By Dr. Viriato de Barros FORCV columnist & Correspondent in Lisbon

I insist in stating that there is no objective reason why we, as a country and as a nation, cannot cross the line that separates what is commonly referred to as underdeveloped countries from what is usually called developed countries, meaning countries with higher levels of economic, social, educational and technological advancement that allows us to enjoy the higher levels of well-being, health care and the amenities of organized leisure.

It is true that as a result of a considerable effort at all levels of responsibility from political leaders, doctors, nurses, teachers, technicians of all branches of activity, artists, musicians, diplomats, intellectuals, emigrant workers to the informal saleswomen called rabidantis, and the help of foreign aid and international organizations Cape Verde has been able to reach a level of development that places the island state in the international ranking of medium developed country , leaving behind the category of underdeveloped country or Least Developed Countries, where it had been in the past. However it is enough to look closer around you when you are in Cape Verde, to realize that, if we have come a long way, there is still a long way to go to reach an acceptable economic and social balance.

While we waste time and mental energy trying to undermine or even destroy each other’s efforts and achievements in the quest for improvement, it would seem easier and more practical to follow one’s own creative impulses in coordination with the other initiatives, to avoid jamming and obstructions, within the principle of work division and space distribution, and under the conviction that there is room for everyone.


Despite all the difficulties, Cape Verde has been able to celebrate the thirty-second anniversary as an independent nation in peace and harmony, despite the changes of political system the country has gone through, always steering clear from violence of the kind that seems systematically to occur in many regions of the world. We cannot separate this fact from a history of five hundred years of struggle for survival in a country with lack of natural resources due mainly to cyclic droughts and vulnerability of arable land, considering that the very nature of the islands geology is cause of continuous erosion and loss of arable soil which, when it rains, is dragged to the sea aggravating the arid condition of the Cape Verdean land.