Life

10, January 2018

Victims of their upbringing: President Biya’s son may be expelled from ENAM ⁰

The eldest of President Biya’s two children recently admitted into ENAM has been absent from school ever since the beginning of the school year and could be replaced by a candidate on the waiting list. Cameroon Concord News understands the 2017/2018 academic year at the National School of Administration and Judiciary (ENAM) started on Monday with an official opening ceremony which was followed by classes that commenced on Tuesday, January 09, 2018.

Paul Junior Biya was conspicuously absent and nothing has been heard of him. There is no longer any doubt that Paul Junior Biya, declared admitted in 16th position out of 85 candidates in Cycle B of the administrative division is a truant. Cat calls have greeted his absence with many suggesting that he should be replaced by a candidate from the waiting list. A senior lecturer of the so-called prestigious school was heard murmuring privately that there are many who are waiting and it is unfair to leave an empty place because of the whims of a child from a rich family.

Aged 23, Paul Junior Biya was one of the candidates who sat for the ENAM entrance examination on September 16, 2017. His absence has now generated a new controversy with some students who know him personally saying he is not good material for ENAM. “You are the only one surprised. Cameroonians, who know more or less the presidential family, know that Biya Junior has no place at ENAM. Even if he does a trick, he does not have the capacity to sail through the two years training program” noted a staff at ENAM.

It is vital to include in this report that the list of candidates admitted to Cycle B of the Administrative Division of the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM) for the academic year 2017/2018, ranked in order of merit.

By Rita Akana

8, January 2018

BBC’s Carrie Gracie resigns over ‘secretive and illegal’ pay culture ⁰

One of the BBC’s most senior journalists has resigned from her post, accusing the British broadcaster of having a “secretive and illegal” pay structure.

“With great regret, I have left my post as China Editor to speak out publicly on a crisis of trust at the BBC,” Carrie Gracie wrote in an open letter.

Gracie, who has been the BBC’s China editor since 2013, claimed the corporation is not “living up to its stated values of trust, honesty and accountability.”

The journalist accused the BBC of “breaking equality law” in its dealings with employees, and adopting a “bunker mentality” which is failing to close the significant pay gap.

“The BBC belongs to you, the license fee payer. I believe you have a right to know that it is breaking equality law and resisting pressure for a fair and transparent pay structure.”

Gracie, who has worked for the BBC for more than three decades, said the broadcaster faced an “exodus of female talent” because of a culture that discriminates against women.

The BBC ordered a review into its pay structure after it was revealed that only a third of its experienced journalists earning more than £150,000 were women, while the top seven earners were all men.

A general view of the headquarters of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London on October 30, 2017. (By AFP)

More than 40 of the broadcaster’s most high-profile female staff, including presenters Clare Balding and Victoria Derbyshire, signed a letter calling for immediate change.

Gracie announced she was leaving her position in Beijing after learning that she earned less than male international editors, despite stressing when she accepted the post that she must be “paid equally” with her male peers.

“I told my bosses the only acceptable resolution would be for all the international editors to be paid the same amount. The right amount would be for them to decide, and I made clear I wasn’t seeking a pay rise, just equal pay. Instead the BBC offered me a big pay rise which remained far short of equality,” she said.

The journalist said she rejected the pay rise and faced a “dismayingly incompetent and undermining grievance process which still has no outcome” before deciding “enough is enough.”

3, January 2018

Dangerously cold winter grips US, 12 dead ⁰

Dangerously cold temperatures have been blamed for at least a dozen deaths in the central and eastern United States.

The bitter cold prompted officials to shut down schools and local attractions in several regions on Tuesday out of safety concerns.

Warming centers were opened in the Deep South with authorities demanding that neighbors, especially those who are elderly, sick or who live alone be checked.

“It’s important that people look out for anyone in need of shelter,” St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson warned.

Temperatures in St. Louis have dipped 30 degrees below normal.

Freeze warnings were also issued for areas from South Texas to Canada and from Montana to Maine.

