Latest news with #CarpeDiem


The Star
16-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
Angola ready to boost tourism; welcomes international travellers
When Feliesiano Muteca started surfing a decade ago, he had the waves at Cabo Ledo on Angola's long Atlantic coastline pretty much to himself. Now, the unspoilt and sandy beach about 125km south of the capital Luanda has become a prized destination for international surfers, with a reputation as a hidden gem. The Portuguese-speaking southern African nation is still scarred by a long post-independence civil war that stalled its development, although parts of Luanda flash with oil money. Wary of its dependence on oil and already burned by the market's volatility, Angola is embarking on a drive to lure back foreign tourists by easing access for travellers and boosting its attractions. These include Cabo Ledo, where Muteca is a qualified surfing instructor with the sport's accredited body. 'There are two of us, and we give surf lessons,' said Muteca, who started out when he was about 10 years old by borrowing boards from other surfers. 'Otherwise, we're there to help out on the beach,' he said, pointing to thatched cabanas being assembled on the sand. Further along, a small lodge has set up a beachside bar and cafe, with cabins on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic. It is filled with a group of Germans enjoying the shade between waves. The same company, Carpe Diem, has a larger resort just up the coast. Nearby tourist sites like the dramatic seaside Miradouro da Lua cliffs once had little more than a dusty road to a lookout point. Now there's a smoothie hut and a cocktail bar, with a branded wooden frame showing the best angles for photos and selfies. After five decades of war that ended in 2002, the vast country had a Stalinist government suspicious of the outside world. Oil fuelled a post-war boom but an oil crash sent the kwanza currency tumbling. In 2014, it traded at around 100 kwanza to the US dollar. It is now trading around 900 kwanza to one dollar. The oil boom days sent tourism to a high of nearly US$1.6bil (RM6.75bil) in 2014, with the yacht crowd filling Luanda Bay and splashing huge sums on lavish beach parties. That plunged to just US$14.8mil (RM62.5mil) last year, according to the National Bank. It led the government to adopt a new tourism strategy. Since last year, dozens of countries have visa-free entry. An airport where soldiers once patrolled with AK-47s is now staffed with smiling young travel ambassadors wearing denim overalls with bibs that read: 'Can I help you?'. The yacht club remains busy but Luanda has also become a stop for cruise liners. Local tour companies are opening to guide visitors through the less developed interior. And high-end international companies are adding Angola to their itineraries. Luanda-born writer Claudio Silva in June co-hosted a week-long journey for foodies, travelling with a top Angolan chef to visit new wineries and explore pre-colonial cuisine and heritage farming. 'Deep-dive gastronomic tours like the one we're doing with Roads & Kingdoms are an opportunity for us to tell our own stories, through food and culture, in urban and rural settings, where our journey is guided by the experiences of the people who live here,' he said. The city of Luanda is now a top stop for many international cruiseliners. South African luxury train operator Rovos Rail has also added the Angolan port city of Lobito to its routes, creating overland treks that can run across the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Those journeys pass through inland areas largely unseen by outsiders for decades. That means accommodation can be basic or require camping. The once-rich wildlife population was decimated by the years of war but government-sponsored repopulation efforts are under way, said Pedro Monterroso of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group. Local rangers and communities are also being trained to become involved in the safari sector, said Monterroso, whose organisation has been hired by Angola to run Iona National Park along the Namibian border in the ancient Namib desert. 'The vision is they want to be Namibia or Botswana in 10 or 15 years,' Monterroso said, referring to Angola's neighbours that draw tens of thousands of foreign tourists every year to their unspoiled natural riches. – AFP

IOL News
14-07-2025
- Health
- IOL News
Urgent action needed to address South Africa's ICU bed crisis
University of Pretoria professors Flavia Senkubuge and Fathima Paruk during a recent ceremony at UP, during which Faruk made an urgent call to address the shortages of ICU beds in public hospitals. Image: Supplied South Africa is facing a severe shortage of intensive-care unit (ICU) beds in the public health sector, with five ICU beds per 100,000 people at best available. At the same time, in certain provinces, the figure is closer to one bed per 100,000 people. This is according to Professor Fathima Paruk, head of the Department of Critical Care Services and Emergency Medicine at the University of Pretoria's (UP) Faculty of Health Sciences. She highlighted these alarming statistics during her inaugural address, titled 'Carpe Diem: Achieving efficient and fair allocation of critical care across South Africa'. