thanks for your kind words salah. actually, after reading my post, i was suprised you were able to decipher my atrocious spelling (I blame my keyboard of course)

i've always enjoyed speaking to people from older generations and as for the older cvs....i have asked them what took them so long to get fed up with portugal's indifference and to sum it up i was tod many times that i had to realize that suffering and oppression was all they ever knew and did not know any other way out of their situation except for flight.

st antao...if you take your slant towards portugal out of the equation and look objectively what cv has accomplished:

3 additional int'l airports open and operating
road upgrades in santiago, st antao, mindelo with more scheduled for fogo
imminent opening of a university
vaccination programs for cv children
upgrading and expansion of port of praia
agriculture education
funding for sewerage treatment upgrades in santiago and mindelo

remember......and this is important....all of this has occurred in the past 3-5 years when the investments and aid began flowing in earnest and you have to admit, that is pretty admirable for any country never mind a third world one.

so, in my opinion....after 500 years under portuguese rule, 33 years of independant rule is not much time to begin criticizing what they have done.

if paicv feels they cannot do the job, maybe its time for them to get out of the way and let mdp do the wor. that is how a democracy works....not by going back toa former colonialist.

what they have done is good by west-african standards but it is still not enough by european standards.

The university started more than one year ago, the airport of sao-vicente has been delayed for more than 6 months now.

All this development is based on international funds that are not gifts by loans with interest that cape-verde has to pay back.

Azores, Canary don't have to go to ask money from inetnational funds, they have directly the money from the EU devlopment fund, which is not a loan, no money to give back, and what azores gets for free from the EU fund, cv has to fight for it in international funds for loans. and azores by this way even gets 10 times more money for its development than cape-verde.

not only is cv advancing by west aftrican standards but they are advancing by portuguese standards if you include the 500 years of neglect.

it is important to understand that after 9/11 practically all (over 90%) us foreign aid does not have to be repaid. this is not to be confused with grants....such as the milenium challenge grant....where 100% of all grants do not have to be paid back. i don't know what percentage of eu aid are considered loans but with the usa and china not requiring pay backs, i would bet that from a geo-political point of view, the eu most likely does not require the majority of their aid to be repaid. and i don't think cv has to 'fight' very hard for this aid as they are a stable democracy and strategically located in shipping lanes from oil producing west africa.

this aid does not come because of altruism but rather for geo-political strategic reasons. so again given all of this and cvs evolution and development, they do not need portugal as much as portugal needs them.

we will see in some 5 to 10 years. I am convinced cape-verde will come back. Maybe the best status would be something similar to the link between Danemark and greenland.

2 years ago....

EU membership for Cape Verde proposed in Portugal

afrol News / A Semana, 16 March - A possible future membership in the European Union (EU) for Cape Verde today was a major topic of discussion in Lisbon, Portugal. The idea is promoted by Portuguese ex-President Mário Soares, who is to take the issue to Brussels, and veteran academic Adriano Moreira. Cape Verde, they hold, would become a bridge between Africa and Europe if made an EU member state.

The issue today has been discussed in the journal 'A Capital' and at a conference organised by the Society of Geography. Notably, the Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal, Onésimo Silveira, participated at the conference, which was headed by ex-President Soares.

Mr Soares and Mr Moreira, two of Portugal's main senator, in interviews with 'A Capital' strongly defended an EU membership for Cape Verde on the longer run "for political reasons, rather regarding identity than distance." Cape Verde, they said, was much closer to Europe than for example Turkey.

The two Portuguese senators said they hoped that Durão Barroso, the current President of the European Commission and also a Portuguese citizen, would give his support to this cause. Mr Soares and Mr Moreira assured they would remain "supports and spokesmen" of this project.

- Cape Verde is an excellent platform for relationship between Europe and Africa and also for the strengthening of the organisation of the CPLP [Portuguese speaking countries]," Mr Moreira, an old friend of Cape Verde said in the interview with 'A Capital'. Also Mr Soares - the first Portuguese politician to defend a European Union membership for Cape Verde - holds that there is nothing hindering such a project.

