To affirm with the full truth that it is loved, that is not sinned,

it is not condemnable, because anything nor nobody can condemn the love. The love is free, since two people that love each other in their beings' fullness exist, it was always like this and it will always be like this. The conventions destroy the love, and for that reason he jumps all of the barriers that if they oppose him. To love is to battle, it is to struggle for that longing, and the soul to free. And for that reason to love is the divine flash that he makes to wake up. To love is the senses to go mad, it is in the loved person's arms to faint. 

 

Thank you my God! 

For you send me one more human being to love. Everything will make my God for that love to support, to be enchanted and of him to fall in love, never to get tired, and always in him to rejuvenate. 

This world is very stupid because he lives of very stupid conventions

You are part of my existence, it leaves of me. You were in each line that I already read. You were in each possibility that I saw already, in the river, in the candles of the ships, in the swamps, in the clouds, in the light, in the darkness, in the wind, in the forest, in the sea, in the streets. 

You were the personification of each beautiful dream that my mind already knew.  

Charles Dickens

Image: osibarita.blogspot.com

The woman's beauty is above all of the things. Her beauty is a religion and I are his believer.

You are in an arrested swinging in a tree. I am to balance you, for here, for there. You are with a dress white, transparent, that it collects you the whole body. With a medieval garland of flowers in the head. You are marvelously beautiful, of a magical beauty. To our turn it is everything white, as snow. But even to middle of our bodies he sees himself the landscape. It is a field where some are noticed trees, completely full of green. While you swing, I am going pushing you smoothly. 

Suddenly you are with a poetry book in the left hand and you declaim something that gets lost, the sound is not gotten to hear because it disappears in the snow. But later we stopped, we looked at each other a lot, a long time and we hugged each other smoothly. Then you go down and of tied hands we disappeared in the thick fog always suits and smiling. For me it was a wonderful dream, so that I felt the day today different from all the other ones. It was a very happy day. The love is wonderful.  

The woman's beauty is above all of the things. Her beauty is a religion and I are his believer. 

The MPLA: Speeding Angola up or holding it back?

The MPLA Political Bureau has welcomed the government’s programme to speed up the diversification of the national economy, beyond its current domination by the petroleum industry. The Politburo’s statement on 31 March made a special recommendation: that the government should train the personnel necessary to put the plan into practice. However, there is a contradiction here that needs to be analysed.

By Rafael Marques de Morais

http://makaangola.org

Let’s start with the idea of “speeding up”. As long ago as 12 February 2009, President José Eduardo dos Santos said “it is necessary to speed up economic diversification by making and promoting investments in other areas of production”. Four years later, the idea of speeding up economic diversification was incorporated into the National Development Plan for 2013-2017, of which implementation began last year. If it is indeed a process of acceleration, it has been a very slow one.

As its priorities for economic diversification, the plan aims to promote competitiveness and co-ordination between public and private investment. From the government’s point of view, the programme’s viability depends on building a strong Angolan private investment sector. This is why its project included “the promotion of entrepreneurship and development of the national private sector”.

The fundamental contradiction lies, first of all, in the fact that power is becoming ever more centralised and concentrated. This centralisation, as I have argued in my thesis on “The Transparency of Looting in Angola”, is transferred from the state to the private realm of the president and his inner circle. A consequence of this is the conflation of state interests with rulers’ private interests, to the point where they have become mutually indistinguishable.

This is what has allowed the rulers themselves to become the main businesspeople and investors in Angola, so that their private interests overrule the national interest. The state coffers have become in effect their private purses.

This indiscrimination of interests is inimical to any type of competitiveness. The telecommunications industry provides a typical example. The mobile phone service provider Movicel, which had been one of the biggest state enterprises, was privatised in 2009 to the benefit of political leaders. Today the mobile phone services in Angola are provided by a duopoly of Movicel and Unitel, both of which are owned by political leaders and their families and the state itself. Since customers have no alternative, the companies can charge exorbitant prices for mediocre services.

Angolan citizens outside the circles of power generally do not have the freedom to add value to the national economy by taking the initiative of private enterprise. Even if they try, the regulatory framework is enough to stifle their creativity, their ambition and the possibility of expanding their business.

