Father: A great assert in the lives of children

Unfortunately, much of the societies are trying to play down the value of a good father in a child's life

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Last Sunday was Father’s Day. I can't remember the last time I spent Father's Day with my dad. But I know he was such a wonderful person. Some of you didn't know my dad, but chances are you knew someone like him - an exceptional technician at the famous Administrative Garage Buea – Annex. Until he took up permanent residence in heaven a little above half a decade ago, the man loved his job. Yes, dad loved his job. But loved his family even more. Seriously, dad was a good husband and father.

My dad probably wouldn't admit this, if he was alive today but he was a feminist at heart. He grew up in a family of girls who jealously took great care of their children. Thus he assumed he would have children to share in his passion – making them happy. Yes, he did make not only us but all our friends happy. This, he was given several nicknames which I would spare you the trouble of going through.

He was always there for us. He took care of us like a woman and made it seem like the most natural thing on earth.

Though his memory partially failed him during the last few years of his life, my dad struggled to recall many things about our childhood life, especially those cemented in his head, like teaching us how to climb a tree, go to the farm, taking a short path (corny road) to school etc. Growing up in the “quarters”, we didn’t know places akin to Parks, and “Chucky Cheese”, unlike some of our friends at GRA, Old Government Station, Federal, and Clark’s, quarters. Whatever the case, I was pretty lucky for such a wonderful father. Lucky, indeed.

Last Sunday, I figured most dads and kids doing pretty much the same thing, but in a different environment and manner. I figured mola Mbella Ndoko, aka “Mola Daddy” a loving father in Chicago, playing with his little daughter as she picks her steeps around the lobby. I equally figured mola Mbome Fritz, another loving father from Schaumburg, Chicago, talking sports while watching TV with her breath catching beautiful daughter - Alexis Mojoko. Just like mola Dibussi Tande, playing “hide and seek”, with his son and best friend - Mokali. Besides, that’s typically what dads and their kids do when they are together.

If that sounds like your own dad, you're a very lucky person. Lucky like me.

Fathers really need to dedicate time; I mean quality time with their children. "The parents' bonds are protective against a myriad of problems," said Nadia Ansary, a professor at Rider University in New Jersey.

A recent survey found that children, daughters especially whose relationships with their dads were trusting and communicative had significantly better trust and communication with boyfriends than those who did not have such a strong bond with their fathers. "I think that's a valid theory in that she's seeing a male role model that's more balanced in a nontraditional sense," said Smithivas, a stay-at-home dad.

Unfortunately, much of the societies are trying to play down the value of a good father in a child's life. Not because in America for example about 85% of inmates and 80% of convicted rapists were raised by single parents. Or that about 75% of teen pregnancies come from fatherless homes.

Of course, a single parent can do it single-handedly when the father is deficient. But if we don't stop downplaying the importance of good fathers, then all of us will pay for it...one way or another.

Don’t be a runaway dad, please.

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Gabon: Bye Bye Bongo; And What Next?

Most African countries lived under colonial rule for longer than they have been independent. Gabon is one of them; like most French "colonies", it had its independence in 1960. This means that of some 49 years of independence, Bongo was on stage as president for 42 years (1967-2009) before his recent demise! How clearly did he see the future of Gabon? How clearly will the person who succeeds him see it?

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

Political action is always divided into three broad periods that follow one another in harmonic motion, barring the discord they may usually generate. These periods are usually described as "lived experience", "reflection" on lived experience, and "conception of strategies and tactics” for new action that succeeds the old. Such "new" action constitutes the first stage of the next political "period". Each period may last for various lengths of time.

Countries like the United States of America that lived under colonial rule like us applied this formula well in laying down the ground rules for the functioning of their country following independence. Their first lived experience was governance under colonialism. Their reflection on this lived experience gave birth to the war of independence, and the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Following these, they lived under a mixed republican constitution for some 10 years. Each state did its best to govern itself, but they all experienced the same difficulty: their own people that gained power after the colonialists were thrown out were showing themselves as capricious as the colonialists that held power before them; like all human beings, they showed self-interest and fell prey to their passions and demagogy.

The lived experience during these first years of independence under their own self-chosen "leaders" therefore led to a new period of reflection that resulted in the realisation that there had to be a radical change in perspective. This led to the replacement of the republican constitution by a system of checks and balances among the three branches of government that ensured that no branch totally represented the true nature of the sovereign people. This is the spirit of the constitution that was produced in Philadelphia in 1787. The adopted constitution is the one which is still in force in the USA today and is the bulwark of the country that "...enjoys a position of unparalleled military strength and great economic and political influence... "

The Americans succeeded because their governance allowed continuous reflection on their lived experiences which they used to forge a "common will" among their people that were totally immersed in the lived experiences. They based all political action in their society on the individual citizen, since it is the will of individual citizens that forms the collective will of "the people" for whom society is organised and governed. The forging of the collective will was facilitated by a liberal/democratic culture that made "politics" the hinge that connected the individual citizens to power.

