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https://www.journalducameroun.com/en – English – Breaking News, Cameroon, Africa and World News Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:15 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.8 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/uk-pm-faces-double-trouble-in-looming-brexit-showdown/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/uk-pm-faces-double-trouble-in-looming-brexit-showdown/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:15 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/uk-pm-faces-double-trouble-in-looming-brexit-showdown/

British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a fight on two fronts this week, battling to convince her own ministers and then Brussels as the Brexit talks come to a crunch.

She must see off the threat of a cabinet mutiny and then try to overcome the divorce negotiations logjam at a summit in Brussels — though a breakthrough still seems elusive.

Time is running out on Britain’s EU exit talks — meaning this week’s gathering of European Union leaders could prove decisive in striking a deal between London and Brussels.

With Britain set to leave the bloc at the end of March, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker is demanding “substantial progress” this week, specifically on the vexed issue of the UK’s border with the Republic of Ireland.

EU President Donald Tusk has described the summit starting Wednesday as a “moment of truth” in the Brexit talks.

As for May, she not only has to win over her continental counterparts but also increasingly restive allies back home.

The hard work starts for May on Tuesday when she will rake over the Irish border issue with her cabinet, amid speculation that further ministers could quit if the PM ploughs on with her proposals.

David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary in July over May’s broad blueprint, wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper that her plans were “completely unacceptable” and urged ministers to “exert their collective authority” this week.

– Border backstop –

Neither London, Dublin nor Brussels wants to see checks imposed on the border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic — but the problem persists of finding a way to square that aim with May’s desire to leave the European single market and the customs union.

Britain has proposed that it would continue to follow EU customs rules after Brexit as a fall-back option to keep the border open, until a wider trade deal is agreed that avoids the need for frontier checks.

May says this will only be temporary, but her spokeswoman was forced to clarify the point after media reports that the final “backstop” arrangement will have no legal end date.

The EU’s suggestion would see Northern Ireland remain aligned with Brussels’ rules, thus varying from the rest of the UK.

The plans have infuriated the pro-Brexit hardcore of May’s centre-right Conservative Party — not to mention her Northern Irish allies in the Democratic Unionist Party.

For a thin majority in parliament, the minority Conservative government relies on the DUP, Northern Ireland’s biggest party.

The DUP are staunchly pro-UK, pro-Brexit and opposed to any moves that could put distance between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.

The DUP have threatened to vote down the British government’s budget if May gives way to Brussels.

– ‘Dodgy deal’ –

Writing Saturday in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, DUP leader Arlene Foster said they were not simply “flexing muscle” for the sake of it.

“This backstop arrangement would not be temporary. It would be the permanent annexation of Northern Ireland away from the rest of the United Kingdom,” she wrote.

May must not accept “a dodgy deal foisted on her by others”, she added.

After talks with senior figures in Brussels last week, Foster reportedly said a no-deal Brexit was now the most likely outcome, according to an email between senior British officials leaked to The Observer newspaper.

Meanwhile leading Conservative eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg said Saturday there were 39 like-minded Conservative MPs who “will not turn” from opposing the current plans.

“The prize is there to be grasped,” he said, adding that Britain could not accept a “punishment Brexit”.

“If the EU is a mafia-style organisation that says ‘if you want to leave, we will kneecap you’, then all the better for leaving,” he said.

Some diplomats in Brussels have suggested the leaders could talk through the night on Wednesday and approve the outlines of an agreement while they are still in the Belgian capital for broader talks on Thursday.

Cet article UK PM faces double trouble in looming Brexit showdown est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> British Prime Minister Theresa May faces a fight on two fronts this week, battling to convince her own ministers and then Brussels as the Brexit talks come to a crunch.

She must see off the threat of a cabinet mutiny and then try to overcome the divorce negotiations logjam at a summit in Brussels — though a breakthrough still seems elusive.

Time is running out on Britain’s EU exit talks — meaning this week’s gathering of European Union leaders could prove decisive in striking a deal between London and Brussels.

With Britain set to leave the bloc at the end of March, European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker is demanding “substantial progress” this week, specifically on the vexed issue of the UK’s border with the Republic of Ireland.

EU President Donald Tusk has described the summit starting Wednesday as a “moment of truth” in the Brexit talks.

As for May, she not only has to win over her continental counterparts but also increasingly restive allies back home.

The hard work starts for May on Tuesday when she will rake over the Irish border issue with her cabinet, amid speculation that further ministers could quit if the PM ploughs on with her proposals.

David Davis, who quit as Brexit secretary in July over May’s broad blueprint, wrote in The Sunday Times newspaper that her plans were “completely unacceptable” and urged ministers to “exert their collective authority” this week.

– Border backstop –

Neither London, Dublin nor Brussels wants to see checks imposed on the border between the UK’s Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic — but the problem persists of finding a way to square that aim with May’s desire to leave the European single market and the customs union.

Britain has proposed that it would continue to follow EU customs rules after Brexit as a fall-back option to keep the border open, until a wider trade deal is agreed that avoids the need for frontier checks.

May says this will only be temporary, but her spokeswoman was forced to clarify the point after media reports that the final “backstop” arrangement will have no legal end date.

The EU’s suggestion would see Northern Ireland remain aligned with Brussels’ rules, thus varying from the rest of the UK.

The plans have infuriated the pro-Brexit hardcore of May’s centre-right Conservative Party — not to mention her Northern Irish allies in the Democratic Unionist Party.

For a thin majority in parliament, the minority Conservative government relies on the DUP, Northern Ireland’s biggest party.

The DUP are staunchly pro-UK, pro-Brexit and opposed to any moves that could put distance between Northern Ireland and the British mainland.

The DUP have threatened to vote down the British government’s budget if May gives way to Brussels.

– ‘Dodgy deal’ –

Writing Saturday in the Belfast Telegraph newspaper, DUP leader Arlene Foster said they were not simply “flexing muscle” for the sake of it.

“This backstop arrangement would not be temporary. It would be the permanent annexation of Northern Ireland away from the rest of the United Kingdom,” she wrote.

May must not accept “a dodgy deal foisted on her by others”, she added.

After talks with senior figures in Brussels last week, Foster reportedly said a no-deal Brexit was now the most likely outcome, according to an email between senior British officials leaked to The Observer newspaper.

Meanwhile leading Conservative eurosceptic Jacob Rees-Mogg said Saturday there were 39 like-minded Conservative MPs who “will not turn” from opposing the current plans.

“The prize is there to be grasped,” he said, adding that Britain could not accept a “punishment Brexit”.

“If the EU is a mafia-style organisation that says ‘if you want to leave, we will kneecap you’, then all the better for leaving,” he said.

Some diplomats in Brussels have suggested the leaders could talk through the night on Wednesday and approve the outlines of an agreement while they are still in the Belgian capital for broader talks on Thursday.

Cet article UK PM faces double trouble in looming Brexit showdown est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/uk-pm-faces-double-trouble-in-looming-brexit-showdown/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/macedonia-lawmakers-to-vote-on-name-change-deal-with-greece/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/macedonia-lawmakers-to-vote-on-name-change-deal-with-greece/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:11 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/macedonia-lawmakers-to-vote-on-name-change-deal-with-greece/

Macedonia’s parliament will vote Monday on whether to ratify a deal to change the country’s name, in a bid to finally settle one of Europe’s longest running disputes.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev faces an uphill battle to get the necessary votes to rename the Balkan state North Macedonia to end the row with Athens and open a path to EU and NATO membership.

He needs two-thirds of parliament’s MPs to amend the constitution and seal the deal.

