"In Angola, corruption has deadly consequences for children" PBS NewsHour 6/30/2015
Excerpt
SUMMARY: Angola is a country of extreme wealth, thanks to oil and diamonds. Yet, it has the highest child-mortality rate in the world. Rampant corruption accounts for a large part of this contradiction. Nicholas Kristof, an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, joins Gwen Ifill to discuss the country’s disheartening situation.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): The city of Luanda, the capital of Angola, was recently named the most expensive city in the world to live in for expatriates, beating out Tokyo, Hong Kong and Moscow.
But Angola also bears the distinction of being the country with the highest child mortality rate in the world.
The ties that bind the two? Corruption.
Gwen Ifill picks up the story from there.
GWEN IFILL (NewsHour): The West African nation of Angola is a land of contrasts, where the gap between the very rich and the desperately poor is so great, that its most vulnerable population, children, are dying every day.
Nicholas Kristof, the op-ed columnist for The New York Times, spent five years trying to get a visa into Angola to see for himself, and he recently returned with stunning video. He traveled there with video journalist Adam Ellick.
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, Columnist, The New York Times: This is the deadliest country in the world for kids, and yet the government has just cut the health budget by 30 percent.
At a sunset dance party in the capital, Luanda, you would never know there’s a health crisis here. That’s the crazy part. This country is actually filthy rich, flush with oil and diamonds. There’s so much money here that a one-bedroom apartment downtown can cost $12,000 a month.
The real problem is it’s just spectacularly corrupt. Officials here spend $50 million a year on luxury cars alone. Judges here get Jaguars to drive, as kids perish at the highest rate in the world.
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