Parifoot:Gambling Shifts to Younger Generation

          When our parents were younger they betted on balls in a bowl,the order they will come out in and the numbers they will bear.This was a betting organisation ran by the government(surprisingly) called “Lotto”.Then came PMUC which has been dubbed “Paris Must Use Cameroon”.This time we ditched the balls for horses racing half a world away in France.It was as predictable as life sometimes we win sometimes we lose.

       Now we are in the present where our phones are slimmer than our fingers put sideways,a lot of innovation has been brought in and guess what?-we brought our own betting too.Parifoot should be the most adopted innovation among boys in the recent times.It is about betting on football matches before they are played.All the above bets involve money but I think what makes Parifoot so special is the enthusiasm involved with it.So one bets and watches the matches preferably in a  bar for the ambience that a crowd creates as they await their fate be it billionaires,handicaps 1,2 and 3.Billionaires is betting on the outcomes of the two halves of the match.Handicap one bets for home team winning,2 for away team and 3 for draw.

           PMUC has adopted the “If you cant beat them join them” movement and have expanded their betting to football but just a little different because they bet on who scores rather than number of goals but everything else is pretty much the same 

    .However Parifoot remains the best for boys because as they say “Parifoot’s odds are higher thus the money is higher”.People may wonder why losers keep playing but one thing is sure Gambling in Cameroon is getting “younger” as time passes.

Five Journalistic Values Under The Microscope

PRINCIPLE 1

Journalism’s first obligation is to the truth

Truth is not one of the first things that come to mind when one thinks of the Journalism practiced in the Cameroon. There is still a lot of distorted information and wrong representation of facts. When soldiers got into an accident on the Sabga hill the number given on the CRTV was much less than those of other media houses and what people saw with their own eyes on the streets. Thus the audiences assessment is a further assessment of a lie.

Then there is the case of LTM that does little or no editing to its images in the guise of truth telling or evidence.

PRINCIPLE 2

Its First loyalty is to citizens

Journalists provide information that can be considered as chaffs because of extreme gate keeping has been done due to fear and favour and Journalists are instead loyal to “Gombo” providers. This is the case with the CRTV which gives out more information than news because the newsy part of the story had been removed due to the media’s first loyalty to the powers that be.

On the other hand CRTV through some news stories portray the real situation of things. It also does this with the program “Press Hour “ “Canal Press” on canal 2,”Sept Hebdo” on STV “Droit de reponse on Equinoxe..These programs are platforms for journalists to air their minds on trending issues in all classes of society by giving facts and figures so the citizens can know the truth.

PRINCIPLE 3

Its essence is a discipline of verification.

Verification indeed set Journalism apart from propaganda and fiction. This calls for objectivity in the work of Journalist but most reports in a media house like CRTV will carry a Governor’s speech and a satisfied participant without someone with a different opinion.

There are existing media in Cameroon that carry out the practice objectively like “The Post” newspaper which presents both sides of the story and seems more credible therefore.

PRINCIPLE 4

Its practitioners must maintain independence from those they cover.

Independence is a farfetched phenomenon in Cameroon’s media landscape. Both public and private media are guilty of reporting what is favourable to the powers that be or risk being shut down. That is the case with “Foundation Radio” which according to the government did not abide with the unwritten “anti SCNC rule. They were not able to act freely.

Another way that can be seen as the government’s way of curbing independence is by not granting license to various media houses so they can always have something on them.

PRINCIPLE 5.

It must serve as an independent monitor of power.

This like the point above reinforces the idea of independence of a journalist, this time acting lie watch dogs. In Cameroon the tendency is for the watch dogs to see things but they are unable to say them because of fear or editorial policies like “Protect the government in power” and “Stay out of trouble”. Thus topics like the president’s term of office cannot be discussed.

save and keep the girls

This mother’s day today,some mothers could not hear the words “happy mothers day” from their daughters because they decided to send them to school.Boko haram kidnapped more than 200 girls is the broken record part, and 59 girls killed in their sleep seems to be the forgotten part. These are girls we cannot account for. Yes the world is coming together to help a country with a GDP of 507 billion –the biggest economy in Africa to fight a group of men. Those are the facts.