The power relationship in such a society of free, active individuals is symmetrical, since such power emanates from each of the individuals in society. It is therefore important that in creating a democratic society best suited for the promotion of human endeavour and welfare, the ever-present temptation to disrupt this symmetrical source of power by using ordinances, laws, decrees and other instruments to unify differences by eliminating divisions within the politics of society, be avoided. Unfortunately, this is the trap in which Gabon and other African countries were caught!

Unlike the Americans after their independence, Gabon, like many African countries, went ahead and instituted asymmetrical power relations in society. The power of society to forge a common will and to define the structures through which power would be exercised was confiscated; equal opportunity was denied; the power to set the terms of power was monopolized; indeed, one-party rule was instituted in an attempt to overcome opposition between the democratic individual and the community of which he or she is a member. In other words, the public space in which individual members of society were supposed to reflect on what their society was and what they wanted it to be was removed!

With the pressure for independence mounted by valiant African nationalists and patriots, the colonialists reflected on their lived experience as colonising forces and came up with new strategies and tactics known today as "neo-colonialism" ; power could be handed over in the colonies and controlled from the metropolis! The Leon Mbas, Bongos, Ahidjos and others were recruited to accompany this new colonial strategy by adopting constitutionalism as the formula for "democracy", while ensuring that the constitutions were nothing more than decreed rules and procedures to regulate the affairs of those who were in power, at the detriment of the people; in addition, they instituted one-party rule and signed ordinances to silence the people!

The Bongos therefore opted to exercise power that was not derived from an empowered people; they opted for power derived from invisible, neo-colonial forces whose interests were and are at variance with the interests of "the people". Interestingly, although this "new" set-up was imposed from outside, it was nevertheless not imposed on a unanimously resistant people; it was supported from within enthusiastically by their leaders – the Bongos, Ahidjos and others; and passively by most of the people, with each trying to make the best of this card history had dealt them.

The result? Forty seven years of poverty in the midst of abundance; helplessness in spite of opportunity; indifference in the face of provocation; spectators in a fast changing world! Now, Bongo is gone; what next for Gabon? Will Bongo’s successor pick up his legacy and engage in "continuity" (like Ahidjo’s did), as if nothing is wrong? Will the successor allow the creation of the public space in which Gabonese can freely reflect on their 49-year lived experience, to conceive strategies and tactics for new action in a new Gabon that is truly at the service of "the people"? The future of Gabon, and indeed that of countries like Cameroon depends on answers to such questions.

POPULATION DECLINE OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD; A LESSON FOR AFRICA

The UN Population Division and other bodies projected the World population as of July 2008 to be 6,706,993,152 people and estimate that by May 2009 it will be 6.770 billion people.

By A. S. Ngwana,

These figures are staggering, if we believe the Holy Bible story of creation, that at the beginning God only created two people Adam and Eve. According to the Bible, God blessed them, saying to them, “be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it”. It seems man is doing very well to comply with this Divine Command. Man is trying not only to conquer the earth and subdued it, but man has gone out of the earth and landed on the moon. Man is now exploring the planets, the stars and in fact the whole universe, with the object of conquering and subjecting the whole creation.

From available scientific evidence before 10, 000 years ago, man survived mainly by hunting, fishing scavenging and living a migratory type of life. Some pigmies and Bushmen in Africa still live like that.

At that time there was no economic development on earth. There were no houses, no roads, no farms, no schools, no business, and no infrastructure of any kind.

Then from about 10,000 years ago, one of the most important events in man’s history took place; man was able to domesticate plants and animals and to live a sedentary life.

This Agricultural Revolution, not merely made possible a phenomenal growth of human population, but set the stage for the events in human history that eventually led to civilization and economic development.

Once humans learned to live in towns and villages, the population grew very rapidly. During this period human population is thought to have increased 16 fold from 8,000 to 4,000 BC. This gave rise to the familiar landscape of village communities, which characterized Europe as late as the middle of the 19^th century.

