*By Chief A .S Ngwana
On the 10th of December 2008, we shall celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly resolution 217 A (111) of 10 December 1948.
It is pertinent that we should examine how the human race has fared during these sixty years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Bearing in mind that the Declaration was prompted by the desire to uphold the right of all men to live, to own what is necessary to lead a dignified existence, to work and to rest, to choose a particular state in life, to form a home, to bring children into the world within marriage and to be allowed to educate them, to pass peacefully through times of sickness and old age, to have access to culture, to join with other citizens to achieve legitimate ends, and , above all, the right to know and love God in perfect liberty, for conscience, for true conscience, will discover the imprint of the Creator in all things. At the same time bearing in mind that Human rights, dignity, freedom, equality, solidarity and justice constitute the spiritual and moral patrimony on which the union of Nations is based.
Before the Declaration of these rights, the dignity of the human person had been abused and had reached an epoch in which liberty and justice were denied and the dignity of man was trampled upon in many ways.
SLAVE TRADE
The slave trade had been practiced from time immemorial. Africans know too well what the atrocities of the slave trade did to their fore fathers.
More than fifteen million Africans were sold to Europe and America where many died under the whip and hard labor. Slavery in the United States was especially brutal and demeaning. A slave had no rights. He or she was totally under the power of the slave owner. As a result, slave society was a violent society. Slavery demanded coercion and total control.
There was the constant fear of revolt or escape. With the division between the slave States and the free States, war was seemingly inevitable. The slave population was an ever-increasing threat. It was imperative that slave population be maintained in ignorance and under control.
All books and periodicals were to be censored. Any information regarding ideas and information touching on slavery or freedom, and changing attitudes and political discussion both in the States and in Europe was carefully kept away from slaves. As a result any notion of freedom or emancipation was to be absolutely concealed.
Every effort was made to control and obliterate any communication or literary source outside of the South.
In the antebellum South, reading was made an act of subversion; learning was an act of revolt. Sooner or later all of the southern states made teaching of a slave a penal offense, subject to prison.
For the slave who learned to read or write, amputation of fingers and whipping with cow hide lashes was the standard penalty. Excessive whipping was fatal.
GENOCIDE and UNJUST WARS.
Genocide is the killing or destroying of a group of people because of their religious, national, racial or ethnic identity.
In 1948 after the Second World War, the UN passed the Genocide Convention, an Act on the prevention and punishment of the crime of genocide.
The Act provided a legal definition of genocide and established genocide as crime in International law.
According to the Genocide Convention, any of the following actions when committed with intent to eliminate a particular national, ethnic, racial, or religious group constitutes genocide.
For example killing members of a group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to kill, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, or forcibly transferring children of the group. The gassing to death of about six million Jews, and the killing of half a million Gypsies and millions of other people considered not desirable, by Hitler, is a clear case of genocide.
THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Women and children had no rights. They could not own property, they could not vote or be voted, women could not be raped by their husbands, men could marry many wives ( as in the case of King Solomon who had 700 wives and 300 concubines), but a woman could not marry more than one husband at a time, girls were given to marriage at tender ages and in many cases without their consent, girls generally were excluded from education and could not go to school, and domestic violence against women and children was tolerated.
The UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS is a common standard of achievement for all peoples and Nations, bearing in mind that human rights, dignity, freedom equality, solidarity and justice constitute the spiritual and moral patrimony on which the union of peoples and Nations is based.
Let us look at whether proper consideration has been given to
(ARTICLE 3) “Everyone has the right to LIFE, LIBERTY, AND SECURITY of person”
The first and the most important fundamental human right, the basis of all human rights, is the RIGHT TO LIFE. Without human beings we can not talk of human rights. How has the Right to Life been implemented during these sixty years?
Every human being has a right to live, from conception to natural death. Each child has the right to be conceived, born and educated within the family, based on marriage between a man and a woman, the family being the natural and fundamental group unit of society.
ABORTION.
Abortion is the deliberate 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 (egg) 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. There is no choice to murder. Abortion is an attack on life itself.
The 1959 Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the United Nations states that the child “needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth.” A principle, which is in keeping with a previous declaration by the World Medical Association to “maintain the utmost respect for human life, from the time of its conception.”
The 1966 International Convention on Civil and Political Rights states that “sentence of death shall not be carried out on pregnant women, and that the express intention of this Article is inspired by consideration of the interest of the unborn child.”
Abortion is a crime against natural law, abortion is a contravention of the UN Charter on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , abortion is a terrible abuse of the Rights of the Child, an abuse of the Fundamental Right of every human being to live. Abortion is a crime against humanity and cannot be justified.
Last year alone millions of children were killed by abortion, more than all the people killed during the two world wars, more than the Afghanistan and Iraq wars put together.
More people die by abortion every year than they died during the slave trade. More people die by abortion every year than they have ever died through genocide.
More people are killed every day by abortion than by terrorism.
More people die from abortion than they die from AIDS or malaria.
The Declaration of human Rights paved the way for the emancipation of women, but radical feminism, in pursuit of freedom, has sought license and unfettered autonomy, in pursuit of sexual pleasure, and equality with men.
Women have surrendered the dignity of womanhood and rejected the value of motherhood. What the sexual revolution and radical feminism erroneously promise is that the pursuit of freedom, sexual equality, sexual pleasure and rejection of traditional morality will bring individual happiness and build a more truly human society.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was a mile stone in the maturing of humanity, of a moral awareness in accord with the dignity of the person, but sixty years after this declaration, the dignity of the human person has suffered immensely through abortion.