Tony Sampson, who received a blanket from Star of Hope’s Love in Action van, tries to warm up by a fire under the Eastex Freeway in Houston, January 2, 2018. (Photo by AP)

In Atlanta, Grady Memorial Hospital emergency room doctors were forced to raise a patient’s body temperature almost once a day or every other day using warm fluids, blankets or other measures.

“We have a group of patients who are coming in off the street who are looking to escape the cold — we have dozens and dozens of those every day,” Emergency Care Center assistant medical director Dr. Brooks Moore told the Associated Press.

“You thought you were cold last year. You thought you were cold last month. But you weren’t cold. Now you’re cold,” said Jeanne Rivera, of Crystal Lake, Illinois, who was in Chicago on Tuesday to visit an art exhibit. “It hurts. It hurts the face.”

Slippery roads have resulted in numerous car accidents with a crash, which involved more than a dozen vehicles, forcing the closure of the Schuylkill Expressway in Pennsylvania.

Commuters brave sub-zero temperatures as they make their way to work, January 2, 2018, in Chicago, Illinois. (Getty Images)

In Indiana, the current freezing weather is unusual because of how long it has lasted, according to experts.

“It has just been relentlessly cold since Christmas,” said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the private Weather Underground.

Source: Presstv

3, January 2018

Petit Pays to release new album ⁰

His US based manager, Eyong Eyong Ebot in a telephone conversation with our entertainment editor hinted that “it’s a two new singles”. Petit Pays has announced that he’s releasing a new album that exclusively consists of “Ndongo Le Piment with the group Sans Visas”. The album known as ‘Black and White, is a Moh Kukouri Production scheduled for the 30^th of January 2018.

It’ll be released in standard physical CD form as well as digital download – but it won’t be eligible for chart entry. Announcing the record in a press release late yesterday, his manager said: “It’s a collaboration of songs that I’m extremely proud of, they’re amazing.”

Petit Pays was quoted as saying that “Lots of great songs go missing when you’re at the apex of your career – here they are.”

He also recently expressed his worries over the happenings in Anglophone Cameroon. Last year he cancelled a concert that was planned for Buea in solidarity with the people of Southern Cameroons and has openly advocated for genuine dialogue to resolve the crisis.

By Odette Mbong

2, January 2018

How Yaounde and millions around the world welcome 2018 ⁰

In Berlin, special tents were set up at the Brandenburg Gate to care for women victims of sexual harassment or those who feel threatened, following mass assaults on women in Cologne two years ago.

In Cologne itself, 1,400 police were being mobilised, street lighting improved and more video cameras installed.

As the midnight chimes neared in western Europe, Dubai had already moved into 2018, celebrating with a laser show on the world´s tallest tower, the 828-metre (2,716-foot) Burj Khalifa.

Moscow was likewise into a new year and a new day with major boulevards and 36 key sites decked out.

In Africa, Cameroon President Paul Biya used the occasion to remind his citizens of their “duty” to “maintain republican order” as well as “social peace and national unity” amid unrest in Anglophone regions.

Gabon´s President Ali Bongo vowed “radical change in governance” in the coming year in his end-of-year speech.

“I am determined to do everything possible to strengthen our unity, regain our cohesion,” he said. “Cohesion is my ambition for Gabon”.

In the Americas the countdown continued, meanwhile. In Brazil´s party capital Rio millions were to gather on Copacabana beach to watch the fireworks, with many wearing white, the traditional colour to usher in the new year.

Toughest security in years

Despite the joyous mood among those enjoying the party fun, stricter security has been a key focus amid fears that crowds could be targets for vehicle and other terror attacks.

In Australia, the stronger police presence included some officers carrying semi-automatic rifles in Sydney and bollards used as barriers against vehicles.

Earlier in December one man was killed and more than a dozen hurt when a man ploughed a car into a crowd of pedestrians in Melbourne.

Other cities are also on alert following deadly vehicle assaults over the past two years in Barcelona, Nice and London.

New York´s Times Square celebrations are set to go ahead despite the Arctic chill gripping much of the central and northeastern United States and Canada.

But revellers there will be guarded by the strongest security presence in years, after two recent attacks apparently inspired by the Islamic State group.

