08-30-2017, 10:15 PM
*** 31-Aug-17 World View -- Cameroon's army to force English-speaking children to attend school
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Anti-government tensions grow in Cameroon's English-speaking regions
****
![[Image: g170214b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g170214b.jpg)
During protests earlier this year, Anglophone protesters used catapults against police in Bamenda, Cameroon (RFI)
Tensions are growing in the Southern Cameroons provinces of Cameroon,
the Anglophone (English-speaking) regions of the country. At least
half a dozen schools have been burned down.
The perpetrators are believed to be members of Ambazonia, the armed
wing of the Liberation Movement of Southern Cameroons, a secessionist
movement. Ambazonia is the name that the secessionists give to the
Southern Cameroons region.
The Anglophone minority is about 20% of the country's 23 million
inhabitants. Starting late last year, there were protests by teachers
and lawyers of discrimination by the majority Francophone
(French-speaking) government. Anglophone lawyers protested that the
legal and court systems are biased toward Francophones, with many laws
passed without even being translated into English.
Anglophone teachers went on strike last year, protesting that all
courses in the schools had to be taught in French, and that any use of
English was forbidden. Protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers
were dispersed by Cameroon security forces firing tear gas and live
bullets.
Recently, police discovered a cache of weapons and a bomb-making
factory, resulting in the arrest of seven people. VOA and Bareta News
****
**** Violence grows as Cameroon cracks down on Anglophone activists
****
This year, Anglophone activists began using violence against the
security police. The recent burning down of schools was presumably in
support of the teachers' strike, which is still ongoing after almost a
year.
So-called "Ghost town" protests have brought Cameroon’s Anglophone
regions to a standstill since the beginning of the year.
The Cameroon government has tried a variety of nearly desperate
measures to end the strike.
In January, the government shut down all internet access in the
Southern Cameroons, in order to end the protests. It never made any
sense to me why the politicians thought that this would end the
protests, but politicians are rarely the sharpest knives in the
drawer.
Anyway, people couldn't do only banking or purchases, and businesses
in the region had to shut down. The internet shutdown was a disaster
for Cameroon's economy, which lost around $3.1 million. In April, the
government was forced to restore internet access.
In February, Cameroon arrested three English-speaking protesters,
Felix Agbor Balla, Fontem Aforteka'a Neba and Mancho Bibixy, and
accused them of acts of terrorism, complicity in acts of terrorism,
insurrection, propagation of false news, calling for civil war and
calling for a return to the federal system, with the possibility of
facing the death penalty.. However, they didn't have any actual
evidence of those crimes, and so they were held in jail without trial.
In an act of desperation, Cameroon's president Paul Biya announced
yesterday (Wednesday) that all judicial proceedings against these and
other activists would be ended, though it wasn't clear if or when they
would be set free.
This week, Biya has banned people from watching a popular cable
television channel, SCBC, or the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting
Corporation, claiming that it "terrorizes our people." The channel
broadcasts programs about the history and culture of the Anglophone
region, as well as interviews with exiled lawyers and documentaries
about human rights abuses in Cameroon.
Unfortunately for Biya, the station broadcasts from South Africa, so
he has no way of shutting it down, and South African authorities have
refused to shut it down for him. Cable operators in Cameroon are no
long permitted to broadcast the channel, but people can still watch it
over the internet (particularly now that internet access has been
restored).
People can be arrested for watching the channel, and some have already
been detained for having videos and text messages on their phones
relating to the Anglophone protests. Journal du Cameroun and Amnesty International and Reuters and Journal du Cameroun
****
**** Cameroon will use police and soldiers to force children to go to school.
****
The government has deployed an additional 400 police to the Anglophone
regions, to join the 959 already deployed. The job will be to
safeguard the start of the school term from the "persistent threat of
activists."
According to Ayuk Tabe, who is considered by some as the de facto
president of the Anglophone regions, "I don't know any child in this
world who'll go to school because he or she has been dragged by a
policeman or army officer."
If you get the feeling that Cameroon's government is run by idiots, I
have the same feeling. Instead of sending in the army to force
children to go to school, another alternative might be to hire
English-speaking teachers to teach things like geography and math in
English rather than French, and also to hire some English-speaking
judges who could run some courts in English. Steps like that would
likely help more than shutting down the internet.
Biya's clownish actions have been extremely destructive to Cameroon
and to its people and economy, but they seem to be typical of what
we've come to expect of African leaders. Paul Biya came to power in
1982 and, as usual in African countries, Biya has turned into a
dictator, using abusive measures against anyone who even criticizes
him, anything to keep himself and his cronies in control.
From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, we've seen this time
after time, in Syria, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Burundi, Thailand,
Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Eritrea, and other
countries, where leaders in generational Awakening and Unraveling eras
use arbitrary jailings, violence and atrocities to keep the opposition
ethnic group out of power. Over a period of years, the violence
worsens until it turns into a full-scale generational crisis civil war
when the next generational crisis era arrives. Radio France Internationale and AFP
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cameroon, Southern Cameroons,
Anglophones, Francophones, Ghost Town, Paul Biya, Ayuk Tabe,
Ambazonia, Liberation Movement of Southern Cameroons
Felix Agbor Balla, Fontem Aforteka'a Neba, Mancho Bibixy,
SCBC, Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation, South Africa
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Anti-government tensions grow in Cameroon's English-speaking regions
- Violence grows as Cameroon cracks down on Anglophone activists
- Cameroon will use police and soldiers to force children to go to school.