Now more than ninety Governments in the world, and even some UN agencies, have approved and legalized abortion.
Abortion kills not only unborn children; it destroys constitutional order and the common good, which is assured only when the life of every human being is legally protected.
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. An abuse of the Fundamental Right to Live, approved and legalized by governments of the “civilized world”, signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
When the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF} presented its “State of the World’s Children 2007” report in India, UNICEF officials said that 7,000 girls are aborted in India each day.
Globally, millions of boys and girls are aborted each year.
ABORTIONS have reached unprecedented, unimaginable numbers in the world, a world which has returned to a barbarism unknown in history.
UN treaty bodies are being used to promote the legalization of abortion without the awareness or consensus of member states.
UN human rights treaty bodies are groups of unelected, unaccountable bureaucratic officials before whom UN member states must appear every few years and report on how they are implementing the various UN human rights treaties. They have no enforcement mechanism, and the members act in their personal capacity with no oversight or accountability to a single member state.
Half of the treaty body that monitors the 1979 Women’s Convention, is made up of nongovernmental representatives, mostly advocating abortion rights. Even though not a single UN human rights treaty mentions abortion, the treaty bodies have pressured 93 Nation 122 times to legalize abortion in the last decade. In 2006, Colombia legalized abortion, citing statements by UN, human rights treaty bodies in support of its decision.
Any person who supports abortion, encourages abortion or who commits abortion, or any government which legalizes abortion, is worse than people who commit terrorism, unjust wars or are guilty of genocide.
Abortion is “genocide” to unborn children. People who support or encourage abortion, have no moral right to condemn crimes against human rights.
Developing countries need their expanding populations to develop quickly. Simplistic as it is, development is by people for people. Where there are no people there is no development. Development is for people. Abortion is the greatest enemy to development.
All African countries (except South Africa) and some countries of the world still treat abortion as a criminal offence.
It is therefore urgent that Cameroon and all countries which uphold the dignity of human life, all countries which see abortion as a greater evil than war, than genocide, or even than slave trade or terrorism, unite to fight this abomination.
A joint and concerted campaign or lobby should be staged at the United Nations, for the UN to enact an “ABORTION CONVENTION”, an Act on the prevention and punishment of the crime of abortion.
An Act which will provide a legal definition of abortion and establish abortion as a crime in international law, a Crime against Humanity.
Think of it, if President Barack Obama’s Mother, had aborted him, what a great loss it would have been to America in fact to the whole world, we would have been deprived of the opportunity of seeing a BLACK man in the WHITE house. Thank God Obama’s mother did not abort him.
* Chief A.S. Ngwana is Chairman of
Cardinal Democratic Party (CDP) in Cameroon
Email: ngwanasamba@yahoo.com
BP 2401 Bonanjo, Douala.
Tel. (237) 7775 7173
Friday, November 28, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
The 44th President of the USA!
ByTazoacha Asonganyi in Yaounde.
There has been euphoria all over the world following the landslide victory of Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the USA.
Africans across the board have been urging their sit-tight leaders to take note of the free and transparent electoral process that brought about such heart-warming renewal in the USA, and especially the frequency of change at the presidency.
From another perspective, some people see the victory as a sort of cleansing of the scars of slavery and colonialism that helped to build the West, but stand starkly as the main accused for the backwardness of Africa.
Indeed, many major sins were committed by the West on their road to development, including Slavery, Colonialism and the Holocaust.
The feelings of the Jews have since been assuaged by retribution and the founding of the state of Israel. So far Africa has had only empty apologies for the sin committed against it, until now that Obama has emerged to be totted like the ultimate reason why we should forgive and forget slavery and colonialism, since with the scars, an African or Africa can still be the best if the required effort is made.
Whether this is true or false, we cannot resist the lead Obama provided by his loaded campaign slogan: Yes, we can! Before reaching that conclusion, he first reached a similar conclusion about himself: Yes, I can!
He reached this conclusion after finding answers to some questions that kept haunting him like: What is our community and how might that be truly reconciled with our freedom? How far do our obligations to the community reach? Who really am I?
To the questions about the community, he immersed himself in community work in Chicago. As for the questions about himself, apart from the knowledge he gained in the black community in Chicago during the community work, he went to Kenya to dig into his roots.
In Kenya, his grandmother told him that Obama "sired" Hussein Oyango, Oyango sired Barack and Barack sired him, Barack Hussein Obama.
She told him about the confusion and blurring of vision of his father and grandfather following their various encounters with the colonialists.
He was also told that when his father got interested in the struggle for independence, his grandfather used to tell his father that an African cannot defeat the white man when he cannot even make his own bicycle; that the African only wanted to work with his family or his clan while all white men work to increase their power; that the white man alone is like an ant that can easily be crushed, but they work together like ants; that the white man considers his nation and his business more important to him than himself...
After gathering all the information he concluded that his father may have had vision but lacked realism and flexibility; that his dreams seemed to have been choked by fear and lack of imagination; that he seemed to have preferred dreams to reality; impotence to compromise.
Humbled by the weight of his heritage, he went to the graves of his father and his grandfather which are side by side and holding both, he addressed his father, weeping:"There was no shame in your confusion, just as there had been no shame in your father’s before you. No shame in your fear or in the fear of your father before you. There was only shame in the silence fear had produced. It was the silence that betrayed us.
If it weren’t for that silence, your grandfather might have told your father that he could never escape himself, or recreate himself alone. Your father might have taught those same lessons to you.
