CAMAIR CO Rolls out "The Star of CAMEROON"

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 Cameroon's reinvented National Carrier, CAMAIR CO has just had its first jet painted in its new livery. The Boeing 767-33A formerly registered as TJ-CAC is scheduled to have it maiden flight on the 28th of MArch 2011.


Expectations are high and the new general manager had been working with the 330 staff to get a smooth and hitch free launch of operations.

It is understood that in short order, the fleet of the airline will grow to 4 aircraft.

Maintenance will be done by Lufthansa in Germany.

Here is what the 737 looks like in new Camair Co livery.

Living with disruptive technology: The World in the 21st Century

The Internet has been around for quite sometime, but it is in the last
5 years that its spread has really picked up speed.

The reduction of the cost of access, means millions of people in
poorer parts of the came online, and newer applications made the
online experience richer for those in the West.

However, this democratization of information access, and increasingly,
reporting of events raises some serious concerns.

Not so long ago, if you wanted information, you turned to CNN or the
BBC. Monopoly of coverage of events worldwide by these outlets meant
history was recorded and analyzed from the perspective of the West.
The entry barrier to news creation and propagation have now been
virtually erased. You just need an internet connection and you are in.

Google and other websites offer free web hosting services, for people
to record the world they way they see it. Photographs can be stored
online forever, and linked to articles.

You no longer need to be tied to a specific source of information. You
actually become part of the story.

You just need to take a look at popular websites like the Huffington
Post, where some of the most popular features are the comments
section, where people interact and offer their opinions on various
topics.

The major powers have a problem in their hands with this new
disruptive technologies. It has become really difficult to rally
support for simple humanitarian tasks, which just a few years ago
would have been moot.

In Libya, which is seeing an uprising that seeks to eject strongman
Muammar al Qaddafi, it has proven tricky to get an International
coalition to aid the protestors pushing from the east of the country
toward the capital, Tripoli.

The Libyan government has blocked access to the internet, and puts the
spin on the uprising that started in Benghazi - saying thay are allied
to Al-Queada, and Osama Bin Laden.

Conflicting accounts from the Libyan government and the protestors
overfloods the airwaves and makes it impossible to make heads or tails
of the situation in the country. The international coalition the USA
wants to constitute to aid the Libyans has not taken root because it
is hard to choose which side to believe.

A similar situation is taking place in Cote d'Ivoire. Alassane
Ouattara, widely believed to have won the UN supervised election has
been holed in a hotel in Abidjan, while the incumbent refuses to cede
power. In the past, it would have been a swift and clean operation to
dispatch Mr Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent, into exile, and have Mr
Ouattara installed as president just as the people of the country
wish. But there has been a lot of controversy, with both camps
producing images of atrocities they claim the other committed.

The only places where the UN seems to have been successful for the
past year have been areas where there is some paucity of information.
South Sudan is a success story that in part may be attributed to the
lack of bloggers and sketchy internet access in the country. It would
have been another long and messy story had there been a big and noisy
debate online about the merits of splitting up the country.

Since then, the International Community has been bogged down whenever
it came to taking humanitarian action, because there is not only good
intentions that are needed, but good and decisive collective action,
taking into account all points of views, but not limiting action
because of a few dissenters.

The world powers need to step up and decide what is reliable and
credible information when they have to decide on important
humanitarian and security issues.

The way forward may not yet be clear to all, important lessons will be
learned from Cote D'Ivoire and Libya.

Fru Ndi tries to distance self from Paul Biya

Cameroon's former opposition leader, John Fru Ndi, who has grown very
close to the autocratic Paul Biya has tried to explain to a very
suspicious Cameroonian public that he has no secret arrangements with
Paul Biya.

Over the space of three months beginning late 2010, Fru Ndi and Paul
Biya met thrice in three different Regions and on three separate
occasions. This brought to light a deep held belief that there was a
more stronger bond, maybe financial between the two men. Fru Ndi
immediately became a black sheep, and was seen as irrelevant as the
discussions in Cameroonian online forums heated up with imminent
presidential elections.

After Fru Ndi's last visit, he embarked on the 18th of February 2011
on a nationwide campaign, not against incumbent, Paul Biya, but
strangely, ELECAM, the national electoral observatory.

Many wonder why someone who calls himself an opposition party leader
would have nothing to criticize against the incumbent Paul Biya's
policies for 29 years.

Another suspicious item was the funding for Fru Ndi's trip. It is not
yet time for the presidential election, but Fru Ndi could afford to
tour the country. Many wonder who is paying for the trip.

Finally, former First Vice President of the SDF Pierre Kwemo, a major
power house in the West Region of Cameroon has been completely
demonized by Fru Ndi, with suggestions that Kwemo joined the SDF for
pecuniary gain.

All these petty activity taking place at the top level of the SDF has
completely reversed the gains made in recent months by the party.

New progressive faces like Joshua Ossih have been silenced, while the
party shifted into reverse gear.

What most Cameroonians understand and see for themselves is that there
is a clear Paul Biya - Fru Ndi Alliance and there is occult financial
dealings between the two. This is what will ultimately sound the death
knell for the SDF.

Paul Biya and Fru Ndi display the same heavy handedness of other
autocratic demented despots like Hosni Mubarak or Col Muammar Qaddafi.

Time for change has come. "Time Is Now"

New World Order taking shape: Africa on Back Burner

The Arab world is roiled in an unprecedented crises. Autocratic despots who have used the natural resources of their countries as bargaining chips to cling on to power are now facing the awakening of the masses they effectively controlled in the dark ages when information was the privy of the privileged few.

Recent weeks have seen various regimes in the arab world suddenly having to deal with popular uprisings. These came as a surprise to many, including scholars and other luminaries of think tanks like the Bilderberg Group, the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Trilateral Commission.

Western governments had to react rapidly , and soon, information and total control of unfolding events was in the hands of the masses. That was good news. The Internet played a pivotal role, with tools like Facebook and Twitter used to organize peaceful protests against dictators.

However, not all popular uprisings are created equal. In countries that have populations that yearn the newly acquired freedom of the Tunisians for example, lack of coordination by peaceful protestors because of poor telecommunications infrastructure can often lead to violent repression of the people by the ruling class. This is evident in Yemen, Cote d'Ivoire and Cameroon.

But if you go further South, in Cote d'Ivoire for example, incumbent Laurent Gbagbo who lost presidential elections to economist Alassane Quattara, is still sitting tight, irrespective of calls by the United Nations, International Observers and an uprising by his people. The reason may be, the wind of change that is blowing in the Maghreb, attracting all the focus of global security analysts, diplomats and the media.

Since the beginning of March 2011, there has been talk of a very tense atmosphere in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and other countries in the Middle East that have had the same ruling elite for many decades. While the world's leading economic and military powers try to make sense of the unfolding situation in the Arab countries, other despots in sub saharan Africa like Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire, and Paul Biya in Cameroon lie low and take advantage of the situation to consolidate their power.

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It is essential that while the New World Order falls into place, Africans stand up and take their rightful place in the global community of nations. This can only come as a result of countries having leaders who have a popular mandate, and who understand that they serve at the pleasure of the citizens of their country. Those who hold on tight to power like Muammar al Qaddafi in Libya and Laurent Gbagbo in Cote d'Ivoire or Paul Biya in Cameroon also seem to be those with the least enviable achievements, given the resources at their disposal. The oppressed masses will be heard, time is on their side.