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ Ad loading She said the shortage of ICU beds in the country is a complex challenge. 'Hospitals are going to need more and more ICU beds because patients are living longer. ICU can save lives, and when patients live longer, they have more co-morbidities, so they end up getting sick more often.' Advances in medicine and a shift to outpatient and home-based care have reduced the need for long hospital stays. Paradoxically, these dynamics have increased the demand for high-level, short-term critical care, Paruk explained. 'In the private sector, you can literally create an ICU bed. In the public sector, you have X number of beds and that's it.' Geographic disparities, she explained, further complicate access. 'If you're in Cape Town, you're much better off than in Limpopo.' But, Paruk said, the limited number of beds is just one part of the problem, as one cannot run an ICU bed without nurses and doctors who are trained in critical care. 'We are extremely short on them in both the public and private sectors. Across the country, only 25% of our ICU nurses are trained in critical care.' During her address, Paruk also touched on the changes that Covid-19 had brought about, and said that while it caused a huge disruption in the healthcare sector and beyond, it also brought a lot of good, including opportunities. She explained how she employed telemedicine support for Steve Biko Academic Hospital and UP during the pandemic. She described how a robot, Stevie, enabled collaboration between UP's Department of Critical Care Services and Emergency Medicine and the telemedicine hub at Charité University in Berlin, Germany. Paruk pointed out that telemedicine can play a significant role in addressing gaps in critical care in South Africa and is one of the most promising solutions for extending access to critical care in the public and private sectors. 'With telemedicine, you can help stabilise patients, and you can even help with a procedure. We can ultimately enhance the level of care to our community.' Looking ahead, Paruk is part of the steering committee for a new national ICU audit, led by the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa. 'The last audit was conducted about 15 years ago, and a great deal has changed since then. There was a lot of generosity during Covid-19, equipment was given, beds were created, and people were trained. We want to see how this has changed things for patients.' The audit will collect data from all public and private hospitals regarding available resources, including information about the number of ICU beds, staffing levels, and equipment. The goal is to inform future planning, particularly as the country moves toward implementing the National Health Insurance, and to lay the foundation for a live dashboard that can help monitor and manage ICU capacity in real time.

The Star
09-07-2025
- Business
- The Star
Angola opens up to tourists in a pivot from oil
AFP | Published 4 hours ago When Feliesiano Muteca started surfing a decade ago, he had the waves at Cabo Ledo on Angola's long Atlantic coastline pretty much to himself. Now, the unspoilt and sandy beach about 125 kilometres south of the capital Luanda has become a prized destination for international surfers, with a reputation as a hidden gem. The Portuguese-speaking southern African nation is still scarred by a long post-independence civil war that stalled its development, although parts of Luanda flash with oil money. Wary of its dependence on oil and already burned by the market's volatility, Angola is embarking on a drive to lure back foreign tourists by easing access for travellers and boosting its attractions. These include Cabo Ledo, where Muteca is a qualified surfing instructor with the sport's accredited body. "There are two of us, and we give surf lessons," said Muteca, who started out when he was about 10 years old by borrowing boards from other surfers. "Otherwise, we're there to help out on the beach," he said, pointing to thatched cabanas being assembled on the sand. Further along, a small lodge has set up a beachside bar and cafe, with cabins on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic. It is filled with a group of Germans enjoying the shade between waves. The same company, Carpe Diem, has a larger resort just up the coast. Nearby tourist sites like the dramatic seaside Miradouro da Lua cliffs once had little more than a dusty road to a lookout point. Now there's a smoothie hut and a cocktail bar, with a branded wooden frame showing the best angles for photos and selfies. After five decades of war that ended in 2002, the vast country had a Stalinist government suspicious of the outside world. Oil fuelled a post-war boom but an oil crash sent the kwanza currency tumbling. In 2014, it traded at around 100 to the US dollar. It is now trading around 900 to one dollar. The oil boom days sent tourism to a high of nearly $1.6 billion in 2014, with the yacht crowd filling Luanda Bay and splashing huge sums on lavish beach parties. That plunged to just $14.8 million last year, according to the National Bank. It led the government to adopt a new tourism strategy. Since last year, dozens of countries have visa-free entry. An airport where soldiers once patrolled with AK-47s