And you the son might have taught your father that this world that was beckoning all of you involved more than just railroads, and indoor toilets and irrigation ditches and gramophones, all lifeless instruments that could be absorbed into the old ways ... For all your gifts – the quick mind, the power of concentration, the charm – you could never forge yourself into a whole man by leaving those things (the best of your culture and traditions) behind..."
He left Kenya with the comfort and the firmness of identity that a name provides. He reminded his kith and kin that on this earth, one place is not too different from the other – and each single moment carries within it all that has gone before.
He had the strong conviction that respect does not come from what your parents are but from what you do. He believed in himself, in his ability to bring change to the USA, in his ability to revive "the American dream".
Indeed, he believes that hardship always gives birth to what he calls a new faith – a faith in other people. It is this faith that transformed his "I can" to "we can"; and then to his war cry: Yes, We Can!
His victory leaves us with no doubt that believing in oneself is a major precondition for any victory or success.
Yes, the lifeless things that surround us today can be absorbed into our "old ways" like the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians and other peoples have proved. Yes, a major precondition of all success is self confidence; believing in ourselves.
This is why Barack Obama set out his identity, thoughts and believes in his two books: "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope", which acted as strong vaccines against all types of blackmail during the campaign.
Today, it is sure that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the USA because he believed in himself!
There is no reason why his victory should not change the image Africa has of itself and of its situation in the world.
There has been euphoria all over the world following the landslide victory of Barack Obama to become the 44th President of the USA.
Africans across the board have been urging their sit-tight leaders to take note of the free and transparent electoral process that brought about such heart-warming renewal in the USA, and especially the frequency of change at the presidency.
From another perspective, some people see the victory as a sort of cleansing of the scars of slavery and colonialism that helped to build the West, but stand starkly as the main accused for the backwardness of Africa.
Indeed, many major sins were committed by the West on their road to development, including Slavery, Colonialism and the Holocaust.
The feelings of the Jews have since been assuaged by retribution and the founding of the state of Israel. So far Africa has had only empty apologies for the sin committed against it, until now that Obama has emerged to be totted like the ultimate reason why we should forgive and forget slavery and colonialism, since with the scars, an African or Africa can still be the best if the required effort is made.
Whether this is true or false, we cannot resist the lead Obama provided by his loaded campaign slogan: Yes, we can! Before reaching that conclusion, he first reached a similar conclusion about himself: Yes, I can!
He reached this conclusion after finding answers to some questions that kept haunting him like: What is our community and how might that be truly reconciled with our freedom? How far do our obligations to the community reach? Who really am I?
To the questions about the community, he immersed himself in community work in Chicago. As for the questions about himself, apart from the knowledge he gained in the black community in Chicago during the community work, he went to Kenya to dig into his roots.
In Kenya, his grandmother told him that Obama "sired" Hussein Oyango, Oyango sired Barack and Barack sired him, Barack Hussein Obama.
She told him about the confusion and blurring of vision of his father and grandfather following their various encounters with the colonialists.
He was also told that when his father got interested in the struggle for independence, his grandfather used to tell his father that an African cannot defeat the white man when he cannot even make his own bicycle; that the African only wanted to work with his family or his clan while all white men work to increase their power; that the white man alone is like an ant that can easily be crushed, but they work together like ants; that the white man considers his nation and his business more important to him than himself...
After gathering all the information he concluded that his father may have had vision but lacked realism and flexibility; that his dreams seemed to have been choked by fear and lack of imagination; that he seemed to have preferred dreams to reality; impotence to compromise.
Humbled by the weight of his heritage, he went to the graves of his father and his grandfather which are side by side and holding both, he addressed his father, weeping:"There was no shame in your confusion, just as there had been no shame in your father’s before you. No shame in your fear or in the fear of your father before you. There was only shame in the silence fear had produced. It was the silence that betrayed us.
If it weren’t for that silence, your grandfather might have told your father that he could never escape himself, or recreate himself alone. Your father might have taught those same lessons to you.
And you the son might have taught your father that this world that was beckoning all of you involved more than just railroads, and indoor toilets and irrigation ditches and gramophones, all lifeless instruments that could be absorbed into the old ways ... For all your gifts – the quick mind, the power of concentration, the charm – you could never forge yourself into a whole man by leaving those things (the best of your culture and traditions) behind..."
He left Kenya with the comfort and the firmness of identity that a name provides. He reminded his kith and kin that on this earth, one place is not too different from the other – and each single moment carries within it all that has gone before.
He had the strong conviction that respect does not come from what your parents are but from what you do. He believed in himself, in his ability to bring change to the USA, in his ability to revive "the American dream".
Indeed, he believes that hardship always gives birth to what he calls a new faith – a faith in other people. It is this faith that transformed his "I can" to "we can"; and then to his war cry: Yes, We Can!
His victory leaves us with no doubt that believing in oneself is a major precondition for any victory or success.
Yes, the lifeless things that surround us today can be absorbed into our "old ways" like the Japanese, the Chinese, the Indians and other peoples have proved. Yes, a major precondition of all success is self confidence; believing in ourselves.
This is why Barack Obama set out his identity, thoughts and believes in his two books: "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope", which acted as strong vaccines against all types of blackmail during the campaign.
Today, it is sure that Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the USA because he believed in himself!
There is no reason why his victory should not change the image Africa has of itself and of its situation in the world.
Cameroon: UB Prepares Students for Success in Job Market
By Christopher Ambe Shu
Thousands of varsity students and hundreds of non-students alike from within Cameroon’s national territory took advantage of a widely publicized two-day Business and Employment Forum, oraginsied by the country’s lone Anglo-Saxon University of Buea(UB), to learn how to quickly secure a place in Cameroon’s rather difficult job market.
