Postwatch (Cameroon)

Neo-liberalism is theft: the case of Cameroon By Lumumba Chia and Shawn Hattingh

                                   

By Lumumba Chia and Shawn Hattingh

The Empire and its accompanying multinational companies have been running a brutal swindle in Cameroon. Their swindle has revolved around imposing neo-liberal capitalism onto the country so that they could loot it. In true racketeering style, the multinational corporations that have benefited from this scam have been given free reign: they are allowed to buy what they want, sell what they want, fire workers at will, and move their money in and out of the country’s borders. The man that the Empire has chosen as the local face of this racket is Paul Biya, who has been the President of the Cameroon for 27 years. Biya and his cronies - who make up the government - regularly appear in the public arena in jazzy Armani suits, donning broad smiles and using soothing words to sell the Empire’s racket to the people. In doing so, they have often assured the people that capitalism really works and that the multinational companies operating in the country are there to help the poor. Of course, most people don’t buy the garbage that Paul Biya – and his bosses in Washington, Paris, Brussels, the IMF and World Bank – churn out about capitalism being their savour. This is because they know the Empire’s racket is an attack on them – they feel it everyday. In fact, the people of Cameroonare now poorer than at anytime in their history and the environment is on the verge of collapse.  As a result, Cameroonhas become a site of intense resistance with people defending their interests against the neo-liberal onslaught through strikes, demonstrations and riots.

How the racket works

The sad reality is that Cameroon has a long history of being pillaged. From the 1500s onwards, empires grew rich from exploiting its people and resources through colonialism and slavery. Formal political independence brought little relief: local elites simply emerged and enriched themselves by collaborating with new imperial powers, like the United States (US), to keep the pillaging going. By the 1980s, however

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Issa Bakary Tchiroma and the Talibanization of Government Communication

                                                             By Ntemfac Ofege.

Basic. The prime duty of government is to provide services. Whenever government fails to provide services, the citizenry resorts to all manner of ways including criticisms on radio and in newspapers, uprisings and coup d’états to abrogated predatory and failed governments.

Basic. The gramophone. Described as a willful artifact capable of producing sound of often dubious quality. A trademark of the gramophone: His Master’s voice. Whenever the pin of the gramophone got stuck, the instrument produced plenty of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The production of plenty of sound and fury is called noise. Cameroon’s current Minister of Communications, the esteemed Issa Tchiroma Bakary sounds like the final gramophone.