Man wanted many children for economic reasons. The “big” man or important man or rich man, was the man with many wives and many children who could cultivate large farms and grow rich. These men became chiefs, fons, emirs, or Kings with overwhelming importance and power. King Solomon, 970-932 BC, who transformed Israel into an organized, urbanized, rich and prosperous nation of settled people, married seven hundred and fifty wives of royal birth, and three hundred concubines. In this urge to get material influence and power, many people resulted to polygamy and large families. Sexual intercourse was mainly for procreation and pregnancies were no problem at all because children were considered a gift from God. Governments throughout history actively encouraged their population growth. The motivations varied from economic, defense and social security. Consequently they treated abortion, murder, manslaughter, and euthanasia as serious criminal offences, punishable in some cases with the death penalty.

In 1873 the U.S. Congress enacted the “Comstock Law”, which regulated public access to birth control devices, medicine or information, for the next 60 years. It was illegal to distribute any device (condoms), medicine or information designed to prevent conception, this was applicable even to physicians. The most notorious policies introduced to boost birth rates and population growths were deployed by totalitarian regimes of Far-Left and Right. In Ceausescu’s Romania the Marxist dictator instituted monthly pregnancy tests to see if women were performing their patriotic duty, and provided more generous subsidized housing to larger families. Across the communist block pro-birth policies were applied, including the gearing of child benefit to give progressively more generous payments to larger families. In Communist Czechoslovakia child benefit kicked in when a mother had two children and those after the second earned progressively more from the State. State childcare and subsidized goods for children were meant to further encouraged reproduction. Fascist regimes, however, went further. Mussolini introduced tax on bachelors above a certain age. (Presuming that once single men had graduated to the tax-favored state of marriage they would get down to procreation) In Nazi Germany the pro-birth programme was, as might be expected, ruthless. Information about contraception was suppressed. Unmarried adults face tax penalties. State Loans were given at weddings, only to be written off when a couple produced children, tax concessions were tapered to favour lager families and housing concessions were shaped to the same end. Totalitarian regimes may have been fanatical in pursuit of higher birth rates and population growth, but democracies have also pursued pronatalist policies. In France in the 1920s, laws were introduced to limit the sale of contraceptives and payments allocated to women who stayed (giving birth) at home.

The size of the population determined economic growth and military strength. Wealth was generated and people grew rich. Governments became interested in knowing their populations and growth. The first Censuses were conducted mainly for tax purposes and military conscription. Babylon is said to have conducted a census as early as 3,800 BC, The Hebrews about 1,000 BC. “Count the people of Isreal and Judah” King David said. But the first census of the “world” was conducted by the Romans, about 8-6 BC, when Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be made of the whole world. During this census the child Jesus, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem.

THE GROWTH OF WORLD POPULATION

The world population has continued to grow rapidly and has occasionally only been checked by diseases, wars and famines, such as the plague of 1348 in Crimea, which swept through Europe in 1348 killing nearly almost one third of Europe’s population, the droughts in Asia, where between 1769 and 1770, 10 million people died in India and the famine between 1877-1878 which killed about 10 million in China. The major wars also slowed world population.

However the upsurge of population growth and density increased pressure on existing resources and ushered in the Industrial Revolution, which began in Britain in 1780-1880. The Industrial Revolution, introduced the process of transformation. The Agricultural society, which had existed for thousand of years, was being replaced by the modern urban, industrialized, technocratic society, which spread rapidly as population density increased. People moved from the rural areas into the cities and towns, increasing congestion and necessitating more development and industrialization. Industry made Europe rich and powerful. The Industrial Revolution transformed Europe from a predominantly agrarian society into a predominantly manufacturing world.

During this period the world population expanded rapidly from 900 million to 1,600; Europe alone increased from 190 million to 423 million. This was due to advances in medicine, improved sanitation and high personal hygiene, which resulted in a dramatic reduction in mortality from tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid, smallpox, and typhus, increasing life expectancy from 35 years to 70 years.
The world population increased 4 times faster during the 20^th century. In 1945 the world population was about 2 billion, but within the last 60 years, the UN has projected the world population as:
5.3 billion in 1990
5.7 billion in 1997
6.2 billion in 2000 and
8 – 10 Billion by 2025

This phenomenal growth of world population was accompanied by immense wealth, economic development, technological progress and the production of surplus food. From 1900 to 2000 world population has almost quadrupled, from 1.6 billion to 6.1 billion, while real gross domestic product (GDP) increased 20 to 40 times, allowing the world not only to sustain the larger population, but to do so at a vastly higher standard of living. Thus the highly industrialized countries of the world have a high population density per square kilometer and a high income per capita.

However the rapid growth of world population, economic development and the generation of immense wealth were not even. Some continents, especially Europe, grew very fast, while others especially Africa grew very slow. While Europe generated plenty of wealth, made enormous economic and technological progress, Africa staggered behind as a consequence of low and scanty population density which had existed in Africa for centuries.