Picture:Cross section of Participants at UB Business and Employment forum
Unemployment rate in Cameroon, which is classified as a heavily indebted poor country, is high
“Upon graduation I think those of us who attended this forum will easily know how to go about looking for or creating jobs,” one UB student who sat through out the forum told this reporter as the forum wrapped up. “It has been an eye-opener event for us”
Claris Mbinkar, a graduate from UB who holds a Bachelor ‘s degree in curriculum studies but is yet to land a job added, “The forum was a learning opportunity. I will not waste any time to put into practice what I have learnt about getting employment”
The forum, organized under the patronage of Cameroon’s Minister of Higher education, Prof.Jacques Fame Ndongo, ran from 20-21 November. The forum, the first of its kind, was motivated by the new Bachelor’s-Master’s -PhD (BMP) system introduced in the 2007 academic year.
“ The BMP system takes its root from the Anglo-American System, which UB has been practicing since inception in 1993.It comes with the promise of increased relevance, professionalism and production-oriented training”, remarked Prof Vincent Titanji,UB Vice-Chancellor at the forum’s opening ceremony. “More than everything else, this forum is an occasion to create effective alliances to enable us tackle the problems that face us as a community, namely, ignorance, disease, hunger and poverty. This is how we can each of us contribute to this forward movement towards attainment of the MDG’s”
The forum brought together managers of companies, job promoters, students and varsity graduates who were either job seekers or would like to create jobs.
Experts made presentations on themes such as: Graduates/Youth and the Labor Market in Cameroon, How to Explore the Labor Market, Growing Businesses and Creating Jobs, Youth Engagement Support Programs and Opportunities, Securing Markets, Leadership and Motivational Tips for Youth Success; Management, Financing, Legal Issues and Insurance Policy
Other highlights of the two-day forum included: University of Buea signing partnership agreements with companies, a cultural night on November 20,musical concerts and a mini trade fair that enabled businesses to exhibit their products and sell their ideas to the public.
The Vice- Chancellor of University of Buea, Professor Vincent Titanji, particularly praised Prof Victor Julius Ngoh, UB Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Research, Cooperation and Relations with the Business World for working extra hard to make the forum a huge success
Several participants who spoke to this reporter admitted having learned much from the forum, wishing that it should henceforth become a regular event of the university
University of Buea as at now has a student population of 12000 and is rated Cameroon’s best-managed state university. It started in 1993
Thousands of varsity students and hundreds of non-students alike from within Cameroon’s national territory took advantage of a widely publicized two-day Business and Employment Forum, oraginsied by the country’s lone Anglo-Saxon University of Buea(UB), to learn how to quickly secure a place in Cameroon’s rather difficult job market.
Picture:Cross section of Participants at UB Business and Employment forum
Unemployment rate in Cameroon, which is classified as a heavily indebted poor country, is high
“Upon graduation I think those of us who attended this forum will easily know how to go about looking for or creating jobs,” one UB student who sat through out the forum told this reporter as the forum wrapped up. “It has been an eye-opener event for us”
Claris Mbinkar, a graduate from UB who holds a Bachelor ‘s degree in curriculum studies but is yet to land a job added, “The forum was a learning opportunity. I will not waste any time to put into practice what I have learnt about getting employment”
The forum, organized under the patronage of Cameroon’s Minister of Higher education, Prof.Jacques Fame Ndongo, ran from 20-21 November. The forum, the first of its kind, was motivated by the new Bachelor’s-Master’s -PhD (BMP) system introduced in the 2007 academic year.
“ The BMP system takes its root from the Anglo-American System, which UB has been practicing since inception in 1993.It comes with the promise of increased relevance, professionalism and production-oriented training”, remarked Prof Vincent Titanji,UB Vice-Chancellor at the forum’s opening ceremony. “More than everything else, this forum is an occasion to create effective alliances to enable us tackle the problems that face us as a community, namely, ignorance, disease, hunger and poverty. This is how we can each of us contribute to this forward movement towards attainment of the MDG’s”
The forum brought together managers of companies, job promoters, students and varsity graduates who were either job seekers or would like to create jobs.
Experts made presentations on themes such as: Graduates/Youth and the Labor Market in Cameroon, How to Explore the Labor Market, Growing Businesses and Creating Jobs, Youth Engagement Support Programs and Opportunities, Securing Markets, Leadership and Motivational Tips for Youth Success; Management, Financing, Legal Issues and Insurance Policy
Other highlights of the two-day forum included: University of Buea signing partnership agreements with companies, a cultural night on November 20,musical concerts and a mini trade fair that enabled businesses to exhibit their products and sell their ideas to the public.
The Vice- Chancellor of University of Buea, Professor Vincent Titanji, particularly praised Prof Victor Julius Ngoh, UB Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Research, Cooperation and Relations with the Business World for working extra hard to make the forum a huge success
Several participants who spoke to this reporter admitted having learned much from the forum, wishing that it should henceforth become a regular event of the university
University of Buea as at now has a student population of 12000 and is rated Cameroon’s best-managed state university. It started in 1993
Cameroon: UB Prepares Students For Success In Job Market
By Christopher Ambe Shu
Thousands of varsity students and hundreds of non-students alike from within Cameroon’s national territory took advantage of a widely publicized two-day Business and Employment Forum, oraginsied by the country’s lone Anglo-Saxon University of Buea(UB), to learn how to quickly secure a place in Cameroon’s rather difficult job market.