But the Social Democrat premier’s coalition, backed by parties representing ethnic Albanians — who make up around a quarter of the country’s 2.1 million population — doesn’t have enough votes.

He will need to get the support of around a dozen deputies from the rightwing opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, which has campaigned vehemently against the change.

Ever since its small neighbour proclaimed independence in 1991, Greece has maintained that the word Macedonia can only apply to its own northern province.

Greece has long vetoed the Balkan country joining NATO and the European Union over the bitter row.

But a breakthrough came in June when Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras agreed on the name North Macedonia.

Macedonia then held a referendum on September 30 in which more than 90 percent supported the name change — but only a third of the electorate turned out, leading to opponents claiming the result was illegitimate.

The poor turnout has hurt Zaev’s campaign to attract opposition MPs to the cause.

– ‘Very uncertain’ –

“There will be no two-thirds majority, do not hope for it,” VMRO-DPMNE MP Trajko Veljanovski said last week.

Another of the party’s MPs, Ilija Dimovski, was more cautious.

“We will see what will happen, but VMRO-DPMNE MPs, or most of them, will not support the deal.”

The government has planned talks with four or five VMRO-DPMNE lawmakers — which would still not be enough to ratify the deal.

“All this is very uncertain,” a government official, who requested to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Zaev has said that if parliament fails to pass the name he will immediately call early elections.

According to Florian Bieber, a professor of southeast European studies at the University of Graz in Austria, it is still “possible that pro-agreement parties and candidates might win a two-thirds majority and ratify the agreement.

“Only if this fails, will the agreement be dead or at least shelved,” he told AFP.

But Boris Georgievski, expert in international relations and head of Deutsche Welle’s Macedonian-language service, said that if Monday’s vote falls short he does “not see how the agreement has a chance to survive”.

And time is running out, as the agreement stipulates that everything must be completed by the end of the year — though Greece has already said it is willing to be flexible over deadlines.

– ‘No plan B’ –

Failing to change its name could push Macedonia into isolation.

Tsipras said in July that if the deal is not ratified, Skopje will not be invited to join NATO and EU talks will not move forward.

This “chance will not be repeated”, Zaev warned, and called on the opposition to look to “its responsibilities”.

“There is no plan B to join NATO without a name agreement,” the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg repeated earlier this month.

“The only way to become a member of NATO is for the country to agree on the name issue with Greece.”

Bieber said that while Macedonia had historically seen Athens as the “main stumbling block”, failing to pass this deal “would certainly put the country and the government in a difficult position, as the responsibility would lie with it, and not with Greece”.

The parliamentary session starts at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Monday. No deadline has been set for when it will end.

Cet article Macedonia lawmakers to vote on name change deal with Greece est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Macedonia’s parliament will vote Monday on whether to ratify a deal to change the country’s name, in a bid to finally settle one of Europe’s longest running disputes.

Prime Minister Zoran Zaev faces an uphill battle to get the necessary votes to rename the Balkan state North Macedonia to end the row with Athens and open a path to EU and NATO membership.

He needs two-thirds of parliament’s MPs to amend the constitution and seal the deal.

But the Social Democrat premier’s coalition, backed by parties representing ethnic Albanians — who make up around a quarter of the country’s 2.1 million population — doesn’t have enough votes.

He will need to get the support of around a dozen deputies from the rightwing opposition VMRO-DPMNE party, which has campaigned vehemently against the change.

Ever since its small neighbour proclaimed independence in 1991, Greece has maintained that the word Macedonia can only apply to its own northern province.

Greece has long vetoed the Balkan country joining NATO and the European Union over the bitter row.

But a breakthrough came in June when Zaev and his Greek counterpart Alexis Tsipras agreed on the name North Macedonia.

Macedonia then held a referendum on September 30 in which more than 90 percent supported the name change — but only a third of the electorate turned out, leading to opponents claiming the result was illegitimate.

The poor turnout has hurt Zaev’s campaign to attract opposition MPs to the cause.

– ‘Very uncertain’ –

“There will be no two-thirds majority, do not hope for it,” VMRO-DPMNE MP Trajko Veljanovski said last week.

Another of the party’s MPs, Ilija Dimovski, was more cautious.

“We will see what will happen, but VMRO-DPMNE MPs, or most of them, will not support the deal.”

The government has planned talks with four or five VMRO-DPMNE lawmakers — which would still not be enough to ratify the deal.

“All this is very uncertain,” a government official, who requested to remain anonymous, told AFP.

Zaev has said that if parliament fails to pass the name he will immediately call early elections.

According to Florian Bieber, a professor of southeast European studies at the University of Graz in Austria, it is still “possible that pro-agreement parties and candidates might win a two-thirds majority and ratify the agreement.

“Only if this fails, will the agreement be dead or at least shelved,” he told AFP.

But Boris Georgievski, expert in international relations and head of Deutsche Welle’s Macedonian-language service, said that if Monday’s vote falls short he does “not see how the agreement has a chance to survive”.

And time is running out, as the agreement stipulates that everything must be completed by the end of the year — though Greece has already said it is willing to be flexible over deadlines.

– ‘No plan B’ –

Failing to change its name could push Macedonia into isolation.

Tsipras said in July that if the deal is not ratified, Skopje will not be invited to join NATO and EU talks will not move forward.

This “chance will not be repeated”, Zaev warned, and called on the opposition to look to “its responsibilities”.

“There is no plan B to join NATO without a name agreement,” the military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg repeated earlier this month.

“The only way to become a member of NATO is for the country to agree on the name issue with Greece.”

Bieber said that while Macedonia had historically seen Athens as the “main stumbling block”, failing to pass this deal “would certainly put the country and the government in a difficult position, as the responsibility would lie with it, and not with Greece”.

The parliamentary session starts at 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Monday. No deadline has been set for when it will end.

Cet article Macedonia lawmakers to vote on name change deal with Greece est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/macedonia-lawmakers-to-vote-on-name-change-deal-with-greece/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/50-years-on-shockwaves-of-olympic-black-power-protest-still-rumble/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/50-years-on-shockwaves-of-olympic-black-power-protest-still-rumble/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:08 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/50-years-on-shockwaves-of-olympic-black-power-protest-still-rumble/

Fifty years after raising clenched fists in protest during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the shockwaves unleashed by John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s salute of defiance are still rippling around the sporting world.

The image of the African-American sprinters standing on the medal podium on October 16 1968, heads bowed while each raising a solitary, leather-gloved fist into the night sky would become one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century.

The protest redefined the concept of athlete activism as the stuffy, antiquated world of the Olympic movement under then president Avery Brundage collided with the political and cultural maelstrom raging across the globe in 1968.

America had already been convulsed by the twin assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King in April and the murder of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy in June. In between the trauma of those events, deadly rioting erupted in Chicago.

Large-scale protests against the Vietnam War gained momentum throughout a year which also saw civil unrest in France as student-led demonstrations and general strikes plunged the country into chaos.

By the time of the Olympics, the febrile mood sweeping the world had reached Mexico City.

Just days before the Games got under way, Mexican government forces crushed a protest by students and civilians.

Independent reports say between 300-500 people were killed, with thousands wounded and more than 2,000 arrested.

– Bloody crackdown –

That bloody crackdown set the stage for an Olympics that will forever be associated with Smith and Carlos’s “Black Power” salute.

On the morning of October 16, Smith won the 200m in a then-world record of 19.83sec, with Carlos taking bronze behind Australia’s Peter Norman.

At the medal ceremony that evening, Smith and Carlos proceeded with their planned protest which had been hatched before the Olympics.

