The Chia Report

Pressmen To Rekindle The Gwellem Flame

Monday, June 03, 2013
By Francis Tim Mbom

CameroonPostline.com -- May 5, 2013, marked, exactly 10 years since the Journalism icon, Arthur Jerome Fultang Gwellem, passed away. He was brutally crushed to death by a reckless motorist, in Yaounde. Late Gwellem had left Limbe early that same day to Yaounde to attend a National Communications Council, NCC, meeting that was billed for the following day.

It was at the backdrop of the transition of this fallen Journalism Great and a line of others like Tataw Obenson, David Achidi Diffang, Wem Mwambo, Vincent Nchami, Thomas Abanda, Liga Sam, Jenkins Mote, S.N. Tita, Martin Yai, Chief Epie and Big Ben, to name but these few, that a coterie of journalists, made up, mostly, of his products and some of his peers who had worked with him, gathered in Limbe on Sunday, May 26, to pay tribute to J. F. Gwellem as he was fondly called. 

"I treat Each Role As Something My Life Depended On": 2013 Cannes Winner

Interview by Eric Kanjo of TipTop Stars

Never has a cameroonian movie been so consistent in harvesting awards like the case with ninah’s dowry. it is easy to accept that the movie is going to be a door opener for cameroon to the international film platform. True, not much has been heard about cameroon so far and even if a few other productions have shown up at major festivals, they have not really created the kind of impact we now know ninah’s dowry has done. Perhaps, it is also thanks to this that some of the people in the production can have their talents/know-how better appreciated by the world. One of them is anurin nwenembom. Anurin plated one of the lead roles in the award-harvesting movie and had his reward. He was recently named best actor by the pan african film festival, cannes in france. but even before cannes, this talented cameroonian artist had had great strides, especially on the drama stage. While training some tanzanian film-ambitious youths in zanzibar recently, tiptopstars’ editor got in touch with anurin. He accepted to have us talk with him and in the following interview, the award-winning actor traced his route into the seventh art, his vision and the cameroonian film industry. Excerpts of the interview with Ernest kanjo!

After 50 Years of the OAU-AU: Time to Strengthen the Conflict Intervention Framework

Julius Agbor and Tatah Mentan 

Published by Brookings.edu / May 22, 2013 4:19pm

2013 marks 50 years since the birth of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which became the African Union (AU) in 2002. This week, as the continent’s leaders and other Africanists meet to commemorate this special occasion, it is also the appropriate time to reflect on some of the principles, successes and shortcomings of the organization. In particular, we would like to consider why the organization has been particularly slow in intervening in situations where the “responsibility to protect” is clearly mandated. The “responsibility to protect” is a United Nations (U.N.) principle endorsed by the AU (in what has come to be known as the “Ezulwini Consensus”) and represents the right to intervene in a member states’ internal affairs in situations where citizens’ welfare has been significantly undermined.

Cameroon shuts down station over secessionist interview

New York, May 13, 2013--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the closure of an independent radio station on April 22 in retaliation for its broadcast of an interview that authorities said incited secessionism.

Local officials in the northwestern city of Bamenda indefinitely shut down the studios of private station Foundation Radio, local journalists and news reports said. The injunction, which was signed by Felix Nguele Nguele, the top official in Bamenda, and originated from the Cameroonian minister of communications, ordered the station to be shut down because of its repeated broadcasts that "incited secessionism," according to CPJ's review of the document.

Jim Crow 2.0 prevails: US blinks in standoff with the World Bank

Story by Phyllis Muhammad

Culled from http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/87109, 2012-04-12 Issue 627

The Jim Crow laws were the laws of our land beginning in the late 1870s and ending in 1964. They institutionalized racial discrimination with a ‘separate but equal’ legal doctrine in the Southern States. In the relatively more liberal North, segregation was de facto. Be it de jure or de facto, the separation of the races was real enough, but their ‘equality’ was a bold lie. African Americans were born in dilapidated hospitals, schooled in rundown buildings, nursed in neglected clinics, and buried in separate cemeteries. They were segregated from cradle to grave into institutionalized inferiority. This was Jim Crow 1.0, America’s sinful social and economic construct of yester century.

Fighting back against Sickle Cell in Cameroon - Will you Join?

By Seth Vignes - Culled from http://www.gofundme.com/SCDinCameroon

Bringing a Novel, Low-Cost Diagnostic Test for Sickle Cell Disease to Bamenda, Cameroon

Each year over 200,000 infants are born with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) on the African continent. A vast majority of them are not properly diagnosed at birth, or during their lifetime, because of the prohibitive cost of laboratory tests required for a definitive diagnosis (e.g. hemoglobin electrophoresis or genetic screening). Within West Africa, 9% of these infants will die before reaching adulthood due to complications arising from their disease (primarily infections) – most of these deaths can be prevented through administration of prophylactic antibiotics, folic acid, fluid therapy and lifestyle adjustments, if SCD is properly diagnosed early in life.

