Friday, October 29, 2010

Diasporic voices of opposition: Virtual pursuits for identity and secession on AMBASOS; a Yahoo group discussion forum by Southern Cameroonians.

This essay argues that with the advent of computers and the convenience of computer mediated communications, it is easy for communities and nations to be created and sustained in cyberspace. After the Banjul verdict of May 2009, communications on AMBASOS and member’s quest for the Anglophone identity was fueled by the fact that most of them claimed to have fled marginalization and/or prosecution from Cameroon to seek refuge overseas. After analyzing email communications of members, this essay argues that even though not all Anglophone Cameroonians agree on a unique identity and the call for secession, most members of AMBASOS prefer to live separately from the Cameroon state. Because it is not so easy to cut off from their roots, members of this Yahoo discussion group have created and are recreating and holding on to certain practices, that remind them of home and give them hope of settling in their own nation in future.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Do Greetings matter?

I am thinking aloud here as a parent. You know when I go around the streets of Johannesburg and especially when I watch teenagers on Television, I tell myself that kids these days have no respect and no sense of culture. I Actually sat down to reflect and then concluded that it could be because parents are too busy to instill these cultures in them. Is it not true they say that we have to lead by example?

On the streets, on queues in shops and banks, in the lifts and even in churches, I have hardly been greeted by someone I do not know. When I greet, responses are not that warm. Honestly I do not approve of the fake smile people give me when our eyes meet. I have decided to frown at that instead, and to give such a person a funny look. I was actually surprised the other day when I greeted 2 ladies in a lift and none of them responded. I repeated my greeting in a more firm manner and after responding one lady said "Oh we do not greet each other here in Wits. People are just busy thinking about work and studies" I ignored her in anger because my response would not have been as pleasant as she expected given by the smile she wore.

If adults do not greet each other and lack the courtesy to respond to greetings, how then do I expect my 5year-old to greet anyone out of their house? It is really a 'rotten' society but I beg you all as parents and adults, we must remember that the duty is ours for the type of leaders we expect to have in future.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

You go Matriculants of 2010

Yesterday, Matric students around the country were quoted as saying the first day of matric exams went well.

following the last student's strike that called for a 25% upfront mark even before the start of the exams, fears had been that there could be some disruptions. News24 quoted the MEC of Education in kwazulunatal's spokesperson; Muntu Lukhozi as saying “There have been no reports, we assume everything is going well,”

Some previleged Grade 12 pupils were writing Information Technology theory and Computer Application theory. Previlege because not all schools in the country offer these courses since they can either not afford or maintain computers.

Due to mounting fears of disruption, Police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mdunge said police were keeping an eye on matters. Even though “So far everything is going well. Nothing has happened.” I also add that "Nothing shall happen in God's name"

I take this opportunity to wish all the matriculants a brilliant writing period and of course a golden future.

Mama Vicky.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

How Loving can one be?

What do you do when anger seem to overpower love or when you unconciously place the love for material over that for human being? We could all be guilty after reading this story:

it begins that while a man was polishing his new car, his 4 yr old son picked up a stone and scratched lines on the side of the car. In anger, the man took the child's hand and hit it many times; not realizing he was using a wrench.

At the hospital, the child lost all his fingers due to multiple fractures.
When the child saw his father.....with painful eyes he asked, 'Dad when will my fingers grow back?' The man was so hurt and speechless; he went back to his car and kicked it a lot of times.

Devastated by his own actions...sitting in front of that car he looked at the scratches; the child had written 'LOVE YOU DAD'. The next day that man committed suicide.

Anger and Love have no limits; choose the latter to have a beautiful,
lovely life... Things are to be used and people are to be loved, But the
problem in today's world is that, People are used and things are loved...

During the day, be careful to keep this thought in mind: Things are to be
used, but People are to be loved ... Be yourself... This is the only day we HAVE. Have a nice day. Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. I'm glad a friend forwarded
this to me as a reminder.
If you don't pass this on to anybody, nothing bad will happen; if you do,
you will have ministered to someone.

Have YOU become a user ' and do not recognize love? Have YOU missed the
opportunity to apologize for your thoughtlessness. Stay FAITHFUL and Be
GRATEFUL.

