LISBON (IPS) - The violence, corruption and generalised poverty marring more than three decades of independence in Portugal's five former colonies in Africa, and five years of independence in East Timor, have been the main obstacles for development in these countries, but not the only ones.
Brain drain is another phantom that is slowly but inexorably destroying hopes for progress and wellbeing for the people of Guinea-Bissau, which became independent in 1974, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe, which became independent in 1975, and East Timor, independent since 2002.
Skilled and academically qualified people from African countries where Portuguese is an official language often give up their status in their unstable home countries to build a new life in peaceful Portugal, even if it means sacrificing their former careers and having to take up a hastily learned, lower skilled job.
In contrast, many of those who earn a degree in universities in Portugal, thanks to scholarships offered to young people in the six former Portuguese colonies by the Portuguese Institute for Development Support (IPAD), and return to their countries of origin find jobs in the professional sector. ... Full story
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