Society

PARIS (Reuters) - France called on all sides to show restraint and reject violence after soldiers killed at least eight people and wounded others in Cameroon’s restless English-speaking regions on Sunday, during protests by activists calling for its independence.

“France is following the situation in Cameroon carefully and is preoccupied by the incidents that took place over the weekend,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnes Romatet-Espagne told reporters in a daily online briefing on Monday.

“We call on all the actors to show restraint and reject violence,” she added.

Reuters

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Rita Akana

02.Oct.2017

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Barrister Felix Agbor Balla has called for the resumption of schools in anglophone Cameroon in an interview he gave on BBC's focus on Africa. 

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Rita Akana

25.Oct.2017

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Under construction by a Chinese company, a bridge in Kenya has mysteriously collapsed less than a fortnight after President Uhuru Kenyatta  came to inspect it. Campaigning hard for re-election, the president visited Busia County on 14 June, saying the $11.5m Sigiri Bridge, expected to be complete next month, would transform people’s lives by making it easier to cross the treacherous River Nzoia.

But 12 days later on 26 June one end of the 50-m-long central span broke off from the landward span and crashed to the ground, injuring a number of workers, reports Kenya’s Daily Nation.

The contractor is reported to be China Overseas Construction and Engineering Company (COVEC). Work began in 2015.

COVEC said it had done nothing wrong.

“We adhered to all the set standards before and during the construction of the bridge,” COVEC’s project manager told the newspaper, adding: “We have experienced engineers and we are equally baffled by what happened.”

The project manager also insisted 20 people were injured, not 27 as reported.

The government has now suspended construction of the bridge pending a probe into the cause of the collapse, and police are investigating the possibility of foul play.

Infrastructure Principal Secretary John Mosonik said that the Kenya Rural Roads Authority had “dispatched a team of top Engineers to site to investigate the cause of the failure”.

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Rita Akana

04.Jul.2017

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We grew up watching classics like Cinderella, Coming to America, Pretty Woman, Nollywood’s Violated and a couple of other movies where love conquered the social class divide.

 

Fast forward to 2017, the Internet rules; anyone can meet anyone, and nobody kicks up a fuss about cross-class relationships or marriages anymore. It is not considered overtly scandalous. We no longer factor it in when considering the root of our relationship problems, and we look to psychology or gender norms instead when trying to figure out why our partner is being an ass. We pretend that we live in a classless society where background does not matter as much as present compatibility. Things are changing and people’s classes are no longer inscribed in stone.

 

Believe it or not though, social class or shall we say socio-economic differences, still pose a very difficult challenge in relationships today. Anyone who has dated someone outside their social class can affirm that there are strange tensions and inevitable speed bumps that come with these kinds of relationships. It can be fraught with complications.

 

For instance, your boyfriend could be from a high-class, wealthy family while you come from a working-class family with less money. He travels a lot and has been to all these places around the world just for fun, while you have never crossed the borders of Nigeria. You start to think you cannot keep up with him because you have to be extremely careful with money. Also, you know that the only way both of you could travel together on a regular basis is if he pays for you, and that just seems wrong.

 

Likewise, it could be the other way round and you are the girl from an upper-middle-class family, while your man has a working class background. Of course, financial equality does not mean cultural equality, so you wonder why he attaches too much importance to simple things like good food or designer labels. He, on the other hand, gets exasperated by your easy-come-easy-go spending attitude.

 

A couple of days ago, while having drinks with some friends at Intercontinental hotel (which turned out to be a horrible experience, as the place is nothing like a 5 star hotel…or even a 4 star -the food is substandard and the roof of the bar leaks), a friend mentioned her recent experience on a date. She had gone out with a guy who, although was wealthy, obviously had a working-class background. Being a girl brought up in an upper-middle-class home, the first thing she noticed was the huge gap in their personalities. According to her, his mentality was very different from hers. While he had asked her to pick any venue -a way to let her know he could afford her tastes, he had hinted on the food being overpriced (although, he could clearly afford it) and exhibited terrible table manners. Also, he had felt the need to talk about his achievements and how he had risen above all …as though she made him feel insecure, and he needed a form of validation from her. Again, there was the fact that his diction was flawed, and their experiences growing up were very different.

 

Of course, her intention was not to ridicule the guy. She had shared her experience to find out if her declining a second date with the guy and refusing to speak to him again afterward portrayed her as being a snob. Another friend who was out with us, *Bisi, jumped in and assured her that she made the right call nipping it all in the bud – she was better off with someone in her class.