The two sprinters had been drawn to activism while at San Jose State University in California, where they had been members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) set up by sociologist Harry Edwards.

As they walked out for the ceremony, the two athletes received their medal without shoes to symbolise black poverty in the United States.

Smith wore a black scarf to reflect black pride while Carlos wore a beaded necklace intended to represent “those individuals that were lynched or killed and no-one said a prayer for.”

Initially, both athletes had planned to bring gloves, but Carlos forgot his so the two men shared Smith’s pair.

All three sprinters on the podium — Carlos, Smith and Norman — wore badges of the OPHR.

“People started applauding vigorously and then all of a sudden I guess all the Yankees that was in the crowd decided they didn’t like what they were seeing, and they turned to venom and anger,” Carlos said at a symposium in Mexico City last month.

“And it kind of sent me into a state of shock.”

“I left the victory stand at the end of that day with the thought in mind that I was born June 5, 1945 to be in Mexico City October 16, 1968. That was my calling in life.”

– ‘Greatest sadness’ –

The repercussions for Smith and Carlos were severe.

Brundage, the International Olympic Committee’s American President, furiously demanded the duo be kicked out of the Games for what a spokesman decried as “a violent breach” of the Olympic spirit.

Within two days, the United States Olympic Committee had bowed to an IOC demand that Smith and Carlos be sent home, where they were greeted by opprobrium including death threats.

Carlos blames the 1977 suicide of his wife Kim on the turbulent aftermath of the controversy, calling it the “greatest sadness” of his life.

As Smith and Carlos grappled with the consequences of their protest, the rest of the sports world was also fundamentally altered.

Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation magazine and author of “The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World”, believes the 1968 protest handed greater power to athletes throughout sport.

“The raising of those fists and the larger revolt of the black athlete scared the holy hell out of the sports world,” Zirin told AFP.

“Everything you see in the 1970s with the loosening up of things like free agency and higher salaries, can be traced to that moment in 1968.

“And that has meant untold fortunes for generations of black athletes.

“The fear factor it engendered, and the way that athletes said ‘Wait a minute — these Games are about us, and we’re going to enforce our political will upon them.'”

Zirin said the activism of recent athletes such as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was linked directly to Carlos and Smith.

“So many athletes cite 1968 as their touchstone, to say ‘Hey, it’s happened before, this is our legacy as protesting athletes, and we’re not giving up that legacy,” he said.

“So when you see athletes standing on the sideline raising a fist, they’re doing it because of the connection to Tommie Smith and John Carlos.”

Cet article 50 years on, shockwaves of Olympic ‘Black Power’ protest still rumble est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Fifty years after raising clenched fists in protest during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the shockwaves unleashed by John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s salute of defiance are still rippling around the sporting world.

The image of the African-American sprinters standing on the medal podium on October 16 1968, heads bowed while each raising a solitary, leather-gloved fist into the night sky would become one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century.

The protest redefined the concept of athlete activism as the stuffy, antiquated world of the Olympic movement under then president Avery Brundage collided with the political and cultural maelstrom raging across the globe in 1968.

America had already been convulsed by the twin assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King in April and the murder of presidential hopeful Robert F. Kennedy in June. In between the trauma of those events, deadly rioting erupted in Chicago.

Large-scale protests against the Vietnam War gained momentum throughout a year which also saw civil unrest in France as student-led demonstrations and general strikes plunged the country into chaos.

By the time of the Olympics, the febrile mood sweeping the world had reached Mexico City.

Just days before the Games got under way, Mexican government forces crushed a protest by students and civilians.

Independent reports say between 300-500 people were killed, with thousands wounded and more than 2,000 arrested.

– Bloody crackdown –

That bloody crackdown set the stage for an Olympics that will forever be associated with Smith and Carlos’s “Black Power” salute.

On the morning of October 16, Smith won the 200m in a then-world record of 19.83sec, with Carlos taking bronze behind Australia’s Peter Norman.

At the medal ceremony that evening, Smith and Carlos proceeded with their planned protest which had been hatched before the Olympics.

The two sprinters had been drawn to activism while at San Jose State University in California, where they had been members of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) set up by sociologist Harry Edwards.

As they walked out for the ceremony, the two athletes received their medal without shoes to symbolise black poverty in the United States.

Smith wore a black scarf to reflect black pride while Carlos wore a beaded necklace intended to represent “those individuals that were lynched or killed and no-one said a prayer for.”

Initially, both athletes had planned to bring gloves, but Carlos forgot his so the two men shared Smith’s pair.

All three sprinters on the podium — Carlos, Smith and Norman — wore badges of the OPHR.

“People started applauding vigorously and then all of a sudden I guess all the Yankees that was in the crowd decided they didn’t like what they were seeing, and they turned to venom and anger,” Carlos said at a symposium in Mexico City last month.

“And it kind of sent me into a state of shock.”

“I left the victory stand at the end of that day with the thought in mind that I was born June 5, 1945 to be in Mexico City October 16, 1968. That was my calling in life.”

– ‘Greatest sadness’ –

The repercussions for Smith and Carlos were severe.

Brundage, the International Olympic Committee’s American President, furiously demanded the duo be kicked out of the Games for what a spokesman decried as “a violent breach” of the Olympic spirit.

Within two days, the United States Olympic Committee had bowed to an IOC demand that Smith and Carlos be sent home, where they were greeted by opprobrium including death threats.

Carlos blames the 1977 suicide of his wife Kim on the turbulent aftermath of the controversy, calling it the “greatest sadness” of his life.

As Smith and Carlos grappled with the consequences of their protest, the rest of the sports world was also fundamentally altered.

Dave Zirin, the sports editor of The Nation magazine and author of “The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World”, believes the 1968 protest handed greater power to athletes throughout sport.

“The raising of those fists and the larger revolt of the black athlete scared the holy hell out of the sports world,” Zirin told AFP.

“Everything you see in the 1970s with the loosening up of things like free agency and higher salaries, can be traced to that moment in 1968.

“And that has meant untold fortunes for generations of black athletes.

“The fear factor it engendered, and the way that athletes said ‘Wait a minute — these Games are about us, and we’re going to enforce our political will upon them.'”

Zirin said the activism of recent athletes such as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was linked directly to Carlos and Smith.

“So many athletes cite 1968 as their touchstone, to say ‘Hey, it’s happened before, this is our legacy as protesting athletes, and we’re not giving up that legacy,” he said.

“So when you see athletes standing on the sideline raising a fist, they’re doing it because of the connection to Tommie Smith and John Carlos.”

Cet article 50 years on, shockwaves of Olympic ‘Black Power’ protest still rumble est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/50-years-on-shockwaves-of-olympic-black-power-protest-still-rumble/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/heavy-price-how-black-power-solidarity-changed-aussie-sprinters-life/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/heavy-price-how-black-power-solidarity-changed-aussie-sprinters-life/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:06 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/heavy-price-how-black-power-solidarity-changed-aussie-sprinters-life/

When a principled Peter Norman stood on the podium alongside two Americans in their famous Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, his place in the history books was sealed.

As sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists in silence, their heads bowed in protest calling for racial equality in the United States, Norman made a choice that stayed with him for the rest of his life.

The Australian 200m silver medallist decided to wear an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to publically demonstrate his solidarity, telling them before the ceremony: “I will stand with you.”

The image of the three men became an iconic symbol of the civil rights movement, but it cost Norman dearly. He was frozen out of future Games selection and airbrushed from Australian Olympic history, with authorities for years judging him to have soiled the name of sport.

Despite this, later in life he told reporters that it was worth it.

