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Chile: Students produce bullying awareness short

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The students of the Chilean Las Cumbres male school have produced a series of shorts; including the following one about bullying and teen suicide, which closes with the following statement:

This is a phenomenon that is taking place in our country and the rest of the world. You can't know what another person is thinking, or how your jokes may affect them. Let's avoid the hindering of future talents due to the immaturity of some.

The short “Bullying” is rich in body language and expression, so even though it is in Spanish, the message is fully understandable regardless of your spoken language:

Image used is Bully Free Zone by Eddie~S, used according to Creative Commons' attribution license

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Cameroonian Female Bloggers on the Go

George Esunge Fominyen · 11:23, October 4th, 2008 · Sub-Saharan Africa

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From education through health, fashion, art and culture to women’s empowerment Cameroonian women are telling the stories of their lives on the web. For instance, Betty who lives in Manchester, England blogs about her preganancy at Betty’s Pregnancy Diary. At week 34, she ponders on the consequences of the current credit crunch in world markets:

I decided with the credit crunch looming over our heads like bomb sirens, it’s no time to be frivolous. Mind you, the sound of my teeth noisily crunching away on Maltesers like they are going out of fashion is the only sound more overbearing than the credit crunch round here! I have decided to be very organised with my baby shopping. Instead of going all out on mad shopping sprees, I’ve sat down and painstakingly drafted lists and budgets. I’m getting so good at balancing the books; I think I could give the Chancellor of the Exchequer a run for his money.

In relation to parenting, Mabi’s World discusses the challenges facing grandparents who have to take up full responsibility for their grand children:

In many homes and communities, grandparents have always helped to look after their grandchildren. They are so happy that they travel long distances to be part of the action. Some grandmothers have had to travel abroad to “babysit”. However, for a growing number of grandparents, the brief visits to welcome the new-born baby have now been replaced by the responsibility of providing full-time child care, while Mom and Dad are busy at work.

This relatively new blogger also posts health advice on managing typhoid fever and draws from her late father’s personlity to declare teachers as leaders in commemoration of World Teachers’ Day on 5 October:

My father, Ntunibu James Azefor, was a teacher. One, whose leadership qualities still call for celebration today. His students still remember him as a selfless, respectful and determined person, devoted to the cause of sharing knowledge. Every one of his former students I meet has a story of how he influenced their lives. They describe him as a good teacher whose diligence, vision, attentiveness, and passion to teach and share knowledge enabled them to achieve success and reach great heights. In InterAction parlance, he would be described as “enabling others do great work”. That is leadership.

Mabi azefor Fominyen is a journalist, radio and TV presenter with Cameroon's state-run broadcaster (CRTV), who is interested in family, leadership, gender and women’s empowerment issues.

Speaking of women's issues, Rosemary Ekosso bounced back this September after a dip. She is not pro-polygamy and she is clear about it when she reacts to a BBC report on a man who married 86 wives in Nigeria:

There is no valid excuse for polygamy in today’s world, and we know it. Let us stop pretending to protect the interests of women in such situations when we know full well that we are only thinking about preserving the status quo either because it does not impinge on our lives or because it is to our advantage.

But one of her readers had a different point of view and had the following words for Rosemary:

Did the women tell you it is unfair to them?Did they say anything about being forced into it? They choose the lifestyle they want and we have no right to impose our notion of what we believe to be the “ideal” marriage scenario on them. That would be trampling on their freewill as humans.

On the artistic side of things, Dulce Camer who describes herself as “a young Cameroonian trying to live out her dreams”, interviews Anrette Ngafor, a trendy 32-year-old up and coming Cameroonian female photographer with great ambitions:

My goal is to have my own label, own company, own business and own studio one day. Not long from now this should happen as I am working towards that and I hope to achieve it and make my dream come true.

