Fresh from the "Is it us or them?" file, Lauren Frayer of AOL is reporting that Teodorin Obiang, the son of one of West Africa's longest-ruling dictators, has commissioned the building of a luxury superyacht for himself worth $380 million — almost three times more than his country spends annually on health and education for its impoverished people, an anti-corruption group said today.
Teodorin Obiang, the 41-year-old son of Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is the agriculture minister in his father's government but spends much of his time in California, with a $35 million mansion in Malibu, a fleet of luxury cars and a private jet. His government salary is $6,799 a month — making him certainly comfortable by U.S. standards but extremely wealthy compared with others in his home country. But even on that salary, it would still take him 4,600 years to pay for the luxury yacht he's ordered.
The yacht, which has yet to be built, would be the world's second-most-expensive boat, behind one that belongs to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. It's supposed to be 387 feet long and house a movie theater, restaurant, bar, swimming pool and $1.3 million security system with floor motion sensors and fingerprint door openers, the anti-corruption group Global Witness said today.
From investigation, it seems that most of Obiang's money comes from corruption, yet the U.S. continues to allow him to live an affluent lifestyle here in America. Did we mention that Obiang's father is the newly elected chairperson of the African Union? Add yet another African country to the list of corrupt governments and dictators bleeding their citizens dry while living ridiculously lavish lifestyles. Watch groups are all over these countries in light of the uprisings in recent months in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, mainly as a result of anger over corruption and youth joblessness.
We're not ones to cast stones — America has its own version of this phenomenon and recently witnessed such outrageousness with CEO and executive salaries during the bailout. We won't mention how the pastors of some mega-churches live relative to their church members. This culture of excess and greed must end. When you have people living in extreme poverty, how could you even think of purchasing a yacht that is almost three times more than your country spends annually on health and education for its impoverished people? That's right, because you go unchecked and don't care what it looks like. The question is, will there now be repercussions for the obvious corruption?
Read more at AOL News.
In other news: Libya: Clinton Gets Tough on Qaddafi.