Time to show tough love to Fru Ndi

Boh Herbert on 4/26/13

Sometime in the coming day or two, the Supreme Court will rule on the senatorial (s)elections of last April 14. Whatever the outcome, not much will change. The CPDM will stay firmly in charge. Dictatorship would have won another battle.

 It is no surprise.

Not much was expected to change. At least, not with the die-hard, "come no go" CPDM so firmly committed to sabotaging the will of the people. Not after the SDF crawled into bed with the CPDM. Now we must deal with the by-product of this act of political incest.

 

Fire Fru Ndi Now!

By Innocent Chia
From a modest observation of sports fans the world over, we all seem to think that we know better than the coach, especially a coach on a losing team. This is acutely true of soccer fans in the banana state of La Republique du Cameroun, home of the erstwhile revered Indomitable Lions. To a man, each Cameroonian soccer fan has always known better than the coach and never hesitated to demand that the coach be fired when the squad is floundering and losing game after game, competition after competition.

This passion, unfortunately, has hardly translated into the political arena where the leaders – Paul Biya, Fru Ndi, Bello Bouba, Ndam Njoya et al – have been forever holding unto power with ironic cheering from the same fans that show little tolerance for losing coaches. In this piece, I liken Fru Ndi to a coach who has a record, a scorecard or report card against which he must be judged. My assessment at the end of the day is pretty obvious – Fire the Coach! The SDF has to fire its Founding Chairman in order to find its way back as a winning team or eventually disappear from the political map of relevancy.

'Appoint all 100 Senators Now and Save State Coffers'– Chris Fomunyoh to Biya

Interview by Innocent Chia
Other than the silly rumor of the improbable escape of First Lady Chantal Biya,  allegedly and  uncharacteristically disappearing from the national spotlight for a jiffy last year, little else has in recent times, sparked as much conversation as Biya’s precipitated Senatorial Elections in April. Without any rhyme or rhythm for such a short calendar, the President Decreed an election less than 60 days from his announcement. Whilst most observers are still scratching their heads over this decision, there are those who see no value in the exercise and are making calls for any legitimate opposition to refrain from it.
But there are those who say not-participating is not an option because the Biya regime has never lacked takers (fake "Opposition" that it creates) to fill up seats in the Parliament when the “real” opposition seats out.  The problem for proponents of participating is that the record of achievements for the “real” opposition over the last two decades has been abysmal.  Their greatest failure was strategic foresight because they underestimated the resilience of the CPDM; did not factor the capacity of their own leadership to withstand corruption; and overestimated the tenacity of the general population. In this exclusive interview with The Chia Report, Chris Fomunyoh, Ph.D - Senior Associate for Africa at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) in Washington DC  and Cameroonian -  delves into the why's and why not's of this charade. 

Women as bullets in the Democratic Republic of Congo

By Innocent Chia
There are 48 women that are getting raped within the hour, every hour, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) even as the World celebrates International Women’s Day. Indeed, ‘the Show must go on’, the saying goes in the theatrical world. And the DRC is definitely a War theater where not only are rules not respected, the rule makers - International Community – and its Press have turned a blind eye to what Human Rights organizations across the board rate as the worst humanitarian crisis of our life time.

 
At the beginning of this year I was co-opted by a group of ladies that are scattered across North America.  Their mission is to keep reminding the World that it cannot be OK to watch on as resource-looting soldiers from neighboring Rwanda and Uganda continue using rape on women as weapons of war, in lieu of bullets from the barrel of their guns to kill their targets.

For Peace, for Freedom, for Justice, for Prosperity - Boycott Cameroon's Senatorial Masquarade

By Kenedy Ejacha
A look into the history of the nations where people are enjoying relatively the full benefits of liberty, freedom, and justice, confirms an inescapable consensus: none of them started up by being free. Their freedom is a result of the boldness of a generation to accept the challenges of confronting the conquerable hell of despotism and mental enslavement in the hope of winning the battle for the unstoppable prosperity that liberty, freedom, and justice promises. The resistance movements of these nations were influenced more by the hopes in the great promises of the future that could be theirs following the annihilation of their oppressors, than in the despair of their past or present predicaments. It is past time for the present generation of Cameroonian resistance movements for freedom, liberty, and justice to seize this opportunity and squash the dictatorial system that has held the overwhelming bulk in poverty and enslavement for more than a century now.

Is Cameroon next target for French military offensive?

By Hinsley Njila
A few weeks ago I wrote an article asking questions about the wisdom of the French invasion of Northern Mali on January 11th, 2013. In just over a month since the war began, almost everything we were promised by defense minister Le Drian and President Hollande (both of whom never served in the military) have proved to be wishful at best.  As it turns out, we now have more French forces on the ground than we were initially led to believe would be involved; the African military contingent is largely unprepared for command responsibilities, largely unprofessional,  completely inept or simply allegedly committing war crimes. Even with strength in numbers, Mr. Hollande is still not being honest about how close they are to releasing the 7 French hostages that were captured by Islamists long before the war, or the whereabouts of the intelligence officer they had attempted to rescue.

