"The central message is that of all that is said there is always a hope that things can be changed from what has happened, but what is desperate to conclude is that from 2012 to the present there is a repetition of the same fundamental issues. and that, particularly in the 2012-2017 legislature, there have been virtually no changes, it's terrible to be hitting the same keys, recognizing the problems, identifying them, and being like slamming the wall without connecting anything", said Manuel Ennes Ferreira.
Speaking to Lusa on the eve of the presentation in Lisbon of the book co-authored with Alves da Rocha, entitled 'Angola - Two Crossed Looks', Ennes Ferreira points out that "it is desperate and frustrating to read the chronicles and have a sense of 'deja vu' "and points out that the same themes" appear in 2012, 2015 and 2018 and that's no good".
The book brings together the chronicles of the two economists, published in Portugal by Semanário Económico and Expresso, and in Angola by Expansão, and the presentation states that "as History is only understood by analyzing the chain of facts in time, we selected texts covering the missed period of economic and social development of the previous legislature (2012-2017) and ending in the current legislature".
According to the Luso-Angolan economist, "to understand what is happening today, because the problems remain, it was good to see what has happened over the last few years", and this is how the idea for the book to be presented on Wednesday came up.
"You don't have to be an economist to read the book, you realize that there is a huge desire to try to identify points that necessarily have to be changed for the country to go somewhere, so nobody can attack us from being a pamphlet or document. downside, is held and the considerations that are made there are attention, sometimes with some hurt that shows in the reading itself and the text gets harder, but the idea was always to contribute so that something could be changed", guarantees the co-author of the book.
Asked if, since 2017 to date, there has been a real change in Angola, Ennes Ferreira replied that the change is more about rhetoric and framing than actual changes.
"More rhetorically, as they said before, they were going to do this and that, but things still have a desperate degree of repetition, and it is diversification, and this and that, but then the economic policy measures and all that articulation that should lead the country in a way that is expected to be of benefit to the population, the feeling is very frustrating, it seems the repetition in a new legislature with a new framework, and it hurts, of course, "he concluded.
