Word: gabon
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...angry and at times violent protests that broke out in Gabon on Thursday, Sept. 3, following the results of the Aug. 31 presidential election weren't fueled only by accusations that the contest had been rigged. A large portion of the fury was also focused on former colonial power France, which critics claim continues a long tradition of tolerating antidemocratic and repressive behavior by Africa's strongmen in exchange for their political and economic deference to Paris...
...principled and cathartic, Tsvangirai believes, but it is ineffective. Criticism has done nothing to dislodge Muammar Gaddafi in Libya (in his 40th year in power) or José Eduardo dos Santos in Angola or Teodoro Obiang in Equatorial Guinea (both in their 30th), while Africa's most enduring autocrat, Gabon's Omar Bongo, died in June in his 42nd year in office. Criticism has actually strengthened Mugabe, allowing him to cast himself as a heroic defender of Africa taking up the cudgel, just as he did when he led the fight for independence against racist Western imperialism...
Omar Bongo, 73, assumed the presidency of the West African nation of Gabon in 1967 and remained in power until his death on June 8. An authoritarian leader, Bongo--who had been the world's longest-serving President--was criticized for using Gabon's vast oil resources to fund a lavish lifestyle...
...Bongo set the paradigm for Africa in other ways too. What money he did spend on Gabon went on white-elephant prestige construction projects - a raft of new government buildings and a $2 billion transnational railway - which, when oil prices dipped, were funded by debt that spiraled out of control and threatened to bankrupt the country. And in politics, Bongo fixed elections for himself and bought off political opposition with money or power - despite its small size, Gabon has more than 40 Cabinet Ministers - or worse. Several opposition members were killed in the 1970s. In 1990, the mysterious death...
...Malawi and Charles Taylor of Liberia. Those that remain are precariously long in the tooth: Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has been in power for 39 years, while Dos Santos of Angola and Obiang of Equatorial Guinea have ruled for 29 and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe for 28. Sadly, for Gabon, a fresh start is far from assured. In another move also widely imitated across Africa, Bongo tried to ensure that his family's hold on power would survive him. His daughter Pascaline was his chief of staff; his son Ali is Defense Minister. They have consistently denied all allegations...