This might be sad, but it is so true in the world that we live in today! If this

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Racism

When will a monkey get accepted by the human beings who run the earth and reign the economy? It was so disheartening last weekend for me to find out what happened to a Cameroonian born football Player in Spain. I though for a creature of that nature (I dare not call him a human being for the sake of my racist white readers) who brings so much joy to football fans, he would be seen as just a football player.

Eto'o Fils has made them celebrate, he has brought them joy, make them money, yet all they do is call him a MONKEY? Well educted people, where does all this take us? Does it really pay a person to degrade another so much? Were we not all born 9 months after swimming in our mothers wombs? conceived of sperms from our fathers? Are we not all created by the Devine being we worship? If Eto'o came from the forest and all the racist white people in Spain were born in hospitals, then I say to them Keep up your racist attitude for you are well too superior a human being than any BLACK Person.

Monday, October 18, 2010

How Do African Governments Function?

With the ages of our leaders, there seem to be no intellignet ones left to rule the people. The below story illustrates my point.

Once upon a time, when President elect Obasanjo of Nigeria was still in office, he got an invitation from the Queen to come for a visit to England. After all the banquets and carriage rides and what not, Baba finally got the quiet moment he had craved all day in order to have a one on one chat with her majesty. After the usual small talk, Baba quickly popped the question. He asked her what the secret to her success was. You know Nigerians, we think everything is a secret…the President's health status is a secret, his whereabouts is a secret, reports of the various panels of enquiry set up by govt to investigate the causes of different crises around the country are kept secret, we even have secret registries in every government agency in d country. Maybe we are a secretive people, we love secrets.

Anyway, back to our story. So Baba asked for the SECRET to the Queens's success and she told him that she relies on her people a lot and therefore she makes certain that only the intelligent get to positions of authority.

She decided to show him exactly what she meant and so she phoned Tony Blair. "Now listen carefully, Mr. Obasanjo. I'm going to ask Mr. Blair a question to determine his intelligence."

Queen: "Hello Mr. Blair, I have a question for you: your mother has a child, and your father has a child. This child is not your brother and is not your sister. Who is he?"

Tony Blair replied instantly, "It's ME Your Majesty!"

Queen: "Correct! Thank you and goodbye"

"You see Mr. Obasanjo?" said the Queen.

"Yes", he replied "and thanks a lot, I'll definitely be using that!"

Once back in Nigeria, he decided that he had doubts about Mantu's level of intelligence and he decided to test him. He arranged a meeting with him and asked him:

"Mantu, I have a question for you; your mother and father have a child. The child is not your brother and is not your sister, who is he?."

Mantu thinks...... and thinks………and thinks, and finally says, "Em, Mr. President, you must give me more time to think about it."

And Mr. Obasanjo gave him 2 weeks to come up with an answer. That afternoon, Mantu called a meeting of all his aides, advisers and assistants to discuss the question, but NOBODY knew the answer. So he decided to take it to the floor of the Senate. After a heated debate the Senate President thought it wise to clear out the gallery and go into a closed session as he believed the revelations that might result could be damaging to the family and reputation of the distinguished Senator Mantu.

After about two hours of deliberations, the house decided to set up an ad hoc committee to look into the matter and report back to it in ten days. The committee was given the following terms of reference:

1. To come up with a complete family tree of the entire Mantu clan
2. To pay a courtesy call to the traditional ruler of Mantu's village and the State Governor
3. To interview all living relatives of Senator Mantu
4. To determine if Sen. Mantu's dad had any extramarital affairs
5. To determine the DNA composition of Sen. Mantu (in Germany of course or Saudi)

On completion of its assignment, the committee was to submit its report to the Senate which would then pass it on to the Senate committee on special duties. This committee would then review the report of the ad hoc committee and come up with a draft "white paper" (whatever that means). This draft "white paper" would then be brought back to the Senate and on approval would be passed on to the President through Senator Mantu.

