The Chia Report

Suicide of Lourdes student on campus in Bamenda

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

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

Rampant Sexual Abuse in Sasse and …

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

Was anyone else sexually molested in Sasse?

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


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

Plans to slaughter Anglophone Cameroonians!!!?

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

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

The LESA Franchise: On a lighter note

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

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

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

Cameroonian-American Wins Best Film at a US Film Festival

Culled from Ftlaulerdalenews.net

Intro by Innocent Chia

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

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

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

by KATIE KILLEN / NBC Charlotte

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

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

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

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

Fixing what is wrong with what is right with Cameroon

Book Review by Boh Herbert

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

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

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

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

Cardinal Tumi to the rescue

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

Losing Naomi While Finding a Vital Missing Link to Save Others

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

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

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

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

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

Why more African Presidents are dying in Europe

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

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

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

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

 

Rising Musical Teen Sensation strikes Gold – Franchika Abey

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

 

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

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

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

 

Seven Cameroon athletes go missing

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

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

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

Tit-bits on the arrests of Inoni and Marafa

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

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

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

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

Wanaku’s campaign music to save wasted minds

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

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

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