In key sectors of the economy such as petroleum, it is already common practice for state officials to allow foreign investors’ access to the Angolan market only on condition that a percentage of the shares be allocated to shell companies owned by the officials themselves.

Another interesting point from the MPLA Politburo’s statement is the way in which it encourages the executive “to implement the [economic diversification] programme rigorously and firmly, so as to reduce the national economy’s dependence on the petroleum sector”. To this end, the Politburo “recommends special attention to specialist training so as to supply the qualified personnel needed by the programme”.

A public statement by the MPLA parliamentary bench in November referred to the approval of the General State Budget for 2014 as a continuation of the National Development Plan. This is where the confusion lies. First, the head of the government, who introduced the Politburo’s plan, is also the leader of the MPLA, José Eduardo dos Santos. Who, then, is demanding rigour and firmness from whom? Or is it simply a matter of rhetoric? Dos Santos demanding rigour and firmness of himself?

Second, how can one train specialists in time for them to be employed in a fast-track economic diversification programme? The specialists the MPLA is referring to need higher education. A university course takes at least four years, and even after that one cannot be sure that graduates will immediately have the relevant professional skills.

The other major problem is that the level of professional training has to do with the MPLA’s specialist committees. Where it comes to appointing people to work in the state administration, party membership and cronyism are more important than professional competence. Nothing is being done to end the partisan nature of the state.

The appointment of Kundi Paihama as the governor of Huambo province is proof of how the president operates. Huambo was once Angola’s second industrial centre, but Paihama is incapable of doing anything but spreading terror and promoting monopolies. He should have retired when he turned 70. Although there is no shortage of well-trained young people, the MPLA continues to rely on the old guard, which has no vision or new ideas for the country.

Above all, the MPLA and its president must clean up the state administration by rigorously enforcing the separation of private and state interests. They must then press ahead with devolving powers. The structure of the economy will change only once power has been decentralised through thoroughgoing reforms in the state apparatus. This is essential if there is to be an effective separation of powers between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, as well as the exercise of checks and balances to maintain accountability over the actions of government.

Realistically, all this will be possible only in the post-Dos Santos era. President dos Santos himself is the main obstacle to the reforms the country needs.

Radio Ecclesia: Ownership Between Bishops and Rulers. Angola

By Rafael Marques de Morais

http://makaangola.org

The Angolan Catholic-run Radio Ecclesia has been receiving financial support from the Ministry of Information, even though the government has not yet granted legal status to the radio station. The station was given back to the Catholic Church in 1992 after being nationalized 15 years earlier.

Just last year, Radio Ecclesia simultaneously fired several journalists and cancelled programs without reviewing their ratings. The current management is facing increasing numbers of accusations of censorship.

State Sponsorship

Maka Angola has had access to two documents corroborating a withdrawal order by the Ministry of Finance, to the value of five million kwanzas (US$50,000), for deposit in an account owned by the radio station, in the Banco de Fomento de Angola. The deposit is described as “funding for Radio Ecclesia from the Ministry of Information”.

The managing director of Radio Ecclesia, father Quintino Kandanji, informed Maka Angola that he has only received sporadic support from the Ministry of Social Communication. “I put in a request [to the ministry] for five million kwanzas for the radio station party at the end of last year; that was all”.

In turn, the national director of Information at the ministry, Rui Vasco, confirmed to Maka Angola that funds were approved on a regular basis for Radio Ecclesia, without specifying amounts.
 

Rui Vasco explains that the Ministry does not give monthly support to Radio Ecclesia. “It depends on budgetary constraints and responses to requests we receive”. He further comments that some private media outlets refuse government funding altogether, as they believe it could compromise their editorial independence. “We are not giving assistance here, we are doing our State duty”, adds Rui Vasco.

The director of Radio Despertar (Wake up Radio), Emanuel Malaquias, a station run by the opposition party UNITA, categorically denies receiving State money. “We get absolutely no support from the government. If all private radio stations are entitled to funding, I’m going to make an appointment with the minister to ask for our entitlements”, says Emanuel Malaquias.