Unemployment rate in Cameroon, which is classified as a heavily indebted poor country, is high
“Upon graduation I think those of us who attended this forum will easily know how to go about looking for or creating jobs,” one UB student who sat through out the forum told this reporter as the forum wrapped up. “It has been an eye-opener event for us”
Claris Mbinkar, a graduate from UB who holds a Bachelor ‘s degree in curriculum studies but is yet to land a job added, “The forum was a learning opportunity. I will not waste any time to put into practice what I have learnt about getting employment”
The forum, organized under the patronage of Cameroon’s Minister of Higher education, Prof.Jacques Fame Ndongo, ran from 20-21 November. The forum, the first of its kind, was motivated by the new Bachelor’s-Master’s -PhD (BMP) system introduced in the 2007 academic year.
“ The BMP system takes its root from the Anglo-American System, which UB has been practicing since inception in 1993.It comes with the promise of increased relevance, professionalism and production-oriented training”, remarked Prof Vincent Titanji,UB Vice-Chancellor at the forum’s opening ceremony. “More than everything else, this forum is an occasion to create effective alliances to enable us tackle the problems that face us as a community, namely, ignorance, disease, hunger and poverty. This is how we can each of us contribute to this forward movement towards attainment of the MDG’s”
The forum brought together managers of companies, job promoters, students and varsity graduates who were either job seekers or would like to create jobs.
Experts made presentations on themes such as: Graduates/Youth and the Labor Market in Cameroon, How to Explore the Labor Market, Growing Businesses and Creating Jobs, Youth Engagement Support Programs and Opportunities, Securing Markets, Leadership and Motivational Tips for Youth Success; Management, Financing, Legal Issues and Insurance Policy
Other highlights of the two-day forum included: University of Buea signing partnership agreements with companies, a cultural night on November 20,musical concerts and a mini trade fair that enabled businesses to exhibit their products and sell their ideas to the public.
The Vice- Chancellor of University of Buea, Professor Vincent Titanji, particularly praised Prof Victor Julius Ngoh, UB Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Research, Cooperation and Relations with the Business World for working extra hard to make the forum a huge success
Several participants who spoke to this reporter admitted having learned much from the forum, wishing that it should henceforth become a regular event of the university
University of Buea as at now has a student population of 12000 and is rated Cameroon’s best-managed state university. It started in 1993
Thousands of varsity students and hundreds of non-students alike from within Cameroon’s national territory took advantage of a widely publicized two-day Business and Employment Forum, oraginsied by the country’s lone Anglo-Saxon University of Buea(UB), to learn how to quickly secure a place in Cameroon’s rather difficult job market.
Unemployment rate in Cameroon, which is classified as a heavily indebted poor country, is high
“Upon graduation I think those of us who attended this forum will easily know how to go about looking for or creating jobs,” one UB student who sat through out the forum told this reporter as the forum wrapped up. “It has been an eye-opener event for us”
Claris Mbinkar, a graduate from UB who holds a Bachelor ‘s degree in curriculum studies but is yet to land a job added, “The forum was a learning opportunity. I will not waste any time to put into practice what I have learnt about getting employment”
The forum, organized under the patronage of Cameroon’s Minister of Higher education, Prof.Jacques Fame Ndongo, ran from 20-21 November. The forum, the first of its kind, was motivated by the new Bachelor’s-Master’s -PhD (BMP) system introduced in the 2007 academic year.
“ The BMP system takes its root from the Anglo-American System, which UB has been practicing since inception in 1993.It comes with the promise of increased relevance, professionalism and production-oriented training”, remarked Prof Vincent Titanji,UB Vice-Chancellor at the forum’s opening ceremony. “More than everything else, this forum is an occasion to create effective alliances to enable us tackle the problems that face us as a community, namely, ignorance, disease, hunger and poverty. This is how we can each of us contribute to this forward movement towards attainment of the MDG’s”
The forum brought together managers of companies, job promoters, students and varsity graduates who were either job seekers or would like to create jobs.
Experts made presentations on themes such as: Graduates/Youth and the Labor Market in Cameroon, How to Explore the Labor Market, Growing Businesses and Creating Jobs, Youth Engagement Support Programs and Opportunities, Securing Markets, Leadership and Motivational Tips for Youth Success; Management, Financing, Legal Issues and Insurance Policy
Other highlights of the two-day forum included: University of Buea signing partnership agreements with companies, a cultural night on November 20,musical concerts and a mini trade fair that enabled businesses to exhibit their products and sell their ideas to the public.
The Vice- Chancellor of University of Buea, Professor Vincent Titanji, particularly praised Prof Victor Julius Ngoh, UB Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Research, Cooperation and Relations with the Business World for working extra hard to make the forum a huge success
Several participants who spoke to this reporter admitted having learned much from the forum, wishing that it should henceforth become a regular event of the university
University of Buea as at now has a student population of 12000 and is rated Cameroon’s best-managed state university. It started in 1993
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Cameroon:RUMPI Budgets FCFA 8.5 Billion For 2009
Now Targets Core Projects for Realization
By Christopher Ambe Shu
( Picture Above: Ogork Ntui Besong,RUMPI Coordinator
He urged Rumpi administrators and its executing agencies to show total duty-consciousness and commitment, adding that the Cameroon Government attaches much importance to the project, with regards to its fight for poverty-alleviation.
The Rumpi Project, which has a six-year life span, was launched in 2004.It is intended to reduce poverty in rural areas of the Southwest province by increasing their incomes in a sustainable manner, through improving agricultural output as well as their socio-economic environment
The FCFA 17 billion Rumpi Project is co- funded by African Development Bank (ADB75%), Technical Assistance Fund (TAF 8 %), Government of Cameroon (GOC15%) and the beneficiaries (2%), according to the project’s documents.