To make the project known, the International Academy of Portuguese Culture, presided over for Mr Moreira, is today promoting the conference on the issue by the Lisbon Society of Geography. Several prominent members of Portuguese society participate in the event, among them the new Minister of Foreign affaires, Freitas do Amaral, and the 1959-62 Governor of Cape Verde, Silvino Silvério Marques.

According to Mr Soares, Cape Verde has better conditions of becoming an effective member of the EU than Turkey. Turkey, he said, presented innumerable problems regarding democracy and human rights, besides being a Muslim country. Quite oppositely, the Christian nation Cape Verde today is seen as an example of democracy and a "last border" of Western society in this part of the globe.

- Cape Verde has one foot in Africa, or perhaps it has both, but the head in many ways is directed towards Europe, where also its roots seem to go in search of nutrition to develop, commented Lydian Balcony of 'A Capital'.

Next to that writes editor Osório Luis: "If Europe is going to open up to Turkey (...), and in that way open a window towards Asia, then Cape Verde will be an entrance door to the great African continent. Europe would then also start being a psychological space, where three continents meet; a multi-cultural territory, open to the world."

The government of Cape Verde, which had sent its Ambassador to the Lisbon gathering, at several stages has expressed its interest in a closer relation with the EU. In 2002, Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves supported the idea of a "Special Status" within the EU, making it possible for the archipelago to obtain some structural funds in the same way as the neighbouring Spanish Canary Islands and the Portuguese Azores and Madeira Islands.

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well heck....having special eu status and recieving additional aid/grants is a good thing. with their location and stable gov't it puts cv in a unique position to act as a facilitator between europe and africa.

we're in agreement there, i just see them doing all of this as an independant country and not a subjugated territory. if they get special status as an independant sovereign nation they have the best of both worlds.

the special status is a fact since november 2007 under the portuguese EU presidency...

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Maica,

you are describing advantages given to countries that have full integration into the EU, these rights will be given to cv only if cv reintegrates portugal.

The special status is for countries that don't belong to the EU, and therefore will not have the same rights than the EU member states.

whatever cv gets from a special status it will be limited compared to what cv will get from a full integration (through Portugal reintegration).

The EU representatives don't know cape-verde, apart from portugal, the other EU countries don't know cv. As a proof here is what told, to the "expresso-das-ilhas", the portuguese member of the EU parliement who is pushing the cv partnership inside the EU parliement

"Expresso das Ilhas - Dentro do Parlamento Europeu tem sido fácil encontrar consensos e apoios a esta causa?

JRC - Nem sempre, porque muitas pessoas não conhecem Cabo Verde: quem conhece Cabo Verde, compreende. Podemos até dizer que, nesta legislatura, o território se tornaria, politicamente, um pouquinho mais difícil: são doze novos Estados-membros e são países que não têm conhecimento particular de Cabo Verde. Mas foi possível estabelecer os contactos necessários para que se marcassem pontos também aqui. Não só foi importante a colaboração "transpartidária" de deputados portugueses, nomeadamente deputados do PPE, como eu próprio, e deputados do grupo socialista, como também com alguns outros que foram particularmente sensíveis em posições chaves, nomeadamente o deputado inglês Charles Tannock, que teve uma importância grande num certo momento: sendo o relator do documento sobre política de vizinhança, foi aí, digamos, que plantámos as primeiras estacas deste processo em textos institucionais europeus e isso deveu-se a uma relação política e de amizade que tenho com ele, à compreensão espontânea que ele teve e ao apoio que deu nesse relatório, que depois foi útil neste processo. Também o facto de haver uma relação de confiança entre os deputados mais conhecedores deste processo e os principais decisores de cada grupo facilitou. Agora, há sempre muito a fazer para tornar mais conhecido Cabo Verde."