is now staffed with smiling young travel ambassadors wearing denim overalls with bibs that read: "Can I help you?". The yacht club remains busy but Luanda has also become a stop for cruise liners. Local tour companies are opening to guide visitors through the less developed interior. And high-end international companies are adding Angola to their itineraries. Luanda-born writer Claudio Silva in June co-hosted a week-long journey for foodies, travelling with a top Angolan chef to visit new wineries and explore pre-colonial cuisine and heritage farming. "Deep-dive gastronomic tours like the one we're doing with Roads and Kingdoms are an opportunity for us to tell our own stories, through food and culture, in urban and rural settings, where our journey is guided by the experiences of the people who live here," he said. South African luxury train operator Rovos Rail has also added the Angolan port city of Lobito to its routes, creating overland treks that can run across the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Those journeys pass through inland areas largely unseen by outsiders for decades. That means accommodation can be basic or require camping. The once-rich wildlife population was decimated by the years of war but government-sponsored repopulation efforts are under way, said Pedro Monterroso of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group. Local rangers and communities are also being trained to become involved in the safari sector, said Monterroso, whose organisation has been hired by Angola to run Iona National Park along the Namibian border in the ancient Namib desert. "The vision is they want to be Namibia or Botswana in 10 or 15 years," Monterroso said, referring to Angola's neighbours that draw tens of thousands of foreign tourists every year to their unspoiled natural riches. | AFP

IOL News
09-07-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Angola opens up to tourists in a pivot from oil
The beaches at Cabo Ledo are a surfers paradise. Image: Supplied When Feliesiano Muteca started surfing a decade ago, he had the waves at Cabo Ledo on Angola's long Atlantic coastline pretty much to himself. Now, the unspoilt and sandy beach about 125 kilometres south of the capital Luanda has become a prized destination for international surfers, with a reputation as a hidden gem. The Portuguese-speaking southern African nation is still scarred by a long post-independence civil war that stalled its development, although parts of Luanda flash with oil money. Wary of its dependence on oil and already burned by the market's volatility, Angola is embarking on a drive to lure back foreign tourists by easing access for travellers and boosting its attractions. These include Cabo Ledo, where Muteca is a qualified surfing instructor with the sport's accredited body. "There are two of us, and we give surf lessons," said Muteca, who started out when he was about 10 years old by borrowing boards from other surfers. "Otherwise, we're there to help out on the beach," he said, pointing to thatched cabanas being assembled on the sand. The yacht basin at Luanda is the heart of the tourism drive in Angola. Image: Supplied Further along, a small lodge has set up a beachside bar and cafe, with cabins on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic. It is filled with a group of Germans enjoying the shade between waves. The same company, Carpe Diem, has a larger resort just up the coast. Nearby tourist sites like the dramatic seaside Miradouro da Lua cliffs once had little more than a dusty road to a lookout point. Now there's a smoothie hut and a cocktail bar, with a branded wooden frame showing the best angles for photos and selfies. After five decades of war that ended in 2002, the vast country had a Stalinist government suspicious of the outside world. Oil fuelled a post-war boom but an oil crash sent the kwanza currency tumbling. In 2014, it traded at around 100 to the US dollar. It is now trading around 900 to one dollar. The oil boom days sent tourism to a high of nearly $1.6 billion in 2014, with the yacht crowd filling Luanda Bay and splashing huge sums on lavish beach parties. That plunged to just $14.8 million last year, according to the National Bank. It led the government to adopt a new tourism strategy. Since last year, dozens of countries have visa-free entry. An airport where soldiers once patrolled with AK-47s is now staffed with smiling young travel ambassadors wearing denim overalls with bibs that read: "Can I help you?". The yacht club remains busy but Luanda has also become a stop for cruise liners. Local tour companies are opening to guide visitors through the less developed interior. And high-end international companies are adding Angola to their itineraries. Luanda-born writer Claudio Silva in June co-hosted a week-long journey for foodies, travelling with a top Angolan chef to visit new wineries and explore pre-colonial cuisine and heritage farming. "Deep-dive gastronomic tours like the one we're doing with Roads and Kingdoms are an opportunity for us to tell our own stories, through food and culture, in urban and rural settings, where our journey is guided by the experiences of the people who live here," he said. South Africa's Rovos Rail has added its copper route from the Angolan port city