The Ad-hoc committee then submitted its budget which, of course, was kept SECRET, but included funds for;

a) The immediate purchase of Land Cruiser jeeps for each of the 12 members of the committee. The jeeps would be used to travel to Mantu's village because, as you know, Nigerian roads are bad and Mantu's village is remote.
b) Air tickets (first class of course) and hotel accommodation in Jos for committee members and their numerous aides. They'd stay at the Hill-station hotel and drive to Mantu's village in the morning.
c) Air tickets (again first class) to Germany and back, and hotel accommodation (five star) for everybody.
d) Estacodes and hazard allowances
e) Logistics
f) Miscellaneous

Even though the budget was kept secret, you can easily come up with the figure by taking the actual estimate of the above list and multiply by ten. You'll only run into problems when you get to the final two items (logistics & miscellaneous) , as these are usually added to cover for all the people that need to be "settled" in order to ensure that everything goes smoothly. Therefore the figures have the tendency of varying widely and so it can't really be predicted.

Anyway, the money was released and the committee started its assignment in earnest. They finished within the time frame that was stipulated in their terms of reference and they prepared a voluminous report which was to be presented at the senate at plenary. But on the d-day when the chairman of the committee was about to make the presentation, a distinguished senator from the Southern part of the country raised a "point of order". He argued that the committee was illegal because its composition was lopsided in favor of a certain region in the country. He pointed out that of the 12 members; seven were from the North and only five from the South. Not to be outdone, another senator, this time from the North, raised a "point of order" on the "point of order" that was raised by the senator from the South. He argued that since the committee's assignment was primarily to investigate the lineage of Senator Mantu (who was from the North), they needed
senators who knew the terrain, who understood the culture of the people and their language.

More points of order followed and after a while the Senate President decided to put a stop to it by subjecting it to a voice vote.

And thus he announced, "All those in favor of the committee being considered legal and thus go ahead to present its report say "AYE"". And the house responded accordingly.

And then he asked again, "All those not in favor of the committee being considered legal and thus should not go ahead to present its report say "NAY"". And the house responded accordingly.

Unfortunately for Mantu, the "NAYs had it" and thus the report was never presented. Now Mantu had a really big problem, because the President was waiting for an answer and he had run out of time. So in one last effort, he decided to phone his very good friend Jerry Rawlings who had always sounded intelligent to Mantu and thus might have the answer to this really difficult question.
"Jerry, your mother and father have a child. The child is not your brother and is not your sister, who is he?."

Jerry answered immediately. "Hey, Mantu, It's me of course, you dumb Nigerian!"
Mantu couldn't believe his luck and so he rushed to Aso Rock Villa, his motorcade of five cars moving at top speed with sirens blaring. Ordinary Nigerians going about their normal businesses scampered out of the way. When they finally arrived their destination, Mantu literarily ran all the way to the President's office.

"Mr. President, Mr. President", he called out, breathing heavily. "I know who he is."
Obasanjo: "Good, so tell me"
Mantu: "It's Jerry Rawlings Sir! In fact, when he revealed the SECRET to me, I started to see the resemblance between us"

Obasanjo: "Jerry Rawlings ko, Jerry Gana ni. You are such a stupid senator. Olodo rakpata! I'll make sure you don't return to office after this term. Stupid man, the correct answer is TONY BLAIR!"

And that's how Mantu never returned to the Senate even though he supported the President's third term agenda.

This is how Africa is governed and the people of Africa seem to be lobing this.

Man killed wife and two children

What is the world turning into? How would you take a woman's life and those of your own children because of mere suspicion? The devil is at work and we have to push him out of our lives after reading this story.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) ― Angry over a suspected affair, a 43-year-old Minnesota man struck his wife in the head with a golf club and strangled her with an electrical cord until she died, then drugged two of his children and killed them while one struggled and begged for him to stop, according to criminal charges filed Friday.

Justus Ogendi Kebabe was charged Friday in Ramsey County with three counts of intentional murder in the deaths of his wife, Bilah Omare, who was in her 30s; his son, Kinley Ogendi, 12; and daughter, Ivyn Ogendi, 9.

The three were found dead Wednesday night in the family's third-floor apartment in Vadnais Heights. Kebabe, who had threatened to kill his wife in the past, was arrested that night in southern Minnesota. He had the couple's 4-year-old daughter with him, unharmed.

He made his first court appearance Friday, and bail was set at $3 million.