Style and fashion is also a point of interest for Germany based singer, song writer and media designer – Menoosha. In The Pink Post – she tackles the issue of weaves that do not enhance the beauty of African women:

My dear Afro Sisters! Here is my solemn petition for a BETTER TREATMENT FOR OUR HAIR!!! Whether straight, curly, kinky, fake or real, PLEASE!!!! let's TREAT OUR HAIR SHAFTS FAIRLY!!!! LOVE YOUR HAIR, AS YOU LOVE YOURSELVES!!!!

Finally, Bamenda Babe’s at My African Father blog provides a few recipes from Cameroon. After living for years in the USA, this blog is the lady’s way of connecting to her roots and one way is by cooking Cameroonian dishes:

Making kohki-corn here in the USA is quite an acrobatic feat. Where does one find the plantain leaves to use for wrapping up the kohki into bundles for steaming? And before this–before all else–where does one find the kind of corn that works? The corn sold at stores here is too soft, contains too much water, and is way too sweet. Are there any fresh cocoyam leaves around here?

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Africa: Let Us Talk About US Politics

Jon Gosier · 08:25 · Sub-Saharan Africa

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Obviously the upcoming American elections are of great interest to many people around the world and the role technology is playing has been interesting, to say the least. The Economist recently launched their Global Electoral College web application that encourages people all over the world to have their say with the American voters in November. Of course, these foreign votes won't count but it will be interesting to see how they compare to the actual outcome.

Perhaps as much as its friends around the world, Africa is especially interested in how the upcoming American elections will pan out with a number tuning in to watch the Presidential debate on Friday 26, 2008 (which almost didn't happen). Blogger and Ushahidi co-founder Ory Okolloh encourages Americans really think about their choices and the potential outcomes by participating in the “Dear American Voter Project”:

“Dear American Voter” is inviting you to be a part of a global dialogue featuring responses from around the world to the question, “What should Americans think about as they cast their ballot? ” (Uumm…if you vote for McCain…goodbye USA, hello Russia and China).

Meanwhile, Blackyard notes that Barrack Obama's performance at the debate appears to have given him a slight boost in the Gallup Polls. Everest Chiali wrote about the night's exchange in Swahili.

But there are other concerns as well. Siasa Duni suggests that the McCain-Palin ticket suffers from a lack of transparency and wonders if Sarah Palin is being protected from scrutiny by advisors who recognize that she isn't ready for serious questions from reporters. Especially after one of Palin's first national interviews with Katie Couric, drew an uproar of criticism when Palin embellished her own diplomatic record as Governor of Alaska:

In order to minimize the fallout from the Hail Mary selection of Ms. Palin, the Republican presidential campaign organizers have been limiting Ms. Palin’s exposure to scrutiny. While reporters are allowed to ask her questions, she’s never placed in a situation where she has to answer. In the past four weeks, I have only seen two reporters who have been blessed with access to Ms. Palin. There was the much ballyhooed interview with Charles Gibson of ABC News who was careful to handle Ms. Palin with the softest of kid gloves, even though he still managed to expose her as having limited-to-no understanding of international issues with a question about the Bush Doctrine and its interpretation (America has the right to preemptively attack other nations perceived as threatening).

Angry African likens America's current dilemma to gangs terrorizing a neighborhood:

So you got a guy who was a bit stupid but you liked having him around for a barbeque. Never a good reason to select him, but hey, there you go. You thought, “How bad can it get?” And boy did it get bad. He started fights with neighbouring communities even though they did nothing to your community. Oh, they talked tough, but you knew their community is way to weak to do anything. But he started fighting them in any case. Instead of those guys who kept on throwing bombs over your fence. The fights started sucking you dry and the place started falling apart. The houses started to crack, the lights went off in the streets, and the roads are falling to pieces. Basically your little community is just not the same anymore. And almost everyone agrees that this guy sucked big time. He is not coming to the next barbeque. It’s time to select someone else to run the show and fix up the place again.

So it has come down to two guys you can vote for. One is a guy who doesn’t look a lot like you, he is a bit young, tell you he has all these big ideas to make it better, but also tells you that you will have to pull your weight to make it better. Now he might be a bit shaky.

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