The Chia Report

SOS - Rev. Sister Kah Mufut is in danger of losing her life

By Lambert Mbom

What started off as a simple pain in the arm of Rev Sr Kah Mufut morphed into cancer of the lungs diagnosed at an advanced stage. It has affected her brain and her spine among others. She has had radiation and then decided to pursue alternative therapy. Sr. Kah is a religious nun with the order of the sisters of St Therese of the child Jesus whose motherhouse is in Kumba town. By virtue of their consecrated life, they profess and live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They live in communities and do not own personal property. 

Unlike Franciscan Sisters in Shisong who have international affiliations just as do the Holy Rosary Sisters, the Sisters of St Therese are only in Cameroon.

Solution-ing Cameroon’s rising car fatalities.

By Hinsley Njila – for www.chiareport.com

When Innocent Chia learned of a recent tragic car accident that took the lives of some 15 traders along the Tiko-Douala road, he called and asked me to write an article proposing solutions on that which needs to be done cost-effectively and locally to address this public health epidemic. He understood that it’s been some 20 years since my father – my hero - met his own untimely death along the same route. But I think most importantly Innocent trusts that my expertise in public health and finance will allow my proposal to be grounded in fact and logical reasoning.

Book Review – The must read “HURT”, by Joe Fotso

By Innocent Chia
Since I finished reading “Hurt”, an unvarnished 300 page autobiographical novel by first time writer, Joe Fotso, a mix of emotions have inhabited me. Even before I was done reading the book, I made an impassioned plea for a friend of mine to buy and read the book. My friend went ahead to purchase a soft-copy of the book on Amazon.com ($9.99) and almost raced me to the finish line, notwithstanding the fact that I had read over three quarters of the hard-copy before my friend started. The charm of “Hurt”, I find, is not in the outrageousness of each agonizing circumstance endured by the protagonist. I see its beauty in the author’s masterful ability to build hope by suspending the disbelief that it actually gets worse…

ICT-University - new pathways for student empowerment

By Innocent Chia
 
The Vice-Chancellor of the Information and Communication Technology – University, ICT-U Cameroon, Professor Beban Sammy Chumbow has announced the launching of two programs effective the beginning of new academic year that is slated for October, 2013. Both postgraduate offerings – MSc/Ph.D in Digital Media as well as MSc/Ph.D in the Science of Education – are more than pragmatic additions to a rich portfolio brought on at the end of the ICT University Senate meeting earlier this August month. The growing portfolio continues breathing life into the Vision and Mission of the school as the “premier destination of research, innovation and training of scholars relevant for the context of developing countries”.

Gloria Kindzeka: America’s 2013 Amazing Nurse

By Innocent Chia
I am already taking pride and declaring Gloria Kindzeka the winner of this ongoing competition for America’s 2013 Amazing Nurse. Why would I not? Why not declare Gloria a winner when she has survived unimaginable odds to be in this select group of 10 finalists for the esteemed Johnson and Johnson price? According to a 2008 US Census, there are over 3.2 million licensed Registered Nurses in the US. I am not a statistician and it is even preposterous of me to be venturing into the world of probabilities. But where she is so far feels like winning a lottery, and she can if I am not the only one voting for her. Gloria needs your additional votes to give her a shot at victory and reasons for more immigrant nurses, especially from Africa, to take pride in what they do very well and for their good services to do the talking about how much they earn.

Sex Immigration

By Innocent Chia

It is probably hazardous that I am penning my thoughts/beliefs on the issue of Women’s choice even as the drama is unfolding in cities and States across the United States of America. But it is hard for me, armed with anecdotal evidence at best, to look in the other direction and pretend that what the anti-choice, mostly-old-white-conservative-boys, are after is all about the rights of the unborn child, which would be more than lofty. Across America, the Conservative movement and legislatures are shouting from the hill tops that the Caucasian majority- and way of life - can only survive if the Caucasian woman stays reproductive at all costs, including in cases of rape and incest.

Lady Liberty and Afoakom at Intersection of Fundraiser for Kom Children

By Innocent Chia
More than 40 years after the mysterious work of art – AFOAKOM – found its way back to Kom from a New York museum, Kom sons and daughters “komvened” in New York from June 21-24 in celebrations marking a rich cultural heritage that circumstance and fate intertwined with the city of New York. Perhaps lost on New Yorkers, the Fon of Kom via a video recorded message reminded his citizens residing in the USA of the renown bestowed upon Kom by Afoakom, like the Statue of Liberty to New York. Unfathomable and unfair comparison between the Statue of Liberty and Afoakom, perhaps, but a contrast that most aptly mirrors the educational gap that is leaving the poor and needy worse off particularly in Cameroon. It is the assessment that I made after listening to one of the Co-founders of “Hope for Children Cameroon” choke and cry in the midst of a compelling presentation that sent participants reaching deep into their pockets and purses to pull out cash and write checks in support.

"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.

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.

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.

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…”