Translate

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Jackson family seeks second autopsy

By MWC News
Family members of Michael Jackson, the legendary singer, have said they will seek a second autopsy on the late star, Los Angeles County coroner's investigators have said।

Brian Elias, one of the investigators, said Jackson's family had told his office on Friday they wanted a second autopsy carried out.
According to celebrity news website TMZ।com, the new autopsy was already underway at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles coroner's officials said on Friday after an initial autopsy that Jackson's cause of death would not be finalised until the results of toxicology tests were known in several weeks time।

Preliminary findings said there was no evidence of foul play or external physical injury to Jackson, officials said.
Jackson's body was returned to his family on Friday night।

Doctor co-operating
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Conrad Murray, the doctor at Jackson's rented mansion in the Holmby Hills neighbourhood of Los Angeles when he collapsed, said the physician had agreed to answer questions from police detectives

"Dr Murray intends to fully cooperate with investigators and law enforcement as they attempt to piece together what happened," Bill Stradley told the Reuters news agency in an interview.
"Contrary to what has been out there, Dr Murray has been co-operating with authorities from the outset and will continue to do so," Stradley said।

"The impression that he has been hiding from authorities, that's not correct."
Murray was desperately trying to revive Jackson when paramedics arrived and he rode with the singer in an ambulance to the hospital where the pop star was pronounced dead।

Police have said they wanted to further question Murray, a Houston-based cardiologist, about the circumstances of Jackson's death but had not been able to arrange an interview.
Murray's silver Mercedes was towed from the home where Jackson died so that detectives could search it for evidence and medication।

Family questions
The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who has been acting as a spokesman for the singer's parents, told CNN that the family would "without a doubt" order an independent examination of the remains.
"This thing has gone from inquiry to investigation," Jesse Jackson told the CNN news channel.
"Right now there is no peace। We don't know what happened and we need to know. Michael was not sick before [Wednesday] night. He was not frail."

Speculation has centered on Jackson's use of prescription drugs and reports that he was injected with the narcotic painkiller Demerol shortly before he went into cardiac arrest.
Jesse Jackson told ABC News that his family also had questions for Murray.
"When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did he inject him? If so, with what?" he said in an interview with the network।

"Was he on the scene twice? Before and then reaction to? Did he use Demerol? It's a very powerful drug. Was he injected once? Was he injected twice?"
TMZ reported that police were also interested in speaking with another Jackson adviser, Tohme Tohme, about the superstar's use of prescription medication।

Coroner's officials have said that with no outward signs of trauma to Jackson's body or evidence of foul play, they would have to wait for the results of toxicology tests and other studies to establish a cause of death.
Few other details were released about the autopsy's findings, but Fox News reported on its website that investigators had found his body to be healthier and stronger than they had expected with some scarring on the face।

Facing a battered reputation and a mountain of debt that The Wall Street Journal reported ran to $500 million, Jackson spent the last two months of his life rehearsing for a series of London concerts that were seen as a make-or-break comeback for the man who dominated the pop charts in the 1980s

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Gabon: Bye Bye Bongo.And What Next?

By Tazoacha Asonganyi
Most African countries lived under colonial rule for longer than they have been independent। Gabon is one of them; like most French "colonies", it had its independence in 1960
This means that of some 49 years of independence, Bongo (pictured)was on stage as president for 42 years (1967-2009) before his recent demise! How clearly did he see the future of Gabon? How clearly will the person who succeeds him see it?
Political action is always divided into three broad periods that follow one another in harmonic motion, barring the discord they may usually generate। These periods are usually described as "lived experience", "reflection" on lived experience, and "conception of strategies and tactics” for new action that succeeds the old। Such "new" action constitutes the first stage of the next political "period"। Each period may last for various lengths of time।
Countries like the United States of America that lived under colonial rule like us applied this formula well in laying down the ground rules for the functioning of their country following independence। Their first lived experience was governance under colonialism। Their reflection on this lived experience gave birth to the war of independence, and the American Declaration of Independence in 1776। Following these, they lived under a mixed republican constitution for some 10 years। Each state did its best to govern itself, but they all experienced the same difficulty: their own people that gained power after the colonialists were thrown out were showing themselves as capricious as the colonialists that held power before them; like all human beings, they showed self-interest and fell prey to their passions and demagogy।
The lived experience during these first years of independence under their own self-chosen "leaders" therefore led to a new period of reflection that resulted in the realisation that there had to be a radical change in perspective। This led to the replacement of the republican constitution by a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government that ensured that no branch totally represented the true nature of the sovereign people। This is the spirit of the constitution that was produced in Philadelphia in 1787। The adopted constitution is the one which is still in force in the USA today and is the bulwark of the country that "...enjoys a position of unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence..."
The Americans succeeded because their governance allowed continuous reflection on their lived experiences which they used to forge a "common will" among their people that were totally immersed in the lived experiences। They based all political action in their society on the individual citizen, since it is the will of individual citizens that forms the collective will of "the people" for whom society is organised and governed। The forging of the collective will was facilitated by a liberal/democratic culture that made "politics" the hinge that connected the individual citizens to power।
The power relationship in such a society of free, active individuals is symmetrical, since such power emanates from each of the individuals in society। It is therefore important that in creating a democratic society best suited for the promotion of human endeavour and welfare, the ever-present temptation to disrupt this symmetrical source of power by using ordinances, laws, decrees and other instruments to unify differences by eliminating divisions within the politics of society, be avoided। Unfortunately, this is the trap in which Gabon and other African countries were caught!
Unlike the Americans after their independence, Gabon, like many African countries, went ahead and instituted asymmetrical power relations in society। The power of society to forge a common will and to define the structures through which power would be exercised was confiscated; equal opportunity was denied; the power to set the terms of power was monopolized; indeed, one-party rule was instituted in an attempt to overcome opposition between the democratic individual and the community of which he or she is a member। In other words, the public space in which individual members of society were supposed to reflect on what their society was and what they wanted it to be was removed!With the pressure for independence mounted by valiant African nationalists and patriots, the colonialists reflected on their lived experience as colonising forces and came up with new strategies and tactics known today as "neo-colonialism"; power could be handed over in the colonies and controlled from the metropolis! The Leon Mbas, Bongos, Ahidjos and others were recruited to accompany this new colonial strategy by adopting constitutionalism as the formula for "democracy", while ensuring that the constitutions were nothing more than decreed rules and procedures to regulate the affairs of those who were in power, at the detriment of the people; in addition, they instituted one-party rule and signed ordinances to silence the people!
Bongos therefore opted to exercise power that was not derived from an empowered people; they opted for power derived from invisible, neo-colonial forces whose interests were and are at variance with the interests of "the people"। Interestingly, although this "new" set-up was imposed from outside, it was nevertheless not imposed on a unanimously resistant people; it was supported from within enthusiastically by their leaders – the Bongos, Ahidjos and others; and passively by most of the people, with each trying to make the best of this card history had dealt them।
The result? Forty seven years of poverty in the midst of abundance; helplessness in spite of opportunity; indifference in the face of provocation; spectators in a fast changing world! Now, Bongo is gone; what next for Gabon? Will Bongo’s successor pick up his legacy and engage in "continuity" (like Ahidjo’s did), as if nothing is wrong? Will the successor allow the creation of the public space in which Gabonese can freely reflect on their 49-year lived experience, to conceive strategies and tactics for new action in a new Gabon that is truly at the service of "the people"? The future of Gabon, and indeed that of countries like Cameroon depends on answers to such questions।

Friday, June 19, 2009

Cameroonian Gets 10-year Sentence in East China for Fraud

SHANGHAI, June 17 (Xinhua) -- A Cameroon national was sentenced to a 10-year jail term for fraud in Shanghai, local authorities said Wednesday.

