Rubbishy news

From time to time I comment on the rubbishy news service provided by Microsoft. This morning, by way of a change, it brought me something of real interest to me, in the form of an illustrated article about a small, two island country called São Tomé and Príncipe, off the coast of West Africa. Very much the sort of thing you used to get in the National Geographic. Perhaps you still do.

The two islands were uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived at the end of the fifteenth century: then became an important staging post for the slave trade to the Americas; then an important producer of coffee and cocoa; now, independent and not doing too badly. Same sort of area and population as our Isle of Wight.

Useful to be reminded that the UK is not the only country with insular (and sometimes complicated) relics of the colonial era dotted around the globe.

Image from what used to be the hospital of a large cocoa plantation.

Reference 1: https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/ravages-of-time-on-an-african-cocoa-plantation/ar-AACbRVa?ocid=spartandhp.

Reference 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/São_Tomé_and_Príncipe.

Reference 3: https://www.alexishuguet.com/. The photographer's site is pending. But he does do Twitter and Facebook for those who do that sort of thing.

Reference 4: http://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/05/piano-11.html. The photograph above reminds me of the pictures of derelict mental hospitals to be found in the book last mentioned here, just a few days ago.