Bissau - Guiné Bissau | City Gallery - Fotos da Cidade

[Matthias Offodile]

Originally Posted by Paperyostrich

I think its a shame to see the state that these otherwise beautiful Portuguese buildings are in. It really makes me want to go over there with a paintbrush and a tin of paint

+1

Into the bargain, they just had another military coup, just another one in a string of coups...and the second in West Africa in less than one month.

[Paperyostrich]

Originally Posted by Matthias Offodile

+1

Into the bargain, they just had another military coup, just another one in a string of coups...and the second in West Africa in less than one month.

I'll be frank the coup didn't surprise me, especially as in Guinea Bissau not one president has ever completed a full term, but also becuse in many states it seems that, especially during elections one group will never accept the results if the opposition wins, that is the cause for many of these wars and coups. Even if the elections were fair, which they apparently were seems people were sent from Northern Ireland to moniter them, one of the groups will not be happy because they did not win.

[Lino]

Portuguese tv say that the president and the PM were taken to some unknown place and the house of the president of the supreme court was plundered.

[SUNS 25]

This country there is definitely entered the paranoia. I recall reading an English newspaper "Telegraph" which said that the Ambassador of Portugal in Guinea Bissau had said that it's a bankrupt state, which failed and no prospect of stability in the future.

[Paperyostrich]

Originally Posted by SUNS 25

This country there is definitely entered the paranoia. I recall reading an English newspaper "Telegraph" which said that the Ambassador of Portugal in Guinea Bissau had said that it's a bankrupt state, which failed and no prospect of stability in the future.

I say there is no such thing as a faild state, the country could redeem itself in the future with the right governance, the country may be bankrupt but with some hard work it could become a state with some vision.

IMO Guinea-Bissau has alot of potential, but if it wasn't for these bickering political parties and these coups every 3 years then Guinea-Bissau could make something for itself, Maybe the political parties could work together to try and get something done, although I don't see that happening in the future . It's a shame because it's one if my faveroite countries as well

[SUNS 25]

Originally Posted by Paperyostrich

I say there is no such thing as a faild state, the country could redeem itself in the future with the right governance, the country may be bankrupt but with some hard work it could become a state with some vision.

IMO Guinea-Bissau has alot of potential, but if it wasn't for these bickering political parties and these coups every 3 years then Guinea-Bissau could make something for itself, Maybe the political parties could work together to try and get something done, although I don't see that happening in the future . It's a shame because it's one if my faveroite countries as well

dude, this country there is a narco state where drug lords Latin American have a influence within the military junta and the administration.

everything is corrupt, damn! the former president Viera fought against the mafia, he was murdered without state of mind.

this country, it's Pandemonium!

[Paperyostrich]

Originally Posted by SUNS 25

dude, this country there is a narco state where drug lords Latin American have a influence within the military junta and the administration.

everything is corrupt, damn! the former president Viera fought against the mafia, he was murdered without state of mind.

this country, it's Pandemonium!

True, the country needs an overhaul, but I'm sure one day the country will sort itself out. Somewhere in Guinea-Bissau there must be someone with a vision.

I agree it is sad that the president was murdered, but the government itself is also part of GB's stability problem. The political parties simply don't get along, if one of them is not in power then elections are not free and fair (according to the other party) Maybe a coalition could work to actually get things done. Maybe I'm talking out of my ass with that one though
Maybe getting rid of the military could help, or at least re-organizing it?

But I wouldn't call the state failed in all ways, why the country may be poor and corrupt but the country is growing at an average of 3.5% per year, which may not be that much for Africa, but there are a lot of developing countries growing a lot slower, so the goverment must be doing something right. Also they recently finished a massive project rebuilding Bissau's main road, it is truly good. And some of the infrastructure is there. Bissau has paved roads, a seaport, an airport, a bus service, taxis, all it needs is modernization, and with China's growing presence in Africa it could happen, and maybe one day when the mineral resources are finally exploited maybe GB could finance projects themselves.

Maybe I'm being a bit crazy here but where others see Guinea-Bissau as a failure, I see it as a land of opportunity, believe me if I had the money I would defiantly be putting it in this country, well in Bissau at least.

[alama]

Originally Posted by SUNS 25

This country there is definitely entered the paranoia. I recall reading an English newspaper "Telegraph" which said that the Ambassador of Portugal in Guinea Bissau had said that it's a bankrupt state, which failed and no prospect of stability in the future.

There's always hope.

[SUNS 25]

Originally Posted by alama

There's always hope.

alama,

In this country, there was always hope, but hope has been always defeated by setbacks. Guinea Bissau, leaders are unable to respect the principle of law, constitution and maintain the order in this country. this is a real and very sad.

[Paperyostrich]

Originally Posted by SUNS 25

alama,

In this country, there was always hope, but hope has been always defeated by setbacks. Guinea Bissau, leaders are unable to respect the principle of law, constitution and maintain the order in this country. this is a real and very sad.

Well there was in most of the former Portuguese colonies as well. Angola, Mozambique, East Timor. They thought there was to be hope for these countries but they all fell into economic mismanagment due to Portugal's repressive regime an umanagable colonial economy, civil war etc. People thought these countries were then hopless, but look at them now. Yes Angola is one of the most corrupt countries in the world but look at how its developing.