 

Follow the money ....The French invasion of Mali

Intro by Innocent Chia

For the professed critics of The Chia Report who have been hailing the French invasion of Mali as an altruistic act to save Mali from "extremists Islamists, Touareg and al-Qaeda", the writing is now clear on the wall. The French raided Mali and inserted itself in a purely domestic affair because of French economic interests. President Francois Hollande was in Mali to guarantee French investors that its construction of Nuclear plants and furtherance of the French strategic enerygy independence policy, severely undermined by the implosion of Japanese nuclear plants, was not going to be deterred by anyone, much less a bunch of Africans. Very smart people are making the misleading and factually inaccurate argument that the Uranium deposits are not in Mali, that they are in Niger. The fact of it is that the resources are buried in the border of both Niger and Mali, and all the actors are fighting from all sides to secure it. This war is not about governance. It is about economic interests of the West, not the plight of the people.

Niger is the world's fifth-largest producer of uranium

Read the BBC story...

Calling a dog a bad name to hang it - The War in Mali

By Hinsley Njila – Intro by Innocent Chia
It is not only the secrecy with which the French are fighting the “rebels and AlQaeda” in Mali that is raising eyebrows. The Committee to Protect Journalists is decrying a 21st century war that is being fought “without images and without facts”. Observers are also befuddled by the amount of pledge of €50 million ($67 million) to support a contingent of African-led troops by a visibly beleaguered European Union (EU). Not only is this amount paltry when compared to the cost per day for either wars in Afghanistan or Iraq that the American tax payers are footing, the amount underscores the type of commitment of the International Community and the results aimed at. Another frightening thought is that Nationalists who are not on the coattails of American and European powers will be branded by their opponents in government as AlQaeda cells… As one who has been to the theater of war and actually fought for something much bigger than his life, Hinsley Njila brings unique perspective to the unfolding drama in Mali.

Why are Africans so inept?

By Innocent Chia
It is exceptionally difficult in today’s world to find anyone without knowledge of the building blocks of story writing and journalism: Who does What, Where, When, Why and How? They are often referred to in the industry as 5Ws + H. I have been pondering for quite a while now about the importance of each and every one of these questions, particularly within the context of critical thinking and human development.

As we usher in the year 2013, it is my submission that the Developing World has, for far too long, been focusing on the wrong question. Africans, particularly those 30 years of age and above, are not rushed with shaking-off a troubling “Who” hangover inherited from their parents and grandparents. The most important question I suggest we should be asking is “Why?” Herewith some thoughts...

Suicide of Lourdes student on campus in Bamenda

By Innocent Chia
A week after a 14 year-old student was found dead on campus at Our Lady of Lourdes College in Mankon, Bamenda, many, many questions remain unanswered and the details are still very scanty. What is a known fact is that a literally lifeless body of Veronique Emmanuella Mvogo was discovered by a fellow student behind the school hall during lunch hour. The story allegedly goes that Veronique Mvogo drank parazone - a poisonous laundry bleaching detergent if swallowed - and completed the act by strangling herself with a sweater...

What would prompt a 14 year-old girl to take away her own life, cause untold trauma to her already split family, and bequeath her schoolmates and institution such a scarred memory? Equally very important moving forward, there is a dire need to know how prepared Our Lady of Lourdes is to handle such unforeseen and unfortunate incidents; indeed, how prepared was the school for the last incident? How prepared or equipped are these schools to deal with psychological breakdown? As the world mourns the lives of 20 kids and six adults that were gunned down senselessly in Conneticut, a candle too should be lit for the life of Veronique Emmanuella Mvogo.

Rampant Sexual Abuse in Sasse and …

By Innocent Chia
It was a few days after Valentine’s Day several years ago. My colleague walked into the office a little late. That was not unusual. It was the look on her face that got me concerned and curious. So I asked her what the matter was. “Was your Valentine weekend that bad?” I asked. She told me the husband had actually given her a treat. “It is what I saw when we got back home that has depressed me Innocent”. “And what is that?” I asked, approaching for her to confide. “You remember my nephews?” she asked? I did remember the two boys, one 7 and the other 5 years old. She had brought them along to the office on a couple of occasions. “When we got back home my daughters were watching Television in the living room” she continued. “The boys were not there with them. I rushed to their bedroom. The door was ajar. But they were not there. I heard water running in the bathroom. It was the shower and the door was closed, a red flag for them because I had asked that they always leave it cracked open at all moments. I pushed it open and what I saw…”

Was anyone else sexually molested in Sasse?