THE SLOW GROWTH OF THE AFRICAN POPULATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

The slow growth of the population and development of Africa, formerly known as the “Dark continent” was affected by several factors:

ISOLATION: Most of Africa for a long time was isolated from the technological and intellectual progress that was transforming the whole world. Africa South of the Sahara was cut off from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East by the Sahara Desert. It was cut off by the Equatorial Nile. It was cut off by the oceans and it was cut off by the almost impenetrable tropical forest.

TRANSITION: Though Africa is perhaps the cradle of the human race, the transition from hunting and scavenging for food to agriculture, from migratory to a sedentary way of life, which had spread nearly 10,000 year BC, throughout the world, only became wide spread in Africa from the Christian Era.

DISEASES: Africa was ravaged and is still being ridden by infectious diseases, resulting in deaths from tuberculosis, typhoid, and malaria. According to WHO malaria claims about 3 million lives every year. Poor sanitation, low personal hygiene and a chronic shortage of drugs result in premature deaths and reduce life expectancy to 45 years. Almost 2 million children died since the last decade for lack of drugs.

The AIDS epidemic is set to kill millions of Africans in the next decade. At the moment Africa South of the Sahara has the highest rate about 76% of HIV/AIDS infection in the world. Christianity which had influenced European culture and laws did not come to Africa early enough to influence African traditions, cultures and laws. Consequently polygamy, fornication, and promiscuity were not considered sins or bad, by African laws and customs. The HIV/AIDS is spread mainly by sexual intercourse. Polygamy and the African excessive love for many children encourage promiscuity, and promiscuity encourages the spread of HIV/AIDS, hence the high rate of HIV/AIDS in Africa South of the Sahara. Therefore to control the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, Africa must change or modify some of its customs, cultures and traditions. Those African countries which have embraced the Christian teaching on Fidelity in monogamy and abstinence before marriage have experienced a great reduction in their rate of the HIV/AIDS infections. But those who have relied on Condoms have found to their detriment that the more condoms they import the more the HIV/AIDS infections increase. Scientifically tested, condoms do not stop the HIV/AIDS virus; on the contrary they may increase the HIV/AIDS infections. In fact Durex the biggest manufacturer of condoms said on their website that condoms do not stop the spread of AIDS. Condoms were actually manufactured more than 160 years ago to stop pregnancies and not to stop AIDS which only appeared in 1981.

The HIV/AIDS epidemic has provided manufacturers, and promoters of condoms an opportunity to make a vast multi-billion dollar industry and business, together with billions of other contraceptives and pills which they pump into Africa, they have succeeded to stall the growth of the African population. Fertility or pregnancy is not a disease to be cured. Doctors who prescribe contraceptive pills to control fertility are actually pouring poison into healthy families everyday at a great monthly cost to their health. The pill is the only drug that is introduced into a healthy body to make the body malfunction. People marry to have physical and mental enjoyment and satisfaction and ultimately to have children. Contraception distorts the purpose and nature of sex. The HIV/AIDS infection is set to kill about 300 million in the near future.

SLAVERY: At the time the world population was growing fast, Africa lost more than 10 million healthy strong working men to slave traders.

WARS: Colonial wars, civil and tribal wars reduced the African population. Out of 100 wars fought since 1945, 90 have been in the developing countries.

PARTITION OF AFRICA: After The partition of Africa in 1884, the colonial powers took available food and raw materials from the continent to Europe to maintain their expanding populations, industries and economies

FAMINE: As a result of droughts, wars and none mechanization of agriculture, famines have contributed to the slow growth of the African population. Africa has to increase output of food per unit of land. Africa must adopt scientific procedures and programmes to achieve food production efficiency. Today Europe and America produce far more food per hectar of land than in Africa. In Italy for example, between 7000 to 8000 kilos of rice are produced per hectar , while in Africa only between 400 to 500 kilos are produced per hectar. America requires only 3% of its population to produce all the food it uses and exports, Europe 8%, and Africa 70%. Whereas Europe has 92% of its population engaged in industries, technologies, and financial services, which produce most of the wealth, Africa engages 70% of its population to produce insufficient food to feed itself. Europe has stock piles of food against emergencies, Africa has none. To guarantee a steady growth of the population, Africa must produce enough food and pile stocks against droughts and natural catastrophes. As of 2003, among 25 hungriest countries of the world, 17 came from African