Alexandre Solombe, the representative of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA-Angola), deplores the fact that the government, “still has not defined the legal criteria for providing support to private media organs, in compliance with Article 15 of the Media Law”.

According to Alexandre Solombe, the criteria fall within the regulations of the Media Law: “Since 2006, the Head of Government, President José Eduardo dos Santos, has been violating the terms of Article 87 of that law, i.e., defining the regulations governing the law within a maximum period of 90 days after its implementation”. The president implemented the law on April 28, 2006.

Radio Ecclesia’s editorial line

Radio Ecclesia was banned by the government in 1977, and only began to broadcast on FM again 20 years later.
 

It became the leading broadcaster in Luanda, though it was not permitted to broadcast beyond the confines of the capital city. At the height of its popularity in 2004, the then minister of Social Communication, Hendrick Vaal Neto, accused Radio Ecclesia of being a “terrorist broadcaster”. Listeners adopted the station as “the people’s radio”, and the Church proudly claimed that its station was “the trustworthy radio”.

The story is different now. Mass sackings of journalists and profound changes to the editorial line have given birth to several theories as to what can have happened to the radio station that was once so popular.

Last August and December, the management of Radio Ecclesia sacked over 10 staff, including Abílio Cândido, Adriano Kubanga, Agostinho Gayeta, Hélder Luandino, Mayama Salazar, Manuel Augusto and Matilde Vanda. The radio station is currently operating with an editorial staff reduced to nine journalists. Management at the station names lack of funding and disciplinary problems as the reasons for the sackings. Some journalists contend that they were sacked because their criticism was a little too keen.

Pirate Radio or government’s broadcaster?

Government support for the Catholic broadcaster is also controversial in the sense that the State continues to not recognise the institution legally.
 

Father Quintino Kandanji states that the owner of the radio station, the Episcopal Conference of Angola and São Tomé (CEAST), has had discussions with the government on resolving the state of legal limbo in which the station finds itself.

“Radio Ecclesia does not even have public deeds. We have no articles of incorporation”, he declares.

Father Quintino Kandanji relates that, in his meetings with the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, to deal with the station’s articles of incorporation, he was asked to produce a copy of the official Daily Gazette Diário da República showing the government decree that returned the station to the Catholic Church.

“But the government returned the station to the church without publishing the decision of the Council of Ministers in the Diário da República. This decree of confirmation was never published in the Diário da República”, explains the director of the broadcaster.

“We can’t even import equipment because we don’t have an official company licence”, he continues, adding that the radio station is still operating under a temporary licence: “We still have no official status”.

On February 18 and 19, 1992, the Council of Ministers discussed the matter of the “Decree Bill cancelling the decision that had nationalised Radio Ecclesia’s installations [in 1977]”, deciding then to return the installations to the Catholic Church. The government communicated its decision to the Catholic Church on February 26 of the same year, but the decree was never published in the Diário da República, which rendered it legally void.
 

Over a year later, on September 30, 1993, the then minister of Information, Hendrick Vaal Neto, released a dispatch authorising Radio Ecclesia “to transmit its programs on FM, Medium Wave and Short Wave”. The dispatch was equivalent to a licence, since it included the wording: “For all legal effects, this replaces the Temporary Licence”.

On the subject, the national director of Information, Rui Vasco, emphasises that MINCS “is working very well with CEAST to bring legal recognition to this process”.

From then until now, the government has demonstrated the ease with which it manipulates statute law, giving with one hand and taking back with the other. In other words, the government handed over Radio Ecclesia in the material sense, but retained it, as government property, in the legal sense.

Wake up Radio Despertar

Maka Angola investigated that Radio Despertar finds itself in a similar legal position to that of Radio Ecclesia.

“We tried to open a bank account, but it wasn’t possible since we have no public deeds”, reveals the assistant director of Radio Despertar, Anastácio Queirós Chilúvia.

In 2004, the Ministry of Information granted a temporary licence to Academia Politécnica Lda, the company that owns the radio station, “exclusively for the technical licensing of the installations and transmission system equipment of Radio Despertar by the relevant authority”. In turn, on December 22, 2004, this authority, the Angolan Institute of Telecommunications (INACOM), allocated the 91,0MHz frequency to Radio Despertar, in order to “not render invalid or cause delays to the manufacturing process of equipment needed to operate a radio station”.