“I believe in human rights. Every man is born equal and should be treated that way,” he said.

Joseph Toscano, convenor of the Peter Norman Commemoration Committee, said this statement summed up the man.

“He was a normal person who found himself in an extraordinary situation,” he told AFP. “He made a conscious decision for which he paid a heavy price.”

With the 50th anniversary of his defiance marked this week, and 12 years after his death from a heart attack aged 64, Norman’s actions are finally being noted in Australia.

A statue of the sprinter will be erected in his home city of Melbourne, and Australia will recognise October 9, the date of his funeral in 2006, as Peter Norman Day.

“Initiatives to honour Peter Norman, such as this statue, are seriously overdue,” Athletics Australia president Mark Arbib said last week.

Earlier this year, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) awarded him a posthumous Order of Merit to mark his contribution to the sporting world.

Australian Olympic officials deny Norman was ever blacklisted or shunned, and was only cautioned at the time to be careful about his public statements.

He retired from athletics after being overlooked for the 1972 Munich Olympics, becoming a sought-after guest speaker and occasional television commentator.

– ‘Extraordinary lack of interest’ –

Despite the belated accolades, Toscano, who is close to Norman’s family, who are patrons of the committee, said there was apathy in Australia for what he had done, given the Black Power salute is one of world’s most historic sporting moments.

“It was an iconic moment of the 20th century for racial equality, but there is still an extraordinary lack of interest in Peter Norman in Australia,” he said.

He noted that despite Norman’s status within the human rights movement, and his 200m Australian record of 20.06 seconds which still stands today, he was not invited to the 2000 Sydney Olympics by the Australian Olympic Committee.

That gesture was left to the US track and field team.

Norman is far more widely recognised internationally than in Australia, with the USA Track and Field Federation the first to declare October 9 as Peter Norman Day.

“His statement ‘I will stand with you’ is still as important 50 years later, that we all have the capacity to be Peter Norman if we take up the challenge,” said Toscano.

When the unsung hero died in 2006, Smith and Carlos led the party of pallbearers at his funeral. Smith said in a eulogy that he was in awe of Norman.

“He was a lone soldier in Australia. Many people in Australia didn’t particularly understand — why would that young white fella go over and stand with those black individuals?” he said.

“Peter was Australian and he was proud to be Australian, he was proud to run and represent Australia.

“But even greater than that he said ‘I’m proud to represent the human race’.”

Cet article ‘Heavy price’ – how ‘Black Power’ solidarity changed Aussie sprinter’s life est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> When a principled Peter Norman stood on the podium alongside two Americans in their famous Black Power salute at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, his place in the history books was sealed.

As sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their black-gloved fists in silence, their heads bowed in protest calling for racial equality in the United States, Norman made a choice that stayed with him for the rest of his life.

The Australian 200m silver medallist decided to wear an Olympic Project for Human Rights badge to publically demonstrate his solidarity, telling them before the ceremony: “I will stand with you.”

The image of the three men became an iconic symbol of the civil rights movement, but it cost Norman dearly. He was frozen out of future Games selection and airbrushed from Australian Olympic history, with authorities for years judging him to have soiled the name of sport.

Despite this, later in life he told reporters that it was worth it.

“I believe in human rights. Every man is born equal and should be treated that way,” he said.

Joseph Toscano, convenor of the Peter Norman Commemoration Committee, said this statement summed up the man.

“He was a normal person who found himself in an extraordinary situation,” he told AFP. “He made a conscious decision for which he paid a heavy price.”

With the 50th anniversary of his defiance marked this week, and 12 years after his death from a heart attack aged 64, Norman’s actions are finally being noted in Australia.

A statue of the sprinter will be erected in his home city of Melbourne, and Australia will recognise October 9, the date of his funeral in 2006, as Peter Norman Day.

“Initiatives to honour Peter Norman, such as this statue, are seriously overdue,” Athletics Australia president Mark Arbib said last week.

Earlier this year, the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) awarded him a posthumous Order of Merit to mark his contribution to the sporting world.

Australian Olympic officials deny Norman was ever blacklisted or shunned, and was only cautioned at the time to be careful about his public statements.

He retired from athletics after being overlooked for the 1972 Munich Olympics, becoming a sought-after guest speaker and occasional television commentator.

– ‘Extraordinary lack of interest’ –

Despite the belated accolades, Toscano, who is close to Norman’s family, who are patrons of the committee, said there was apathy in Australia for what he had done, given the Black Power salute is one of world’s most historic sporting moments.

“It was an iconic moment of the 20th century for racial equality, but there is still an extraordinary lack of interest in Peter Norman in Australia,” he said.

He noted that despite Norman’s status within the human rights movement, and his 200m Australian record of 20.06 seconds which still stands today, he was not invited to the 2000 Sydney Olympics by the Australian Olympic Committee.

That gesture was left to the US track and field team.

Norman is far more widely recognised internationally than in Australia, with the USA Track and Field Federation the first to declare October 9 as Peter Norman Day.

“His statement ‘I will stand with you’ is still as important 50 years later, that we all have the capacity to be Peter Norman if we take up the challenge,” said Toscano.

When the unsung hero died in 2006, Smith and Carlos led the party of pallbearers at his funeral. Smith said in a eulogy that he was in awe of Norman.

“He was a lone soldier in Australia. Many people in Australia didn’t particularly understand — why would that young white fella go over and stand with those black individuals?” he said.

“Peter was Australian and he was proud to be Australian, he was proud to run and represent Australia.

“But even greater than that he said ‘I’m proud to represent the human race’.”

Cet article ‘Heavy price’ – how ‘Black Power’ solidarity changed Aussie sprinter’s life est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/heavy-price-how-black-power-solidarity-changed-aussie-sprinters-life/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/brexit-talks-provide-stage-for-barniers-second-act/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/brexit-talks-provide-stage-for-barniers-second-act/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:04 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/brexit-talks-provide-stage-for-barniers-second-act/

Michel Barnier’s time on the political stage was supposed to be over.

Passed over by his allies in Brussels in a failed audition for Europe’s top role and out of step with his own party in his French homeland, it was time for him to take his bow.

But the 67-year-old former French former minister and former EU commissioner was invited to perform his final encore as Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator — and he’s winning applause.

The experienced operator has impressed pro-Europeans with his pugnacious defence of the Union’s core interests and won the grudging respect of his British opposite numbers.

He appears to be enjoying the return to the limelight, even though he had nothing to lose when he accepted what seemed a thankless task on October 1, 2016.

A convinced European, he had hoped to take a role in building rather than dismantling the union in March 2014, when he sought the backing the centre-right PPE to become president of the EU Commission.

But his own French conservative party failed to swing behind him, and former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker got the job instead.

Isolated in Brussels, Barnier later hoped to return to his homeland of Savoie in French Alps as president of the regional assembly, but again local barons of his UMP opposed him.

“He embodies Europe — everything our voters don’t want,” one party worthy told colleagues ahead of the 2015 poll, in a conversation overheard by an AFP reporter in Strasbourg.

Friends say these failures left him bitter, but it was Europe that came to the rescue, albeit with a role mitigating what he sees as the “lose-lose” decision of British voters to quit the union.

His former rival Juncker named him a special adviser on defence and security, then handed him the tricky but high-profile task of agreeing divorce terms with the pickly Brits.

Two years later Barnier still hasn’t nailed down the settlement terms, but he’s done well enough that he felt he had to announce he is not seeking PPE support to replace Juncker next year.

Instead he plans to focus on Brexit and might yet find himself in a position to slip into the top job anyway, after staying above the fray of party infighting and the European parliamentary vote in May.