of Lobito to the Victoria Falls. Image: Supplied South African luxury train operator Rovos Rail has also added the Angolan port city of Lobito to its routes, creating overland treks that can run across the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Those journeys pass through inland areas largely unseen by outsiders for decades. That means accommodation can be basic or require camping. The once-rich wildlife population was decimated by the years of war but government-sponsored repopulation efforts are under way, said Pedro Monterroso of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group. Local rangers and communities are also being trained to become involved in the safari sector, said Monterroso, whose organisation has been hired by Angola to run Iona National Park along the Namibian border in the ancient Namib desert. "The vision is they want to be Namibia or Botswana in 10 or 15 years," Monterroso said, referring to Angola's neighbours that draw tens of thousands of foreign tourists every year to their unspoiled natural riches. | AFP


Khaleej Times
04-07-2025
- Khaleej Times
Travel to Angola this summer for sun, sand, and surf
When Feliesiano Muteca started surfing a decade ago, he had the waves at Cabo Ledo on Angola's long Atlantic coastline pretty much to himself. Now, the unspoilt and sandy beach about 125 kilometres (75 miles) south of the capital, Luanda, has become a prized destination for international surfers, with a reputation as a hidden gem. The Portuguese-speaking southern African nation is still scarred by a long post-independence civil war that stalled its development, although parts of Luanda flash with oil money. Wary of its dependence on oil and already burned by the market's volatility, Angola is embarking on a drive to lure back foreign tourists by easing access for travellers and boosting its attractions. These include Cabo Ledo, where Muteca is a qualified surfing instructor with the sport's accredited body. 'There are two of us, and we give surf lessons,' said Muteca, who started out when he was about 10 by borrowing boards from other surfers. 'Otherwise, we're there to help out on the beach,' he said, pointing to thatched cabanas being assembled on the sand. Further along, a small lodge has set up a beachside bar and cafe, with cabins on the hillside overlooking the Atlantic. It is filled with a group of Germans enjoying the shade between waves. The same company, Carpe Diem, has a larger resort just up the coast. Nearby, tourist sites like the dramatic seaside Miradouro da Lua cliffs once had little more than a dusty road to a lookout point. Now there's a smoothie hut and a cocktail bar, with a branded wooden frame showing the best angles for photos and selfies. After five decades of war that ended in 2002, the vast country had a Stalinist government suspicious of the outside world. Oil fuelled a post-war boom, but an oil crash sent the kwanza currency tumbling. In 2014, it traded at around 100 to the US dollar. It is now trading around 900 to one dollar. The oil boom days sent tourism to a high of nearly $1.6 billion (Dh5.8 billion) in 2014, with the yacht crowd filling Luanda Bay and splashing huge sums on lavish beach parties. New plans That plunged to just $14.8 million (Dh54 million) last year, according to the National Bank. It led the government to adopt a new tourism strategy. Since last year, dozens of countries have visa-free entry. An airport where soldiers once patrolled with AK-47s is now staffed with smiling young travel ambassadors wearing denim overalls with bibs that read: 'Can I help you?' The yacht club remains busy, but Luanda has also become a stop for cruise liners. Local tour companies are opening to guide visitors through the less developed interior. And high-end international companies are adding Angola to their itineraries. Luanda-born writer Claudio Silva in June co-hosted a week-long journey for foodies, travelling with a top Angolan chef to visit new wineries and explore pre-colonial cuisine and heritage farming. 'Deep-dive gastronomic tours like the one we're doing with Roads and Kingdoms are an opportunity for us to tell our own stories, through food and culture, in urban and rural settings, where our journey is guided by the experiences of the people who live here,' he said. South African luxury train operator Rovos Rail has also added the Angolan port city of Lobito to its routes, creating overland treks that can run across the continent from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic. Those journeys pass through inland areas largely unseen by outsiders for decades. That means accommodation can be basic. The once-rich wildlife population was decimated by the years of war but government-sponsored re-population efforts are under way, said Pedro Monterroso of African Parks, a non-profit conservation group. Local rangers and communities are also being trained to become involved in the safari sector, said Monterroso, whose organisation has been hired by Angola to run Iona National Park along the Namibian border in the ancient Namib desert. 'The vision is they want to be Namibia or Botswana in 10 or 15 years,' Monterroso said, referring to Angola's neighbours that draw tens of thousands of foreign tourists every year to their unspoiled natural riches.