 

Bisi spoke from experience, seeing as she had married into a super wealthy home despite being from a lower middle-class home. Prior to her marriage there had been endless disputes over her husband marrying down, and her family’s wealth being all too recently acquired. According to her, while cross-class pairings or relationships seemed egalitarian, it was complicated and required a lot of work. Bisi stated that stereotypical class prejudices are real – in any cross-social class relationship, both parties would have differing views, beliefs, attitudes, and practices on things such as child-rearing, money management, career advancement, how to spend leisure time e.t.c. This would go on to stir feelings of insecurity, resentment, usually in the partner on the “lower” side of this difference. And as a result, there will be a lot of negative pressure, tension, conflict as well as a sort of imbalance in the relationship, making it difficult for the couple to last long or even survive.

 

Bisi went on to share some of her experiences in marriage which all seemed a little incredible, and in between laughs, it dawned on me that I’d never dated anyone outside of my socioeconomic strata, which I’d describe as middle class. I have never been with any one of the glitterati nor have I been with a blue collar. Obviously, I have nothing against it, but it certainly would be quite a chore building a relationship with someone from a dramatically different social background, wouldn’t it? Sure, all relationships take work, but with a combination maturity and a willingness to healthily compromise, you can overcome any relationship problem. However, it is better to opt for one which isn’t already threatened by the boundaries of class at the initial point…don’t you think?

Have you ever dated someone with a richer or poorer background than yours? What were the issues? How did it work out?

 

About Nkem Ndem

Nkem Ndem is a dynamic freelance writer and editor who can be reached for online writing(web content and blog) and editing, screenwriting, ghost writing, copy proofreading and reviews. She has since worked with Jumia, SpiceTV Africa, and Bella Naija. Check out her Instagram: @kem_dem, twitter: @ndemv and snapchat:@ndemv. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Nkem Ndem

24.Jun.2017

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Les Brasseries du Cameroun took part in Douala’s celebration of the 44^th edition of the World Environment Day and promised to plant 200 trees in the economic capital Douala.

The 44th edition of the World Environment Day was celebrated on the 5^th of June. This year's theme, "Bringing people closer to nature," was an opportunity to reflect on the issues of environmental protection and its impact on the quality of our planet's survival. Les Brasseries du Cameroun who took part in the celebration in Douala promised to plant 200 trees.

The Day was dedicated to cleaning up, Douala III district. The goal of this initiative was to collect 200,000 empty plastic bottles and send them for recycling. At the end, the objectives sought by Les Brasseries du Cameroun were to share their new visions, values and missions with the public on the one hand; and raise public awareness of the dangers of pollution from plastic bottles and promote good practices.

 

The World Environment Day was initiated by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The program is to combat the destruction of the ozone layer; the fight against deforestation; the preservation of the quality of water supplies and the fight against drought.

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Ndi Modeste

07.Jun.2017

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East African countries have witnessed an increase in the number of murder cases and assaults on albinos recently. Their bodies if found after a serious search is usually mutilated and those who survive end up  either losing their limbs or suffering deep scars on their body inflicted by their hunters seeking their body parts to sell which is a lucrative business for those seeking quick wealth in these east African countries.

Albinos in Malawi feel extremely insecure in their own homeland and prefer staying in mission premises or hospitals where it is difficult for men wanting them for their body parts for charms that bring fortune and good luck.

Rumours go that an arm of a live albino costs 3000 USD and that of an albino corps is 1500 USD; making it a highly lucrative business in this impoverished less developed country.  

Beatrice Namvaleni lost her husband last year to this Albino killers who mutilated his body and went away with both his arms and legs, his body was later found six days after he was declared missing in neighbouring Mozambique. The government had to bury him under well mixed concrete block to avoid his corps being exhumed for his bones by the perpetrators of these acts.

“I could not recognize him again because his arms and legs were all gone and his body was already in an advanced stage of decomposition. I don’t know how I am going to manage with this four children, he was the father of the house and provided for their needs and fees. Now I can barely feed them and they have all dropped from school, I don’t know what their future will look like”

The government of Malawi is trying to bring this criminals to justice but some people say that some police officers who should be protecting the people are working with the criminals especially when an accused is arrested, they ask for heavy amounts of money from them to close the investigation and the poor people have no headway to bring this murderers to justice.

So is being an albino a curse? There is no peace while fighting to survive and even after death they still don’t have peace for men will still exhume their bones to sell.  

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Ivo Nsame

16.May.2017

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