Goooooood Morning Kumba...

Hop aboard the Hope Train!!!!

Once upon a time GCI ran a weekly radio show, Human Rights Hour, on the station Ocean City Radio (slightly odd name considering Kumba is about two hours from any coastline). In recent months the show had been put on hold due to a lack of personnel in the office, however with the influx of international interns this summer they decided to restart it. All this is really just a long winded way of saying that we (along with the other intern group) have become radio stars every Tuesday morning (well actually every second Tuesday since the two groups alternate weeks). Ok Ok, we haven’t exactly reached the levels of Adrian Cronauer* but some people listen, in fact several of our friends have told us that they hear the program and like it (and no we hadn’t paid them to say that).

The level of ‘freedom’ the press enjoys here is not entirely clear. We have heard reports of journalists being arrested and newspapers forcibly closed in Yaounde, however we have also seen many smaller, privately owned papers which clearly condemn the government (Biya in particular). In our initial discussion with the station manager at Ocean City Radio we asked what was acceptable for us to say on air and if there was anything we should be cautious about. The man was pretty encouraging (perhaps a little too encouraging), and incredibly adamant that we should say what we felt. He assured us that we would not be arrested for any comments made (although I am not entirely sure if this is true because the press is actually free to say what they like or because we are white and we enjoy the ‘protection’ of a strong desire to remain under the radar of the international community).

The first time we were on air (three weeks ago now) we basically introduced ourselves and our project then talked a bit about our impressions of Cameroon. Towards the end of the hour the host (also the station manager and a pretty cool freedom of the press activist) asked if we thought there was any hope for true development in Cameroon. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) we were still smarting from an incredibly frustrating interview we had had with a senior member of the judiciary the day before (a man highly reminiscent of Lord Rataxes**). Our response focused largely on the rampant corruption in the country, particularly the administration and judiciary.

A more equitable allocation of resources would have an incredible impact. For example, certain officials enjoy the extensive creature comforts of several cars, air conditioning, large gold watches and an endless supply of rubber stamps. Then sit behind their mahogany desks and explain to us (in incredibly condescending tones) that prisoners sit in jail without an initial trial for months because there simply aren’t enough resources to bring them the 2km / 1 mile (aprox) from the jail to the court.

Unfortunately the corruption here is so completely imbedded in the ‘system’ that most people we meet feel completely powerless to fight it. In fact we have heard ‘that is the way things are’ too many times for comfort. We had promised that our subsequent appearances on the radio would deal with substantive human rights issues in an attempt at education. With the question of hope, and the oppressive weight of corruption in mind we decided that our second on air adventure would focus on stories of hope and small acts of defiance in the face of corruption. We had hoped the discussion might prod a few people into standing up to bribery, or at least make them think that they could.

Our first story was about a Vietnamese woman, Le Hein Duc, who at the age of 77 received Transparency International’s Integrity Award. After retiring from her work as a school teacher Lo Hein Duc became an activist who fought against corruption on every level of society.

We then talked about a few of our office’s success stories and ‘closed’ with a discussion of a local judge, Vera Ngassa. Madam Ngassa is a female judge in Kumba who has made it a personal mission to fight for women’s rights and against corruption. She is known as the only judge in Kumba who you cannot bribe. We found a documentary about her and another magistrate in Kumba, Beatrice Ntebo, called Sisters in Law. It was done before Madam Ngassa was a judge (she was a prosecutor at the time) but sounds like it would be a really good account of some of the legal issues here in Cameroon.

One of the questions today that really stuck with me (Alexa) regarding our ability to access information and people being whites westerners. A caller (well actually the DJ in the next room) asked us if we thought the colour of our skin had impacted the number of officials we had been able to gain access to (the access he was asking about really pertained more to the other group of interns but we have experienced similar things). He wondered if perhaps the interviews they (and we) had been granted, as well as the locations they had been allowed access to was a product of the desire to maintain Cameroon’s image in the west (or more accurately its lack of one). This is actually an issue I have been struggling with a lot in the last few weeks. The colour of our skin seems to both open and close doors for us everywhere we go. At times it means we get waived past roadblocks so that we don’t see police asking for bribes, but at other times it means we (or our driver) is stopped specifically because white skin equals more money and more little administrative things (like vaccination cards) that we can be called out for. Similarly, when we go to the villages (or the other group talks to members of the police and gendarmes), we get to do the interviews because we are a novelty. However, I think we rarely get totally accurate information because again we are ‘strangers’ and might take it home with us. It seems like they want to perpetuate an image of openness and so grant the access only to use that access to shield the truth.

For our next installment we are thinking of a talk on homosexuality (ok so we really aren’t as funny as Adrian Cronauer but thought the ‘stick it to the corrupt man’ attitude was appropriate). Homosexuality is illegal here so we wanted to talk a bit about how that in itself is a human rights violation. We recently came across an article on Human Rights Watch that condemned the treatment of persons suspected of homosexual activity as well as the bogus ‘medical tests’ used to determine if someone is in fact homosexual. Both the host of the program and the station manager sounded interested in the discussion, we will let you know how it goes.

*if you can identify Adrian Cronauer we will bring you back a sachet of whisky (everyone loves them here, even our cab drivers)

** identification of Lord Rataxes will also earn you a sachet