CORRUPTION: Africa is one of the richest if not the richest continent in the world with vast and immense natural resources and minerals. Africa has vast uncultivated land, and virgin forests loaded with all types of trees for timber and wood, plenty of water and unlimited sunshine and abundant mineral resources such as: huge reserves of diamonds, gold copper, manganese, bauxite, nickel, platinum, cobalt, major deposits of coal, petroleum, and natural gas, uranium, radium, titanium, germanium, lithium, phosphate, iron ore, chromium, tin, zinc, lead, mica, sulphur, salt, natron, graphite, gypsum etc. In fact Africa is blessed with all the known mineral types in the world. Despite these immense wealth Africa is poor and least developed, because corruption exasperates the situation. Corrupt African leaders and dictators, the corrupt elite, in collusion and connivance with foreign governments and people, through bribery and corruption deprive Africa of billions of dollars every year impoverishing the continent. These monies are starched away in foreign banks, foreign properties, and multinational corporations and in stocks and shares in foreign countries. According to UN around $148 Billion are stolen from the continent by the political leaders, the business industries, and the elite and civil servants every year with the collusion and connivance of banking industries in Europe and North America. Africa would be a different place if all the stolen monies were returned. Bribery and corruption in Africa could be reduced drastically if western capitalist institutions in Europe, America and Japan control their role in keeping Africa poor.

All these factors have contributed to keep Africa under populated, resulting in the continent remaining undeveloped, under-industrialized, technologically backward and poor. Therefore if Africa must develop quickly the African population must grow faster.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world, with a total area of 30,330,000 sq. km representing 22% of the world’s land area. In 1990, it’s population of 642 million was only 12% of the world’s population. Africa has an average population density of 21 persons per sq. km., which is far less than the world’s average of 35 persons per sq. km.

Africa has the least developed economy in the world, even though Africa has immense natural resources and raw material. Africa can only develop and industrialize quickly if there is a fast growing population. This is what happened to Western Europe during the industrial revolution, there was a population explosion in the 18^th and 19^th centuries. This is what is happening to China now. China for the past decade has remained the fastest growing economy in the world.

The industrialized countries of the world are densely populated and are also the richest countries of the world. While the sparsely populated countries of the developing world with immense natural resources, are also the poorest countries of the world. Out of the world’s 50 poorest countries, 34 are African. When you look at the World Bank and UN Population Department figures of 1998/99 you will notice that the 15 countries of the European Union compared to a cross section of 15 African countries reveal that Europe is far densely populated than Africa. Europe has a density of 115 persons per sq. km, while Africa has 25 persons per sq. km. (Europe is 5 times more populated than Africa per sq. km). Europe is far richer per capita than Africa. Europe income per capita is US $23,660; while Africa income per capita is US $637 (Europe is 37 times richer than Africa per capita)

Other densely populated countries outside Europe also show high income per capita. JAPAN has a density of 335 persons per sq. km and income per capita of US$34,313. SINGAPORE has a density of 6,255 persons per sq. km and income per capita of US$29,610. MONACO has the highest density of 32,894 persons per sq. km. in the world, and has an income per capita of US$24,739. There is no country in the world with a high population density, which does not also have a high rate of economic development. India has a GDP growth rising by about 6% yearly. In China, for the past decade, the GDP has been growing by 9.2%, the fastest in the world, while Africa has the lowest, about 0.1%. The very large Chinese population of nearly 1.3 billion people is forcing economic development at a speed unheard of before.

As of 2003 no African country was among the 27 richest countries of the world. Also, all but 3 of the 27 poorest countries of the world are Africans.

African governments must do everything to eliminate negative factors to the growth of their populations. Population density is directly linked to economic development and growth, wealth and power.

Development is by people for people. Where there are no people there is no development.

The United Nations Population Division, a professional demographic centre not connected with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects that the world population will never double again. Instead it will peak at about 7.46 billion in the year 2038. After which it begins an increasing steep decline. By the year 2082 it will have declined to six billion and be slightly under 5 billion by the end of the twenty-first century. The current world total fertility rate or TFR is 2.48 children per woman, not far above replacement. Given even high mortality rates in many parts of the world, the replacement fertility is about 2.2 children per woman. For all practical purposes, then, the world is at zero population growth, although because of lengthening life spans in many parts of the world, population will continue to expand for several more decades. The global TFR will drop to 1.54 children per woman by the year 2050. If we take the European case as exemplary of the fertility rates of post modern societies, we can expect that fertility rates for the world as a whole will fall to somewhere between 1.1. and 1.8 children per family in the years to come. We will see not zero population growth, but negative population growth, with all the economic and societal problems this implies. Humanity’s long-term problem will not be too many children, but too few children. Too few children to fill the schools and universities, too few couples buying homes and second cars, too few consumers and producers to drive the economy forward, and too few workers to provide support, through their tax dollars, for the ballooning population of elderly.

