Word: gentile
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...Bongo had won the election to succeed his father Omar Bongo, who died in June after having ruled the nation with an iron fist for 41 years. On Thursday, opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the capital, Libreville, while others in the main economic city of Port-Gentil ransacked shops, set fire to the French consulate and attacked the compound of French oil giant Total. Their grievances were clear: after having helped Omar Bongo squash his political opponents and allegedly siphon off a vast fortune from resource-rich Gabon's coffers, protesters say, French officials now stand idle...
...President's disastrous legacy is only too apparent in Gabon's two main cities, the capital Libreville and the economic center of Port-Gentil. Dealerships selling Land Rovers and Hummers (to negotiate all the giant potholes) thrive, while hypermarkets sell $400 bottles of wine and the city's restaurants and bars serve more champagne per capita than Paris. But the riches enjoyed by a few have made Libreville and Port-Gentil among the most expensive on earth. Despite its large size and seas teeming with fish, almost all food is imported from Europe, entrepreneurialism has all but evaporated...
...costs of rising rents and salaries. Oil becomes virtually the only game in town, and the benefit to workers is surprisingly limited, with many of the more lucrative jobs - such as rig operator and refinery manager - going to foreign experts. Hence the expat enclaves in oil towns from Port Gentil to Baku. In some cases, unemployment can actually worsen. Fueled by the new spending power of the few, the cost of living also goes up. If the government doesn't share the wealth, the higher prices mean real poverty actually rises. And in Angola there's little evidence of government...
...That's view is shared by Emile Gorayeb, whose family owns half the town's restaurants, hotels, casinos and nightclubs. Born in Madagascar, Gorayeb was once a petrolier himself, at a refinery in France. But what brought him to Port Gentil was not oil. Instead, at the edge of town, he built a sanctuary for gorillas, chimpanzees, wild pigs, deer and other animals rescued from hunter traps or injured on the roads. His self-financed foundation is part scientific institute, part environmental lobby, part zoo. His latest project is to have Port Gentil's schoolchildren plant thousands of palm trees...
...Gorayeb certainly becomes quite feverish when he talks of how robbers broke into his cages and slaughtered his animals. ("I cried, oh, I cried."). He's just as animated discussing Port Gentil's future. "If there's a big sea or even a lot of rain today, Port Gentil floods for days," he says. "This town is built on sand - there's no soil - and it's almost underwater already. I used to have a bungalow on the beach. Today, the sea has taken the beach, all 200 meters of it, and the bungalow...