Mozambique has grown at a stunning rate since 1992, and although it is one of the poorest countries in the world it has a very promising future ahead of it.

East timor is now well governed and is soon to start producing oil with Australia.

Guinea-Bissau has massive potential and resources, a small population and is getting freindly with China, so I'd be watching out for Guinea-Bissau in the furture, it could be a drak horse on the African continent.

[Matthias Offodile]

Originally Posted by Paperyostrich

Well there was in most of the former Portuguese colonies as well. Angola, Mozambique, East Timor. They thought there was to be hope for these countries but they all fell into economic mismanagment due to Portugal's repressive regime an umanagable colonial economy, civil war etc. People thought these countries were then hopless, but look at them now. Yes Angola is one of the most corrupt countries in the world but look at how its developing.

Mozambique has grown at a stunning rate since 1992, and although it is one of the poorest countries in the world it has a very promising future ahead of it.

East timor is now well governed and is soon to start producing oil with Australia.

Guinea-Bissau has massive potential and resources, a small population and is getting freindly with China, so I'd be watching out for Guinea-Bissau in the furture, it could be a drak horse on the African continent.

Please, who thought that there was hope for these countries? Get your historic facts right, for Goodness sake!

Your viewpoint on lusophone countries is so typically of "how aloof English people look at/down upon the world that is or was not in their former sphere of influence"...and it shows that you do not read lusophone press articles, blogs or books written by people in Portuguese from those countries or lusophonia as a whole. So your arguments are truly distorted. but you are forgiven due to your inability to understand Portuguese.

Apart from that, it is quite weird that you didn´t mention the biggest of all, BRAZIL...which is among the TOP 10 strongest economies in the world...and has slowly crept up its way to come close to Britain, the former "glorious" Empire nation that once ruled the world....

And you forget Cape Verde which was one of the very few African countries which achieved miiddle income status without having any ressources to speak of.

Guinea-Bissau is the only messed up lusophone country at present...and actually there is very little hope. Hopefully, Portugal, Angola and Brazil will help that country somehow. Guinea Bissau doesn´t deserve this shit! It could be a small gem in West Africa.

[Paperyostrich]

Originally Posted by Matthias Offodile

Please, who thought that there was hope for these countries? Get your historic facts right, for Goodness sake!

Your viewpoint on lusophone countries is so typically of "how aloof English people look at/down upon the world that is or was not in their former sphere of influence"...and it shows that you do not read lusophone press articles, blogs or books written by people in Portuguese from those countries or lusophonia as a whole. So your arguments are truly distorted. but you are forgiven due to your inability to understand Portuguese.

Apart from that, it is quite weird that you didn´t mention the biggest of all, BRAZIL...which is among the TOP 10 strongest economies in the world...and has slowly crept up its way to come close to Britain, the former "glorious" Empire nation that once ruled the world....

And you forget Cape Verde which was one of the very few African countries which achieved miiddle income status without having any ressources to speak of.

Guinea-Bissau is the only messed up lusophone country at present...and actually there is very little hope. Hopefully, Portugal, Angola and Brazil will help that country somehow. Guinea Bissau doesn´t deserve this shit! It could be a small gem in West Africa.

First of all Matt I was refering to the countries that has their 1973-1975 independance, not Brazil who gained its independance in 1822.
These African colonies (Not too sure about East Timor) for Africa had very developed and organised infranstructure for the most part, if they could get organised for independance then these countries could have exceled in Africa, But for Angola and Mozambique the USA wasn't too keen on their communist goverments (neither was I as well) so they simply became cold war battle feilds. 27 years of growth lost for Angola, but war is what happens when people don't agree

Sao Tome and Principe could have massive potential but then it was way too dependant on cocoa, which often went through massive fluctuations in prices, and was also at the hands of a dictatorship. But now with good governance (Ironically with the 1975-1991 dictator back in power) and the oil partnership with Nigeria STP has a bright future ahead of it.

Cape Verde is the major sucsess story, because unlike the other colonies (bar STP) it wasn't ravaged by the colonial war or torn between the capitalist or communist factions.

If Portugal wasn't so dictorial in the running of it's colonies and let them have their desired independance around the 1961-1964 era when the colonial wars started, or when the colonies became autonomus regions of Portugal itself in 1951 then maybe the countries could have been sucsessful and not war torn. But they are rising from the ashes.

People had high expections of these countries, just like Uganda or Nigeria or the DRC, and look now, they are growing, they never lost hope and Guinea Bissau shouldn't either. Maybe if Guinea Bissau was; like the other colonies should have been, actually ready for independence then maybe Guinea Bissau wouldn't be muddled up in dictatorship, lawlessness and civil strife. But there is still hope and some people will never put the country down and will always remain hopeful, Like me.

[Matthias Offodile]

[QUOTE=Paperyostrich;93951385]

First of all Matt I was refering to the countries that has their 1973-1975 independance, not Brazil who gained its independance in 1822.

OK.

