You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?

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You know what really grinds my gears? African Dictatorships.

Since when is it ok for a person to use public funds to finance a life of luxury and extravagance? When did this practice become ‘couth’?

It didn’t.

Son of an Equatorial Guinean dictator, Teodorin Obiang is set to purchase a $380 million yacht, that would become world’s 2^nd most expensive private boat—and that is just the tip.

The 41-year old son of dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, comfortably spends his time in a $35 million mansion in Malibu, with a convoy of luxury cars and a private jet.

It is reported that the younger Obiang has effectively siphoned more than enough money from the public sector to finance his lavish escapades. As his monthly salary is $6,799- it would take 4,600 years for him to pay for the yacht.

But how does this man have keys to the Equatorial Guinean money vault?

O—he happens to be the country’s ‘agricultural minister’ (Even though he spends a majority of his time in California) (It must be for work purposes….) A position that he must have ‘earned’ within his father’s government.

If this doesn’t grind your gears, then you may want to ask one of the 80% of Equatorial Guinean citizens who fall below the poverty line, who will not have keys to the yacht.

This example is just one of the many relating to corrupt African politics.

It is these dictatorships that breed corruption and divide the population.

Effectively, African dictatorships are the seed of current political corruption, and a possible result of prior colonial rule- where Portugal ‘s (In this case) abandonment of Equatorial Guinea left a rat race for the throne.

These dictatorships enable greedy men to take what they want, and give back only what they want.

But do you blame it on the Portuguese? Or on greed?

Whatever the case, I want a yacht too.



Courtesy of Lauren Frayer
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/28/teodorin-obiang-african-dictators-son-orders-380-million-lux/