By Innocent Chia
“Was anyone else molested at Sasse? I was and never told anyone and have since been living a life of much pain and torment. It started when I was 11 years old. Why would anyone do that to a child? I am sick of the lies. I have been sleeping with prostitutes - male and female and have caused my wife so much pain. No one understands why she has been so upset but I have put her through hell. You just don't know. I hate myself. I hate life. I blame everyone but, the truth is being molested changes your life and you turn into a monster. I have become a professional liar. If you know me, you know it's true. I am a thief, a liar and a cheat.”


These chilling words are by an ex-student of Sasse College in Buea, Cameroon. Long and difficult as the road has been for its author and everyone affected by it, the goal here is hardly to thump at the Catholic Church once again for the silent assassins of the innocence of the boy child. The goal is not to profit from the Church. It was clearly a student on student affair. In reading the rest of this letter, as well as a rejoinder from the wife of the author of the letter, our hope at The Chia Report is for our community to begin having these discussions in earnest.

Plans to slaughter Anglophone Cameroonians!!!?

By Boh Herbert: Time To bring Criminal Charges against PAt & Co

You may not be aware, but many of those who championed the genocide on Rwanda's Radio Mille Collines, on television, in newspapers, in some churches, at village, community and ethnic meetings, used a lot less of the blood-thirsty, criminal, call-to-genocidelanguage that you relish and have made your trademark on this forum. Those who issued those calls for hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass slaughter and crimes against humanity leading ultimately to genocide in Rwanda have, for the most part, faced the music. You will, too, PAT. It is a promise.
In Rwanda, the call was for Tutsis and moderate Hutus to be happy with second class citizenship or to go elsewhere. The PATs of Rwanda asked them to leave voluntarily or risked being sent via the river (dead) to another land/country. Those were not mere threats, as the genocide proved.

The LESA Franchise: On a lighter note

By Innocent chia
Even as the dust settles on the American electoral season, there is little reason to think that it is over for the doctors of spin at Fox News or their nemesis at MSNBC.  It would have been foolhardy of anyone to believe that there would be no reverberations following the dissolution of LESA USA by the school’s Proprietor, Archbishop Cornelius Esua of Bamenda via the no-less emblematic office of Cardinal Tumi. While the discussions rage on in desperate hope or wait of a cathartic moment, here is simple way of seeing beyond the fog and having understanding where verbosity has been used to veil apprehension: McDonald’s is a fast food franchise with franchisees (independent contractors) operating across, the world. Yes? Can you own a McDonald’s Franchise anywhere in the World and call it something else or disassociate it from McDonald’s North America?

“You are dismissed” – LESA USA Dissolved by School Hierarchy

By Innocent Chia  
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck… So long as there is LESA contained in the name of a group in the USA, it cannot raise funds or carry out any public activity on behalf of Our Lady of Lourdes College in Bamenda, Cameroon, until further notice. This is the essence of a November 22, 2012 press release from the office of Cardinal Tumi, citing the Proprietor of the College, following failed attempts at reconciling the belligerent ex-students who are camped into LESA Alumnae and LESA USA, Inc. While complimenting LESA Alumnae for stepping forward in a spirit of collaboration, it calls out the twin sister, LESA USA, Inc. for stalling the “reconciliation process” and “undermin(ing) its procedures”. In what the Chia Report qualifies as Rapid Response Letters to its members, sympathizers and sponsors, LESA USA Inc. has shown no signs of letting down, even amidst news of flock leaving the herd.

Cameroonian-American Wins Best Film at a US Film Festival

Culled from Ftlaulerdalenews.net

Intro by Innocent Chia

Earlier on this year - March 5th, 2012 - The Chia Report did a first in our history: We reached out to you for funds in support of a project that we believed was deserving of your sacrifice.  You did not let us down.  Because of your generosity - readers, contributors and friends - Viyuoh Victor out-raised the projected Kickstarter goal of $7000. By the end of the pledge drive and because of you, $7500 was raised!

Here is where I begin choking: Ninah's Dowry won two prestigious awards for Best Film (not just best foreign film) and Best Actress at the 27th Annual Ft. Laulerlade International Film Festival in Florida! Often times we forget to acknowledge those who help us to achieve our goals, lofty or grand as they may be. But at The Chia Report, it is not lost on Victor or anyone here that it is because of your help and tremendous support of the Founder and Editor-in-Chief at Dunia Magazine, that any of this is possible. We hope to see you all at a screening next to you in the near future!

'No Backpack Day' a hit at one Charlotte school - for Cameroonian kids

by KATIE KILLEN / NBC Charlotte

Posted on November 14, 2012 at 11:15 AM for WCNC.com and updated same day at 1:01 PM

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Students across the Charlotte area left their backpacks at home Wednesday, all for a good cause. 

It's called No Backpack Day and the movement gives students perspective on the life of young people a world away.