“The PPE was never going to let one of its members sink without trace,” explained one of Barnier’s allies. The Frenchman has been vice-president of the group for 12 years.

In a letter to PPE president Joseph Daul, Barnier said he had a “duty and a responsibility” to see the Brexit negotiations through to the end.

Now, Barnier is a rare European leader known well-enough in Britain to be caricatured by Fleet Street cartoonists and excoriated in euro-sceptic editorials.

But he insists he’s not in it for the knockabout.

“I will do this without aggression and with much respect for a great country that will remain our ally an partner,” he insisted, as he always does, in one of his now regular speeches last week.

– ‘Pragmatic and experienced’ –

When late French leader Charles de Gaulle opposed Britain’s entry into the then European Common Market, Barnier voted in a 1972 French referendum to allow it in.

“I have never regretted that vote because there is strength in unity,” he has repeatedly declared.

British europhobes were always going to scorn a patrician-looking Frenchman and veteran Brussels’ insider, but those who know him best were not outraged by his nomination.

“We could have done a lot worse than the pragmatic and experienced Barnier,” admitted Syed Kamal, head of the British Conservative Party’s group in the European Parliament.

Barnier served variously as France’s environment, European affairs, agriculture and foreign minister — learning the dossiers that now bedevil the complicated break-up talks.

And in Brussels, where he has been commissioner for finance and for the single market, he mastered the arcane mysteries of EU law.

“He knows about the problems we’ll have to negotiate with the British,” Juncker explained.

– Power players –

Britain’s task is a hard one; the unprecedented dissolution of legal, political and trade ties built over four decades after a narrow majority of voters backed an exit rejected by the bulk of the political elite.

But Barnier’s political challenge is almost as complex. He is the Brexit pointman not only for his nominal employer the European Commission, but also for the 27 remaining member states.

The deal will have to be approved not just in Westminster but in the Strasbourg parliament — and by power players like France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Thus far, Barnier has avoided trouble from his own side, “but we’ve often had to realign the talks” sniffs one diplomat.

And the scars from his earlier political battles have not healed, warn others, describing a “tortured” and often bitter personality beneath Barnier’s suave exterior.

But, while Britain has repeatedly changed its own main negotiator, and Prime Minister Theresa May has tried and failed to go above his head directly to fellow national leaders, Barnier has held on.

And if the British leader comes to Brussels this week ready to sign up to a Brexit deal that respects the integrity of Europe’s single market, Barnier will be on stage to take a bow.

Cet article Brexit talks provide stage for Barnier’s second act est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Michel Barnier’s time on the political stage was supposed to be over.

Passed over by his allies in Brussels in a failed audition for Europe’s top role and out of step with his own party in his French homeland, it was time for him to take his bow.

But the 67-year-old former French former minister and former EU commissioner was invited to perform his final encore as Brussels’ chief Brexit negotiator — and he’s winning applause.

The experienced operator has impressed pro-Europeans with his pugnacious defence of the Union’s core interests and won the grudging respect of his British opposite numbers.

He appears to be enjoying the return to the limelight, even though he had nothing to lose when he accepted what seemed a thankless task on October 1, 2016.

A convinced European, he had hoped to take a role in building rather than dismantling the union in March 2014, when he sought the backing the centre-right PPE to become president of the EU Commission.

But his own French conservative party failed to swing behind him, and former Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker got the job instead.

Isolated in Brussels, Barnier later hoped to return to his homeland of Savoie in French Alps as president of the regional assembly, but again local barons of his UMP opposed him.

“He embodies Europe — everything our voters don’t want,” one party worthy told colleagues ahead of the 2015 poll, in a conversation overheard by an AFP reporter in Strasbourg.

Friends say these failures left him bitter, but it was Europe that came to the rescue, albeit with a role mitigating what he sees as the “lose-lose” decision of British voters to quit the union.

His former rival Juncker named him a special adviser on defence and security, then handed him the tricky but high-profile task of agreeing divorce terms with the pickly Brits.

Two years later Barnier still hasn’t nailed down the settlement terms, but he’s done well enough that he felt he had to announce he is not seeking PPE support to replace Juncker next year.

Instead he plans to focus on Brexit and might yet find himself in a position to slip into the top job anyway, after staying above the fray of party infighting and the European parliamentary vote in May.

“The PPE was never going to let one of its members sink without trace,” explained one of Barnier’s allies. The Frenchman has been vice-president of the group for 12 years.

In a letter to PPE president Joseph Daul, Barnier said he had a “duty and a responsibility” to see the Brexit negotiations through to the end.

Now, Barnier is a rare European leader known well-enough in Britain to be caricatured by Fleet Street cartoonists and excoriated in euro-sceptic editorials.

But he insists he’s not in it for the knockabout.

“I will do this without aggression and with much respect for a great country that will remain our ally an partner,” he insisted, as he always does, in one of his now regular speeches last week.

– ‘Pragmatic and experienced’ –

When late French leader Charles de Gaulle opposed Britain’s entry into the then European Common Market, Barnier voted in a 1972 French referendum to allow it in.

“I have never regretted that vote because there is strength in unity,” he has repeatedly declared.

British europhobes were always going to scorn a patrician-looking Frenchman and veteran Brussels’ insider, but those who know him best were not outraged by his nomination.

“We could have done a lot worse than the pragmatic and experienced Barnier,” admitted Syed Kamal, head of the British Conservative Party’s group in the European Parliament.

Barnier served variously as France’s environment, European affairs, agriculture and foreign minister — learning the dossiers that now bedevil the complicated break-up talks.

And in Brussels, where he has been commissioner for finance and for the single market, he mastered the arcane mysteries of EU law.

“He knows about the problems we’ll have to negotiate with the British,” Juncker explained.

– Power players –

Britain’s task is a hard one; the unprecedented dissolution of legal, political and trade ties built over four decades after a narrow majority of voters backed an exit rejected by the bulk of the political elite.

But Barnier’s political challenge is almost as complex. He is the Brexit pointman not only for his nominal employer the European Commission, but also for the 27 remaining member states.

The deal will have to be approved not just in Westminster but in the Strasbourg parliament — and by power players like France’s President Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Thus far, Barnier has avoided trouble from his own side, “but we’ve often had to realign the talks” sniffs one diplomat.

And the scars from his earlier political battles have not healed, warn others, describing a “tortured” and often bitter personality beneath Barnier’s suave exterior.

But, while Britain has repeatedly changed its own main negotiator, and Prime Minister Theresa May has tried and failed to go above his head directly to fellow national leaders, Barnier has held on.

And if the British leader comes to Brussels this week ready to sign up to a Brexit deal that respects the integrity of Europe’s single market, Barnier will be on stage to take a bow.

Cet article Brexit talks provide stage for Barnier’s second act est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/brexit-talks-provide-stage-for-barniers-second-act/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/britain-vs-europe-the-final-countdown/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/britain-vs-europe-the-final-countdown/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 01:54:01 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/britain-vs-europe-the-final-countdown/

Exhausted diplomats in Brussels have taken to calling this stage of the Brexit negotiations “The Tunnel”.

British and EU officials are negotiating day and night to get to the outline of a Brexit deal by Wednesday.

They need to resolve the final sticking points, notably on customs checks for Northern Ireland, before EU leaders meet to decide on next steps.

Here’s what you need to know to understand an unprecedented divorce battle:

– Two agreements? –

The core of the talks so far have concerned arrangements for Britain’s “orderly” separation from Europe after 40 years of shared trade and laws.