The man, Massango Priso Muna, pretended to be an assistant to an official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and fraudulently obtained 1.015 million yuan (149,264 U.S. dollars) from a Chinese woman, according to the No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

The court heard that the victim, surnamed Lin, met a man online in June 2008 who called himself John Lipsky and claimed to be an IMF vice president.

Lin soon fell in love with the man, and the latter proposed marriage.

"Lipsky" told Lin a month later that he planned to invest in China and would send his assistant Samco to meet her. The suspect met Lin at a hotel in Shanghai, giving her a suitcase and telling her that they needed a special chemical to make the money inside useable.

The Cameroonian borrowed 1।015 million yuan from Lin under the pretense of buying this chemical, before leaving China on Aug. 12.Police caught him on Nov. 20 when he returned to China.

Massango Priso Muna was fined 100,000 yuan and will be deported after he is released from jail.
Courtesy:www.chinaview.cn

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cameroon: ASSYOUTH To Activate Youth for Community Development

By Christopher Ambe Shu

A newly registered Cameroonian group, Association of Youth for The Promotion of Peace, Democracy, The Millennium Development Goals and Africa’s Unity (ASSYOUTH) with headquarters in Buea, has publicly vowed “to mobilise and activate youth especially Cameroonian youth, in the promotion of peace and development in African communities”

Song Stephen Mbangtang, (pictured ,on mike ),President of ASSYOUTH, who was accompanied by other officials of the association, told Journalists on June 15, 2009 at a press conference at Alliance-Franco-Cameroounaise, Buea that, unlike many other organisations with similar goals but considered by the public as failures, ASSYOUTH will “greatly and actively get youth and communities involved in their own development”.

The press conference was the first activity of ASSYOUTH which was registered earlier this year, as an advocate and catalyst of meaning ful development and change

ASSYOUTH now plans to organise a big seminar next month (July) to talk to Cameroonian youth on their role in the promotion of Pan-Africanism and regional integration (Africa’s Unity), the role of youth in the promotion of affirmative action, gender equality and women empowerment, their role in the development processes of various communities and their role in Peace and security promotion.

“We at ASSYOUTH are making a clarion call to all youth of various communities in Cameroon and Africa, to come together and serve as vectors of peace and development… and to promote democratic tenets, the millennium Goals and Africa’s Unity. It is only in promoting these values that negative tendencies will be curbed

“We call on every youth to have the fear of God in him/her; for without God in trying times, we are lost. They should know that meaningful development can be achieved only when meaningful dialogue and peace are encouraged and promoted…” said Mr.Mbangtang at the press conference, attended by both journalists of the public and private media

“The youth should understand that, they themselves can carry out various community development projects such as community farms, community road construction, community social and recreational clubs and stores under the supervision and encouragement of their leaders and elite, thus promoting the millennium development Goals.”

He disclosed that ASSYOUTH will in the weeks head begin its project implementation in Great Soppo,Buea in the areas of road construction, community hall and water supply –so to show to the public that “we are different from others in our approach to development ,and that we match words with actions”

The press conference holding at the eve of African Youth Day, which is today (June 16th),according to Mbangtang,was ASSYOUTH’s way of celebrating the African Youth Day-also adopted by African Student Union as African Students’ Day.

Song Stephen Mbangtang, who is also the executive director of Federation of African Youth Leaders-headquartered in Ghana, said Cameroon is endowed with abundant natural resources ,adding that youth could mobilise themselves into groups and make use of such resources for their own empowerment.

Not everybody must be a civil servant (government worker), he warned, noting that youth have the capacity and power to do great things if they are conscious of opportunities.

Although Cameroon is called by some as an Island of Peace, Mr. Mbangtang dismissed it as a farce, noting that peace is not limited to the absence of war. “What we are experiencing in Cameroon is not peace but escapism. There are many Cameroonians with problems but they hide in alcohol, smoking and other addictions, hoping to forget their worries.”

Mr. Mbangtang appealed to the Mass media to double their efforts in informing and creating awareness of empowerment opportunities and programmes for the youth.

Other ASSYOUTH officials who assisted Mr. Mbangtang at the press conference included Nsang Rosette (Secretary-General),Mbah Njong A(Technical Adviser) and Bate Takang(Social Secretary)

Friday, June 12, 2009

Population Decline Of The Developed World :A Lesson For Africa


Chief Albert Samba Ngwana(Pictured),National Chairman of Cardinal Democratic Party(CDP) of Cameroon,Prolific Writer and Author of several books such as Population and Development,The Struggle for Political Pluralism and Democracy in Cameroon ,& Sucessful Marriage,was one of several guest speakers at a pre-conference of The World Congress of Famillies:Dialogue of Civilisations that held in Abuja,Nigeria from June 4th-7th 2009.The conference ,hosted by Foundation For African Cultural Heritage(FACH)-a coalition Human Rights NGO based in Nigeria,was opened by the First Lady of Nigeria.The next World Congress of Families(WCF) and 5th is scheduled to take place in Amsterdam -August 10-12,2009

Chief Ngwana's paper ,which was highly applauded by participants and observers,was titled:POPULATION DECLINE OF THE DEVELOVED WORLD: A LESSON FOR AFRICA .Following is his entire Presentation:



POPULATION DECLINE OF THE DEVELOVED WORLD: A LESSON FOR AFRICA

"The UN Population Division and other bodies projected the World population as of July 2008 to be 6,706,993,152 people and estimate that by May 2009 it will be 6.770 billion people.

These figures are staggering, if we believe the Holy Bible story of creation, that at the beginning God only created two people Adam and Eve. According to the Bible, God blessed them, saying to them, “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it”. It seems man is doing very well to comply with this Divine Command. Man is trying not only to conquer the earth and subdued it, but man has gone out of the earth and landed on the moon. Man is now exploring the planets, the stars and in fact the whole universe, with the object of conquering and subjecting the whole creation.

From available scientific evidence before 10, 000 years ago, man survived mainly by hunting, fishing scavenging and living a migratory type of life. Some pigmies and bushmen in Africa still live like that.

At that time there was no economic development on earth. There were no houses, no roads, no farms, no schools, no business, and no infrastructure of any kind.
Then from about 10,000 years ago, one of the most important events in man’s history took place; man was able to domesticate plants and animals and to live a sedentary life.
This Agricultural Revolution, not merely made possible a phenomenal growth of human population, but set the stage for the events in human history that eventually led to civilization and economic development.
Once humans learned to live in towns and villages, the population grew very rapidly. During this period human population is thought to have increased 16 fold from 8,000 to 4,000 BC. This gave rise to the familiar landscape of village communities, which characterized Europe as late as the middle of the 19th century.
Man wanted many children for economic reasons.
The “big” man or important man or rich man, was the man with many wives and many children who could cultivate large farms and grow rich. These men became chiefs, fons, emires, or Kings with overwhelming importance and power. King Solomon, 970-932 BC, who transformed Israel into an organized, urbanized, rich and prosperous nation of settled people, married seven hundred and fifty wives of royal birth, and three hundred concubines. In this urge to get material influence and power, many people resulted to polygamy and large families. Sexual intercourse was mainly for procreation and pregnancies were no problem at all because children were considered a gift from God. Governments throughout history actively encouraged their population growth. The motivations varied from economic, defense and social security. Consequently they treated abortion, murder, manslaughter, and euthanasia as serious criminal offences, punishable in some cases with the death penalty.

