Chelsea and I have labored constantly in trying to acquire 5,000 hectares of land here in Mozambique. It is not easy, yesterday I spoke with the VP of "Agribuntu", a successful agricultural company here in Mozambique (financed by the EU) and he told me that what I was trying to do was "impossible". We have tribal elements, socio-cultural problems, corruption, bureaucracy, government regulations, bad exchange rates, high cost of living, and many other barriers in front of us. It has been a battle. Recently we have scrapped our 3 months work that we have spent in acquiring one piece of property and are now after another in Magude. Today I opened the newspaper and read "Mozambique gives 6,000,000 hectares to Brasil for agricultural development." I assumed that it was an error because the Mozambican currency used to have an extra 3 zero's on it, then in the late 90's they chopped off the 3 zero's so that math could be better done, therefore many mozambicans call 6,000 "six million". When I read the story my jaw dropped. Brasil had bought their way into the 6,000,000 hectares. (that is 2/3 the size of portugal!). As one Brasilian put it "To every Mozambican problem, there is a Brazilian solution." The truth is- Mozambique is being colonized again, this time it is for the same reason as the first time, but done in a different fashion. Anyway, I will move forward and try to get my meager 1000-5000 hectares. I am against feelings of jealousy or animosity when one sees another's success, but I'm doing my best not to be bitter.
by the way- what is crazy is my country spends $500,000,000 USD per year in this country (USAID, Millenium Challenge Account, etc etc) and I can't get one square meter of land, while the smooth suave's build a 50,000,000 airport for the country and get their 6,000,000 hectares. the US needs to get on the bandwagon- ethical aproveitamento.
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