The other part of that coin seems to be lying face down for too long if you as me. What next? The first lady of America describes this is a threat to girls education globally we have all seen Nigeria being hit at the outskirts and at the heart of its nation. The capability of this group cannot be over emphasized. That message definitely sunk in Wole Soyinka a landmark in African literature calls one of the leaders a “homicidal maniac” but then again “What is Next?”

International quest for abducted girls.

What about Cameroonian girls? Girls in a country which is closest to that which is being robbed of generations. Are they safe? Cameroon is a country that is slowly evolving to the era where boys and girls will be given equal opportunities to an education. The North of Cameroon is always put in sharp focus when the topic if girls education arises because its seems to be a battle of development and culture in which development has more armour and reason,but if education wins, will the girls be killed for what they know?

The first man has been hit whether they were warned or not we cannot possibly think they are going to end there. Neither can we think that they will end at the level of the French priest and Italian nuns. When the few foreigners decide to remain foreign, more ways will be created to derive pleasure and for a gang of men that kill children in their sleep there is no telling what can be done.

Neighbors of Nigeria all wish that they “Bring back our girls” but don’t think they cannott do more that Nigeria.It is now more if a question of “when” and not “if”…

I stand behind bring back our girls and ask for the queue on keep our girls safe.

Fame

Life...it could be so funny.
The times when you could kill to be seen
Could do so many things for fame
Then act like you dont want it.
Funny thing is its only because you have seen it
That you dont want it anymore.
What used to look like gems through a glass
Are now just rocks under your feet

You could have had it anyways.
Just get them thinking good of you
Then they could have been squirming
But we can  all know
What it felt like to be nameless
Desperate for your person
Coz who you are inside is opposite to outside.
And now looking at it all from here,
You would wish you had let it go

People hate you because you give them chances
There are  open arms you cannot run to because
you dont know what you feel
All these because you wanted somebody other than
your pals to know your name

If wishes were true
I could really use one right now
That i'd go back to the days when
I existed and not lived.
Amidst the paparazzi,glitz and glamour
There is a part of me that just wants to be human...

Girl child Education is Still a Problem

Dasi peeps in on a classroom everyday on her way to a farm, she hears words like “ball, cat, jump” but to the child, they are just some more pronunciations.Dasi passes by in the morning and by evening when the child returns the class is deserted. It’s another day the Dasi is passing by again and this time s, “I am a boy” is heard but before the child can halt to listen the mother hits from behind and says in their vernacular  “know your place, you cannot get in there, it is not your place”

girl in a classroom.(developementdiaries.com)

The child can’t get in because she is a girl. In some traditional communities in Cameroon (especially the Muslim communities) a girl still has insufficient reasons to be educated. It’s almost like she has 205 bones.17 years ago, delegates met from 189 countries in Beijing for the United Nations 4^th conference on women, They produced a call to action to the global community to work for the laws, reforms, and social change necessary to ensure that women and girls everywhere have the opportunities they deserve. 

In Cameroon, some progress has been made in the primary sector, but our progress is far from complete.  Women and girls are still the majority of the poor, uneducated, unhealthy, and underfed.  Traditional customs and practices still stifle women’s progress in all spheres of nation building.  Although women are the bread basket of this nation, they still do not own the land they cultivate and do not have collateral to access credit to make those farms profitable.  They care for the sick, but are less likely to get treatment when they themselves are sick, and an overwhelming majority of women and girls still suffer varied forms of violence.

According to Institut Nationale de la statistique du Cameroon the Extreme North region has a literacy level below 40 and the National percentage for girls in primary schools is 47.7,a fail mark, yet primary education was basically made free in 2000.

It has been 13 years today and Dasi still walks past a classroom every morning on her way to the farm. It’s been 13 years and some classrooms in Cameroon use pictures to show the other kind of human being because they do not have a real representation.

On October 11, 2014,as the world celebrates the international day of the girl child, the education of women and girls in Cameroon should come into sharp focus again.