“The 2009 budget is big but achievable. We are ready for serious work. With the African Development Bank (ADB) before you spend one Franc they must approve it. If they don’t, you can’t spend it”, Ogork Ntui Besong, coordinator of Rumpi told reporters, hoping that all work analyses already submitted to the ADB would be quickly endorsed.
The Project Coordinator said they are focusing on infrastructure development.
“We are presently building twenty (20) rural markets through out the province… We have awarded contracts for the construction of Twenty-two (22) village banks; we have also awarded contracts for the supply of Fifty-Five (55) saves, to arrive early January next year to enable us start rural banking,” noted Ogork Ntui
He said a partial beak-down of the budget of 8.5 billion for 2009 indicates that, FCFA 3.03 billion will go for road construction; FCFA 980 million for 34 water schemes and FCFA 422 million to complete payment for rural markets. He disclosed that RUMPI intends to improve upon 237 km of roads in the Southwest Province beginning next January.
In the past, the project had done quite a lot in terms of supporting agricultural activities and farmers in the province
The Project Coordinator said if by the end of 2009 RUMPI realized all earmarked projects it would have achieved about 80% of its goals.
.
By Christopher Ambe Shu
With just two years left for the FCFA 17 billion Rumpi Project -placed under the Southwest Development Authority, SOWEDA-Buea to phase out, only about 40% of its global work plan has so far been achieved, it emerged at the project’s 7th Steering Committee meeting that held last November 12,in Trinity Hotel, Limbe.
( Picture Above: Ogork Ntui Besong,RUMPI CoordinatorPicture Below: Steering Committee at 7 th Session)
But with FCFA 8.5 billion voted at the 7th Steering Committee as RUMPI’s 2009 budget core projects such as rural roads, markets, water schemes and rural banks have now been earmarked for realization beginning next year.
Biloa Gatien, inspector-general in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) who sat in for his minister, chaired the Steering Committee meeting, which was principally to examine and adopt the 2009 budget as well as its work plan.
Biloa Gatien, inspector-general in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MINADER) who sat in for his minister, chaired the Steering Committee meeting, which was principally to examine and adopt the 2009 budget as well as its work plan.
He urged Rumpi administrators and its executing agencies to show total duty-consciousness and commitment, adding that the Cameroon Government attaches much importance to the project, with regards to its fight for poverty-alleviation.
The Rumpi Project, which has a six-year life span, was launched in 2004.It is intended to reduce poverty in rural areas of the Southwest province by increasing their incomes in a sustainable manner, through improving agricultural output as well as their socio-economic environment
The FCFA 17 billion Rumpi Project is co- funded by African Development Bank (ADB75%), Technical Assistance Fund (TAF 8 %), Government of Cameroon (GOC15%) and the beneficiaries (2%), according to the project’s documents.
“The 2009 budget is big but achievable. We are ready for serious work. With the African Development Bank (ADB) before you spend one Franc they must approve it. If they don’t, you can’t spend it”, Ogork Ntui Besong, coordinator of Rumpi told reporters, hoping that all work analyses already submitted to the ADB would be quickly endorsed.
The Project Coordinator said they are focusing on infrastructure development.
“We are presently building twenty (20) rural markets through out the province… We have awarded contracts for the construction of Twenty-two (22) village banks; we have also awarded contracts for the supply of Fifty-Five (55) saves, to arrive early January next year to enable us start rural banking,” noted Ogork Ntui
He said a partial beak-down of the budget of 8.5 billion for 2009 indicates that, FCFA 3.03 billion will go for road construction; FCFA 980 million for 34 water schemes and FCFA 422 million to complete payment for rural markets. He disclosed that RUMPI intends to improve upon 237 km of roads in the Southwest Province beginning next January.
In the past, the project had done quite a lot in terms of supporting agricultural activities and farmers in the province
The Project Coordinator said if by the end of 2009 RUMPI realized all earmarked projects it would have achieved about 80% of its goals.
.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Cameroonians Share Obama’s Election Euphoria
By Christopher Ambe Shu 
Top picture : Mola Njoh leading Bishop Bushu to ceremonial ground
Below picture: Bishop Bushu greeting invitees at the election party
Some Cameroonians especially the working class converged Wednesday on the Buea residence of Mola Njoh Litumbe, doyen of chartered accountants in Cameroon and leader of the country’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to celebrate the election of 47- year -old Barrack Obama as the 44th president of the US and first black US president.
Also present at the victory party was the Catholic Bishop of Buea Diocese, Immanuel Bushu, who said a prayer urging the Almighty God to protect and direct Barack Obama.
“Lord, give Barack Obama the grace to be humble, thinking only of you. Give him the wisdom of Solomon…so that he should usher in a new era in the
US and the world”, Bishop Bushu said in his humble prayer.
Mola Njoh Litumbe, a senior Cameroonian citizen in his mid 70’s, who organized the sumptuous cocktail party, said Obama’s election to the highest office of the world was a great honor done particularly to the black community and the world in general.
He expressed regrets that in the past the Blackman had been treated like slaves and considered as inferior to the White man. Mola Njoh said Obama’s election, as president of the most powerful nation in the world was really an eye-opener to the world.
“I hope Cameroon would learn from Obama ‘s vision. Cameroon government and Cameroonians should learn, finance the education of our children, provide adequate health care and other amenities .I think if all these amenities are provided here people will not be going abroad to seek greener pastures”, said an elated Mola Njoh, who himself was the glad party’s master of ceremony.
