Comments on uma prova: Being Angolan, and Not

Hi, Nils! Thanks for reading and for your comment....

2008-07-03T10:57:00.000-04:00

Hi, Nils! Thanks for reading and for your comment. Despite not knowing what "Grotesk" means, I do understand, I think, and agree that this can be a difficult topic for some to discuss. I don't have answers, but I do have a two quick thoughts that I would like to share.

The first is that it isn't so clear that mental illnesses, such as depression, are an affliction of developed nations. More and more evidence has come to light in recent years that this is as much of, if not more of, a problem for the poor than for the rich, even if it goes undiagnosed because of inadequate access to healthcare. A quick web search reveals a number of articles on this topic in the New York Times, the BBC, and the medical journal The Lancet, among others. There also appears to be evidence that those most effected are women, who also happen to be the ones hardest hit by poverty.

Secondly, I keeping coming back to your ending question coupled with an understanding of poverty as a lack of access and opportunity (not simply a lack of money). I presume that if one is rich and unhappy that one has the option, if one prefers, of being poor and unhappy, but that the reverse isn't necessarily true. This seems a critical difference to me.

Hi Matt, this is Nils. I`m impressed by your reckl...

2008-06-23T07:20:00.000-04:00

Hi Matt, this is Nils. I`m impressed by your reckless effort to get to know the world, I wish I had the time to do so either.
There is a question coming up in me every time I get to read, hear or whatever something about poverty in Africa and I`ve been to scared to ask, since at first it sounds "Grotesk"(don`t know an english word for that). But I dare to ask you now: How far is there life just different from ours. I mean of course they suffer real poverty and other circumstances which are way beyon believe, but on the other hand they don`t suffer from those civilized diseases (psychological diseases). Though they probably don`t have the luxury of suffering on that since there just about to stavre to death, they find more easily good times on small things, as you discribed singing, dancing... I have a hard time seeing people in Germany cheerfully crowding the streets... They get up, go to work to finance a live which they can hardly participate at for people they love who they hardly see...
I can`t put it in better words, hope you understand what I want to say. I wouldn`t ever want to switch lives with an african. But I have a hard time with my life as well, .. why is it better to be rich and unhappy then it is to be poor and unhappy?
Take care
Like your blog
Nils

Olha... (lol) that was an interesting overview abo...

2008-05-29T22:33:00.000-04:00

Olha... (lol) that was an interesting overview about your life in Luanda. Definitely i want to be there someday, born a brazilian and afro-descendent, i think it would be somekind of religation with my ancestrals.

Please, keep on posting about your life there in Luanda. Sure i'll be around watching in detail :)

Grande abraço, vindo do Rio de Janeiro!

Vitor Pellegrino