Industry Conference: Angola style.
We went to an industry conference. It was yawnsome, all industry conferences are. Once you've got the free tat you don't want, but feel compelled to compete for, you realise no one cares about your company, its products, or its values. They just want mo free shit. Well who wouldn't?
Anyhoo, so far, it's like every other industry conference in the world, except:
1: When you get there, the doors are locked, so you get in via.... a hole in the wall. Yes, a genuine missing bit of breeze block. Superb.
2: There's no fire alarms, or fire exits
3: They've put toilets in, but nobody's connected the plumbing...
4: Nobody can afford to get off work and waste time swanning around conferences, so for the most part, it's just various people's presenters attending each others' stands. It's just like a bedlam lunchtime, but worse, and without the gags.
Oh and then you drive back into town, and remember you live in a giant ex-pat bubble and spend a lot of time drinking to forget that everyone around you lives in crushing poverty, next to an open sewer, surrounded by rubbish, the government don't appear to be doing anything, and it's extremely difficult to see what the $15bn the govt. will get this year is going.
Here's some puzzling maths for you:
Angola's population is 15,000,000.
Govt. receives $15,000,000,000 in 2006 from Oil taxes.
Why doesn't everyone have at least $1000?
Beats me. Best got to a meeting.
Anyhoo, so far, it's like every other industry conference in the world, except:
1: When you get there, the doors are locked, so you get in via.... a hole in the wall. Yes, a genuine missing bit of breeze block. Superb.
2: There's no fire alarms, or fire exits
3: They've put toilets in, but nobody's connected the plumbing...
4: Nobody can afford to get off work and waste time swanning around conferences, so for the most part, it's just various people's presenters attending each others' stands. It's just like a bedlam lunchtime, but worse, and without the gags.
Oh and then you drive back into town, and remember you live in a giant ex-pat bubble and spend a lot of time drinking to forget that everyone around you lives in crushing poverty, next to an open sewer, surrounded by rubbish, the government don't appear to be doing anything, and it's extremely difficult to see what the $15bn the govt. will get this year is going.
Here's some puzzling maths for you:
Angola's population is 15,000,000.
Govt. receives $15,000,000,000 in 2006 from Oil taxes.
Why doesn't everyone have at least $1000?
Beats me. Best got to a meeting.