These African colonies (Not too sure about East Timor) for Africa had very developed and organised infranstructure for the most part, if they could get organised for independance then these countries could have exceled in Africa, But for Angola and Mozambique the USA wasn't too keen on their communist goverments (neither was I as well) so they simply became cold war battle feilds. 27 years of growth lost for Angola, but war is what happens when people don't agree

There was no time for any form of orderly transition and the whole process was HIGHLY ill-planned: many black, white and mullato Angolans say that in blogs, books, documents, news articles etc....
In the end, 27 years were lost, and 1 million lives and expertise was lost, a traumatised population that suffered hell and vast swathes of young people who couldn´t go to school or dream of a better life ...what for?...for nothing in the end.

it is not just the 27 years lost ...but also the tens of billions of US-dollars (if not much more than $100 billion until the country is fully rebuild) which is being invested now to reconstruct the country could have been invested into the further construction of a country that didn´t start from scratch in 1975.

And it wasn´t about Communism only, they had a more evil interest at heart. I don´t want to enlarge on it that much....

Kissinger’s Lies on Angola


An historian from Johns Hopkins named Piero Gleijeses, working with newly obtained documents, has exposed an official U.S. lie from the 1970s: that South African troops invaded Angola on their own, without our help, and only in response to a prior, Soviet-backed invasion by Cuba. Actually, according to the evidence turned up by Gleijeses, and published in his new book Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa, 1959-1976, the truth was exactly the opposite: the U.S. helped plan and carry out the South African incursion, and the Cuban troops arrived only afterward, and without prior Soviet knowledge or assistance (though the Soviets did help later on). Kissinger, as Gerald Ford’s Secretary of State at the time, was the Administration’s point man on spreading the official version of reality, a lie to which he has never admitted, and probably won’t have to now. Which is pretty much the way these big lies work: you don’t have to keep the truth secret forever, just long enough (25 years, in this case) so that the only people who still care about it are stuffy academics and conspiracy junkies.

http://www.lies.com/wp/2002/04/20/ki...ies-on-angola/

Sao Tome and Principe could have massive potential but then it was way too dependant on cocoa, which often went through massive fluctuations in prices, and was also at the hands of a dictatorship. But now with good governance (Ironically with the 1975-1991 dictator back in power) and the oil partnership with Nigeria STP has a bright future ahead of it.

Let´s hope so.

Cape Verde is the major sucsess story, because unlike the other colonies (bar STP) it wasn't ravaged by the colonial war or torn between the capitalist or communist factions.

Neither Mozambique nor Angola "were ravaged"/destroyed by colonial wars, it was principally fought in the bush and not in urban centres of the country.

a I said agriculture also blossomed throughout 1961-1972/73 and the economy expanded akin to what you see in Asia.

If Portugal wasn't so dictorial in the running of it's colonies and let them have their desired independance around the 1961-1964 era when the colonial wars started, or when the colonies became autonomus regions of Portugal itself in 1951 then maybe the countries could have been sucsessful and not war torn. But they are rising from the ashes.

Salazar was a bloody fucking idiot of an a******...sorry for such rude language!


Furthermore, you should know that among the most prominent people in the war of independence were not only black Angolans but also white & mulatto Angolans..(different from the majority of African countries where it was just white against black only) ...and many of them hated the colonial government and ended up in prison...but that´s a long story that I don´t want to expand on. Very complex issue and not as simple as you depict.

As for the rest of your arguments, it is only mere specualtion.

What would have happened to South Africa if there was no soothing force like Nelson Mandela around or let´s say an Idi Amin like figure? Mere speculation.

and what would have happened to the South Africa if the apartheid regime had collapsed at the height of the the Cold War? Mere specualtion , too.

People had high expections of these countries, just like Uganda or Nigeria or the DRC, and look now, they are growing, they never lost hope and Guinea Bissau shouldn't either. Maybe if Guinea Bissau was; like the other colonies should have been, actually ready for independence then maybe Guinea Bissau wouldn't be muddled up in dictatorship, lawlessness and civil strife. But there is still hope and some people will never put the country down and will always remain hopeful, Like me.

Without external help from the above-mentioned countries who have the money and tecnical capacity, a brighter Guinea Bissau will not be a reality any time soon.
I am a full-blown realist in order not to be dragged away in wisful thinking..and my predictions are seldom false.

I predicted that Angola will rise quickly six years back for which I just got lauughter & scorn from various people back then...look at it now.

But let´s cut it off here.....you can send me a message in my box if you want to discuss the matter over..it is an endless debate but let´s keep the thread clean here after all, please. It is a picture gallery.

[SUNS 25]

the only thing to do for this country is to pray and say God save the Bissau Guinea,

forgiveness him of his sins and guide him in the right direction so that he does not fall back into chaos and paranoia.

[Matthias Offodile]

removed

[Paperyostrich]

The parliament and a portion of the new main road through Bissau



Quite scenic from the air









Looks like a building is being renovated



image hosted on flickr




Nice house



The old presidential palace is currently undergoing a renovation into what I think is a museum (I can't remember) I'm sure the president is staying next door though. Sadly, I couldn't get any pictures of the renovations, but I'll try looking harder



It'll look nice when it's done