"We're doing it to feel the way the kids do in Cameroon when they have to bring their supplies in their hands," said organizer Blythe Elementary School 4th grader Mongai Fankam. 

Fixing what is wrong with what is right with Cameroon

Book Review by Boh Herbert

My Faith:  A Cameroon to be renewed. By Christian Cardinal Tumi, Editions Veritas; 304 pages; $30.

A long time ago, the boy Christian Tumi found himself crying in a dream. The tears were out of fear. In the dream, the young Christian Tumi had accepted the sacrament of matrimony and had come face-to-face with his worst nightmare: he would be passed off for the priesthood. It was only a dream.

Several decades on, the 82-year-old has realized more than he dreamt for… He never married, of course. He was ordained priest in April 1966, consecrated bishop in January 1980 and created cardinal in June 1988. Since November 2010, he is the Archbishop Emeritus of Douala and an author in his spare time.

His latest book (My Faith: A Cameroon to be renewed) depicts the “old Cameroon” (of “garish injustice”; a country where “detention is the rule and liberty the exception”). Like the prophet Ezekiel, the Cardinal uses the book to announce his mission to the people of God in Cameroon. It advocates the “new Cameroon” of Cardinal Tumi’s dreams and faith; a Cameroon where “man is capable of God” and where all, including prisoners are respected, rehabilitated, and no longer have to face the death penalty.

Cardinal Tumi to the rescue

By Innocent Chia
On a US tour to promote the launching of the Douala Catholic University project and his most recent book, retired Douala Diocese Archbishop, Christian Cardinal Tumi has been celebrating mass and communing with thousands of Cameroonians across major US cities. At a post mass dinner in the reception hall of the St. Margaret Mary Parish in Chicago, Cardinal Tumi was characteristically unflattering in his painting of the major problem currently plaguing Cameroon – bad leaders.  But his Eminence also bore tidings for those Cameroonians in the Diaspora that are looking in from the outside and feel strongly that they can make a difference for the better in a country that has been receding rapidly even as some of its hitherto dependent neighbors are now surpassing it in terms of development.

Losing Naomi While Finding a Vital Missing Link to Save Others

Culled from Edweek.org with consent of the writer Marilyn Rhames ***

A friend named Mick sent me an email last week about what happened to his friend Christopher's three-year-old daughter. The child got very sick, but he couldn't take her to the doctor immediately because he didn't have the money.  Where he lives, the doctors require their basic examination fee paid in full up front, and Christopher had less than a dollar to his name. 

By the time he was able to scrape up the money, he hired a taxi to take his daughter to the hospital. But the child was too far gone, and she died within 10 hours. Still, her medical treatment was more than the initial fee, so the hospital would not allow Christopher to leave.  Instead, he had to put his dead little girl on the back seat of a taxi—without a box or special wrapping—and send her home.  He spent one devastating night alone in the hospital until friends came up with enough money to pay the balance.

Thoughts on Isaiah Washington’s “A Man from Another Land”

By Innocent Chia
When I was done reading "A Man from Another Land: How finding my roots changed my Life” by the actor, producer and philanthropist – Isaiah Washington - all I wanted to do was ask him, “How are you doing Isaiah? The emotional response that Isaiah unshackles, in me and others who have read the book, is meticulously woven in the outcomes of a narrative that juxtaposes triumphs and tribulations which are simultaneously personal and communal. This centerpiece of personal, community, racial and continental befuddlement, I submit, is the story of perception of slavery, identity, conflict and human development starring Africans and African Americans.

Why more African Presidents are dying in Europe

Since 2010 Africa has lost ten heads of state, with all dying abroad. Are healthcare services too bad in Africa that leaders are justified in receiving their healthcare abroad? This tantalizing question is the subject of a sizzling conversation brilliantly coordinated on VoxAfrica by Akintayo, host of Hotseat. Invited panelists to the discussion include Dr Jesse Mashate - Journalist / Communications Policy Consultant in the UK - James Schneider is Editor-in-Chief of Think Africa Press and yours truly, Innocent Chia. I will be remiss if I do not acknowledge George Tah Meh, Producer of Hotseat.

Please follow these links for the broadast -  part 1 and 2

http://www.voxafrica.co.uk/hotseat/?v=0_0ba1ncid

http://www.voxafrica.co.uk/hotseat/?v=0_e9282p7t&p=1

 

Rising Musical Teen Sensation strikes Gold – Franchika Abey

Innocent Chia
I only recently shared a childhood secret with a friend: that my dream was to one day become President. Now the world knows and can laugh with me at the improbability of my dream. But I have lived to see another lad dare to dream. With all the love and support that most only dream of getting from their parents, Franchika Abey is a rising musical teen sensation with vocals that have uprooted the Rev. Jesse Jackson from his seat and moved him to tears and admiration.

 

Franchika Abey’s parents are Cameroonian-Americans. Franchika was born in Chicago and many of us Cameroonians are not just feeling blessed that she is our child, we are feeling blessed that we can dream again, albeit through the dreams of our kids.