In 1873 the U.S. Congress enacted the “Comstock Law”, which regulated public access to birth control devices, medicine or information, for the next 60 years. It was illegal to distribute any device (condoms), medicine or information designed to prevent conception, this was applicable even to physicians. The most notorious policies introduced to boost birth rates and population growth were deployed by totalitarian regimes of Far-Left and Right.
In Ceausescu’s Romania the Marxist dictator instituted monthly pregnancy tests to see if women were performing their patriotic duty, and provided more generous subsidized housing to larger families. Across the communist block pro-birth policies were applied, including the gearing of child benefit to give progressively more generous payments to larger families.
In Communist Czechoslovakia child benefit kicked in when a mother had two children and those after the second earned progressively more from the State. State childcare and subsidized goods for children were meant to further encouraged reproduction. Fascist regimes, however, went further. Mussolini introduced tax on bachelors above a certain age. (presuming that once single men had graduated to the tax-favored state of marriage they would get down to procreation) In Nazi Germany the pro-birth programme was, as might be expected, ruthless. Information about contraception was suppressed.
Unmarried adults face tax penalties. State Loans were given at weddings, only to be written off when a couple produced children, tax concessions were tapered to favour lager families and housing concessions were shaped to the same end. Totalitarian regimes may have been fanatical in pursuit of higher birth rates and population growth, but democracies have also pursued pronatalist policies. In France in the 1920s, laws were introduced to limit the sale of contraceptives and payments allocated to women who stayed (giving birth) at home.

The size of the population determined economic growth and military strength. Wealth was generated and people grew rich. Governments became interested in knowing their populations and growth. The first Censuses were conducted mainly for tax purposes and military conscription. Babylon is said to have conducted a census as early as 3,800 BC, The Hebrews about 1,000 BC. “Count the people of Isreal and Judah” King David said. But the first census of the “world” was conducted by the Romans, about 8-6 BC, when Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole world. During this census the child Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem.

THE GROWTH OF WORLD POPULATION
The world population has continued to grow rapidly and has occasionally only been checked by diseases, wars and famines, such as the plague of 1348 in Crimea, which swept through Europe in 1348 killing nearly almost one third of Europe’s population, the droughts in Asia, where between 1769 and 1770, 10 million people died in India and the famine between 1877-1878 which killed about 10 million in China. The major wars also slowed world population.
However the upsurge of population growth and density increased pressure on existing resources and ushered in the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in 1780-1880. The Industrial Revolution, introduced the process of transformation.
The Agricultural society, which had existed for thousand of years, was being replaced by the modern urban, industrialized, technocratic society, which spread rapidly as population density increased. People moved from the rural areas into the cities and towns, increasing congestion and necessitating more development and industrialization. Industry made Europe rich and powerful. The Industrial Revolution transformed Europe from a predominantly agrarian society into a predominantly manufacturing world.
During this period the world population expanded rapidly from 900 million to 1,600; Europe alone increased from 190 million to 423 million. This was due to advances in medicine, improved sanitation and high personal hygiene, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in mortality from tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, smallpox, and typhus, increasing life expectancy from 35 years to 70 years.
The world population increased 4 times faster during the 20th century. In 1945 the world population was about 2 billion, but within the last 60 years, the UN has projected the world population as :
5.3 billion in 1990
5.7 billion in 1997
6.2 billion in 2000 and
8 – 10 Billion by 2025
This phenomenal growth of world population was accompanied by immense wealth, economic development, technological progress and the production of surplus food. From 1900 to 2000 world population has almost quadrupled, from 1.6 billion to 6.1 billion, while real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 20 to 40 times, allowing the world not only to sustain the larger population, but to do so at a vastly higher standard of living. Thus the highly industrialized countries of the world have a high population density per square kilometer and a high income per capita.

However the rapid growth of world population, economic development and the generation of immense wealth, was not even. Some continents, especially Europe, grew very fast, while others especially Africa grew very slow. While Europe generated plenty of wealth, made enormous economic and technological progress, Africa staggered behind as a consequence of low and scanty population density which had existed in Africa for centuries.

THE SLOW GROWTH OF THE AFRICAN POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

The slow growth of the population and development of Africa, formerly known as the “Dark continent” was affected by several factors:

ISOLATION. Most of Africa for a long time was isolated from the technological and intellectual progress that was transforming the whole world. Africa South of the Sahara was cut off from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East by the Sahara Desert. It was cut off by the Equatorial Nile. It was cut off by the oceans and it was cut off by the almost impenetrable tropical forest.

TRANSITION. Though Africa is perhaps the cradle of the human race, the transition from hunting and scavenging for food to agriculture, from migratory to a sedentary way of life, which had spread nearly 10,000 year BC, throughout the world, only became wide spread
in Africa from the Christian Era.

DISEASES. Africa was ravaged and is still being ridden by infectious diseases, resulting in deaths from tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria. According to WHO malaria claims about 3 million lives every year. Poor sanitation, low personal hygiene and a chronic shortage of drugs result in premature deaths and reduce life expectancy to 45 years. Almost 2 million children died since the last decade for lack of drugs.
The AIDS epidemic is set to kill millions of Africans in the next decade.
At the moment Africa South of the Sahara has the highest rate about 76% of HIV/AIDS infection in the world. Christianity which had influenced European culture and laws did not come to Africa early enough to influence African traditions, cultures and laws. Consequently polygamy, fornication, and promiscuity were not considered sins or bad, by African laws and customs. The HIV/AIDS is spread mainly by sexual intercourse. Polygamy and the African excessive love for many children, encourage promiscuity, and promiscuity encourages the spread of HIV/AIDS, hence the high rate of HIV/AIDS in Africa South of the Sahara. Therefore to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, Africa must change or modify some of its customs, cultures and traditions. Those African countries which have embraced the Christian teaching on Fidelity in monogamy and abstinence before marriage, have experienced a great reduction in their rate of the HIV/AIDS infections. But those who have relied on Condoms have found to their detriment that the more condoms they import the more the HIV/AIDS infections increase. Scientifically tested, condoms do not stop the HIV/AIDS virus, on the contrary they may increase the HIV/AIDS infections. In fact Durex the biggest manufacturer of condoms said on their website that condoms do not stop the spread of AIDS. Condoms were actually manufactured more than 160 years ago to stop pregnancies and not to stop AIDS which only appeared in 1981.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has provided manufacturers, and promoters of condoms an opportunity to make a vast multi-billion dollar industry and business, together with billions of other contraceptives and pills which they pump into Africa, they have succeeded to stall the growth of the African population. Fertility or pregnancy is not a disease to be cured. Doctors who prescribe contraceptive pills to control fertility are actually pouring poison into healthy females everyday at a great monthly cost to their health. The pill is the only drug that is introduced into a healthy body to make the body malfunction. People marry to have physical and mental enjoyment and satisfaction and ultimately to have children. Contraception distorts the purpose and nature of sex. The HIV/AIDS infection is set to kill about 300 million in the near future.
SLAVERY. At the time the world population was growing fast, Africa lost more than 10 million healthy strong working men to slave traders.
WARS: Colonial wars, civil and tribal wars reduced the African population. Out of 100 wars fought since 1945, 90 have been in the developing countries.

PARTITION OF AFRICA. After The partition of Africa in 1884, the colonial powers took available food and raw materials from the continent to Europe to maintain their expanding populations, industries and economies

FAMINE. As a result of droughts, wars and none mechanization of agriculture, famines have contributed to the slow growth of the African population. Africa has to increase output of food per unit of land. Africa must adopt scientific procedures and programmes to achieve food production efficiency.
Today Europe and America produce far more food per hectar of land than in Africa. In Italy for example, between 7000 to 8000 kilos of rice are produced per hectar , while in Africa only between 400 to 500 kilos are produced per hectar. America requires only 3% of its population to produce all the food it uses and exports, Europe 8%, and Africa 70%. Whereas Europe has 92% of its population engaged in industries, technologies, and financial services, which produce most of the wealth, Africa engages 70% of its population to produce insufficient food to feed itself. Europe has stock piles of food against emergencies, Africa has none. To guarantee a steady growth of the population, Africa must produce enough food and pile stocks against droughts and natural catastrophes. As of 2003, among 25 hungriest countries of the world, all were African except 8.