Commenting further on the Obama election euphoria, Bishop Bushu went down memory lane, noting that Blacks were far advanced hundreds of years before the Whiteman.He cited Egypt as an example of Black civilization
“ The IQ is the same for all human beings. We have the same physical pwer. All we should be asking for is God’s blessing in whatever we do and with it, we will make a difference”, the Bishop said. “The Time has come. God has chosen Barack Obama.He will deliver the goods. The joy is global. We are sharing the joy of Mankind toady”
Other speakers at the party ,which was characterized by music,champaigne-popping and jokes-cracking, were all full of praise for Obama, hoping that his victory will inspire other blacks.
“ Obama’s election is a miracle .We are blessed”, said Toni Monangai, a noted Buea based businessman, who was all smiles.
Many other social parties were organised in the various towns of Cameroon
Top picture : Mola Njoh leading Bishop Bushu to ceremonial ground
Below picture: Bishop Bushu greeting invitees at the election party
Some Cameroonians especially the working class converged Wednesday on the Buea residence of Mola Njoh Litumbe, doyen of chartered accountants in Cameroon and leader of the country’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to celebrate the election of 47- year -old Barrack Obama as the 44th president of the US and first black US president.
Also present at the victory party was the Catholic Bishop of Buea Diocese, Immanuel Bushu, who said a prayer urging the Almighty God to protect and direct Barack Obama.
“Lord, give Barack Obama the grace to be humble, thinking only of you. Give him the wisdom of Solomon…so that he should usher in a new era in the
US and the world”, Bishop Bushu said in his humble prayer.Mola Njoh Litumbe, a senior Cameroonian citizen in his mid 70’s, who organized the sumptuous cocktail party, said Obama’s election to the highest office of the world was a great honor done particularly to the black community and the world in general.
He expressed regrets that in the past the Blackman had been treated like slaves and considered as inferior to the White man. Mola Njoh said Obama’s election, as president of the most powerful nation in the world was really an eye-opener to the world.
“I hope Cameroon would learn from Obama ‘s vision. Cameroon government and Cameroonians should learn, finance the education of our children, provide adequate health care and other amenities .I think if all these amenities are provided here people will not be going abroad to seek greener pastures”, said an elated Mola Njoh, who himself was the glad party’s master of ceremony.
Commenting further on the Obama election euphoria, Bishop Bushu went down memory lane, noting that Blacks were far advanced hundreds of years before the Whiteman.He cited Egypt as an example of Black civilization
“ The IQ is the same for all human beings. We have the same physical pwer. All we should be asking for is God’s blessing in whatever we do and with it, we will make a difference”, the Bishop said. “The Time has come. God has chosen Barack Obama.He will deliver the goods. The joy is global. We are sharing the joy of Mankind toady”
Other speakers at the party ,which was characterized by music,champaigne-popping and jokes-cracking, were all full of praise for Obama, hoping that his victory will inspire other blacks.
“ Obama’s election is a miracle .We are blessed”, said Toni Monangai, a noted Buea based businessman, who was all smiles.
Many other social parties were organised in the various towns of Cameroon
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Barack Obama: White House’s First Black Boss
By Christopher Ambe ShuThe mistaken belief or myth held by so many, for many years, that the White House, official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States of America in Washington DC, is kind of reserved only for whites has been demystified
.
Tuesday ,November 4, saw the overwhelming election of 47-year-old Barack Obama(Pictured), son of a father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, as the 44th president of the US.
Obama, because of his intelligence, eloquence and well- articulated plans to improve the lot of American people as a whole, made millions upon millions of people, even enemies of the US, during his presidential campaigns to prefer him to his rival, John Mac Cain in the White House.
The US with a population of some 300 million people and 51 states, is the world’s most powerful and prominent nation. Its president is arguably the commander- chief the whole world.
Joel Hilliker,a columnist with theTrumpet.com in the introduction of his article before the US presidential election, titled “If the World Could Vote for America’s President,” said this about the global love for Barack Obama: “The whole world doesn’t agree on much, but it seems pretty united on one thing: that the next American president should be Barack Obama”.
Of course, the columnist cited reasons for the global Obama-love.
And at last, Obama has emerged victorious at the 2008 US presidential election, securing 364 electoral votes while rival John McCain got 163.Ties, 11.There are a total of 538 electoral votes and to be elected president, one must have at least 270 electoral votes
Obama, a first term senator from Illinois and Democratic Presidential Candidate by far beat his Republican rival, 72-year-old John McCain to get the country’s highest office.
John McCain quickly conceded defeat and telephoned Obama to congratulate him .He also urged Americans to unite and support the new president
In his victory speech, an elated but determined Obama told Americans: Change has come.
Mark Z. Barabak, writing in Los Angeles Times on November 5, said Obama’s “victory was a leap in the march toward equality: When Obama was born, people with his skin color could not even vote in parts of America, and many were killed for trying.”
So Obama is seen as having courageously broken racial barriers that have existed for donkey years to become the first African-American President, something many thought was imposibilty.
Black Obama’s occupancy of the White House stresses the fact that in God’s world everything happens when it is supposed to- no matter what. The Bible book of Ecclesiastes (chapter three) tells us that, “There is time for everything”
That also reminds us of the saying that change is the only thing on earth that is constant. Simply put, no condition is permanent. Obama was conscious of all these, and fought relentlessly despite the high odds to land the highest office in the US
White House, Black Obama.What a good color blend!