[Podcast] Seven Olympic athletes take one-way ticket from Cameroon to London

Seven Olympic athletes from Cameroon have been missing for several days. None of them have applied for asylum at this point and they all have valid visas which would allow to legally remain in Britain for six months. There is wide speculation the athletes have no plans to return to Cameroon. Innocent Chia, a former journalist for Cameroon state television and Richard Joseph, a professor of political science who has written about Cameroon, explain what might have driven these athletes from their homeland. [Originally broadcast on WBEZ Chicago]

 

Seven Cameroon athletes go missing

By Tansa Musa | Reuters – (Culled from Yahoo Sports.com)

YAOUNDE (Reuters) - Seven Cameroon athletes have disappeared while in Britain for the London Olympics, the Ministry of Sports and Physical Education said on Monday evening.

The seven - five boxers, a swimmer and a soccer player - are suspected of having left to stay in Europe for economic reasons.

Tit-bits on the arrests of Inoni and Marafa

By Innocent Chia
There is no one out there - amidst all the prolific, compassionate and educated opinion leaders - that has provided evidence that could possibly acquit Inoni or Maraft in any court of Law. The strongest of arguments has highlighted a Wikileaks quote of President Biya stating that “Inoni has not stolen a lot…and that he was a little fish caught up with sharks in a tank” (my paraphrase). In the dog-eat-dog world of Cameroon, one can readily understand why there can be a claim that a woman is a little pregnant, not pregnant. A woman is either pregnant or they are not. Sympathizers are arguing that Inoni is a little pregnant, the perfect script that works in favor of the prosecution.

GREEN wins RIO recipe for sustainable development in Cameroon & ...

A  New Pragmatic Approach to achieving Sustainability in Cameroon and elsewhere in Africa
By Richard Munang (PhD) for www.chiareport.com

On June 20-22 global leaders gathered in Rio de Janeiro for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development to discuss the future of our planet, society and environment. The outcome document entitled The Future We Want(TFWW), represents an important shift in the global approach to development.  At Rio+20, governments and businesses, for the first time, explicitly recognized that natural capital is the core element of sustainable development and identified “green economy in the context of sustainable development and eradication of poverty” as the approach that will strengthen our relationship with ecosystems and move us toward a more sustainable economic development path.
This is an important change in mindset that moves the environment from a marginal issue to a central component of future development strategies, and centralizes the economy and business as key tools to build environmental value. It also marks a shift in the dominant perspective. 

Wanaku’s campaign music to save wasted minds

By Innocent Chia
It was after office hours, with a couple staff rounding off for the day, that I popped in the CD I had just received in the mail earlier that morning. As I rushed for the mouse to reduce the volume that came blasting from the desktop speakers, one of the two ladies that stayed back late couldn’t help herself: “that’s the kind of relaxation music that I want to be listening to on my balcony or by the beach with a drink in hand”. It was useless at this point, I thought to myself, if I reduced the volume on Wanaku’s latest multilingual release, Indigenous People.

Obama’s African Policy: Laying a rock-solid foundation

By Innocent Chia
Beyond the slice and dice of the political left and right in Washington DC, Africans at home and abroad are hardly agreed on the how and why of President Obama’s policy on Africa. Particularly, the ousting and assassination of Libyan strongman, belated Muammar Ghadaffi, splintered not only Africa’s educated elite as did it for the masses. Almost overnight, academics and other opinion leaders who hitherto had either great contempt or, at best, disregard, for the fallen leader became his best advocates - not just because Africans would not say anything evil of the dead. In an election year when every vote is more than critical for the re-election of Obama, it is crucial for voting Africans in the US, and true friends of Africa, to be advocates and supporters of a policy and President with a view towards the future – a future far beyond the short term electoral results secured by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt that  certainly account today, for the inimical chants against US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton.

Cameroon Supreme Court Chief Justice had called for Popular Uprising

By Innocent Chia
As long as the Marafat epistles continue trickling from wherever they are authored, the national and international press, I suspect, will irresistibly share, as should they, the entrails of an administration that has, for over the last 20 years now, been on auto-pilot for self-destruction. 

The conclusion that I part with is that there is an all out war for the hearts and minds of Cameroonians pitting Marafat  versus his old cronies – Issa Tchiroma, Fame Ndongo et al of the Biya dynasty. This appeal for a popular uprising against the ruling junta, I argue, is one that had first been thrust in the public arena by the Chief Justice Dipanda Mouelle following the 1992 Presidential Elections in Cameroon.

Marafa Overdosing the Despotic Regime of Biya to the Grave

Article by Kenedy Ejacha***
(Former Chief of Cabinet of the Vice-President of the National Assembly of Cameroon)
Edited by Innocent Chia

From time immemorial, the history of humanity is populated with instances where warriors have changed camp and become assets in the championing of causes against which they were ready to lay their lives. Remember Saul to Paul? Winning over these converts is as great a weapon as ever existed in the struggle of the establishment of societies as we know today.