The effects of population decline are so serious that all the governments affected are bent on stopping this decline. Many European countries Russia and Japan have begun to enact policies that will encourage family formation and childbearing. But these policies do not seem to be working because the “contraceptive mentality” has taken root in their women. These countries have supported policies which are anti-marriage, anti-family success, anti-life and even anti-God. Things which were prohibited before and punishable under the law have been legalized. Abortion, contraception, euthanasia, divorce, prostitution, and homosexualism have been legalized.

Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declares that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person”, but more than 90 countries, signatories to the Universal Declaration of human Rights, have legalized Abortion, the killing of innocent human beings. Let no one say that aborted children are not human beings because science and religion agree that human life starts at conception. Abortion is the 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 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. Abortion is an attack on life itself.

On January 22, 2003, President Bush declared in a broadcast that the United States “must protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born”.

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, legalized by some 90 governments of the “civilized World”, signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Every Government in any country in the world has the right, freedom, liberty and duty to rule and carter for the good of its citizens as it thinks fit unless it is in a gross violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or other international Conventions to which it is a signatory.

Last month Hilary Clinton the American Secretary of State appeared before the US House of Representatives in sworn testimony said the following.

1. Clinton praised Margaret Sanger, the racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood Federation. She compared Sanger to Thomas Jefferson.

2. Clinton praised the UN Population Fund; the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese one child policy which is responsible for millions of horrible coercive abortions.

3. Clinton said the US would ratify the pro-abortion CEDAW treaty, meaning the last meaningful CEDAW holdout will now fall.

4. THE FULL FORCE OF THE US GOVERNMENT WILL BE USED TO GET GOVERNMENTS TO CHANGE THEIR LAWS ON ABORTION ALL OVER THE WORLD.

This is an insult to governments and countries all over the world. What right has the American government, to use its full force, to subvert, sabotage, and force Sovereign Governments and States all over the world to change their laws on abortion, to amend their Criminal Codes?

The Cameroon Penal Code on abortion is based on our culture, traditions and customs, love for children, believe in the sanctity of life, and our love and fear of God. Last month at a United State (US) House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton stated that there was a new administration in place with different values, beliefs and global agenda. Fine that is for the American people. The global agenda on abortion is not acceptable to Africa and the developing World.

We need our population for our economic development and growth. Africa is poor and underdevelopment because we are under populated.

Why on earth will Clinton want to force the Developing Countries to reduce their populations by killing their unborn children? Is Europe and America not satisfied with stopping our population growth by pumping trillions of contraceptives, condoms, pills and other abortifacients to the Developing World? We need our population to grow if we must develop and industrialize and get out of poverty. Europe and America did this in the past, India and China are doing it now. Development is by people for people, where there are no people there is no development.

No body can doubt that Madam Hilary Clinton is among the most radical pro-abortion advocates in the world, but the Obama/Clinton position on abortion violates the Cairo agreement.

In 2008 South Korea had the lowest birth rate in the world after Hong Kong – 1.18, prompting the president of Planned Population Federation of Korea, Choi Seon-jeong pleading with his countrymen and women to have MORE Children. He called upon them to prevent abortion, to promote marriage and to encourage young people to marry and have children:

“Religious groups need to advocate respect for life, abortion prevention and positive values on marriage and parenthood, encouraging the younger generation to form families and have children” Mr. Choi is desperate to combat a “national crisis of super-low fertility”, or Korea will disappear, will extinct.

Seeing the terrible negative effects a declining population has on the economic and social life of countries, it baffles any person of sound mind, why some people and countries would want to stop the populations of the developing world from growing. The irony is that these very countries and people are doing everything possible to stop their own declining populations.

The human population can only increase through births, and births are best in families, yet the Western world, Japan and America are destroying the marriage institution which is necessary for stable families which are the cells of society, through which a healthy and sound society can be built. For Africa to maintain the growth of its population and get out of poverty, it must continue to strengthen and encourage its families and resists all negative forces calculated to destroy the family and stop population growth.

Cameroon: Anti-Corruption Activists Jailed

The leader of the Citizens' Association for the Defense of Collective Interests, ACDIC, Bernard Njonga, has been slammed a two-month imprisonment term. The Mfoundi High Court delivered the judgment recently after a trial that began last December. The court found Njonga and one of his collaborators, Jean Georges Etele, guilty of organising an illegal protest march.