Looking ahead to 2018

IS´s defeat in Iraq and Syria was one of the key stories this year, but the jihadists remain a threat and numerous attacks around the world were claimed by them or Al-Qaeda-linked groups.

Donald Trump stole the news spotlight after making his debut as US President in January 2017, with his “America first” policies and a bombastic personal style that has shaken up international diplomacy.

Political and diplomatic earthquakes set to rumble into 2018 include the crisis in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and its allies against Qatar, and the humanitarian disaster in Yemen. In Europe, further talks on Brexit will help shape the region´s future trade relationship while Russia is set to host the football World Cup amid frictions with the West.

Culled from The News.com

31, December 2017

CPDM crime syndicate begins handing out free laptops to college students ⁰

Cameroon has begun giving out free computers to all university students in what the government says will boost education and research. But the distribution of what is said to be a gift from Paul Biya, one of the longest serving presidents in the world, months before presidential elections has generated criticism.

Thousands of students sang as they lined up at the University of Yaounde II in Soa, 15 kilometers northeast from Cameroon’s capital city, to receive free laptops. Among them was Eric Ambe, a 21-year-old second-year law student, who says he can now do online research. He says he could not raise $150 to buy a used laptop sold near his university.

“We are very happy because it will help us to study well, it will help us to prepare our courses well. With this gift, the youths can now study well,” said Ambe.

Professor Jacques Fame Ndongo, Cameroon’s minister of higher education, is distributing the laptops. He said all registered university students will have their own share of what is a gift from President Biya, who, said he, is helping young university students secure access to a modern-day digital economy.

Students sit, waiting for their laptops at the University of Yaounde II, in Soa, near Yaounde, Cameroon, Dec. 27, 2017. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

“Students are very delighted because they receive a fantastic gift from their father, the head of state, who loves them and who knows that they are the future of our dear and beloved country. The university community thanks his excellency, Paul Biya, for this donation,” Ndongo said.

The first 80,000 laptops being distributed on the campus are part of a promise of 500,000 Biya made in 2016. The government has promised to distribute all of them by April 2018.

The computers, manufactured in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in Guangdong province, are branded PB HEV, short for Paul Biya, Higher Education Vision.

First complaints

But at a computer repair shop at the student residential area of Bonamoussadi, three students have already sold their laptops, complaining that they are not of good quality. Pius Ayeneh, a hardware maintenance technician, says what is very frustrating to users is that the laptops are sluggish.

“The hard drive is too small. The capacity is 32 Gigabyte. The processing speed is just 1.44 Gigahertz. If you install like Microsoft Office and the operating system, you cannot run any other program,” Ayeneh said.

One of 500,000 laptops Cameroon’s government says it hopes to distribute to university students by April of 2018. All of the computers bear the letters PB HEV, short for Paul Biya, Higher Education Vision. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

The government announced it secured a loan of more than $133 million from China to buy the computers. The government says each costs about $550 and they will use the remainder of the loan to train information technology instructors.

But opposition political parties say the loan should have been better used to set up a computer assembly plant in the central African country. The main opposition party, the Social Democratic Front, (SDF) says Biya is using the computers as a campaign tool ahead of the September 2018 presidential election.

The SDF says Gambia invested $7.5 million to build a technology assembly plant and that Kenya also has one.

Cameroon government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma says the $133 million invested in the computer project includes a provision for high speed internet to all universities and institutions of higher learning. He refuted claims that Biya is using the laptops as a campaign tool.

Cameroon’s higher education minister, Jacques Fame Ndongo, takes receipt of a shipment of laptops at Yaounde-Nsimalen International Airport, Dec. 25, 2017. (M. Kindzeka/VOA)

“This project is a result of the head of state’s initiative for Cameroonian students to give them the necessary boost and beyond, create the psychological trigger for their insertion in the digital world,” Tchiroma said.

Cameroon will be organizing parliamentary and presidential elections in September 2018. There have been calls from within Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement for him to run again for president. He is one of the longest serving leaders in the world, already having been president for 35 years.

