Isabel dos Santos’ brazen and shameless looting of Angola

There is something called “cognitive dissonance” which afflicts all of us, in one way or another. One example of such dissonance might be if a person is an ardent animal lover, but still eats meat. So, there is a disconnection between the actual animal, and the meal, right? On an entirely different level is the cognitive dissonance of Isabel dos Santos, who is the daughter and heir-apparent to dictator Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola. Her “disconnect” is extreme to the point of lunacy.

I recently happened upon an Instagram account owned by the African “billionaire princess” which, to be honest, I found quite shocking and truly unbelievable. Dos Santos does almost nothing except brag about her wealth, access to any number of clueless celebrities and parties, and her jet-setting lifestyle. If she could even see, from almost any perspective, how obscene her lifestyle is when compared to how the vast majority of her fellow Angolans live, she’d never have posted any of this in the first place. “Inappropriate” doesn’t even begin to describe it. Consider this: The Angolan government is considered either #1 or #2 as the most corrupt government on Earth, with one of the highest infant mortality rates coupled with the lowest life expectancy rates on the planet (51 years old), even amongst other African nations. And yet, she has no shame, no guilt.

The world outside of Angola blindly and stupidly condones what the dos Santos family has done for decades, and continues to do, to Angola. While the Angolan people suffer unimaginable hardships and cruelty at the hands of her dictator father and his hired thugs, he has thrust his less-evil looking daughter into many positions of power and authority, realizing that his time in office is limited. Who better to act as the “face” of brutal oppression than her?

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But which one of the lot is worse? The father who started the looting of Angola decades ago? The daughter who helps accelerate it into the distant future?  The dictator’s other children who also benefit from the stealing? Or Isabel dos Santos’ husband, Dokolo, who isn’t even Angolan, but who is definitely on “the take?”

And how about those outside of Angola who allow them to not only get away with murder, but validate and “rubber stamp” the process by welcoming their billions of (stolen) dollars into whichever “safe haven” they can find? In the Age of Information, there is zero excuse for anyone, anyone, outside of Angola to not fully understand what is going on here.  In fact, considering who owns the jewelry company, de Grisogono (the dos Santos family and her husband Sindika Dokolo), I’d say with near certainty that the diamond earrings so proudly worn on Kim Kardashian West below are blood diamonds:

IDS KKardashian blood diamonds

IDS diamond earrings

Here are some of the images from Isabel dos Santos’ own Instagram account, side by side with images of Angola:

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The Instagram video below about a newly unearthed (“blood”) diamond from Angola (click on it to “play”) is obscene and sickening. The luxury jewelry brand De Grisogono (headquartered in Switzerland) is actually almost entirely owned by Isabel dos Santos and her equally worthless corrupt husband, Sindika Dokolo (who is Congolese and not Angolan, but who likes to flaunt his additional Danish nationality when he wants to pretend to be European). This uncut 404 carat diamond that Dokolo’s mouthpiece/front man (Fawaz Gruosi) is drooling over in the video below, was found in a horribly destroyed (by the mining industry) area of northeast Angola called Lunda Norte, sometimes referred to as the Lundas.

Isabel dos Santos and her scarf-wearing, pretend-to-be-sophisticated ridiculous husband, Sindika Dokolo, are now the proud owners of this breathtaking bit of Angola’s natural history. The diamond is believed to be the 27th largest diamond ever found in the world. It’s value is in the tens of millions and is 7 centimeters long:

Remember that guy â†‘↑↑ from this picture â†“↓↓

IDS diamond earrings

All those sparkling, beautiful diamonds come from Angola.

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In conclusion…
Real “class” cannot be bought with looted state funds. Being the head of your country’s Red Cross (which, bizarrely, Isabel dos Santos is) does not confer, nor does it imply, the existence of compassion, empathy, or decency. The lowly shopkeeper who sneaks food to a hungry child is far more noble than Isabel dos Santos and her worthless family will ever be, or can ever be.

But there are those who live a life of privilege (and who are lucky enough not to be born poor and trapped in Angola’s web of corruption) who go on to do remarkable things which are meant to improve the lives of others, and not make them immeasurably worse, like Princess Diana, who went to Angola several times and touched and held those who could use a little kindness from (even) a stranger.

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Further reading
1) To see all the photos Isabel dos Santos posted on her Instagram account, which she has blocked me from, and changed the name on (it’s now Isabel_dos_santos.me), click this link,
2) Anything written by MakaAngola is incredibly good and important. They literally risk their lives posting about the situation in Angola. Their website is in English and Portuguese. To read specifically about the looting of diamonds by Isabel dos Santos and her family, click here;
3) To read more about Delfina (who lost 10 of her 15 children and is included in one of slides above) and to get an excellent idea of how everyday life is in Angola for many millions of people, please read,  “Two Women, Opposite Fortunes,” by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, March 21, 2015;
4) “Deadliest Country for Kids,” also by Nicholas Kristof, New York Times, March 19, 2015;
5)  “Reporters Notebook: Food Can Be a Struggle in Angola,” New York Times, January 24, 1981;
6) “Isabel dos Santos: The most cold-hearted bitch on Earth (Part 1),” Schatzie’s Earth Project, July 29, 2015;
7) How Isabel dos Santos and the American Petroleum Institute killed Cecil the Lion (Part II),Schatzie’s Earth Project, July 30, 2015;
8)  “Africa’s Resource Curse,” Schatzie’s Earth Project, August 3, 2015;
9) “Proxy Wars,” Schatzie’s Earth Project, August 21, 2015;
10) “Nicki Minaj, you have made a terrible mistake,” Schatzie’s Earth Project, December 22, 2015.