CORRUPTION: Africa is one of the richest if not the richest continent in the world with vast and immense natural resources and minerals. Africa has vast uncultivated land, and virgin forests loaded with all types of trees for timber and wood, plenty of water and unlimited sunshine and abundant mineral resources such as: huge reserves of diamonds, gold copper, manganese, bauxite, nickel, platinum, cobalt, major deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas, uranium, radium, titanium, germanium, lithium, phosphate, iron ore, chromium, tin, zinc, lead, mica, sulphur, salt, natron, graphite, gypsum etc. In fact Africa is blessed with all the known mineral types in the world. Despite these immense wealth Africa is poor and least developed, because corruption exasperates the situation.

Corrupt African leaders and dictators, the corrupt elite, in collusion and connivance with foreign governments and people, through bribery and corruption deprive Africa of billions of dollars every year impoverishing the continent. These monies are starched away in foreign banks, foreign properties, multinational corporations and in stocks and shares in foreign countries.
According to UN around $148 Billion are stolen from the continent by the political leaders, the business industries, and the elite and civil servants every year with the collusion and connivance of banking industries in Europe and North America. Africa would be a different place if all the stolen monies were returned. Bribery and corruption in Africa could be reduced drastically if western capitalist institutions in Europe, America and Japan control their role in keeping Africa poor.
All these factors have contributed to keep Africa under populated, resulting in the continent remaining undeveloped, under-industrialized, technologically backward and poor. Therefore if Africa must develop quickly the African population must grow faster.
Africa is the second largest continent in the world, with a total area of 30,330,000 sq. km representing 22% of the world’s land area. In 1990, it’s population of 642 million was only 12% of the world’s population. Africa has an average population density of 21 persons per sq. km., which is far less than the world’s average of 35 persons per sq. km.
Africa has the least developed economy in the world, even though Africa has immense natural resources and raw material. Africa can only develop and industrialize quickly if there is a fast growing population. This is what happened to Western Europe during the industrial revolution, there was a population explosion in the 18
th and 19th centuries. This is what is happening to China now. China for the past decade has remained the fastest growing economy in the world.

The industrialized countries of the world are densely populated and are also the richest countries of the world. While the sparsely populated countries of the developing world with immense natural resources, are also the poorest countries of the world. Out of the world’s 50 poorest countries, 34 are African. When you look at the World Bank and UN Population Department figures of 1998/99 you will notice that the 15 countries of the European Union compared to a cross section of 15 African countries reveal that Europe is far densely populated than Africa. Europe has a density of 115 persons per sq. km, while Africa has 25 persons per sq. km. (Europe is 5 times more populated than Africa per sq. km).
Europe is far richer per capita than Africa. Europe income per capita is US $23,660, while Africa income per capita is US $637 (Europe is 37 times richer than Africa per capita)
Other densely populated countries outside Europe also show high income per capita. JAPAN has a density of 335 persons per sq. km and income per capita of US$34,313. SINGAPORE has a density of 6,255 persons per sq. km and income per capita of US$29,610. MONACO has the highest density of 32,894 persons per sq. km. in the world, and has an income per capita of US$24,739.
There is no country in the world with a high population density, which does not also have a high rate of economic development. India has a GDP growth rising by about 6% yearly. In China, for the past decade, the GDP has been growing by 9.2%, the fastest in the world, while Africa has the lowest, about 0.1%. The very large Chinese population of nearly 1.3 billion people is forcing economic development at a speed unheard of before.

As of 2003 no African country was among the 27 richest countries of the world. Also, all but 3 of the 27 poorest countries of the world are Africans.

African governments must do everything to eliminate negative factors to the growth of their populations. Population density is directly linked to economic development and growth, wealth and power.
Development is by people for people. Where there are no people there is no development.
The United Nations Population Division, a professional demographic centre not connected with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects that the world population will never double again. Instead it will peak at about 7.46 billion in the year 2038. After which it begins an increasing steep decline. By the year 2082 it will have declined to six billion and be slightly under 5 billion by the end of the twenty-first century.
The current world total fertility rate or TFR is 2.48 children per woman, not far above replacement. Given even high mortality rates in many parts of the world, the replacement fertility is about 2.2 children per woman.
For all practical purposes, then, the world is at zero population growth, although because of lengthening life spans in many parts of the world, population will continue to expand for several more decades. The global TFR will drop to 1.54 children per woman by the year 2050. If we take the European case as exemplary of the fertility rates of post modern societies, we can expect that fertility rates for the world as a whole will fall to somewhere between 1.1. and 1.8 children per family in the years to come. We will see not zero population growth, but negative population growth, with all the economic and societal problems this implies.
Humanity’s long-term problem will not be too many children, but too few children. Too few children to fill the schools and universities, too few couples buying homes and second cars, too few consumers and producers to drive the economy forward, and too few workers to provide support, through their tax dollars, for the ballooning population of elderly.
The effects of population decline are so serious that all the governments affected are bent on stopping this decline. Many European countries Russia and Japan have begun to enact policies that will encourage family formation and childbearing. But these policies do not seem to be working because the “contraceptive mentality” has taken root in their women. These countries have supported policies which are anti-marriage, anti-family success, anti-life and even anti-God. Things which were prohibited before and punishable under the law have been legalized. Abortion, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, prostitution, and homosexualism have been legalized.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”, but more than 90 countries, signatories to the Universal Declaration of human Rights, have legalized Abortion, the killing of innocent human beings.
Let no one say that aborted children are not human beings because science and religion agree that human life starts at conception. Abortion is the killing of a human being after conception and before birth. Miscarriage ( or spontaneous abortion) is the accidental death of a human being after conception and before birth.

Science and religion agree that human life begins at conception, when the ovum is fertilized by the sperm. After conception, the human being is complete, and only grows. From conception the human being is only called different names as he or she develops. He develops or grows from an embryo, fetus, baby, toddler, infant, boy or girl, man or woman and finally ends up as an old man or an old woman.
In abortion, a human being is deliberately deprived of his/her life. And that is nothing, but murder. Abortion is an attack on life itself.

On January 22, 2003, President Bush declared in a broadcast that the United States “must protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born”.
Abortion is the most despicable, callous, heinous and inhuman method of killing. The child is killed by the very persons who are supposed to protect the innocent, harmless child – their parents and doctors.
Think of the barbaric and brutal method called “partial-birth abortion”, usually performed in an advance state of pregnancy. It allows a partial delivery before the baby is killed, in some cases using a small hammer or cudgel to crush the skull of the baby while still crying. Yes this is inhumanity of man to man, legalized by some 90 governments of the “civilized World”, signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Every Government in any country in the world has the right, freedom, liberty and duty to rule and carter for the good of its citizens as it thinks fit unless it is in a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or other international Conventions to which it is a signatory.

Last month Hilary Clinton the American Secretary of State appeared before the US House of Representatives in sworn testimony said the following.
1. Clinton praised Margaret Sanger, the racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood Federation. She compared Sanger to Thomas Jefferson.
2. Clinton praised the UN Population Fund, the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese one child policy which is responsible for millions of horrible coercive abortions.
3. Clinton said the US would ratify the pro-abortion CEDAW treaty, meaning the last meaningful CEDAW holdout will now fall.

4. THE FULL FORCE OF THE US GOVERNMENT WILL BE USED TO GET GOVERNMENTS TO CHANGE THEIR LAWS ON ABORTION ALL OVER THE WORLD.
This is an insult to governments and countries all over the world. What right has the American government, to use its full force, to subvert, sabotage, and force Sovereign Governments and States all over the world to change their laws on abortion, to amend their Criminal Codes?

The Cameroon Penal Code on abortion is based on our culture, traditions and customs, our love for children, our believe in the sanctity of life, and our love and fear of God.