By Kini Nsom

The court sentenced the duo for two months but suspended the sentence for a period of three years. Besides the imprisonment term, the civil society activist and his colleague will pay a fine of FCFA 26.500. This means that if Njonga and his colleague organise any protest march within a period of three years, the police will take him straight to prison. But, the verdict discharged and acquitted three other accused persons. Bernard Njonga and four of his collaborators were arrested in Yaounde on December 10, 2008 for organizing a street demonstration to protest against corruption in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Before the protest march, the ACDIC authorities had published a report that exposed corruption in the Agriculture Ministry. The report revealed that FCFA billions of funds from the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, HIPC-I allocated to common initiative groups, CIGs involved in the production of maize, were embezzled with the complicity of senior officials in the ministry.
The report indicted some officials in the Ministry of Agriculture for creating fake CIGs in order to line their pockets with the HIPC-I funds.

ACDIC also exposed a corruption deal in which some 60 tractors the Indian Government donated to the Ministry of Agriculture to help farmers groups boost maize production, were divided among some Ministers and senior government officials.They concluded that 62 percent of the funds allocated to farmers in 2008 were embezzled. A press conference ACDIC organised to launch the report in Yaounde ran into a storm of disapproval by administrative officials.

Earlier planned to take place at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel, the ACDIC press conference failed to hold because the Divisional Officer for Yaounde III slammed a ban on it. It later took place somewhere at the Rue CEPER neighborhood. Ironically, Njonga was sentenced after the Vice Prime Minister in charge of Agriculture and Rural Development, Jean Kuete, received him and encouraged him to continue fighting corruption in his ministry.

The situation is akin to an earlier incident in which two journalists in Yaounde were recently slammed a five-month imprisonment term for attempting to expose corruption at the National School Administration and Magistracy, ENAM. The court charged the journalists with attempted blackmail against the Director of General Affairs.

Prolonged ‘Come we stay’: A major stumbling-block to legal matrimony

Only a little above 50% of first cohabiting couples ever get married!

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Cohabitation otherwise known as “come we stay” once rare, is fast becoming rampant in our society. Majority of young men and women of marriageable age now spend much time in a cohabiting relationship rather than real marriage whereas Cohabiting relationships are less stable than marriages.

In France and Germany for example cohabiting couples have a slightly lower risk of divorce. Whereas in the United States where cohabiting couples taking premarital education courses or counseling are not at a higher risk for divorce. On the other hand couples, who live together in the United States and in the UK, are at a greater risk for divorce than non-cohabiting couples. Reason why many believe living together is more stressful than being married.

The reasons for this act which many believe is educed by women, are as varied as those who practice it. Some blame this on pressure from men, poverty on women who rely solely on men and the need to consolidate their places in the man’s lives. While some say the reason for cohabitation is usually to better understand the man and vice versa, others believe the decision is meant to cut expenditure so as to save money for other things.

However, studies indicate that, couples who lived together before marriage tend to divorce early in their marriage. And if their marriage last seven years, then their risk for divorce is the same as couples who didn't cohabit before marriage. It’s worth noting that only a little above 50% of first cohabiting couples ever get married.

On the other hand, most women who cohabit differ on whether or not it’s necessary to do so. While some say it serves the needs of the concerned, others affirm that it delays marriage and could be disadvantageous to the woman and her children were the relationship rupture in future. Yet the phenomenon has become rampant to the extent that many women consider it as a way of life.

“Personally I think the act would help both parties to understand each other before taking their marriage vows. Again, it frees the woman from the fear of another woman taking her place and also, it helps the partners to economize their resources and plan for a better legalisation of their union”, says Elizabeth Nzalle.

Love, according to Linda Ngong, constitutes one of the reasons why women cohabit with men. “You know love can drive one crazy and before you realise you are already deep in a man’s house without him seeing your parents, talk less of legalising the union”, says Linda Ngong, who attributes cohabitation to what she described as “high degree” of love. Besides, Ngong, says pregnancy can equally push a girl into cohabitation. Hear her, “Once a girl gets pregnant she might go into living with the author of the pregnancy so that he (the author) takes full responsibility of the pregnancy and eventually the child”. But Ngong who recently celebrated her 10^th anniversary in holy matrimony underlined the fact that cohabitation makes the woman cheap, and delays her chances of being legally married to a man.

Biblically it’s equally wrong for people of the opposite sex who are not legally married to live together as couples. An act Christians believe encourages fornication, which like other sins is punishable by God. “Even without any knowledge of the Bible I think any foresighted woman would resist any temptation to go live with a man who has not married her. Experience has shown that such relationships mostly end up in pieces as the woman and her children are either thrown out by the man for another woman or the woman is deprived of the man’s property when he dies”, say Joan Otabella.

