Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles Are Reversed.

When you give to much you give out... When you take to much you get taken in!

For those interested further in this topic the book The Looting Machine by Tom Burgis delves into the issues around the Dos Santoses, Son Angol et al. And similarly other African Counties that have a "resource curse" (no representation without taxation) and "Dutch Disease" (oil revenues crowding out other industries) https://nyti.ms/1CC8rWM

I find visiting any country in Sub-Sahara Africa very depressing. With the exception of South Africa & its two protectorates, Botswana & Namibia, every country is either worse off or immeasurably worse off than it was 50 years ago. Years of kleptocracy have bled even the naturally rich countries dry & left the populations just as impoverished as they were under colonial rule.

Does this mean that these countries gained independence long before they were prepared for modern governance? Maybe so. And does it mean that charismatic rulers grossly betrayed the trust of their constituents? Most certainly!

It is everywhere, the corrupt elite are ripping resources from the masses. This has to be stopped..but no one has yet found a way, short of execution of corrupt ruling classes.

"Many of its apartments have been bought by Angola’s ruling class ... Angola is often listed as one of the world’s most corrupt nations"

Worldwide kleptocracy manifested yet again!

The author was attempting to cheer on the noble natives of Angola for exacting revenge on their erstwhile tormentors. It's a very silly angle, particularly since she presents zero evidence the Portuguese are upset about the sale of luxury condos.

Suffice it to say that the Times has declared itself anti-colonialist fifty years after such a position lost its relevance. Would that the Grey Lady oppose all foreign occupation, especially in the Middle East.

Biased article full of prejudice thinking

It's not just Portugal. There would not be corruption, the type mentioned in this article in most third world countries if not for the easy way the money could be laundered in the West.

Most of these dictators and their families make sure to keep their ill gotten money in safe places, for they know that they could be out of power at any moment.

Don't blame Portugal. I would give Portugal a pass. They did not have a choice as the article says. The economy was in free fall. Here in South Florida, South Americans are buying million dollar condos. where do you think that money comes from? Nobody cares.

Rich countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg, GB, the USA. etc...are in my eyes to blame for enabling corruption in third world countries.

The price of colonialism...

What did Portugal do in Angola that Belgium didn't do in the Congo or the UK in India and elsewhere? Colonialism, in all its forms, is evil.

Freedom-fighter-turned-president dos Santos was one of the European left's third-world darlings in the 70s. Turned out just like any other African dictator. What a surprise.

Most of Angola, except for a couple of coastal cities was not under Portuguese control until early XX century, for less than a century nor for centuries.
In fact the percentage of colonial contribution to Portuguese economy in last two centuries was relatively small, in XX century fell to as low as 12%.
Economic relations with Europe were much more important and especially so for Modern Portugal namely in the 1960s – when country was growing at 10% rates – and the same is true today. European investment and companies and trade dwarf any from Angola.
Which is not to say, evidently, that colonialism was good, it was just economically not that important. And no form of imperialism was nice and it was far from a Western monopoly. African empires were key suppliers of slaves as well as local intermediaries.
If Portugal is under the "colonial" control of Angolan elite, why are these kinds of reports normal news in the Portuguese press? Why is the Portug press and NGOs so critical of Angola? As far as Portuguese business deals with Angolan capital similar stories could be printed about Saudi in US, Qatar in Britain. This is a problem of global capitalism and petro-states, and even the richest Western democracies are not immune from temptation.
History is not black and white and neither is the present. More complexity would be expected of NYT.

Long-term economic growth requires some level of diversification. And Angola, though generating wealth through oil extraction, is one of the least economically diverse countries in the world. If the roles are truly reversed and Angola is becoming the "new Portugal", then we should expect Angola to follow a Portuguese pattern where the country grows rapidly under extractive policies and then falls just as rapidly when prices for key products fall. Portugal, symbolically, is no longer one of the major global players and is even one of the poorest countries in western Europe. If Angola continues to play in a corrupt economy with a singular focus on oil, it too will fail in the long-term. Relatively diverse countries such as Botswana (yes land-locked and sub-Saharan) will be the future leaders of Africa as they are significantly more inclusive in both the markets and the government. Unless Angola diversifies it's oil wealth similarly to the way the U.A.E. does, I reckon Angola will suffer a similar long-term fate as Portugal.

Europe sinks ... The Decline of the West.

But this is old news (extra to over-dramatized)... Such an article could have been interesting 4-5 years ago.

I suspect the financial volumes flowing between Brazil and Portugal have had much more impact on Portugal over the last 50 years, though becasue it has had the time to become more sophisticated, it is much less visible and traceable. One could also note the Russian take over of Cyprus' banking system, for example. But that isn't what the article is about.
The article is about Angola's ties to Portugal, so mention of BRIC countries is a red herring, a poor attempt at deflection by the usual suspects. As to "Success", the word applies depending on one's terms of reference. Very successful corrupt oligarchs, most definitely. Tin pot dictators maybe.
But entrepreneurs? Businessmen? I can't see a person mentioned in the article who fits the description.