Last month at a United State (US) House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated that there was a new administration in place with different values, beliefs and global agenda. Fine that is for the American people. The global agenda on abortion is not acceptable to Africa and the developing World.
We need our population for our economic development and growth. Africa is poor and underdevelopment because we are under populated
.
Why on earth will Clinton want to force the Developing Countries to reduce their populations by killing their unborn children? Is Europe and America not satisfied with stopping our population growth by pumping trillions of contraceptives, condoms, pills and other abortifacients to the Developing World? We need our population to grow if we must develop and industrialize and get out of poverty. Europe and America did this in the past, India and China are doing it now. Development is by people for people, where there are no people there is no development.
No body can doubt that Madam Hilary Clinton is among the most radical pro-abortion advocates in the world, but the Obama/Clinton position on abortion violates the Cairo agreement.

In 2008 South Korea had the lowest birth rate in the world after Hong Kong – 1.18, prompting the president of Planned Population Federation of Korea, Choi Seon-jeong pleading with his countrymen and women to have MORE Children. He called upon them to prevent abortion, to promote marriage and to encourage young people to marry and have children:
“Religious groups need to advocate respect for life, abortion prevention and positive values on marriage and parenthood, encouraging the younger generation to form families and have children” Mr. Choi is desperate to combat a “national crisis of super-low fertility”, or Korea will disappear, will extinct.
Seeing the terrible negative effects a declining population has on the economic and social life of countries, it baffles any person of sound mind, why some people and countries would want to stop the populations of the developing world from growing.
The irony is that these very countries and people are doing everything possible to stop their own declining populations.
The human population can only increase through births, and births are best in families, yet the Western world, Japan and America are destroying the marriage institution which is necessary for stable families which are the cells of society, through which a healthy and sound society can be built.
For Africa to maintain the growth of its population and get out of poverty, it must continue to strengthen and encourage its families and resist all negative forces calculated to destroy the family and stop population growth."

Chief A. S. Ngwana
National Chairman,
Cardinal Democratic Party (CDP)
Cameroon.

Poem:The BABY

The Baby
Baby, baby, my baby
Baby, baby, your baby
Baby, baby, our baby
Baby, baby, their baby,
Tender, loving and cheerful
Welcome to this world,
If only you know the world
That you have come to!
A world of trials and tribulations
A world of man’s greed to man
A world of uncertainties
A world of wars and conflicts
A world of the so rich and
the so poor
A world of inequalities
A world of scarce resources
A world of adversities
A world of the haves and
the haves not
A world of diseases and pollution
A world of natural disasters
and calamities
A world of inadequate health facilities
A world of increasing crime wave
A world of water shortages, energy and food crises
Are you going to cope?
Baby, baby, my baby
Baby, baby, your baby
Baby, baby, our baby
Baby, baby, their baby
Tender, loving and cheerful
Welcome to this world
If only you know the world
That you have come to!
Where your sex can mean happiness or unhappiness
Where your sex can mean a successor or a prostitute
Where your sex can make or mar the marriage
Where your sex can mean an investment or a consumer
Where girls are meant for marriage
Where boys are sent to school
Where the sex of a baby means marrying a new wife
Where the sex of a baby is the cause of separation
Where babies are abandoned or dumped in latrines and garbage heaps
Where babies are not breastfed
Where babies are not vaccinated
Where babies are malnourished
Where babies are not given proper care
Where babies depend on artificial feeding
Where baby theft is rampant
Where babysitters are the true mothers of babies
Where mothers become hatcheries
Where only God determines your fate
Are you going to cope?
Baby, baby, my baby
Baby, baby, your baby
Baby, baby, our baby
Baby, baby, their baby
Tender, loving and cheerful
Welcome to this world
If only you know the world
That you have come to!
Whether a baby boy or girl
Whether twins, triplets, quadruplets
Whether an albino or disabled
Whether born in the hospital, at home, on the road, on top of a tree or just anywhere
Whether born to rich or poor parents
Whether born to a couple or a single parent
Whether born during the day or at night
Whether born in the rainy or dry season
Whether born in the village or in town
Whether born in a broken home etc.
Are you going to cope?
By Mofor Samuel

Health and Environmental Protection: Vital Cross-sectorial Issues

By Mofor Samuel
The various ways in which the environment interacts with health in the context of development to say the least have never been analyzed in depth in Cameroon.
The state of the environment and especially the trends that can now be observed, give few grounds for optimism in the years to come.

They should as a matter of fact spur us to intensify our still far from adequate efforts towards the protection of the environment through policies of sustainable development, for on this depend the health and ultimately the survival of living things and above all human beings that we are.
Human health is a vital cross- sectorial issue dependent on the continued availability of environmental resources and on the integrity of the environment. Recently environmental problems have acquired new dimensions.
Everywhere in the world, the environment is changing, as a result of pollution, loss of natural resources- water, land, air, vegetation and even genetic diversity. All around us we see the deleterious effects on health of environmental degradation.
The environmental changes to be faced in the coming decades in Cameroon will require concerted action on the part of the individuals, households, communities, agencies and the powers that be at all levels.

There is no doubt that for sustainable development to be achieved, the protection of the environment hence of health requires a global approach to control these factors-consequences of population growth, rising consumption, the role of the production and disposal of waste and the effects on poverty on the people- each of which must be examined in the light of local situation in any program of development.

This is a very long term objective whose attainment will require far- reaching and sustained changes in policies and practice at all levels. The seeking of advice from specialists on technical questions on the subject matter is an added advantage to policy makers to reach fully informed decisions of a political order. And it is only on this basis that as decision makers and keeping in mind as objective to carry through their mission, that the questions to answer will have a clear answer.

That much of Cameroon is heating up is not a hidden fact, that most the urban and semi urban settlements are experiencing a high degree of pollution is no hidden truth, above all, that we as individuals, households, communities, planners, decision makers and the different ministerial departments have been consciously or unconsciously contributing to this state of affairs is what we have got to write home about.

Today more than ever before, the focus whether at the level of the municipalities or at the level of the Ministries of Environment and Nature Protection, Forest and Fauna is on the tree and the protection of endangered species as far as animals are concerned. Tree planting has become a major activity in some municipalities to the extent that before a marriage or birth certificate is signed, the parties concerned must plant a tree first.
As far as the Ministries of Environment, Nature Protection and Forestry are concerned but the carrying out of tree planting exercise in the country and the control of the felling down of trees for timber logs, poachers are being tracked down and dealers in whole or parts of endangered species are brought to book for trading in endangered species.

It would seem as if much emphasis is being laid on tree planting and less is being heard about pollution- environmental pollution.

For example what is the essence of the owner of an industry or a factory that cannot treat and manage its waste and wastewater- toxic waste of course – taking part in a tree planting exercise whereas toxic waste emanating from his industrial facility does not permit both the tree, that he and many others planted, to grow because of environmental and atmospheric pollution resulting from poor handling and management of industrial waste.
In Cameroon, today, it is very difficult to understand which ministerial department is actually in charge of hygiene and sanitation or better still environmental sanitation. In some urban municipalities, one can read signboards like: “No dumping of refuse” by the Delegation of Urban Affairs, Council Authorities or simply “No urinating here” by Council Authorities. Years back it was the then MINAT, today MINTAD that launched the National Hygiene and Sanitation Campaign that one cannot really tell whether it was environmentally or politically motivated. Today some municipal authorities are in full scale war with some residents of their municipalities. Rather than just the single battle of clearing the major highways of unwanted structures, it has shifted to a series of battles with bulldozers coming in to rescue the light machinery used to clear the major highways as areas which hitherto served as residential areas have seen their residents forcefully evicted thanks to the heavy machinery and armed security operatives. Residents have been accused for illegally occupying state land or living on disaster prone areas or neighbourhoods.
While municipal authorities concentrate on this battlefront, HYSACAM, the Hygiene and Sanitation Company of Cameroon, has the Herculean task of evacuating household waste in some municipalities. Here either, things are not easy with HYSACAM as it appears that they are fighting a lost battle when one takes into consideration the indifference of the population of some communities whose municipal authorities have signed contracts with HYSACAM to help keep their municipalities clean.