Defectors provide adversaries with the information and or tools to successfully corrode the cohesiveness of the collective's power structure. Jacques Fame Ndongo and his cohorts are all too mindful of this legacy, which is reason enough to explain the ratcheting of the assault against the former top CPDM boabab and Secretary General at the Presidency, Marafa Hamidou Yaya, who is now responsible for feeding them a sample of their feces.

When Medical Knowledge comes up short

By Innocent Chia
Several months ago Eric Komfum told his physician “thanks, but no thanks!” after the surgeon told him to check into a hospice. “And what type of care do they provide there?” Eric inquired sarcastically from the MD, feigning ignorance. “Well, they are great at easing your pain and preparing you for death in comfort”, the MD said. Eric Tim Komfum, a Cameroon-American in his mid 40s who was diagnosed with a stage 4 colorectal cancer four years ago, is dangling on a cliff and fighting for life from death. But he is not only going counter-African-culture in breaking the silence about his disease, he has been courageously planning for a thanksgiving party a lifetime away on June 30th, 2012.

(Eric lost the battle very early this morning -June 5th - a day after we published this piece. But his war on health secrecy vs awareness is hopefully only getting started in many hearts and minds. RIP, Eric!)

How much I miss my mother!

It has been 11, going on 12 years since my mother passed away. To paraphrase a famous saying, human nature gravitates most to appreciating what it had when it has lost it. Mother’s day will be celebrated in the United States over this weekend. My siblings and I cannot pick up the phone to dial our mother to deservedly wish her a Happy Mother’s Day! Yes, we are not alone… But who wishes to be in that club? Every day, meantime, there are women in my life – from my terrific wife, my cute daughter, to my  two incredible sisters, my cousins and nieces, aunties, my wonderful mother-in-law, sisters-in-law and female friends - whose over-the-top acts of love, kindness and generosity remind me ever so acutely of why I miss my mother so dearly.

A guide to understanding Cameroonian immigrants in the US

By Hinsley Njila (Edited by Innocent Chia)

Far too often when one listens to Cameroonians argue about their country, you cannot help but be startled by some off-the-wall statistics that gets quoted as fact.  For instance, it is not uncommon for Cameroonians to openly state that there are close to a million Cameroonians in the US. It is also common to hear them matter-of-factly state that Cameroon has an economy based on output from Agricaulture³. At best, both of these statements are grossly misguided, stemming oftentimes from sheer ignorance, other times from patriotic engineering by politicians, and sometimes are exaggerated memories from primary school text books. The basic question today is: what do the numbers tell us about Cameroonians in the US?

Cameroonian-American Filmmaker Shoots compelling film on Spousal Abuse

Intro by Innocent Chia

Far from the stars and glitz of Hollywood, Victor Viyuoh took another step in his journey some four years ago of making fascinating motion pictures by capturing extraordinary drama in the lives of mundane and uncharacteristic characters. The crisp and dynamite pictures reveal the movie maker's familiarity with a rural/pastoral setting that comes instantly to live in celebration of the simple, the beautiful and the majestic. Yet, in this world, in that world where all seems to be simple, all is simply not well. A storm is about to unleash in the village, pulling down on its way the rooftop of Ninah's house...

The problem is Ninah's Dowry needs to raise funds for the project to be completed.  In a recent email, my friend, classmate and film producer, Victor Viyuoh wrote: "The idea is that many people contributing a little bit of money each can result in a huge sum. The bulk of that many people is family and friends....if there is anyway to get the word out to people you know who could pledge that would be excellent.  People can pledge as little as $10. The more people, the better.  Please, help me get the word out.  It's a worthy project.

You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum!

Culled from Mind of Malaka (January 18, 2012) and written by Field Ruwe***

They call the Third World the lazy man’s purview; the sluggishly slothful and languorous prefecture. In this realm people are sleepy, dreamy, torpid, lethargic, and therefore indigent—totally penniless, needy, destitute, poverty-stricken, disfavored, and impoverished. In this demesne, as they call it, there are hardly any discoveries, inventions, and innovations. Africa is the trailblazer. Some still call it “the dark continent” for the light that flickers under the tunnel is not that of hope, but an approaching train. And because countless keep waiting in the way of the train, millions die and many more remain decapitated by the day.

Befitting Funeral or Befitting Life? Celebrating the dead over the living

By Innocent Chia: Courtesy Dunia Magazine - Print Issue 6

At almost every funeral that I can remember attending, there has been at least one person whose eulogy has been a reminder that “we are here to celebrate the life of …” I know I said it at my mother’s passing in December 2000.