So you see that it was difficult to push this special partnership because the EU deputies didn't know cv and didn't know where it is. I think that cv will manage to have a special status in between the iceland status and the turkey status for being an acomplished democracy and also thanks to the support of portugal. The best would be a reintegration into Portugal which would make cape-verde a full EU region., with full EU rights

what is forgotten here is that many european countries are already giving cv aid...from french medical/vaccinations to spain enviromental. but the eu is not the only game in town as the usa and china have been giving massive aid/grants with no paybacks. so they alreadyhave the best of both worlds.

since monies will never be an issue because the usa, china and nato already have strategic interest in cv, the only major disadvantage with not being 'fully reintegrated' is cvs still needing visas to go to europe. but one must be patient. again remember, this massive influx of aid, grants and private investment is only 5 years old at best. so cv has come a long way in a short period of time. with the continuance of development, better jobs will appear and with better jobs comes easier visas.

finally, please remember that who is to say the eu will always be this strong and vibrant? the only constant is change and why hitch your star to a wagon that will not always be the top economic power? special status as an independant country is a great thing short term and most importantly...long term.

Altair,

why hitch your star then to a proven failing continent. (this is what is happening since 1975).

What are the massive investments you are talking about? can you quantify them? the usa through MCA gave cape-verde 87million euros to be spend on a period of 5 to 10 years.

look, Spain gets from the EU for its development 11billion euros per year, Portugal gets 3 billion euros per year and these are not loans but EU funds that are made for the development and help the poor EU countries to catch up with the richest. the 87million euros give by the USA are very small compared to what the EU funds make available. for cape-verde if it had access to the EU fund, it could receive easily 200millions euros per year for 20 years.

But believe me the EU question is more a civilization question than an economical question, cv has a democracy that is similar to the EU democracies, starts to have a literacy rate close to the EU, has a corruption close to the EU, the cv wants to have a legal and technical convergence with the EU. All this is happening because cv has a Portuguese ethos. therefore it should be reintegrated into Portugal

i've mentioned projects in other posts that have come to fruition in the past 3-5 years so no need to go over them again. china some years back built the nat'l assembly for cv. why didn't good old friend and altruisitc portugal do this? china has also constructed the largest catchment dam in cv in santiago in an agricultural region. these i can come up with without going on line and doing research. if i did, i'm sure i can quantify and come up with more examples.

i truly suggest a trip to cv just to see the changes that have occurred in a few short years

st anato...i did not suggest cv hitch their star to africa...i believe the word i used was 'facilitator'...as in a go between...kind of like how switzerland used to be looked upon.

they are recieving monies worldwide and are advancing. to join the eu for more monies is akin to prostituing the country's identity. and agin, who is to say that the eu will always be a driving economic force? history says, change is constant and no on country or organization stays number one forever.

without them being in the eu, the are recieving eu monies.

portugal is portugal
spain is spain
cape verde is cape verde

you are coming from a portuguese, colonial point of view and i am coming from the point of view of a citizen of a country that once was a colony.

usa and great britian have many commonalities from the past...as two different countries, we still have friendly ties which works to each others benefits.

the same applies to portugal and cv. they have good relations and are both developing. as the saying goes "seperate but equal"

cv independant country would be in a better position to be a facilitator between europe and africa than, say, canaries or azores.

and lastly....part of cvs cultural heritage is portuguese but since independance cv's culture is evolving seperate from portugal.

Uk and USA are huge powerfull countries. almost 50% of the USA presidents were free-masons.

In the other side Cape-verde is a tiny island nation that doesn't have ressources. which has a limited population and which is at large of africa

cape-verde is not in the usa position, it is not comparable. I state that if cv is reintegrated back into portugal, it will solve the problems/

identity; cv are portuguese with mixed race origins.

economy; cv is part of a bigger nation that can handle a large range of actions,

prestige. capeverde will be part of the EU which is the richest area of the world, and will be supported by the EU for its development. Cape-verde deserves has much as slovenia or poland to be part of the EU as far as cape-verde took part to the european expansion in the last 500years and contributed to the Europe expansion over the world, because cv were portuguese and were administrating portuguese territories all around the world.