Let’s leave MINTAD and the councils for other ministerial departments-Urban Affairs, Women’s Empowerment and Family Protection, Basic and Secondary Education, Higher Education, Public Health and even some government owned residential areas.

The million dollar question to start with is who is supposed to oversee the proper cleaning of communities- MINTAD, Urban Affairs, Public Health, Councils, Residents or HYSACAM? If all of them are involved, where does one start or end? Is there any form of multi-sectorial collaboration among them?
Or every institution is working independently of the other but expecting to arrive at the same result or obtain the same result?
Has the drift from Hygiene and Nature Study and Rural Science to Environmental Education completely wiped out the notion of cleanliness as far as personal and public hygiene are concerned in our primary schools?
Apparently the higher one climbs the academic ladder, the dirtier one becomes. If you doubt this, just pay a visit to some of our secondary schools and universities, particularly students’ residential areas to see things for yourself.
The issue of environmental sanitation has little or nothing to do with their agenda. The presence of Environmental Clubs does not help matters either. It seems as if the more enlightened one becomes as far as young people are concerned, the more they abandon healthy and clean habits for filthy and unclean ones.

What can the Ministries of Secondary and Higher Education say about this? Or do they mean it is the domain of the municipal authorities since they are the real landlords of our different municipalities?
Population it is said plays a very important role in any development activity.
Today in Cameroon, the population of the women folk is such that if one has to consider the quantity of household waste per head, then women are going to produce the greatest quantity giving that their population is more than that of the male folk. For example in those council areas that HYSACAM is found, what is their relationship with the Ministry of Women’s Empowerment and Family Protection (MINPROFF), at the local level as far as the handling and management of household waste is concerned? Or HYSACAM has decided to limit itself to the council authorities since it signed contracts with them?

They should bear in mind that cleanliness or dirtiness does not discriminate as far as the benefits and consequences are concerned. To cut a long story short both the councils and HYSACAM must consider MINPROFF as a vital partner to enable them to achieve their overall goal.
They should use every strategy to get the authorities of MINPROFF in their council areas to actively participate in this venture; they will not believe the result. Women can easily be mobilized through this ministerial department to rally behind the councils and HYSACAM thereby throwing their full weight behind the drive for a clean municipality and environment.
According to a 2002 Time Magazine report worldwide, more than a billion people do not have access to clean drinking water. In Cameroon, between 40and43% of the population does not have access to clean drinking water.
The situation can be attributed to some extent to nitrate rich run off, which comes primarily from fertilizer used for farming. Farmers seem to have no choice but to rely on chemical fertilizers and pesticide to meet society’s demands.
Illnesses which have their origins in environmental factors have a steady increase. Either most inhabitants do not have sewers or sewage flow directly into rivers, streams, lakes and the ocean without being treated.

There are also occasional oil spills in the ocean. For example the term “ecosystem” refers to the complex interaction of all organisms within a natural environment, including living and non-living matter. And so when talking about the overall health of these ecosystems, one must take into consideration the number of forest, freshwater and marine species they support.
The poor handling and management of these ecosystems exposes all and sundry to very negative health consequences. The main recipient of these consequences is the Ministry of Public Health.
One is almost made to believe that the hospitals are there to take care of environment-related illnesses. If not so why is it that a lot of focus and emphasis is laid on curative medicine than preventive and promotional medicine?
Today there is virtually no institution training sanitary inspectors but every year, health institutions keep on churning out medical and paramedical personnel. Most sanitary inspectors are on retirement and the few in active service are overwhelmed by their workload.

Finally the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection has decided to declare war on poaching and illegal logging activity and the Ministry of Public Health resigned to curative medicine with little or no activity in the area of preventive and promotional medicine. The end result is a high degree of pollution and very unclean environment. That is why for instance on “Keep Kribi Clean Day”, residents abandon the cleaning of the town to HYSACAM alone.
Worst still people keep on littering public facilities – beach, roadsides, squares and open spaces because HYSACAM workers will clean them.

Hardly would they carry their household waste to the collection points without hearing the blasting on the horn of the trucks even if the containers are so full and overlapping.
People have so upset the balance of life this that they threaten the very land that supports them. Will mankind ever learn to live in harmony with the environment? Indeed can the environment be saved someday?

Monday, June 8, 2009

Cameroon: When Certificates Are Cooked- Up, Not Earned!

By Christopher Ambe Shu

When a Cameroonian tells you that he holds a Ph.D, Master’s Degree, or any end –of- course certificate in a particular field, you may not be wrong to ask: "Have you actually earned the certificate or degree you boast of?"


Also feel free to follow-up with other serious and challenging questions that would let you know how, when and where he earned the certificate or qualification cited. The questioning is aimed at trying to determine the authenticity of the certificate.

For it now seems that, the cooking-up of academic and or professional certificates is in vogue in Cameroon; all this is to ensure that smart underachievers get underserved job and study opportunities or career promotion at the detriment of those who actually spent time, energy and money undergoing and completing a course or training-in other words, at the expense of the deserving and meritorious ones.


The advent of computer technology has made it much easier for the forgery of these certificates, coupled with the fact that corruption is rife in this central African country.


So, people tend to pay little or no attention to moral and legal values in trying to eke a living.
Despite Cameroon’s abundant natural and human resources, a good percentage of its citizens still live in abject poverty.Cameroon has a population of over 18 million people, with a labour force of 6.716 million (2008 est.), and unemployment rate stands at 30% (2001 est.).Also, literacy rate for the total population is 67.9 %( 2001 est.) . Life expectancy of the total population: 53.69 years (2009 est.)


The Cameroonian population living below the poverty line is 48 %( 2000 est).



Corrupt practices, embezzlement of public funds by holders of public office, unemployment are still prevalent.

Needless to note that, Cameroon recently emerged twice as the most corrupt country in the world, according to Transparency International, a Berlin –based good governance watchdog.

Survival now, it appears, is for the "fittest" like in the jungle, and not for the competent and meritorious.

Thousands of university graduates make ends meet by hawking, farming and petty trading, whereas failures fabricate their qualifications and bribe their ways into government jobs.

Recently, the Cameroon government was the first to raise an alarm when in its effort to recruit ex-temporary workers on contract basis into the public service, the committee in charge realised that hundreds of certificates presented by the applicants were fake, cooked-up in the quarters.

According to Cameroon Tribune, the state-owned daily, "In 2007, some 17, 558 were classified as temporary workers in the public service. Those eligible to be recruited on contract basis were 11,978 while 5,580 were not eligible. After going through the documents of those eligible for recruitment, it was realised that 1,053 have fake certificates while some of them had already abandoned the job".


Just several weeks ago, more than 100 Cameroonian student-gendarmes (military police) were dismissed from the corps when certificate verification confirmed that, they used fake certificates at different levels to get recruited.


These fake certificates are not only used back home but are used abroad.


Of course, there is no doubt that a few can still perform well at higher levels with their bogus certificates, but a majority are mediocres, retarding development and progress wherever they find themselves. A man who has nothing ,cannot give!


In recent past years, the University of Buea, rated both by foreign assessors and the Cameroon government as the pride of Cameroon's universities, raised an alarm about the forgery of its attestations of results.


The alarm was first raised by the pioneer Vice Chancellor of University of Buea, Dr. Dorothy L. Njeuma, in 2004. She discovered the abuse when some institutions abroad wrote to her requesting confirmation of results of supposed graduates seeking admission into higher studies.


Conscious of its growing reputation, Cameroonian con artists, some not even graduates of post-primary schools, forged the university's results attestations to gain admission to foreign universities for post-graduate work and to secure well-paying jobs.
You may ask, "How are these certificates or attestations forged?"