But this statement, which evokes fond memories of our loved one, has also not prohibited me from wondering ever so often whether those of us from the developing world, particularly Africa, are not exaggeratedly misplacing priorities by how much is spent and sacrificed for the dead over the living. I am wondering how much we are spending when our loved one is sick and dying on a hospital bed or at home? Is that cost more than or less than the funeral costs?

Continue reading "Befitting Funeral or Befitting Life? Celebrating the dead over the living"

Above the Law: Cameroon’s faceoff with the International Criminal Court.

By Honoré A. NGAM* & edited by Innocent Chia
(honorengam@yahoo.com)

Cameroon has ratified most of the core international human rights treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Cameroon, like much of Africa actively participated in the deliberations and negotiations leading to the creation of the ICC and featured among the first countries to sign the Rome Statute on the International Criminal Court on the 17 July, 1998. Ironically, this early enthusiasm towards the ICC has been blighted by a prolonged reluctance to ratify the ICC statute earning Cameroon the status of an ‘ICC hesitant’ country.

Africa's burgeoning middle class brings hope to a continent

A new financial assertiveness and cultural self-confidence is growing, fuelled by technology

By David Smith in Kinshasa and Johannesburg, Lucy Lamble in Tunis for theguardian - Sunday 25 December 2011 15.05 EST

The Kapayas in Lusaka boast all the hallmarks of a middle-class lifestyle but try to maintain their rural family values. Photograph: Georgina Smith

At the end of another of Kinshasa's potholed roads, lined with shacks and crumbling matchbox houses, comes a sudden clearing. It is a sandy patch of land surrounded by water in which bare-chested boys in dugout canoes paddle among the hyacinths. A giant pump is working day and night, reclaiming land from the sandbanks and river beds, expanding the city in defiance of nature.

The Biya Government: Old wine in New Skin... Women still relegated to sinecure

By Innocent Chia
Following the pre-ballot victory of President Biya at the October 9th elections, the octogenarian, entering his 30th year of autocratic rule in the banana Republique du Cameroun, reshuffled his cabinet. One week after the Ministerial appointments, political pundits and many interested parties are dumbfounded, finding neither rhyme nor reason to the 34th cabinet. The Chia Report takes note of the black ink on white paper and steps further afield, even as three women win the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, to look at Biya’s consistent message to his daughters and women in general – study Women’s affairs and /or culture. It a message in dissonance with what the late first lady, Jeanne Irene Biya stood for as a nurse practitioner.

A second Devaluation of the CFA Francs… Worrisome Prospect

By Hinsley Njila for The Chia Report
Recent persistent and unchallenged rumors about the imminent devaluation of the CFA Franc have left many who do business and/or hold long cash positions in Central and West Africa unsettled about the potential consequences to their interests. In the November 22nd issue of the Frontier Telegraph, Dr. Gary Busch alleges that the agreement to devalue the currency has already been reached by the Africans and the French. Furthermore, he alleges that Alassane Ouattara has been dispatched to make the rounds to all 14 CFA zone member countries to help them prepare for this eventual change. 

Re-tooling for the food crisis in the Horn of Africa

Article culled from Climate and Development Knowledge Network

Can small-scale adaptation actions address the food crisis in the Horn of Africa?

by: CDKN Global | on: 12pm, November 01, 2011

 Yes, small-scale adaptation actions should be widely adopted as a way of addressing recurring food crises in the Horn of Africa, says Dr. Richard Munang of the UN’s Climate Change Adaptation and Development (CC DARE) programme. Large-scale, top down commercial agriculture fails to build the resilience needed in the Horn of Africa to avoid crisis after crisis.

$15.00 transports your corpse from the USA to Cameroon

By Innocent Chia
It costs a minimum $12,000 (6 million CFA frs) to transport a corpse from the United States to Cameroon. The majority of Cameroonians who are neither home owners nor car owners list the death of a loved one in America as their largest single expenditure - other than a trip to the emergency room…. But that may be over now. An association has come to the rescue with a scheme where members spend a maximum of $15.00 and the corpse is taken all the way to the village in Cameroon.

Obiang Nguema's son surrenders Ferrari to U.S

Intro only by Innocent Chia

Article culled from Yahoo! Autos

If anyone had lingering doubts about Obama's inaugural promise to unclinch the fists of dictators across Africa, he served another reminder in a pre-taped interview on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The spate of dictatorships that have crumbled within the last 10 months - Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya - provides more than a sneak-preview of prevailing anxieties in surviving dictatorships - Paul Biya of Cameroon and Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea.

While Cameroon's CPDM has uncharacteristically not celebrated its "People's choice" "victory" from the elections of October 9th, Obiang is beginning to feel some ground shifting from underneath...If the dictator will not crumble on his own, his collaborators do not have the same security in the respective villages and neighborhoods... If the collaborators crumble, the dictator cannot replace them fast enough... The Obama doctrine is that there is no safe haven for dictators, their kids or collaborators...at home in Cameroon or abroad in the US!