"Our entire community feels the pain and sadness of these horrific deaths," Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner said. "They remind us, in such a tragic way, that domestic violence continues to take a horrible toll despite so much effort to prevent it."

A telephone message left at the public defender's office Friday was not immediately returned.

According to the criminal complaint, Kebabe initially lied about the killings — saying his wife died of a diabetic reaction and his two older children were with his brother. But after further questioning, he allegedly confessed to the murders in detail.

According to the charges, Kebabe told authorities that at around 11 a.m. Monday, he argued with his wife over affairs he thought she was having. Kebabe told investigators he hit her in the head with a golf club, and after she started screaming, he strangled her with an electrical wire.

He then told investigators he brought her body into the bathroom, locked the door and put a towel under the door to keep blood from coming out, the complaint said.

Kebabe told investigators the children came home from school Monday and went to bed. On Tuesday morning, "he prepared a drink of cranberry juice putting inside a handful of Tylenol PM pills and disguising the taste of those with sugar," the complaint said. He then gave the drinks to his children.

After they finished drinking, Kinley went to take a bath in another bathroom — not the one that held his mother's body. Kebabe told authorities he went into the bathroom and held his boy's head under water while the boy struggled and said, "Stop daddy stop!" according to the complaint.

"Kebabe said that he held Kinley Ogendi under the water until he was dead," the complaint said. He then brought his son into his bedroom, but him in the bed, covered him with blankets and closed the door.

The complaint said Kebabe told authorities he then went into Ivyn's room, where she was groggy and lying on the bed. Kebabe told investigators he smothered her with a pillow and choked her with his hands until she was dead.

Kebabe, who is from Kenya, told authorities he put a plastic bag over his head to try to kill himself, but realized he had no plans for the couple's 4-year-old girl and didn't want her to go back to Africa. According to the complaint, Kebabe typed up notes about his daughter's future care, then panicked and drove away with the girl.

Kebabe's car ran out of gas on Interstate 35 in southern Minnesota. Kebabe ran away before police arrived, but the trooper who responded noted the girl was naked from the waist down. Kebabe allegedly told two women who stopped to help that the girl had wet her pants so he took them off, the complaint said.

When the trooper found Kebabe, he admitted he took Tylenol PM and was arrested for impaired driving. He told authorities his wife died and his kids were at his brother's house, but when police contacted Kebabe's brother, the man said he didn't know Omare was dead and did not have the children.

Kebabe's brother told Ramsey County authorities that Kebabe had been making recent threats to kill himself.

Sheriff's deputies went to the family's apartment and found several doors locked. Police opened the locked bathroom and found Omare, "with her body discolored and blood on the floor around her head," the complaint said. They then opened other locked doors one-by-one, and discovered first Ivyn, then Kinley.

Ramsey County put out an alert for Kebabe, and learned he was already in custody in southern Minnesota's Rice County.

Kebabe has a prior arrest for domestic assault. According to a sheriff's incident report from 2008, Kebabe was arrested for pushing Omare and threatening to kill her. Online court records show the assault charges were dropped and Kebabe pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
Story from http://www.kabibi.com/lates-news/latest-news/1977-a-kenyan-man-kills-his-wife-and-two-kids-in-minnesota.html

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Media Coverage of Chile Mine Rescue

CNN)- Jubilation may have met the first man pulled from the collapse Chilean mine shaft, but it was the second man rescued whose image was splashed across news websites.

Wearing sunglasses and looking more like a rock star than a miner, Mario Sepulveda, 39, punched the air after being winched in a metal pod from deep below ground. He embraced a clearly elated Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and led the crowd in rousing chants.

"No-one expected souvenirs from the second man to emerge from 69 days trapped in northern Chile's San Jose mine, " the Sydney Morning Herald reported. "But there was Mario Sepulveda, 39, only moments free of the rescue capsule, digging into a scuffed, yellow kit bag for gifts for his rescuers - rocks."

British tabloid The Sun dubbed him "Super Mario," and repeated claims that he was the "joker of the pack" who had "earlier asked rescuers to send down a blow-up doll for his colleagues."