****
**** Anti-government tensions grow in Cameroon's English-speaking regions
****
During protests earlier this year, Anglophone protesters used catapults against police in Bamenda, Cameroon (RFI)
Tensions are growing in the Southern Cameroons provinces of Cameroon,
the Anglophone (English-speaking) regions of the country. At least
half a dozen schools have been burned down.
The perpetrators are believed to be members of Ambazonia, the armed
wing of the Liberation Movement of Southern Cameroons, a secessionist
movement. Ambazonia is the name that the secessionists give to the
Southern Cameroons region.
The Anglophone minority is about 20% of the country's 23 million
inhabitants. Starting late last year, there were protests by teachers
and lawyers of discrimination by the majority Francophone
(French-speaking) government. Anglophone lawyers protested that the
legal and court systems are biased toward Francophones, with many laws
passed without even being translated into English.
Anglophone teachers went on strike last year, protesting that all
courses in the schools had to be taught in French, and that any use of
English was forbidden. Protests by Anglophone lawyers and teachers
were dispersed by Cameroon security forces firing tear gas and live
bullets.
Recently, police discovered a cache of weapons and a bomb-making
factory, resulting in the arrest of seven people. VOA and Bareta News
****
**** Violence grows as Cameroon cracks down on Anglophone activists
****
This year, Anglophone activists began using violence against the
security police. The recent burning down of schools was presumably in
support of the teachers' strike, which is still ongoing after almost a
year.
So-called "Ghost town" protests have brought Cameroon’s Anglophone
regions to a standstill since the beginning of the year.
The Cameroon government has tried a variety of nearly desperate
measures to end the strike.
In January, the government shut down all internet access in the
Southern Cameroons, in order to end the protests. It never made any
sense to me why the politicians thought that this would end the
protests, but politicians are rarely the sharpest knives in the
drawer.
Anyway, people couldn't do only banking or purchases, and businesses
in the region had to shut down. The internet shutdown was a disaster
for Cameroon's economy, which lost around $3.1 million. In April, the
government was forced to restore internet access.
In February, Cameroon arrested three English-speaking protesters,
Felix Agbor Balla, Fontem Aforteka'a Neba and Mancho Bibixy, and
accused them of acts of terrorism, complicity in acts of terrorism,
insurrection, propagation of false news, calling for civil war and
calling for a return to the federal system, with the possibility of
facing the death penalty.. However, they didn't have any actual
evidence of those crimes, and so they were held in jail without trial.
In an act of desperation, Cameroon's president Paul Biya announced
yesterday (Wednesday) that all judicial proceedings against these and
other activists would be ended, though it wasn't clear if or when they
would be set free.
This week, Biya has banned people from watching a popular cable
television channel, SCBC, or the Southern Cameroons Broadcasting
Corporation, claiming that it "terrorizes our people." The channel
broadcasts programs about the history and culture of the Anglophone
region, as well as interviews with exiled lawyers and documentaries
about human rights abuses in Cameroon.
Unfortunately for Biya, the station broadcasts from South Africa, so
he has no way of shutting it down, and South African authorities have
refused to shut it down for him. Cable operators in Cameroon are no
long permitted to broadcast the channel, but people can still watch it
over the internet (particularly now that internet access has been
restored).
People can be arrested for watching the channel, and some have already
been detained for having videos and text messages on their phones
relating to the Anglophone protests. Journal du Cameroun and Amnesty International and Reuters and Journal du Cameroun
****
**** Cameroon will use police and soldiers to force children to go to school.
****
The government has deployed an additional 400 police to the Anglophone
regions, to join the 959 already deployed. The job will be to
safeguard the start of the school term from the "persistent threat of
activists."
According to Ayuk Tabe, who is considered by some as the de facto
president of the Anglophone regions, "I don't know any child in this
world who'll go to school because he or she has been dragged by a
policeman or army officer."
If you get the feeling that Cameroon's government is run by idiots, I
have the same feeling. Instead of sending in the army to force
children to go to school, another alternative might be to hire
English-speaking teachers to teach things like geography and math in
English rather than French, and also to hire some English-speaking
judges who could run some courts in English. Steps like that would
likely help more than shutting down the internet.
Biya's clownish actions have been extremely destructive to Cameroon
and to its people and economy, but they seem to be typical of what
we've come to expect of African leaders. Paul Biya came to power in
1982 and, as usual in African countries, Biya has turned into a
dictator, using abusive measures against anyone who even criticizes
him, anything to keep himself and his cronies in control.
From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, we've seen this time
after time, in Syria, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Burundi, Thailand,
Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Eritrea, and other
countries, where leaders in generational Awakening and Unraveling eras
use arbitrary jailings, violence and atrocities to keep the opposition
ethnic group out of power. Over a period of years, the violence
worsens until it turns into a full-scale generational crisis civil war
when the next generational crisis era arrives. Radio France Internationale and AFP
Related Articles
- Cameroon: One person killed in English-speaking vs French-speaking civil unrest (23-Nov-2016)
- Cameroon's president finally caves in, restores internet to English speakers (21-Apr-2017)
- Cameroon shuts down internet for English-speakers protesting French-speakers (15-Feb-2017)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Cameroon, Southern Cameroons,
Anglophones, Francophones, Ghost Town, Paul Biya, Ayuk Tabe,
Ambazonia, Liberation Movement of Southern Cameroons
Felix Agbor Balla, Fontem Aforteka'a Neba, Mancho Bibixy,
SCBC, Southern Cameroons Broadcasting Corporation, South Africa
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