Source: VOA

25, December 2017

As Trump rages about Immigrants, Cameroonian sisters go to the Ivy League- New York Times ⁰

Ten years ago, a family arrived in the Bronx from Yaoundé, Cameroon, not speaking a word of English. This Christmas, they are celebrating a feat that would be impressive for any family: Three of the family’s five daughters have been accepted to Ivy League universities.

In a year in which our nativist president would have you believe that immigrants are, at best, a job-stealing drain and at worst, criminals, rapists and people with AIDS, these three remarkable sisters are worth paying attention to. Not just because they are inspiring — they are — but because they are far better ambassadors for this country and exponents of its ideals than the 45th president.

“We brought the girls to this country because there are better opportunities here,” says Flore Kengmeni, their mother, who works as a nurse. “I don’t know of another country where you can try hard, work hard and get somewhere. Where you are given the opportunity to fulfill your potential.”

“This country is built on immigrants,” Francois de Paul Silatchom, their father, a professor of economics at SUNY, starts to say, before his middle daughter, Ella, a sophomore at Yale, interjects: “Our experience as a family is what America is.”

That experience is marked by hard work, optimism, resilience and a persistent sense of gratitude even to have the opportunity.

All three girls admit it wasn’t easy. They recall sitting in class during their first year in America and not understanding what their teachers and classmates were saying. They remember being made fun of, but not really knowing why.

“Everyone spoke so fast and I guess we speak that fast now, too,” says Xaviera, the youngest of the three, who was accepted to Harvard earlier this month.

They turned to books for guidance. Their parents got the girls library cards and made reading mandatory — “Education is the most valuable asset,” the parents say repeatedly when we meet. The sisters were encouraged to read broadly, from “The Magic School Bus” to “ Harry Potter,” and they practiced English as a family in their two-bedroom apartment in the Bronx’s Pelham Parkway neighborhood.

By the end of their first year at their local public schools, the girls had learned enough English to take the state exams, and were excelling in their classes. But their parents were alarmed that they were finishing their homework during the school day and coming home bored. They asked teachers to assign their daughters more homework. But even that wasn’t enough.

“Something was wrong,” Mr. de Paul Silatchom says. “I started looking for schools that would challenge them and keep them busy. At a school fair, we learned about Democracy Prep.”

At Democracy Prep, a public charter school in Harlem where I met them one recent afternoon, the day begins at 7:45 a.m. and ends at 5 p.m. Longer school days, many argue, allow teachers to spend more time on subjects other than math and English, and keep students out of trouble.

Francois de Paul Silatchom, left, poses for a portrait with his daughters (Left to right,) Xaviera, 17, Ella, 19, and Chris, 20, and their mother Flore Kengmeni, center, at their church on the Upper East Side.CreditVictor J. Blue for The New York Times

Through the school’s Korean language program, the sisters were exposed to a culture completely different from their own, which sparked an interest in global affairs for all of them. Civics is a core part of the school’s curriculum, which Xaviera says showed her that, “Regardless of how disadvantaged you are in society, you have an advantage if you understand how our system of government works.”

When the oldest, Chris, now a junior at Dartmouth, got into the college in 2014, friends and family were elated, but her parents made it clear that the work wasn’t over.

“The night I got into Dartmouth, Mom asked me, ‘Have you done the dishes?’ Getting in was exciting and I knew she was proud, but it was just a regular day,” Chris says.

“They haven’t ‘arrived,’ as people like to say, just because they are into Ivy League schools,” Mr. de Paul Silatchom says. “It’s a good start and a platform of opportunity.”

When speaking, the sisters transition seamlessly between New York-accented English and French, their first language. The irony that they landed at a school called Democracy Prep after immigrating from one of the world’s least democratic countries is not lost on them.

It’s something they’ve spent a lot of time thinking about as President Trump has rolled out various cruel immigration policies, from his proposed travel ban to, in September, rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — an Obama-era program that protected the country’s approximately 800,000 undocumented youth raised in the country from being deported.