The answer: These forgers replicate genuine transcripts with high Grade Point Averages (GPAs), typing their names on them as owners. Some produce fake transcripts with GPAs as high as 3.8 out of 4. Such transcripts and attestations bear the forged signature of the registrar and the university seal.


Although the Cameroon government has exposed many fake certificate holders in certain services as part of its anti-corruption campaign, it is generally held that, thousands upon thousands more will be uncovered if government takes the this certificate verification exercise very seriously, and considers harsher punishment for culprits, so to deter others.


It is surprising that many known forgers are not in prison even when document forgery is a crime in Cameroon.
In his 2008 New Year Message to Cameroonians, President Paul Biya condemned, in strong terms, inertia which is a major characteristic of Cameroon’s Public Service.



"It is now time for action. Let’s shake off inertia, remove obstacles, set objectives and schedules and keep them", President Biya told Cameroonians in his New Year message.But the inertia is still there as many workers are not happy with low salaries they earn and so don't put in their best.

Critics also greatly blame holders of fake qualifications in the Public Service, but who are still undiscovered, for the mediocre performance of Cameroon’s civil service. For performance is a result of talent and skill,not otherwise.



"There are a lot of people in the Public Service without genuine certificates. It is just natural that such people can not be efficient workers", a disgruntled citizen, told me after learning of the dismissal of more than 100 student-gendarmes for using fake certificates to secure their recruitment.

Isn’t it high time Cameroonians and the government in power gave meritocracy, honesty, moral rectitude, transparency, duty-consciousness and patriotism their rightful places in the development process of this island of peace ,called Cameroon?




NB:First Published on June 8,2009 at http://mwcnews.net/content/view/31109/26/

Prisoners and Their Human Rights Situation

By Mofor Samuel Che
Some nine million people are found in prisons all over the world.
Of this number, about one million of them are found in prisons in Africa.

Call them prisons, rehabilitation , re- education or correction centres, they all serve the same purpose- i.e. a building where people are kept as a punishment for a crime they have committed, or while they are waiting for trial.

How good are our prisons?
Poor sanitation, over crowding, malnutrition, violence, homosexuality, STDs/HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, other infectious diseases, drug abuse and human rights are some of the characteristics of most of our prisons.

There has been a lot of condemnation and outcry on the manner in which our prisons and prisoners are being managed and treated respectively.

The situation in Cameroon ,in particular ,has let fast and easy transmission of diseases, poor feeding, inadequate sleeping space, rioting in the prisons as well as constant massive escapes by both prisoners and convicts amongst others.

Another disturbing factor has got to do with minors and innocent victims who are kept for very long periods without being heard in court.

Sometimes when taken to court, they may be found not guilty of the crime. It could be that some big gun or business tycoon or just any good for nothing idiot or even a prostitute having “connections” with someone upstairs to get innocent individuals locked up in prisons for crimes they never committed.

Some even lost their lives in the process. Even the introduction of the New Procedure Criminal Code is not helping matters as some of the law enforcement officers are still finding it difficult to part company with the old ways, after all, is it not said that old habits die hard?, or the great need for more court houses in the country to ease judicial procedures thereby reducing the current the current pressure on our prisons since suspects will be easily tried and those not found guilty set free so that our prisons can be decongested.

As far as human rights abuse is concerned, one area where human rights abuse is a cause for concern is our prisons. Even though much has been done to improve on the detention conditions of prisoners, a lot much still has to be done.

Ignoring the aspect of human rights as far as the health of our prisons is concerned, is like not talking about them at all.
How do government and other citizens treat prisoners?

Still in relations to human rights, does the government keep track of Cameroonians who are in prisons in other countries, whether they need government’s assistance or not? If yes what can their population be? What types of crimes were they charged of? In which part of the world do we have the greatest number of them? Has the government been giving them any form of assistance? What kind of assistance has the government been giving them?

On the other hand, if not much is being done to see into the plight of this group of Cameroonians, don’t the government think it is high time it begins to take action towards that direction?

Giving that prejudice, xenophobia, discrimination, ignorance and sheer wickedness and jealousy often make some of our compatriots victims of circumstances thereby bringing them in conflict with the laws of their host countries with some of them ending up in prison as prisoners or convicts. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure that every Cameroonian gets a fair trial whenever they appear in court in another country.

Back at home, still concerning human rights, the rights of suspects (prisoners) are openly and flagrantly violated especially when they have to be taken or appear in court. Let’s take the case of Buea. They are paraded on the street hand cuffed from the Central Prison to either the civilian court house or the military tribunal as the case might be.

There is this case in Douala where prisoners were being taken to court in a vehicle that was not in a good state. The result being that the brakes gave way and the truck crashed into an electric pole. Thank God that the worst never happened!

Today the New Bell Prison has a brand new truck which transports prisoners to court to be tried. Must the powers that be wait for things to arrive at this stage before acting? Can the Central Prison in Buea not be given a brand new truck also to serve the same purpose as is the case with the New Bell in Douala?

Can the powers that be repair the damage and ridicule done to those who are not found guilty in court after having paraded them on the streets as criminals?

Does the government knows the harm it causes to such innocent victims as far as shame, humiliation and the battered image created in the minds and on the mind of the general public are concerned? Most of them often develop mental health problems and shy away from the public. Even the general public finds it difficult to accommodate them.

Government should stop paying lip service to the plight of our prisoners and prisons. The society at large must demand, as of right, better and improved conditions for prisons and prisoners from government.

We must neither separate society from prisons and prisoners and prisoners and prisons from the society.

Cameroon's National Integration

And they call it National Integration.
What kind of disease or syndrome is it?


It cuts across all sphere of national life.
Uninspiring, unpatriotic, untrustworthy,


Treacherous and light-fingered leaders
Use it to ruin and steal the country;


And sell the national heritage to
Commercial bidders.


Is it some kind of an unknown fever?,
Disease, syndrome or just eyewash,
Use to conceal the reality from the


Silent majority by the vocal minority?
As a parasitic and horrendous midday horror,


It thrives thanks to the conspiracy and,
Collusion of the different arms of government.


Because of it, the weak in spirit,
Bury their future;
Others mourn for a lost past,
Lament for a disastrous present,
And agonize over an unknown future.


In the face of missed opportunities,
Ignored chances and abandoned vision,
A true tale of misplaced priorities,
Lost hope, unfulfilled expectations,
A chronicle of a nation going astray.


The big question citizens ask is:
Where did we come from?,
Where are we heading to?


The combined team of civil servants,
Administrators, traditional rulers,
Technical advisers and politicians,
Continue to use it to keep the nation,
In complete darkness and total disarray.


Today there is a near utter disregard,
For excellence and a disdain for quality.
Mediocrity is celebrated daily by,


This combined team as:
Panel beaters, fence sitters, praise singers,
Idol worshippers, bootlickers, hand clappers,
Pretenders, post holders, con men,
Hit squads, sycophants, corrupt judges,
Charlatans and the regime’s men etc.
Take a close look at the National


Integration mirror.
If this mirror is honest enough,
Pictures and images of looting,
Pillaging, swindling, siphoning,
Plundering, and pilfering of the
Nation’s coffers as well as,
Lies telling, corruption, tribalism,
State terrorism, vandalism, harassment,
Unlawful detentions and injustice etc,
Will amongst others be reflected on it.


National Integration is like escaping from,
Gendarmerie harassment only to be shot
Death by the discharge from the police gun.
Its victims cut across the national divide:
Professions, religions and cultures etc.


But its most valued targets are:
Jobseekers, file chasers, civil servants,
Travelers, students, contractors, pensioners,
Businessmen, buyam-sellams, hawkers,
Kam no go, settlers, graffi, the 12th province,
Les biafrais, les anglos, frogs, bamenda,
Opposant, les ennemis dans la maison etc.


National Integration understands and,
Speaks only French in some state institutions,
Parastatals, the army and the police.
My sphere of influence cuts across all
Public facilities and even beyond.


