Angola, it's not like they said.

[orz]

This is doing the rounds at the moment, not sure where I found it... Anyway it's really interesting account of an audacious journey thru Angola on motorbikes:
http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269251

[Jeff]

wow!

[barracuda]

The Angolans in this essay are some of the most amazing beautiful individual human beings I have ever seen photographed anywhere in any format whatsoever. Absolutely breathtaking.

[MacCruiskeen]

Jesus. I am amazed and delighted that such places and such people still exist. Imagine living like that.

(Do they look as if they need to be "developed"? Do they live on "less than one dollar a day"?)

[orz]

Indeed!

[annie aronburg]

Oh Africa!
Is it any wonder Europe has been trying to kill you for centuries?

I was struck by caption accompanying the photo of the man with handguns stencilled on his jeans.

Here's something that intrigues me. Speaking for myself, I would have thought that after decades of war one would sort of have had enough. Yet, everywhere we saw camouflage and military apparel being used as fashion items. I think about that often still.

Annie

[8bitagent]

Geezus those are some amazingly beautiful women...hell they look like a beautiful people period.

Ive seen so many soul crushingly disturbing documentaries on modern day globalization, genocide, civil war, famine, disease, child soldiers etc in Africa.

That it's so wonderful to see such an amazing rich culture untouched.

If there's justice or a God, I hope that this tribe can be allowed to remain to thrive.

[Searcher08]

Oh Africa!
Is it any wonder Europe has been trying to kill you for centuries?

I was struck by caption accompanying the photo of the man with handguns stencilled on his jeans.

Here's something that intrigues me. Speaking for myself, I would have thought that after decades of war one would sort of have had enough. Yet, everywhere we saw camouflage and military apparel being used as fashion items. I think about that often still.

Annie

The other side of Angola is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cuito_Cuanavale

called by some an the "Stalingrad of Apartheid" and famous throughout Southern Africa.

My brother, a jounalist, went there years later; he said there were areas of the town where so many bullets and shells had been fired that one walked on a *carpet* of casings.

[erosoplier]

I didn't know Cuba was so involved in all that. I didn't know that any of that was going on at the time.

I liked what he said about there being some emotions that haven't yet been given names, after he'd spent the evening with Jose getting a glimpse of what the war looked like from the other side.

[compared2what?]

I didn't know Cuba was so involved in all that. I didn't know that any of that was going on at the time.

I liked what he said about there being some emotions that haven't yet been given names, after he'd spent the evening with Jose getting a glimpse of what the war looked like from the other side.

It wasn't easy to keep track of who was involved, it went on so long. But it was the epitome of a conflict that shows how euphemistically named "the cold war" really was, outside of the US, former USSR, and most of Europe. South Africa regularly got up to all kinds of shit in a major way. I assume that it still does, at least to a degree.

Two of my favorite songs mention the MPLA, and I am going to go add them to the "what I'm listening to thread" rrrrrrright now, to tip my hand regarding the only one of them I'm likely to be able to find anywhere online.