According to the notice from INACOM from 2004, “the normal course of approval of the respective technical project, as well as the subsequent licensing of the referred station, remains dependent on additional clarification with regards to questions posed within a particular time-frame”.

On a material level, the government complied with the Peace Agreement, signed with UNITA, according to which Radio Despertar was to replace UNITA’s wartime radio, the Voz do Galo Negro (VORGAN: The Black Cockerel’s Voice), on a commercial basis and directed by a private company. However, the station still has no legal standing.

The People’s Voice Silenced

Besides the legal question, the government has presented either legal or technical arguments preventing the expansion of Radio Ecclesia’s signal to the provinces, through diocesan radio stations.

In previous years, various international institutions, some linked to the Catholic Church, have provided financial or material assistance, to the tune of several million dollars, towards the expansion of Radio Ecclesia into most of the 18 provinces.

Recently, in an interview with the weekly publication O País, the president of CEAST, Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingue, stated that the government’s reluctance to allow the Radio Ecclesia’s expansion to other provinces had to do with the prospect of live phone-in discussions.

“We are under no illusions, the live debates have always been a stumbling block”, the Archbishop explained.

“If there is any fear it is probably of this – those radio programs that interact directly with people on the street, and we have absolutely no control over that,” he added.

Censorship

Since the appointment of Father Quintino Kandanji as Radio Ecclesia’s director in October 2011, journalists have begun to complain more often about incidences of direct censorship.

“While I was working as editor, Father Kandanji would often approach me with orders about what had to be censored. He offered no justification, but merely said, “That is inappropriate”, explains Agostinho Gayeta.

As an example, Agostinho Gayeta referred to an interview with the MISA- Angola representative, Alexandre Solombe, on the difficulties of exercising freedom of the press in Angola. “Father [Kandanji] uses no subterfuge. He censors directly. He went to the editorial staff and said ‘this passes and that doesn’t,’ end of story”, explains the speaker.

Where management is concerned, the director of information of the radio station is Father Artur Handa Savita, while the journalist Manuel Vieira is editor in chief of the editorial staff.

“We hold regular meetings. Some journalists bring their topics and their agendas. That doesn’t work for us”, justifies Father Kandanji.

In practice, “normally, I listen to the journalist’s piece and I say what needs to be cut and why. Some journalists thank me later. We are guided by our conscience of service. We preserve the image that we serve the public”, says the director of Radio Ecclesia. His justification is: “People only say that the priest sacked journalists and cut this and that. There are hidden interests concerning which we may not yield. Whether it is the opposition, powerful influences or civil society, there are interests that could undermine the values the church seeks to preserve”.

The priest complains that nobody remembers to mention that he has also been criticised by officials at the ministry of Information “for keeping the microphones open to listeners on the Saturday debates”.

“During the elections [of 2012], the bishops asked me to unplug the phones [of the radio station] so that listeners could not participate live on air. I said no, they had to leave the microphones open and allow the people to speak, and we left the microphones open”, he reveals.

The list of programs aired on Radio Ecclesia has also undergone significant cuts and changes. Journalists and management disagree on the reasons for this.
 

One of the programs to be cut is Without a Doubt, presented by Manuel Vieira, on the problems crippling the capital city of Luanda, according to its inhabitants. The program went out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. “The listeners were extremely critical”, admits a journalist who preferred to remain anonymous.
“We will be cutting more programs from the list”, announces Father Quintino Kandanji. For him, “programs need to have continuity and a pastoral theme, by order of the bishops”.

With regard to Without a Doubt, the manager admits that “it was the program with the highest listener ratings of the radio station, sponsored by the BBC Trust”.

“When I took over [as director], I asked the BBC Trust to make sure that editorial control of the program was more balanced. The program came to an end”, he contends.
One analyst summarises the position of the Catholic-run broadcaster with an appropriate metaphor: “Radio Ecclesia is the short cape of the Catholic Church. It either covers the head or the feet”.

Amen.