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The Africa Forum symposium on Cameroon: new wine in old skins?

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In characteristic “African Union” fashion, the African Symposium treats their business with such woeful lack of conviction that once again, pan-Africanists can only look away in disgust. In fact, the Swiss have done a better job observing the potent actors and factors driving the colonizing war waged by Biya on Ambazonia. Examples from Africa’s history, South Sudan and Eritrea, are lessons these Africa Forum peace makers ignore. It is of little wonder therefore, that Ambazonians do not afford second thoughts to the much hyped initiative.  A gathering of African presidents without Cameroon's Biya, of course If you offer a loaf of bread to a toddler crying of thirst, it will shake its head to the risk of severance off its neck. Why, because even a 2 year old knows, a misdiagnosis leads to a wrong solution. John Minang made this folk rhetoric question popular: “How you go do get malaria, di take na treatment for highblood?” In English, how can you be taking treatment for...

What If We Detonated All Nuclear Bombs at Once?

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Of African Religion and Foreign Religions In response to African quarrels about Notre Dame fires Hi to all. Anybody who has not read and understood "The Country of the Blind" by HG Wells or/and "The Machine Stops" by EM Forster will keep missing the point in social and political debates, thinking inside a box, operating by group think, and fearing "thought crime" (the fear of thinking outside a very narrow perspective imposed by formal education in school). In The Country of the Blind, we have a people who cannot see and believe sight does not exist. They thus remove the eyes of an immigrant who settled among them, thinking he was mad to talk of blue skies and colourful rainbows and flowers.  In The Machine Stops, we have a human colony forced to escape a nuclear backlash and live underground... where a machine has been made to provide oxygen. The machine becomes deified and it is forbidden to criticize or examine it. Despite the evidence of ...

Corporate Social Investments: A Gold Mine for Councils?

Corporate social investments are the concrete result of the principle of corporate social responsibility which has become a catch phrase for companies of recent, both national and multinational. From telecommunication companies through the petroleum sector, banks and micro- financial institutions, to food processing companies, no one is left out. What is corporate social responsibility and who does what in this guise? How do or can councils benefit from corporate social responsibility? In the following paper, we attempt an answer. An information technology centre here, book donations there, a well to a community here, bridges built in a neighbourhood there, community assembly, worship and sports grounds, all bearing the conspicuous stamp of a given corporation and done with the most intense publicity, and these to the greatest satisfaction of a mayor here or there, since these corporations’ social investments fall in line with the council’s mission. According to some authors, corpor...

Why Cameroon Needs a System Change

People come and go, and the system remains! I normally should not mind other people's business, however, we are forced to share labensraum and I have no choice, being like the proverbial real mother of Solomon's judgement, I must pray that if our child be stolen, it should at least be well cared for by the thief. Iya Mohammed is securely locked away beneath the rusted iron gates of Kondengui. Samuel Etoo alias l'enfant terrible is thousands of light years away from the food  house. Iya has been replaced by Tombi who promised heaven and earth. Adoum has been replaced by an old bowing champion and professional sycophant (a cow has no problem bowing to a greater cow). Blaise Moussa of high pedigree, trained in European and modern management, with stubborn Tombi are now in charge. But we still see the same old results. Jesus's ancient wisdom still withstands modern scientific examination: no new wine in old skins. The skin is the problem. The software, the algorithms, ...

Pandemonium of Petit Nègres

That our countries fare so badly since independence is not worse!  Worse is this dangerous path down which we so gleefully tread  By a pandemonium of petit nègres, emboldened by massive neutrality, lead  Since the 90s, the desert preachers decry,  Yet the pogrom of Yaounde just increase their appetite  With each raise in the preacher's voice, Whilst the lotus eaters look on, or eat the lotuses of choral music and feigned miracles, Or the lotuses of immoral lyrics and bacchus's nectar, Or bury their head in the sand and look on, Or sit on the fence of academia and look on. But nurses and doctors save lives, Teachers, preachers and lawyers save souls, All hail to these unsong heroes. And shame to the fence-sitters,  And those who wear a mask to criticise, Accomplices cannot tell the wrongdoer their wrong to his face, If you cannot risk your sinecure and vested interests to better the lot of all Then be ready to partake in your master's fall. And courage t...