Often called the “divorce agreement”, this text will take the form of a legal treaty and it must be agreed quickly to allow the British and EU parliaments to ratify it.

If it’s not in place and ratified by March 29, Britain will crash out of Europe in a “no deal” Brexit with serious economic and legal consequences.

But there’s also a second text.

The “political declaration” will be much shorter, maybe six or seven pages.

It will not be a legal text, but it could prove politically explosive.

The declaration will outline the parameters of future British relations with Europe, with goals like a free trade pact to be negotiated after Brexit day.

It won’t be binding, but British lawmakers and voters may balk at paying tens of billions of euros in a divorce settlement with no detailed promises on future ties.

– Where are we now? –

EU negotiator Michel Barnier says the Brexit treaty is 80 to 85 percent ready. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney went as high as 90 percent.

Both sides have agreed language on the rights of each others’ citizens on their territory. They have put a number on the huge bill that Britain will pay.

A transition period has been agreed: Britain will apply EU rules and pay into the budget until 2020, while the future relationship is negotiated in more detail.

But you only get to 90 percent of a deal by leaving the hardest stuff until last.

Britain has not yet agreed that the European Court of Justice will have oversight if either side complains about the other breaking the treaty.

And the issue of Northern Ireland’s borders could yet break the deal.

– The Irish problem? –

Both London and Brussels agree that there should be no return to border controls between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

Closer cross-border ties are a key development underpinning the return to peace since the Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of conflict.

Europe’s preferred solution would be for Northern Ireland to remain in the EU Customs Union after Brexit, and for low-key controls between Britain and the North.

But Ulster unionists, including the small but influential DUP, will reject anything that divides them even symbolically from the core United Kingdom.

And hardline eurosceptic mainland politicians reject the alternative pushed by Prime Minister Theresa May, for all of Britain to remain in the customs union for now.

Europe — while being ready to negotiate a trade deal after the divorce — is wary of London trying to “cherry pick” single market access while rejecting EU rules.

– What’s the answer? –

We will know by Wednesday whether May has decided to take up an invitation to outline any new plans to the other 27 EU leaders at a pre-summit dinner.

One idea that the British press has reported would be to extend the transition period beyond 2020, but it’s not clear whether May’s own party would back that.

Barnier, meanwhile, is insisting his border controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK could be “de-dramatised” to the point of near invisibility.

If the negotiators can convince the EU leaders that a deal is imminent, they could call another summit next month to approve the package.

If they can’t, the EU 27 will head back to their capitals to begin planning for a “hard Brexit”.

Cet article Britain vs Europe, the final countdown? est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Exhausted diplomats in Brussels have taken to calling this stage of the Brexit negotiations “The Tunnel”.

British and EU officials are negotiating day and night to get to the outline of a Brexit deal by Wednesday.

They need to resolve the final sticking points, notably on customs checks for Northern Ireland, before EU leaders meet to decide on next steps.

Here’s what you need to know to understand an unprecedented divorce battle:

– Two agreements? –

The core of the talks so far have concerned arrangements for Britain’s “orderly” separation from Europe after 40 years of shared trade and laws.

Often called the “divorce agreement”, this text will take the form of a legal treaty and it must be agreed quickly to allow the British and EU parliaments to ratify it.

If it’s not in place and ratified by March 29, Britain will crash out of Europe in a “no deal” Brexit with serious economic and legal consequences.

But there’s also a second text.

The “political declaration” will be much shorter, maybe six or seven pages.

It will not be a legal text, but it could prove politically explosive.

The declaration will outline the parameters of future British relations with Europe, with goals like a free trade pact to be negotiated after Brexit day.

It won’t be binding, but British lawmakers and voters may balk at paying tens of billions of euros in a divorce settlement with no detailed promises on future ties.

– Where are we now? –

EU negotiator Michel Barnier says the Brexit treaty is 80 to 85 percent ready. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney went as high as 90 percent.

Both sides have agreed language on the rights of each others’ citizens on their territory. They have put a number on the huge bill that Britain will pay.

A transition period has been agreed: Britain will apply EU rules and pay into the budget until 2020, while the future relationship is negotiated in more detail.

But you only get to 90 percent of a deal by leaving the hardest stuff until last.

Britain has not yet agreed that the European Court of Justice will have oversight if either side complains about the other breaking the treaty.

And the issue of Northern Ireland’s borders could yet break the deal.

– The Irish problem? –

Both London and Brussels agree that there should be no return to border controls between Ireland and the British province of Northern Ireland.

Closer cross-border ties are a key development underpinning the return to peace since the Good Friday Agreement ended three decades of conflict.

Europe’s preferred solution would be for Northern Ireland to remain in the EU Customs Union after Brexit, and for low-key controls between Britain and the North.

But Ulster unionists, including the small but influential DUP, will reject anything that divides them even symbolically from the core United Kingdom.

And hardline eurosceptic mainland politicians reject the alternative pushed by Prime Minister Theresa May, for all of Britain to remain in the customs union for now.

Europe — while being ready to negotiate a trade deal after the divorce — is wary of London trying to “cherry pick” single market access while rejecting EU rules.

– What’s the answer? –

We will know by Wednesday whether May has decided to take up an invitation to outline any new plans to the other 27 EU leaders at a pre-summit dinner.

One idea that the British press has reported would be to extend the transition period beyond 2020, but it’s not clear whether May’s own party would back that.

Barnier, meanwhile, is insisting his border controls between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK could be “de-dramatised” to the point of near invisibility.

If the negotiators can convince the EU leaders that a deal is imminent, they could call another summit next month to approve the package.

If they can’t, the EU 27 will head back to their capitals to begin planning for a “hard Brexit”.

Cet article Britain vs Europe, the final countdown? est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/britain-vs-europe-the-final-countdown/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/us-charity-school-in-liberia-in-rape-scandal-storm-3/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/us-charity-school-in-liberia-in-rape-scandal-storm-3/#respond Sun, 14 Oct 2018 00:54:01 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/us-charity-school-in-liberia-in-rape-scandal-storm-3/

An acclaimed US charity operating in Liberia has admitted to major failings after girls at a school set up to save them from a life of sexual exploitation were systematically raped.

“We are profoundly, deeply sorry,” the charity More Than Me said on its website on Saturday after US investigative media said girls at a pioneering school in a slum had been repeatedly abused by the charity’s co-founder, Macintosh Johnson.

Johnson eventually died of AIDS and there are fears that he infected some of his victims — who were aged as young as 10 — with the HIV virus which causes AIDS, the investigative site ProPublica said in a lengthy investigative piece co-published with Time.

“To all the girls who were raped by Macintosh Johnson in 2014 and before: we failed you,” More Than Me said.

“We gave Johnson power that he exploited to abuse children. Those power dynamics broke staff ability to report the abuse to our leadership immediately.

“Our leadership should have recognised the signs earlier and we have and will continue to employ training and awareness programmes so we do not miss this again.”

The assaults took place at a school at West Point, a notorious slum in the capital Monrovia.

It opened in 2013 to a blaze of publicity, becoming the first of 18 schools that More Than Me opened in the impoverished West African state to empower girls.

The charity eventually raised more than $8 million in funding, nearly $600,000 of which came from the US government, and gained the support of Liberia’s then president and Nobel Peace Laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

ProPublica described Johnson as a “charming hustler” who insinuated himself with Katie Meyler, who created the charity.

Meyler, an evangelical Christian, had come to Liberia to try to help the country after its emergence from 14 years of civil war.

She threw herself into the task of helping girls in the slums.