Watching Obama on BBC (television) make his victory speech, I saw tears rolling down the cheeks of Jessie Jackson, one of America’s Black Civil Rights leaders. Many others were in tears .Certainly, they were tears of joy, or tears of a dream come true.
Perserverance, handwork and prayers have in the past guided determined Africans, if you care Black men considered by many whites as inferior race, to win historic elections where many did not dream could happen
Consider 1994.In this year, Nelson Mandela who had been in prison for over 26 years because of his fight for Human Rights Promtion, became South Africa's first black president after more than three centuries of white rule.
“Never, never again will this beautiful land experience the oppression of one by another”, Mandela had vowed in his speech
Also think of Kofi Annan, of Ghana, who became the first black UN secretary-general, serving from 1997 to 2006
Indeed,the leadership ability of the Blackman is being gradually,but globally recognized
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Cameroon:More Facilities Needed as UB Admits 5000 freshmen
By Christopher Ambe Shu
The University of Buea (UB), Cameroon’s most prestigious state varsity has admitted over 5000 freshmen for its undergraduate programs for the 2008/2009 academic year, which started last October 10.
UB is one of the six state universities of Cameroon, and is fondly called “The Place to be”. It has passed out thousands of graduates with marketable skills, some of whom are furthering their studies in foreign varsities and others shining both at national and international jobs
But the Vice- chancellor,Prof Vincent Titanji(pictured), while presiding at the freshmen’s, matriculation last November1 on campus said, the addition of that huge number of students calls for improved social amenities in the varsity’s neighborhood of Molyko,Buea .
“We have added nearly 5000 more people to the Molyko neighborhood whom we must care for. It calls for redoubled efforts in the provision of security, health care and sanitation, electricity, accommodation …at affordable rates,”Prof Titanji said.
“Here at the University, we need more infrastructure and therefore rely, as usual, on all our stakeholders for their continuous goodwill donations”
The insufficiency of social amenities with a rapidly growing Molyko population in the past several years pushed students to embark on strike action and street demonstrations in a bid to press for improved living conditions.
He told the freshmen that programs at UB “ have been structured deliberately to cover the foundation of your respective disciplines, practical job skills and create opportunities to cultivate in you the positive attributes of responsible citizenship.”
The Vice-Chancellor challenged the student s to put every effort to ensure that they graduate from the varsity not only on record time but also with flying colors.
He warned students against vices such as fraud, sexual harassment, corruption and theft, adding that the punishment for impersonation is outright dismissal not from the University of Buea alone but all state universities in the country.
“Temptations abound in Molyko neigborhood. Be careful. Don’t compromise your success, safety and health by yielding to temptations that could lead you to juvenile delinquency, to contract diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and other STIs”, he further warned the new students.
Professor Anders Liljas, member of the Swedish Academy of Science presented a discourse on
then the Meaning of University, during the matriculation. He said a university is a place for universal curiosity, a place to search for the truth. Professor Lilyas emphasized that the well being of any country depends on industrial development, promoted by university research. He noted that high quality higher education plus research is an added advantage to a country.
Other highlights of the ceremony ,which took place at the Open Amphitheatre of UB, included an ecumenical service during which Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian and Islamic chaplains called on the Almighty God to guide the students and the administration in their efforts to achieve success and excellence
The University of Buea (UB), Cameroon’s most prestigious state varsity has admitted over 5000 freshmen for its undergraduate programs for the 2008/2009 academic year, which started last October 10.
UB is one of the six state universities of Cameroon, and is fondly called “The Place to be”. It has passed out thousands of graduates with marketable skills, some of whom are furthering their studies in foreign varsities and others shining both at national and international jobs
But the Vice- chancellor,Prof Vincent Titanji(pictured), while presiding at the freshmen’s, matriculation last November1 on campus said, the addition of that huge number of students calls for improved social amenities in the varsity’s neighborhood of Molyko,Buea .
“We have added nearly 5000 more people to the Molyko neighborhood whom we must care for. It calls for redoubled efforts in the provision of security, health care and sanitation, electricity, accommodation …at affordable rates,”Prof Titanji said.
“Here at the University, we need more infrastructure and therefore rely, as usual, on all our stakeholders for their continuous goodwill donations”
The insufficiency of social amenities with a rapidly growing Molyko population in the past several years pushed students to embark on strike action and street demonstrations in a bid to press for improved living conditions.
He told the freshmen that programs at UB “ have been structured deliberately to cover the foundation of your respective disciplines, practical job skills and create opportunities to cultivate in you the positive attributes of responsible citizenship.”
The Vice-Chancellor challenged the student s to put every effort to ensure that they graduate from the varsity not only on record time but also with flying colors.
He warned students against vices such as fraud, sexual harassment, corruption and theft, adding that the punishment for impersonation is outright dismissal not from the University of Buea alone but all state universities in the country.
“Temptations abound in Molyko neigborhood. Be careful. Don’t compromise your success, safety and health by yielding to temptations that could lead you to juvenile delinquency, to contract diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and other STIs”, he further warned the new students.
Professor Anders Liljas, member of the Swedish Academy of Science presented a discourse on
then the Meaning of University, during the matriculation. He said a university is a place for universal curiosity, a place to search for the truth. Professor Lilyas emphasized that the well being of any country depends on industrial development, promoted by university research. He noted that high quality higher education plus research is an added advantage to a country.
Other highlights of the ceremony ,which took place at the Open Amphitheatre of UB, included an ecumenical service during which Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian and Islamic chaplains called on the Almighty God to guide the students and the administration in their efforts to achieve success and excellence
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