove, wide balcony, two large attics. Quite comfortable, but there are problems with electricity in the evening; therefore, in this case, there is a gasoline generator. But they try to turn it on only as a last resort, because it makes noise and smells. Water, which is collected in a column near the house, has to be heated on a gas stove or using a boiler. By the way, our friends' neighbors prefer to cook not on a gas stove, but on the balcony. In a big vat on coals.

A maid helps Sergei and Svetlana cope with household chores. Now they have begun to build separate houses for Russian doctors.

Life in the village is measured and calm: neither murders nor thefts have been observed here for a long time. You can leave the door to your apartment open - no one will encroach on property or food. One day the maid lost her key, and the front door was not locked for some time - and nothing happened! The country has a large number of police officers, and often they are women. There are many of them on the roads. But our friends have a special pass with the inscription "doctor", so they are allowed through without any delay.

The men are resting...

Angolans - the inhabitants of Angola - really do not like being called blacks. They just get pissed off! They were once used as slaves, and such associations with the word "Negro" still remained at the local population. We were immediately warned about this so that there would be no conflicts. The blue-black Angolans looked at my husband and me as if we were white-skinned wonders. Especially for me, the blonde.

The Angolans themselves struck us with the fact that they wear quite heavy things on their heads: fruit baskets, bags, basins of water, household utensils - as soon as the skull can withstand! But because of this, they have slender, beautiful figures. Women work more than men. They mostly sit, husk seeds, talk to each other about something. And very loudly, it is their habit.

Women dress in pana - this is a piece of fabric measuring two meters by one, from which, if desired, you can build some kind of sundress or sari. Mothers manage to fold the pana so that they get an additional “backpack” in which they carry the child. Moms work in the fields or do housework, and the children sleep peacefully in these shoulder cradles. As soon as the child gets on his feet, the mother already has the next child on the way, so the “backpack” is rarely empty.

Men are at ease - they don’t have to work (almost everything is done by the wife), they don’t need to raise children ... It got to the point that when the child was brought to the hospital, the father could not even remember his name! A man can have several wives (though unofficially). At the same time, the country is not Muslim, but Catholic.

There are a lot of Catholic churches in Angola. We just happened to be at Christmas, so we saw a lot of gifts from the parishioners - pumpkins, tomatoes, zucchini, household utensils, some drinks in clay jars ... In general, everything that the giver is rich (so to speak).

Poor people eat fungi

I will not say that there are many attractions in the country. We mainly admired nature: the tropics, subtropics, savannah ... When we drove from Benguela to Kubal, we passed all these three zones. If you move from the ocean, then first comes the desert savannah, then nature literally explodes with a riot of greenery. We got there right in the summer, so we did not see flowering trees. Those who have seen say that it is an unforgettable sight! But we ended up there during the ripening season of mango and passion fruit. I didn’t have much to deal with Angolan cuisine.

In a restaurant on the coast - the same menu as, in principle, in many other countries washed by the sea - shrimp, baked fish with some special sauces ... The poor people of Angola mainly eat funzhik - corn porridge. In general, almost all products in the country are in the form of imported canned food, since it seems that there are no factories for processing here. Sausages, for example, are preserved in some kind of red sauce; sunflower oil has a terrible smell ... It's good that we brought with us normal products from Naberezhnye Chelny (buckwheat, sausage, bacon, halva, marshmallows ...), since their import into Angola is not prohibited. For Russian doctors, the Angolan authorities, in addition to monetary allowance, allocate a certain set of products that are brought from Portugal.

In honor of the river

If we talk about money and prices, then the local currency is kwanza. It was introduced in 1977 instead of the Angolan escudo and named after the Kwanza River, which flows through the territory of Angola. The ratio with the US dollar is 100:1. Everything good is expensive there.
At the same time, it cannot be said that Angolans dress badly. By no means! Despite their poverty, they try to adhere to a good style in clothes, although it cannot be said that they are particularly chasing fashion trends.

We had a chance to go on an underwater fishing trip. But personally, I did not participate in it, because I sincerely feel sorry for this fish. I don’t understand why they should kill it if they throw it back into the ocean anyway, because we didn’t cook anything from it! But we didn’t go hunting for animals, because it was supposed to be in Nigeria, and we didn’t have a visa.

We have been to different coasts of the Atlantic Ocean before. In Angola, it is not as majestic and powerful as, say, in Morocco, but, according to friends, killer whales swim up to the shore quite often. And the water in the ocean is warm, because when we have winter in Russia, they have summer in Angola!