The Sun ran its main story under a typically irreverent headline "Up, up and hooray," while many others, including The New York Times, played it straight, updating its headline as each miner each miner reached the surface.

The first rescue came after the publishing deadline for print editions of European newspapers, but many updated the drama in live online blogs.

"José Ojeda is the seventh miner to be rescued. He waves a smudgy Chilean flag. Very calm and now a big smile and a big hug for his stepdaughter, "blogged the Guardian newspaper, noting the scale of the event was similar to the "media hullabaloo" in the U.S. over the rescue of a toddler Jessica McClure from an eight-inch pipe in 1987.

By the eighth rescue, Germany's Spiegel had updated its leading headline to read "Miracle in the Desert," while, for a time, France's La Tribune relegated the Chile rescue to its second article as the nation entered a second day of strikes.

Spain's El Mundo led with a mosaic of black and white images of the 33 miners which turned to color as each was rescued, under the headline "Welcome to Life."

Australian press called on the expert opinion of two men who survived two weeks trapped almost one kilometer down a gold mine in Tasmania four years ago.

Todd Russell and Brant Webb emerged as heroes after their ordeal, but have told of their struggle to move on. "These guys in Chile they're going to have to start unloading because otherwise they're going to build it up and it's going to become a little time bomb in them, and that's what breaks up marriages and families and ultimately yourself," Webb told Sky News.

Tasmanian newspaper The Mercury reported that residents of the small mining town of Beaconsfield, where the men were trapped, would be "glued to coverage of the Chilean mine rescue today."

"We are in that same unknown territory," Retired Uniting Church minister Frances Seen said. "They are going through the same sort of thing that we've gone through -- the waiting and the delays."
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/10/13/media.coverage.chile/

Chile Celebrates Mine Rescue

The miners have been trapped underground for more than two months. Efforts to surface them will take place on an individual basis using a specially built cage.

Rescue operations to bring 33 trapped miners to the surface are officially underway in Chile. The AP reports that the only media allowed to record images of the men emerging from the shaft will be a government photographer and Chile's state television channel.

When the 33 miners were determined to be alive in late August, it was said that it could take up to four months to get them all out alive.

One of the trapped miners, 19-year-old Jimmy Sánchez, wrote an emotional letter to a relative just days ago.

Scroll down for live video updates as rescue efforts develop and keep checking back for the latest information.
story from: http://www.kabibi.com/lates-news/latest-news/1938-chile-miners-rescue-live-videos-and-updates.html

Thursday, October 7, 2010

FOREIGN ownership and control of Banks or FOREIGN banks in SA?

The economy they say is controlled by banks. Banks are intend controlled by the clients whose loyalty to them is vital. Reuters news of 6th September stated that the worry of most South Africans is that three of their top four banks have a substantial foreign owner. As it stands, Standard Bank is 20 percent owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, while Absa is majority owned by Britain's Barclays. Now there is an approved HSBC's $8 billion bid to buy 70 percent of Nedbank. This leaves only the FirstRand under total domestic control. Who knows, as you read this article, there might be a deal on the way for FirstRand too.
However, most industry insiders view HSBC as a stronger foreign owner for Nedbank than Old Mutual, which has its roots in South Africa but is now based in London. Currently, Old Mutual said it would apply for permission to the central bank to take out 1.5 million pounds ($2.32 million) of the proceeds to pay down debt (capital flight). The rest of the money it says would remain in South Africa. Some analysts claim that the deal would be positive for the rand while others disagree. Addressing businesspeople on September 2nd in Soweto, the Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus is quoted on www.busrep.co.za as saying “ownership in South African banks was a difficult question and needed careful consideration, because in South Africa, it's more complex. We have ownership that's mixed. Mixed ownership of banks does have risks. "It does create a situation of complexity and that needs careful consideration in my view,".
As a developing country, economist may argue that such investment gives a positive image to the country and even to the rand. What most of them and ever the Bank’s shareholders do not consider is the fact that foreign ownership leads to more foreign workers and this subsequently leads to more capital flight from the country.
However we look at the ownership and control of South Africa banks, it is important to be conscious of the fact that development has a price. That price could lead to complete foreign control of many sectors and industries as in the case of many developed countries.