Cape-verde should have the same status into Portugal than greenland status into danemark.

i guess the point about usa and great britian is when america first gained independance, she needed assistance from european nations to build infastructure and technical assistance for manufacturing and improved living conditions. for years after 1776, there was a faction of english population tha felt because of commonalities, the usa shoud be reintegrated into england. the rallying cry in british political circles when it came to americans was "once an englishman, always an englishman" (luso-phonically speaking....sound familiar?) america ships and sailors were kidnapped on te oceans by the brits and pressed into maritime and military service. ports were blockaded as the political atmosphere heated up and eventually the war of 1812 commenced. the english thought they could take advantage of a sovereign nation in its infancy and still finding its way. with some help from france (merci) the brtis lost and never bothered us again figuring we'd make a better friend than foe.

same applies in some ways to cv and portugal. cv is in its infancy and needs space and years to develop. they are developing with living conditions better than anytime during the previous 500 years. not that cv has in natural resouces or power that the usa has but she is strategicaly located and that is why eu nations, portugal, china and usa are giving them aid. to me, its best to stay unaligned and be that facilitator between two continents and continue to recieve aid from all over the world.

by the way is greenland a territory of denmark? if yes, that explains why they no longer facilitate between the scananavians and polar bears.

the strategical position is a legend.

and I hardly see cv becoming the new USa in 100 years.

Finnally, the point is not where cape-verde is now, the point is where it should be. If capeverde had stayed with Portugal it would have a gdp almost 10 times higher, a literacy rate of 100%, world class infrastructures funded by the EU, world class airports, world class hospitals...cape verde was part of portugal for 500years, for how long the usa was a british colony, 100years?

a little more than 100 years for usa so 500 years is a testament to the patience and perserverence of the cv people.

you are putting first world standards and expectations on a young nation. no, cv will never be a usa nor will it ever be a portugal or even a guinea-bissau. what cv will be is an independant cv and it is up to those citizens on which direction they choose. to remain non-alligned is ashrewd move and advantageous long term.

Altair

there is a fundemental difference between your analysis and my analysis. you are talking about the present. I now about all the changes that happened and that compared to before cv is better.
But I am talking about the future, in 5 to 10 years (I would rather say in 1 to 2 years) cape verde will reach a bottleneck of development due to it being a tiny archipelago with 10 islands. The costs for building the infrastructures that will bring more and more tourists are hugely expensive and capeverde will not have enough money for doing that. The problem is that the tourists who are going there now are complaining about this lack of infrastructures and hospitals, lack of supermarkets, the high price of food and the lack of variety of the food.
This botleneck of development will be solved only if cape-verde can be included into a bigger nation that will have room enough to start a large scale development, the only candidate for cv to be reinttegarted to is Portugal, with the additional advantage of Portugal belonging to the EU. Cv are of portuguese origins and have been part of Portugal for 500 years.

actually st antao....my analysis is based on the present....and you are correct there....and the present is the reality of cv. your conjecture on the future is simply that.....conjecture. of course you will paint a gloomy picture on cv with 'bottleneck of development' (funny how resurfacing of roads, upgrades of port of praia now moving forward, university opening, vaccination programs, and water treatment upgrades now about to move forward....all happened within the past three years and paid for with grants and without bottlenecks) becauseyour argument is not objective. you lookat cv through the eyes of a portuguese subject who thinks cv still belongs to you. unfortunately, the people living in cv do not share your views.

if cv is 're-integrated' into portugal, the aid/grants from usa and china will dwindle to nothing. if the eu tkes an economic downturn (and history shows all economic powers do) i would bet that portugal will take care of her mainland first and cv last like she has always historically done. so while it may be in portugals (according to you) best interest to reintegrate cv, it is not in cv's. it is in their best interest to recieve economic development grants from a mix of nations around the world like theyare currently doing. special eu status is a good thing, being part of another country to recieve more monies is simply prostituting a soveriegn, independant nation. i doubt the people will go for that.