Hitherto, most women believe cohabitation is unproblematic and see it as an easy way of getting married believing that very few men are ready for the exercise these days.

If not, are you ready?

Abortion, Diabetes, Maternal and Neonatal mortality: Silent tragedy in Cameroon!

Government might claim it has reduced death rates. But not to the satisfaction of World Health Organization!

By Yemti Harry Ndienla

Officials in the Ministry of Health in the republic of Cameroon have revealed that the number of women who die during pregnancy and in the process of child bearing (maternal mortality) and the number of children who die soon after birth (neonatal mortality) is fast ravaging the population of the country far more than many developing countries. Here, more than half a million women a year die during pregnancy and in childbirth, largely from problems that can be treated or prevented.

According to official statistics from that Ministry, the rate of maternal mortality in Cameroon stands slightly above 650 women per a hundred thousand while that of neonatal mortality is 29 per thousand. Figures which according to Dr. Etienne Asonganyi, Obstetrician and Gynecologist, “are very high compared to other countries, reason why it is called a silent tragedy”

Health officials here have recognized among others; Anemia and its complications, malaria, postpartum infections, respiratory track infections as foundation of the silent tragedy. Other leading causes include but not limited to abortion, diabetes, high blood pressure, and over-bleeding. It should be noted here that maternal deaths from such causes were largely eliminated nearly a century ago in developed countries. Sadly enough, the women who die in developing countries are usually young and healthy, leaving their newborn at great risk of following them as well.

Though the solution to these unfortunate situations are also enshrined in the much heralded “Millennium Development Goals” of availability and accessibility to health services and the provision of quality healthcare, the government of Cameroon lacks the will power to make possible changes due to high level corruption and other unconstructive approach. Should we relate these to the arrest and detention of the country’s former minister of public health and some of his associates about a year or so ago? While the tragedy is fast ravaging the population, health officials in some areas are emphasizing on the importance of family planning as means of curbing the misfortune.

On the other hand family planning is of paramount importance here owing to the fact that many women lack education and information about birth control. In so doing they become pregnant too young to give birth safely. Besides, about 40% of women in Cameroon do not go in for prenatal consultations, due to both poverty and especially ignorance thereby paving way for closed to 40% of children to die before the age of one due to diarrhea, tetanus, pneumonia and HIV/AIDS.

Many here would rather prefer to give birth at home due to high cost of health care while those who managed to go to the hospital are often faced with poor infrastructure, inadequate and in most cases unskilled personnel.

Maternal mortality is a very important aspect of healthcare because child survival depends on the mother's health. It is disappointing that maternal mortality is quite high in Cameroon despite huge international financial and material assistance.

Though it seems the is no single solution for these problems which tend to have so many facets, the public has to be well sensitized on the issue for them to take necessary measures in preventing the tragedy and especially on the risk involved during child bearing if women do not take appropriate measures.

In addition, special services in infant welfare clinics and antenatal care services have to be made available in most hospitals. These include among others a breast milk bank for children whose mothers pass away during delivery or those whose breast milk has been deemed not healthy for the child consumption.

Other stopgap measures will be to train more medical officers especially Doctors like the insignificant number of student doctors who are presently receiving training at CUSS, Yaounde, and the University of Buea, construct and equip more hospitals and clinics to handle emergencies, and perform Caesareans.

Modern houses should equally be erected to attract and accommodate resident doctors and nurses to rural areas conscious of the fact that it is not easy to lure doctors and nurses to these areas where most people live in abject poverty with near total absence of some basic social amenities including electricity, flush toilets or pipe-borne water. Furthermore, places should also be provided for pregnant women in remote areas to stay near hospitals so that they can make it to the labor ward on time owing to the fact that it is not uncommon for a woman in labor from a remote village to arrive a health centre after a daylong trek, or bone-rattling ride on the back of her husband, a bicycle or motorcycle, sometimes with the arm or leg of her unborn child already emerging from her body. And many arrive too late to change the situation.

It’s rather unfortunate that despite measures taken to reduce the trends worldwide, the situation in Cameroon remains a cause for great concern thus generating fears that the situation could retard efforts to reduce the deaths by 75% in 2015.

However, the situation is not limited to Cameroon. Women in Africa have some of the world’s highest death rates in pregnancy and during childbirth. WHO statistics hold that for each woman who dies in the continent, 20 others suffer from serious complications. “Maternal deaths have remained stubbornly intractable” for two decades, states a 2008 report by Unicef. Though in the year 2000, the United Nations set a goal to reduce the deaths by 75 percent by 2015; many poor nations seem to be far from this tag.

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