The outlook for the garbage-dump people of Boa Vista is a fly-blown, post-apocalyptic scene of desolation at the edge of the world. Their shacks are built of cardboard, driftwood, old iron and fraying plastic. Near-naked children play tag among the filthy debris. Only one in three will survive beyond the age of five. Most of the Boa Vista squatters have no formal identity papers. They have to beg, steal or barter for food and clothing. Motorists who drive along the potholed road below the cliff-dwellers look the other way. "Yes, we know about Boa Vista," said a U.N. aid official, "but it's regarded as a no-go security risk. You get out of your car and they'll be over you like piranhas." Full Story...
Hell, With a View
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There is hell on earth. It is just north of Angola's capital, below the sprawl of the teeming informal market of Roque Santeiro — one of Africa's biggest — where
years of refuse dumping have formed a scarred ridge of eroded ground and spewed
garbage. More than 1,000 people live here. They are born here, they breed, bleed
and die here. Only the devil could have come up with the name for this place: Boa
Vista, which means beautiful outlook.