“It’s scary to see because this is not the country we know,” says Chris, who along with her sisters, became an American citizen in 2016. “America at its core is principled on immigrants. We came to this country to improve our futures and I feel as American as anyone born here.”

“These girls are more American than Cameroonian,” their mother says. “Can you imagine being undocumented? We were very lucky,” Xaviera adds.

Watching videos of immigration agents separating families in recent months has been particularly difficult for Ms. Kengmeni and Mr. de Paul Silatchom. “I can’t imagine what it’s been like for these children who go to school in the morning knowing they might come home at the end of the day to no parents,” Ms. Kengmeni says.

This year, Christmas break involves running around to pack for Chris’s semester abroad and attending three Christmas Masses, but the family is grateful to be all together, even if it’s for just a few days. They know they are the lucky ones.

Forty percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded or co-founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. Watching Ella, Chris and Xaviera, I’d bet good money that they will join those ranks of these world-class leaders. But the question I find myself asking as I leave their school: Who are the young women the Trump administration is currently keeping out?

Culled from The New York Times

22, December 2017

Four days to Christmas, Yaounde invaded by garbage ⁰

It is becoming extremely difficult in Yaoundé to take a step without falling on a pile of garbage deposited in the streets and not removed for ages.

This rubbish is now part of the decor to the chagrin of the people and the environment- a legacy of the Biya Francophone Beti-Ewondo regime.

Health and Safety Cameroun (Hysacam), the company in charge of the collection and management of waste appears overwhelmed by the tonnage of household waste.

The corrupt CPDM regime which recently liberalized the garbage collection and management sector is slow to find partners. As a result, garbage piles and trash cans are multiplying in the nation’s capital.

By Rita Akana

21, December 2017

Prime Minister Philemon Yang weighs in on ENAM scandal ⁰

Prime Minister Philemon Yang has said that he wants to know how a student who died months ago gained admission into the National School of Administration and Magistracy (ENAM). Cameroon Concord News gathered that Mr. Philemon Yang has ordered an investigation to shed light on what appears to be a new scandal in Cameroon’s prestigious school, which is going to accommodate Junior and Brenda Biya, the son and the daughter of the President of the Republic for the 2018 academic year.

The controversy came to light after it was revealed the name of a candidate Njdomo Millsaints Claude, who died well before the entrance examination, ended up in the list of those admitted with a score of 14/20. The late Njdomo Millsaints Claude was among the 5 successful candidates into Cycle A of the Faculty of Administration.

The Prime Minister is aware that the late student did not do the oral session of the examination but came first in the scoring. Philemon Yang has created a commission of inquiry composed of representatives from the PM office, the Ministry of Public Civil Service and Administrative Reform (MINFOPRA), the president of the board of directors of ENAM and the rector of the school.

It is the third scandal that has rocked ENAM’s 2017 entrance examination process. On November the 16th, the results of the eligibility candidates published by the rector, Linus Toussaint Mendjana and announced over state radio and television were immediately annulled by the Minister of Public Service, Angel Michel Angouing. Following presidency arbitrations, other results were published on the 17^th of November by the MINFOPRA that were also affected by many inconsistencies.

By Sama Ernest

17, December 2017

Yaounde: Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang held in prison before court hearing ⁰

Cameroonian author Patrice Nganang was held in prison on Thursday before a court appearance on Friday for the alleged publication of an article critical of the country’s president.

His lawyer Emmanuel Simh confirmed his client was jailed at the capital Yaounde’s central prison ahead of his first hearing at the Yaounde administrative centre.

“I did not have access to his file, but he is prosecuted for apology for crime, contempt and assault threats,” he told AFP, adding that the charge of “contempt of the President of the Republic” and “forgery and the use of forged documents” had been dropped.

Nganang, who teaches literature at New York University, was arrested on December 6 in Douala, the economic capital of Cameroon, on his way to fly to Harare in Zimbabwe. Cameroonian government spokesperson Issa Tchiroma Bakary said that the writer had made threats against President Paul Biya on December 3 on Facebook. Nganang is alleged to have written that he had a gun and that he was going to shoot Biya in the head.

Source: AFP