There will come a time when corruption in undeveloped countries will be replaced by a democratic system where lobbyists will have to registered, ill-gotten gains will stay in local banks as legitimate business profits and PACs will replace laundered slush funds.
Then countries like Angola will then be able to announce proudly that they are free-market democracies.

As the case for most, if not all, former colonies, graft and corruption was learned from the colonizers. However, western colonizers are apt to be revisionists and are prone to being self righteous. A more balanced approach in writing this article by the NYT is warranted.

Shame on the London School of Economics for legitimizing Ms. dos Santos by giving her a forum to speak. She may have wealth, but a role model she's not. Just another corrupt "have" in a world of too many "have nots."

It is very sad to see the leaders of Angola enriching themselves and not helping the general population. I can't imagine how someone can spend 500,000 euros when many in the country survive on a few dollars per day.

What kind of absurd framing is this?! "Portugal Dominated Angola for Centuries. Now the Roles are Reversed." Please tell me the NYT is not even as a literary gimmick trying to compare Portuguese colonial rule in Angola which destroyed the people, their communities, histories, resources, and image of themselves as they existed before the western occupiers, to corruption (not unrelated to said historical colonialism and the pervasive modern-day economic version of it) where the disproportionately wealthy and powerful class is thieving from and at the expense of their own people.

In the US we're debating whether all Nazis are bad, and now we're starting to pretend corruption borne out of capitalism and colonialism is in fact somehow analogous to 300 years colonial rule? Modern day Portugal--the country, the economy--was MADE on the backs of their colonies; Angola's masses aren't benefiting from the actions of their despicable, dishonest, corrupt ruling class.

In fact, as the ("ex") colonizer, this article could have (Correctly) been framed as Portugal being complicit in having the corrupt leaders as proxy-colonizers, STILL stealing wealth from the people of Angola.

#RepresentationMatters

Summer is not a verb.

It sounds like you Americans are peeved because you're not getting your cut.

amazing that no mention is made in this article of the long war that raged in this country and in which thousands of Cuban soldiers died.. in vain it seems since dos Santos continues to rule and enrich himself, family and friend while the average Angolan citizen lives the pauper's life.

As someone who has worked in Africa as a relief worker, it is precisely this sort of corruption, as exposed in this article, that gnaws at your soul when you see common Africans living in abject poverty while their leaders siphon all the wealth of the country into their bank accounts.

And while you're working in these countries, you can't even say anything to expose what you see because you will either be expelled or worse. A co-worker of mine was expelled from an African country simply for using a Time magazine article that was critical of the president as material for an English As A Second Language class. The student who was caught by the police in the streets with a copy of the article in his pockets fared much worse.

It is a shame that entertainers like Chris Tucker and Will Smith hang out with these people apparently not knowing - or worse, not caring - about the blood sucking nature of the offsprings of the president of Angola.

Very interesting story of money (and character/reputation) laundering.

I wonder how Estoril or Lisbon have changed since 2008 when I was last there.

Jose Eduardo dos Santos will step down from office on Wednesday after 38 years as president. This has to be seen to be believed.

Oh Africa, so much in need, unless there exists a corrupt elite who came out of the latest civil war on top and managed to rob the country blind.

You see, most, not all, but most modern African nations have the means with which to organize themselves into stable, industrial economies due to their natural wealth, but it hasn't happened. It hasn't happened in ONE African nation, with the exception, perhaps, of South Africa or Zimbabwe before Mugabe lost his mind. The "elite" continue to control all potential profit-making parts of their government in order to rob the country blind. Lucky for Angola they can dump their riches in Portugal, and not have to deal with the web of Switzerland.

Where do you think the corruption in Brazil and Angola come from? It's their heritage from Portugal. These countries were founded on the basis of corruption and exploitation.

I've always found it suspicious that Angola, one of the largest countries on the African continent, has virtually no tourism industry. Which makes you wonder what they're trying to hide.

This is a unique case where one sees members of an African nation as entrepreneurs taking control of various European financial institutions. One of these, Mr. Sobrinho, an Angolan, is cited in this report complaining that Brazilians, Russians and Portuguese, including some who made money doing business in Angola, also owned apartments but were never investigated for money laundering as were the Angolans. Sobrinho's reaction suggests that it was better for the NYTimes to investigate the role of these other national groups to avoid interpretations that the paper singled out a group of Africans after their success.

Disgusting; what else can one say to stories like this.

It does not look like Portugal is the only place overlooking the corrupt origins of Angolan money. As the article mentions, it does not look like Swizz jewelers, Italian fashion, and French and American movie glitz mind at all the origin of the money the Dos Santos family spends...