Back in the US, she rubbed shoulders with philanthropist Warren Buffett, TV star and activist Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities in her campaign to drum up donations.

After some of the girls came forward to reveal what was happening, Johnson was suspended by the school and arrested.

He was put on trial in 2015, but this ended in a hung jury amid suggestions of bribes, ProPublica said. He was facing a retrial when he died in 2016 from an illness that the site said was AIDS.

In its statement, More Than Me said it had been “naive to believe that providing education alone is enough to protect these girls from the abuses they may face -– strong institutions, safeguarding policies and vigilance are needed to do that.”

Among the changes it had introduced, the charity maintained, was the providing of “private, school-wide HIV testing” to all students.

Cet article US charity school in Liberia in rape scandal storm est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> An acclaimed US charity operating in Liberia has admitted to major failings after girls at a school set up to save them from a life of sexual exploitation were systematically raped.

“We are profoundly, deeply sorry,” the charity More Than Me said on its website on Saturday after US investigative media said girls at a pioneering school in a slum had been repeatedly abused by the charity’s co-founder, Macintosh Johnson.

Johnson eventually died of AIDS and there are fears that he infected some of his victims — who were aged as young as 10 — with the HIV virus which causes AIDS, the investigative site ProPublica said in a lengthy investigative piece co-published with Time.

“To all the girls who were raped by Macintosh Johnson in 2014 and before: we failed you,” More Than Me said.

“We gave Johnson power that he exploited to abuse children. Those power dynamics broke staff ability to report the abuse to our leadership immediately.

“Our leadership should have recognised the signs earlier and we have and will continue to employ training and awareness programmes so we do not miss this again.”

The assaults took place at a school at West Point, a notorious slum in the capital Monrovia.

It opened in 2013 to a blaze of publicity, becoming the first of 18 schools that More Than Me opened in the impoverished West African state to empower girls.

The charity eventually raised more than $8 million in funding, nearly $600,000 of which came from the US government, and gained the support of Liberia’s then president and Nobel Peace Laureate, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

ProPublica described Johnson as a “charming hustler” who insinuated himself with Katie Meyler, who created the charity.

Meyler, an evangelical Christian, had come to Liberia to try to help the country after its emergence from 14 years of civil war.

She threw herself into the task of helping girls in the slums.

Back in the US, she rubbed shoulders with philanthropist Warren Buffett, TV star and activist Oprah Winfrey and other celebrities in her campaign to drum up donations.

After some of the girls came forward to reveal what was happening, Johnson was suspended by the school and arrested.

He was put on trial in 2015, but this ended in a hung jury amid suggestions of bribes, ProPublica said. He was facing a retrial when he died in 2016 from an illness that the site said was AIDS.

In its statement, More Than Me said it had been “naive to believe that providing education alone is enough to protect these girls from the abuses they may face -– strong institutions, safeguarding policies and vigilance are needed to do that.”

Among the changes it had introduced, the charity maintained, was the providing of “private, school-wide HIV testing” to all students.

Cet article US charity school in Liberia in rape scandal storm est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/us-charity-school-in-liberia-in-rape-scandal-storm-3/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/guatemala-fuego-eruption-is-over-officials/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/guatemala-fuego-eruption-is-over-officials/#respond Sat, 13 Oct 2018 22:54:10 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/guatemala-fuego-eruption-is-over-officials/

The eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano ended Saturday, an official source said, with locals escaping a repeat of June’s eruption that killed 190.

However, mild to moderate explosions sent smoke swirling up to 940 meters above the crater, while a lava flow measuring 1,200 meters continued.

“All of this activity is expected to disappear in the coming hours,” said a bulletin from Guatemala’s government agency for seismology (Insivumeh), without ruling out that it could pick up again in coming days.

The latest eruption began in the early hours of Friday, with 62 people evacuated and a highway near the 3,763 meter volcano, 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Guatemala City, closed.

Guatemala’s disaster management agency CONRED said two other volcanoes are also being monitored.

The Pacaya volcano, located 20 kilometers south of the capital, and the Santiaguito volcano, 117 kilometers west of Guatemala City, have both showed increased activity.

A powerful June 3 eruption of the Fuego volcano — located 35 kilometers southwest of the capital — rained rocks, ash and toxic gases on several villages and left 190 people dead and 235 missing.

Cet article Guatemala Fuego eruption is over: officials est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> The eruption of Guatemala’s Fuego volcano ended Saturday, an official source said, with locals escaping a repeat of June’s eruption that killed 190.

However, mild to moderate explosions sent smoke swirling up to 940 meters above the crater, while a lava flow measuring 1,200 meters continued.

“All of this activity is expected to disappear in the coming hours,” said a bulletin from Guatemala’s government agency for seismology (Insivumeh), without ruling out that it could pick up again in coming days.

The latest eruption began in the early hours of Friday, with 62 people evacuated and a highway near the 3,763 meter volcano, 35 kilometers (22 miles) from Guatemala City, closed.

Guatemala’s disaster management agency CONRED said two other volcanoes are also being monitored.

The Pacaya volcano, located 20 kilometers south of the capital, and the Santiaguito volcano, 117 kilometers west of Guatemala City, have both showed increased activity.

A powerful June 3 eruption of the Fuego volcano — located 35 kilometers southwest of the capital — rained rocks, ash and toxic gases on several villages and left 190 people dead and 235 missing.

Cet article Guatemala Fuego eruption is over: officials est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/guatemala-fuego-eruption-is-over-officials/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/snowstorm-kills-nine-climbers-on-nepal-peak-5/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/snowstorm-kills-nine-climbers-on-nepal-peak-5/#respond Sat, 13 Oct 2018 22:54:02 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/snowstorm-kills-nine-climbers-on-nepal-peak-5/ Nine members of a South Korean climbing expedition were killed after a violent snowstorm swept them off a cliff on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years. The bodies of eight climbers — four South Koreans and four Nepali guides — were spotted near the […]

Cet article Snowstorm kills nine climbers on Nepal peak est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Nine members of a South Korean climbing expedition were killed after a violent snowstorm swept them off a cliff on Nepal’s Mount Gurja, one of the deadliest mountaineering accidents to hit the Himalayan nation in recent years.

The bodies of eight climbers — four South Koreans and four Nepali guides — were spotted near the wreckage of their camp by a rescue team Saturday morning, but strong winds were hampering the search effort.

A fifth South Korean climber was initially reported missing, but officials later confirmed he was at the camp when the deadly storm hit Friday and also perished.

“A mountain expedition of five South Korean nationals and four foreigners were swept off by strong winds at the base camp during their climb to Mount Gurja. (They) fell off a cliff and died,” the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.

Helicopter pilot Siddartha Gurung was among the first people to reach the site after the deadly storm and described a scene of total destruction.

He said all the tents had been flattened, reduced to a tangled mess of tarpaulin and broken polls, and the climbers’ bodies were scattered across a wide area, including some in a river bed some 500 metres (yards) from the main camp.

“Everything is gone, all the tents are blown apart,” Gurung told AFP.

Attempts to reach the remote camp on Saturday to retrieve the bodies were hampered by strong winds, but a team was preparing to deploy at first light on Sunday if conditions allow, officials confirmed.

The freak storm is the deadliest incident to hit Nepal’s mountaineering industry since 18 people were killed at Mount Everest’s base camp in 2015 in an avalanche triggered by a powerful earthquake.

The previous year, 16 Sherpas were killed on Everest when an avalanche swept through the Khumbu Icefall during the busy spring climbing season. Then in October, a blizzard killed more than 40 tourists and their guides in the Annapurna region, a disaster that was largely blamed on poor weather forecasting and lacklustre safety standards in Nepal’s poorly regulated trekking industry.