The landmark of actions carried out,
With it as the subterfuge can be seen,
And felt through: discrimination, exploitation,
Obstruction, assimilation, annexation, tension,
Injustice, under development, window dressing,
Dress rehearsals, giving a deaf ear and
Turning a blind eye to the reality.


National Integration means the judiciary and,
The legislative surrending their rights and,
Power to the executive.


Citizens of one of the nation forced to
Play second fiddle as assistants and,
Must not have any thing doing
With certain ministerial posts.


National Integration means original
And authentic version of government’s texts,


Appearing in French.
National Integration means Anglophones
Are compelled to learn and speak French,
With the reverse not true when it comes to
The francophones having to learn


And speak English.
With the present horde of pretenders
And swindlers,
National Integration is a devastation
Of the nation,
It is a threat to national unity.


Its consequences on the nation abound,
And cut across all walks of life.


The young, the old, male, female,
The disabled, the handicapped, the clergy,
Jobseekers, civil servants, pensioners,
Business men and the common man are,
Convulsing, choking and suffocating,
Or asphyxiated by National Integration.


Thanks to it others have become
Bedmates with non communicable diseases,
Like: hypertension and diabetes.
Stroke, heart attack, heart failure and,
Multiple organ disease bears its signature.
Anger, frustration, depression and,
Even death and suicide are some of,
The outcome of its handiwork.
The powers that be are non chalant and,
Disinterested in National Integration.
Going by their past actions and activities,
One wonders if the powers that be,
See any significant role of National Integration,
In the transformation of this nation.


Let’s break away from the bondage
Of the past.
Let’s look at the conceptions and misconceptions,
About our country and ourselves.


Let every citizen be willing to change and,
Reinvent themselves.
Let’s collectively and creatively think of
A way to make a way to make the nation,
A country all of us can be proud of.


We, as individual families, must lay
The foundation of: honesty, probity,
Integrity, honour and consideration
For others in every child.


We, the downtrodden, must together, actively
Rebuild our nation and set it on the
Path of righteousness.


We, as a people must ask our leaders,
The right questions, relating to the problems
Of our society, based on our intimacy and,
Identification with the society.


We expect the powers that be to
Stop paying lip service to the existence of
National Integration.


We look forward to a government that
Will see National Integration as an instrument,
For improving every aspect of nationhood.


We demand, as of right, a better and improved
Standards from the powers that be.
National Integration must be made
A public property.


National Integration must be an assemblage
Of bright ideas and solutions to the problems;
That confront the people and not
The other way round.

By Mofor Samuel Che

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Judge Jails Woman Until Baby Is Born

HIV-positive diagnosis spurs extended sentence

By Judy Harrison

BANGOR, Maine — A woman from the African nation of Cameroon could give birth in a federal prison because she is HIV-positive. U.S. District Judge John Woodcock last month sentenced Quinta Layin Tuleh, 28, to 238 days in federal prison for having fake documents. Woodcock said the sentence would ensure that Tuleh’s baby, due Aug. 29, has a good chance of being born free of the AIDS virus.

Both the federal prosecutor and the defense attorney urged the judge to sentence Tuleh to 114 days, or time served, according to a transcript of the sentencing hearing. Woodcock instead ignored the federal sentencing guidelines and calculated her sentence to coincide with her due date.
Federal prosecutors have appealed the sentence to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston. The court has agreed to deal with the case on an expedited schedule and could hear oral arguments in late July.
Woodcock told Tuleh at her sentencing on May 14 in U.S. District Court that he was not imposing the longer prison term to punish her further but to protect her unborn child. He said that the defendant was more likely to receive medical treatment and follow a drug regimen in federal prison than out on her own or in the custody of immigration officials. The judge also said that his decision was based entirely on her HIV status. If Tuleh were pregnant but not infected with the AIDS virus, he would have sentenced her to time served.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union criticized Woodcock’s decision when informed of it by the Bangor Daily News.

“We are enormously sympathetic to the desire to ensure that Ms. Tuleh receives adequate health care, including prenatal care,” Zachary Heiden, legal director for the MCLU, said in an e-mail. “Federal immigration law has developed in truly arbitrary and punitive ways. Here, even a federal judge could not get assurances that Ms. Tuleh would not be deported before the end of her pregnancy. He could not get assurances she would not have her medical care arbitrarily cut off. That is wrong.
“Judges cannot lock a woman up simply because she is sick and pregnant,” he said. “Judges have enormous discretion in imposing sentences, and that is appropriate. But jailing someone is punishment — it is depriving them of liberty. That deprivation has to be justified, and illness or pregnancy is not justification for imprisonment.”

If Tuleh’s child were to be born in this country, he or she would be a U.S. citizen. But an infant most likely would be deported along with his or her mother, Beth Stickney of the Immigration Legal Advocacy Project in Portland, said last week when informed of Tuleh’s case. Stickney said that under law, the child could apply to return to the U.S. when he or she became an adult.
Tuleh arrived in the United States from Cameroon in September, according to court documents. She lived in Maryland until early January, when she moved to Presque Isle to provide child care services for a local family. Less than three weeks after arriving in Presque Isle, Tuleh quit in a dispute with her employer, who was not identified in court documents.

On Jan. 21, Tuleh was arrested at the Presque Isle airport. Counterfeit Social Security and employment documentation cards were found in her luggage. She was charged with possession of false immigration documents.
At her first court appearance, U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk ordered that she be held without bail pending the outcome of her case. Tuleh waived indictment and pleaded guilty Jan. 26.
Tuleh faced up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and mandatory deportation. Under the prevailing federal sentencing guidelines, Tuleh’s recommended sentence was between zero and six months.
In many similar cases, defendants have been sentenced to time served, then turned over to immigration officials for deportation.

At the time of her arrest, Tuleh did not know she was pregnant or that she was HIV-positive, according to her attorney, Matthew Erickson of Brewer. Erickson said last week that Tuleh had a boyfriend in Maryland and had expressed an interest in returning there. She also intended to apply for asylum in the U.S. after she completed her sentence, he said.

Erickson had arranged for her to stay in Portland and receive care at the Frannie Peabody Center, which provides services for HIV-positive residents, while her immigration case proceeded. Woodcock rejected that recommendation, according to court documents, to ensure that Tuleh would receive proper medical care.

In sentencing Tuleh, Woodcock said that the law required he take into account a defendant’s medical condition in fashioning a sentence. Although a defendant’s medical condition most often is used to lower a sentence, the judge found that there was nothing in the federal sentencing guidelines to prevent him from imposing a sentence longer than the guidelines recommended because of Tuleh’s HIV status.
“My obligation is to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant,” he said at Tuleh’s sentencing, “and that public, it seems to me at this point, should likely include that child she’s carrying. I don’t think that the transfer of HIV to an unborn child is a crime technically under the law, but it is as direct and as likely as an ongoing assault.

“If I had — if I were to know conclusively that upon release from imprisonment a defendant was going to assault another person,” Woodcock said, “I would act in a fashion to prevent that, and similar to an assault, causing grievous injury to a wholly innocent person. And so I think I have the obligation to do what I can to protect that person, when that person is born, from permanent and ongoing harm.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Lowell objected to Woodcock’s decision. Lowell said Tuleh’s sentence set a precedent that “could affect the many other sorts of cases that come before this court in which defendants have serious medical conditions.”
“In the end, Bureau of Prisons custody is designed to incarcerate,” Lowell told Woodcock at the sentencing hearing. “Incarceration is mostly designed for the purpose of punishment, deterrence and community protection. The Bureau of Prisons is not well-designed to accomplish necessarily the end of providing medical care to a defendant and her unborn child.”

Information about where Tuleh is serving her sentence was not available Tuesday. The inmate locator on the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ Web site stated that she was “in transit.”
Courtesy www.bangordailynews.com

SEARCH THIS SITE