– ‘Unusual’ accident –

Mountain weather is known for being unpredictable with strong winds capable of throwing a person off balance.

In April, an Italian climber died after he was blown off Mount Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh highest peak which neighbours Mount Gurja. But the Italian was at 6,900 metres when his tent was swept off the mountain, whereas the South Korean team were below 4,000 metres when they were hit by powerful winds.

“The fact that they were so low when it happened is unusual,” said experienced German climber Billi Bierling, who was forced to call off her own summit bid on Dhaulagiri last month because of heavy snowfall and high winds.

Dan Richards of Global Rescue, a US-based emergency assistance group that will be helping with the rescue effort, said it was unclear how a freak storm at a relatively low altitude turned so deadly.

“It is hard to understand how this occurred given the depth of (mountaineering) experience among the group,” he said.

The expedition was being lead by feted South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho, who in 2013 became the fastest person to summit the world’s 14 highest mountains without using supplemental oxygen.

The team had been on 7,193-metre (23,599-foot) Mount Gurja since early October, waiting for a window of good weather so they could attempt to reach the summit, hoping to do so via a never-climbed route.

Rarely-climbed Gurja was first summited in 1969 by a Japanese team but no one has stood on its summit for 22 years, according to the Himalayan Database.

Four climbers have previously perished on Gurja’s flanks and a total of 30 have successfully reached its peak — a fraction of the more than 8,000 people who have summited Everest, the world’s highest mountain.

Thousands of climbers flock to Nepal each year — home to eight of the world’s 14 highest peaks — creating a lucrative mountain tourism industry that is a vital source of cash for the impoverished country.

Cet article Snowstorm kills nine climbers on Nepal peak est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/snowstorm-kills-nine-climbers-on-nepal-peak-5/feed/ 0 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/storm-left-wide-swath-of-florida-a-communications-dead-zone/ https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/storm-left-wide-swath-of-florida-a-communications-dead-zone/#respond Sat, 13 Oct 2018 21:54:32 +0000 https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/storm-left-wide-swath-of-florida-a-communications-dead-zone/

Since Hurricane Michael roared through on Wednesday, a wide swath of Florida’s northwest coast has been without telephone or Internet service, adding to the daunting challenges facing residents, loved ones trying to reach them, and the work crews struggling to bring them relief.

“We have had some sites come back in service following the restoration of fiber links,” cable operator Verizon said in a statement Friday. It has deployed five mobile cell sites with satellite connections “to assist with recovery efforts” while full service is restored.

But in Michael’s devastated wake, and with tens of thousands still without electricity or electronic communications, those five sites have made only a modest dent.

A wide coastal zone between Panama City and the much smaller town of Mexico Beach, 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the southeast, remains cut off.

In Mexico Beach, which suffered the full wrath of Michael’s intense winds and catastrophic storm surges, rescue teams have no choice but to rely on satellite phones. An emergency communications tower has been installed for their exclusive use.

The town has been placed on lockdown, with no one but residents allowed to enter. People arriving on the scene to check on friends or relatives or offer their assistance have been stopped at police blockades, unable to get through.

– ‘Everything has shut down’ –

The situation in Panama City varies — communications are better in the city’s western neighborhoods than in its east — and even there signals are patchy.

“We have no cell,” said Mark Bateman, associate pastor of St. Andrew Baptist Church, in an unassuming western neighborhood. “AT&T and Verizon (the area’s two big telecom operators) don’t work.”

“We have barely any way to communicate with our … 800 members,” he said. “Some have evacuated, and we have been messaging back and forth with OnStar (the car-based emergency communication and navigation system). We also checked door-to-door in the neighborhood.”

Two blocks away, Daniel Fraga, an electrician, said he has only an extremely weak and intermittent signal. To reassure family members who had evacuated to the neighboring state of Alabama, he turned to a friend with a stronger signal.

“Basically everything has shut down,” he said, adding that there are “too many people on the same service.”

– Neighbors helping neighbors –

A neighbor, Twyla Williams, is surviving without running water along with her diabetic husband and her eldest son, a teenager. Other families had fled to Mississippi.

“My customers have been checking on me,” said Williams, who works for an architectural blueprint firm.

“One of them just pulled up to give us Gatorade, water, some food.”

But with no Verizon signal, she said she used another carrier to log onto Facebook and let relatives know her family was safe.

The city’s emergency services say they have received thousands of calls from people desperate for news of loved ones. But they too are struggling with little or no service.

At nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, on the coast between Panama City and Mexico Beach, the army has set up a dedicated website for those “who are worried about someone.”

Tyndall, which itself suffered serious damage both to its facilities and to warplanes parked on its tarmac, is forwarding requests to local agencies.

Cet article Storm left wide swath of Florida a communications dead zone est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

]]> Since Hurricane Michael roared through on Wednesday, a wide swath of Florida’s northwest coast has been without telephone or Internet service, adding to the daunting challenges facing residents, loved ones trying to reach them, and the work crews struggling to bring them relief.

“We have had some sites come back in service following the restoration of fiber links,” cable operator Verizon said in a statement Friday. It has deployed five mobile cell sites with satellite connections “to assist with recovery efforts” while full service is restored.

But in Michael’s devastated wake, and with tens of thousands still without electricity or electronic communications, those five sites have made only a modest dent.

A wide coastal zone between Panama City and the much smaller town of Mexico Beach, 25 miles (40 kilometers) to the southeast, remains cut off.

In Mexico Beach, which suffered the full wrath of Michael’s intense winds and catastrophic storm surges, rescue teams have no choice but to rely on satellite phones. An emergency communications tower has been installed for their exclusive use.

The town has been placed on lockdown, with no one but residents allowed to enter. People arriving on the scene to check on friends or relatives or offer their assistance have been stopped at police blockades, unable to get through.

– ‘Everything has shut down’ –

The situation in Panama City varies — communications are better in the city’s western neighborhoods than in its east — and even there signals are patchy.

“We have no cell,” said Mark Bateman, associate pastor of St. Andrew Baptist Church, in an unassuming western neighborhood. “AT&T and Verizon (the area’s two big telecom operators) don’t work.”

“We have barely any way to communicate with our … 800 members,” he said. “Some have evacuated, and we have been messaging back and forth with OnStar (the car-based emergency communication and navigation system). We also checked door-to-door in the neighborhood.”

Two blocks away, Daniel Fraga, an electrician, said he has only an extremely weak and intermittent signal. To reassure family members who had evacuated to the neighboring state of Alabama, he turned to a friend with a stronger signal.

“Basically everything has shut down,” he said, adding that there are “too many people on the same service.”

– Neighbors helping neighbors –

A neighbor, Twyla Williams, is surviving without running water along with her diabetic husband and her eldest son, a teenager. Other families had fled to Mississippi.

“My customers have been checking on me,” said Williams, who works for an architectural blueprint firm.

“One of them just pulled up to give us Gatorade, water, some food.”

But with no Verizon signal, she said she used another carrier to log onto Facebook and let relatives know her family was safe.

The city’s emergency services say they have received thousands of calls from people desperate for news of loved ones. But they too are struggling with little or no service.

At nearby Tyndall Air Force Base, on the coast between Panama City and Mexico Beach, the army has set up a dedicated website for those “who are worried about someone.”

Tyndall, which itself suffered serious damage both to its facilities and to warplanes parked on its tarmac, is forwarding requests to local agencies.

Cet article Storm left wide swath of Florida a communications dead zone est apparu en premier sur Journal du Cameroun.

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