Sanaga Peregrinations

Archibishop Desmond Tutu while r etiring from public life, reflects on Good and Evil ( Time Magazine )  "Do you worry about leaving a vacuum?  (Laughs). It would be so arrogant to think: "Oh, I am really indispensable. I am the cat's whiskers. You are never going to ever have another like me!" Oh gee! That's awful! Some people get the opportunity of the limelight, but when you think of something like Darfur, the people who really do the rough work and get into the trenches, those are the real stars. You stand out in the crowd only because you have these many, many carrying you on their shoulders."   An Interview of  Nigeria’s former anti-corruption chief, Mr  Nuhu Ribadu . ( The Economist ) The decline and Fall of the Email ( Cringely )  An article on the African Beef Jerky : Kilishi ( Timbuktu Chronicles ) - Posted while peregrenating away from Sanaga with my iPad

Max Ehrmann Desiderata Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of ...

Fast facts regarding the water access in Africa: Africa is the world’s second-driest continent  With 15 per cent of the global population, it has only 9 per cent of global renewable water resources Water is unevenly distributed and Africa’s climate is characterized by an overall unreliability of rainfall Increases in access to improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities are not keeping pace with population growth Water scarcity is not simply due to geography: population growth, rapid urbanization, poor planning and povertyare significant factors Read the fascinating  Africa Water Atlas   and the   report of The United Nations Environment Programme  they've released along with the report. This Atlas is a visual account of Africa's endowment and use of water resources. It brings to light the numerous challenges faced for the access to water across the continent. Among them : access to drinkable water, access to adequate sanitati...

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Veuillez installer Flash Player pour lire la vidéo Après Sarkozy, Audrey Pulvar scalpe ce vieux putois de Guerlain (en lisant Césaire) ! Vidéo Gri-Gri-International sélectionnée dans Actualité "Interrogé sur la création d'un parfum, Jean-Paul Guerlain avait répondu à Élise Lucet : "Pour une fois, je me suis mis à travailler comme un nègre. Je ne sais pas si les nègres ont toujours tellement travaillé, mais enfin..." Des propos plus proches de la puanteur que de la fragrance.   On a bien cherché, on a bien attendu pendant tout le week-end, dans la bouche de tous ces responsables politiques, un début de condamnation, d'émoi, d'indignation. Seule Christine Lagarde a réagi. Pour les autres, on attend encore, griffe Audrey Pulvar. En France, on peut donc prononcer des paroles racistes à une heure de grande écoute, sur un média national sans qu'aucune grande voix, politique, intellectuelle ou artistique ne s'en émeuve."

Ce poeme de Victor Hugo pour sa fille Leopoldine ont toujours une consonance particuliere pour moi. Ils disent la douleur eternelle et incessante, mais aussi l'acte d'amour renouvelle qu'il y a dans le fait de se recueillir sur la tombe d'un etre cher. " Demain, dès l'aube, à l'heure où blanchit la campagne, Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m'attends. J'irai par la forêt, j'irai par la montagne. Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps. Je marcherai les yeux fixés sur mes pensées, Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit, Seul, inconnu, le dos courbé, les mains croisées, Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit. Je ne regarderai ni l'or du soir qui tombe, Ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur, Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyère en fleur

merci a Beariscool Watch your thoughts; they become words.  Watch your words; they become actions.  Watch your actions; they become habit.  Watch your habits; they become character.  Watch your character, it becomes your destiny.   —  Lao Tse

From TED Talks: " Dan Gilbert , author of Stumbling on Happiness , challenges the idea that we’ll be miserable if we don’t get what we want. Our "psychological immune system" lets us feel truly happy even when things don’t go as planned." Check out the video and read the book, it's very refreshing!

“There is a certain age when a woman must be beautiful to be loved, and then there comes a time when she must be loved to be beautiful.”   Francoise Sagan quoted in New York Times' article " Aging Gracefully, The French Way "

Pius Njawe , pionnier de la liberté de la presse et fondateur du premier journal indépendant Camerounais  Le Messager est décédé dans un accident de voiture aux États-Unis le 12 Juillet dernier. Hommage d'Allain Jules. Pius Njawe in his own words  by Dibussi Tande. " I have been a journalist since the age of 15. I started as an errand boy at a newspaper called Semences africaines, in the city of Yaoundé, Cameroon. Over the past 34 years, I have been arrested 126 times while carrying out my profession as a journalist. Physical and mental torture, death threats, the ransacking of my newsroom, etc., has often been my daily lot in a situation where repression and corruption, even within the press, have become the norm. [...]     I entered journalism the way you enter a religion; journalism is my religion ." Rest in Peace, you fought the good fight.  

Why Ethiopia is not the voice of Africa? ( Source African Prospect ) Four things some VCs do I don't like  ( Ben Horowitz Blog ) The Worst Email Habits and Annoyances You Should Avoi d ( Lifehacker ) Business Buzzwords That Make You Sound Like An Ass ( Business Insider )

Football lessons from African Exiles (Source Financial Times s via African Unchained ) "Football is one of the most visible signs of Africa’s skills exodus: the very best African players are quickly snapped up to play for European leagues where they have become ubiquitous. They represent just a tiny proportion of the skilled Africans of all trades and professions who leave the continent. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, about 27,000 Africans left for industrialised countries between 1960 and 1975. Now, an equivalent number leaves the continent every year." [...]  It is perhaps paradoxical to talk of benefit and the brain drain at the same time. But the brain drain is not necessarily bad for African countries. It is every motivated and ambitious person’s dream to compete with the best in their field: footballers want to play in the top leagues, students want to study at top universities, professionals want to compete and learn from the best amo...

Failure in the sex market in South Africa during the World Cup ( source the Globe ) "In  Cape Town, for example, the most touristic country's sex workers complain that tourists only have eyes for Jabulani, the ball of the World.   Of call girls to clubs 'strip', all claim that, with the arrival of the Cup, the movement, rather than grow or remain stable, declined. Well-Educated Job Hunters still stuck ( source Wall Street Journal )   " College graduates who took a detour around the weak job market by going back for advanced degrees are beginning to emerge from those programs—and finding job prospects aren't much better than they were a couple of years ago. " African Outtake, From Diary of a Very Bad Yea r ( Source N plus Ones Mag )  

Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley latest insights on the internet industry. Always useful and interesting for those of us who couldn't attend the CM Summit. Internet Trends 2010 by Morgan Stanley Research View more presentations from CM Summit: Marketing in Real Time .

Lire l' entretien accordé au journal Le Monde, par l'historien et chercheur Sénégalais Ibrahima Thioub. Extraits: En quoi la responsabilité des élites africaines renvoie-t-elle à l'histoire des indépendances ? Dans n'importe quelle ville africaine, je suis frappé par la coexistence entre le grand nombre de 4 × 4 de luxe, et l'usage d'un moyen de transport qui remonte au néolithique, la tête des femmes. Cela signifie que les élites, au prix d'une violence extrême exercée sur les populations, s'emparent des ressources du pays, les exportent, et dépensent les recettes ainsi dégagées en achetant à l'étranger des biens d'une totale inutilité sociale autre que symbolique de leur capacité de violence. Ils ruinent les pays en pompant la force de travail des corps subalternes qui sont réduits à la misère. La réponse de la partie la plus dynamique de ces populations, c'est la fuite, les pirogues vers l'Europe.

From the stunning movie a Single Man by the designer-now-movie-director Tom Ford and with Colin Firth. A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp and the world seems so fresh.  I can never make these moments last.  I cling to them, but like everything, they fade.  I have lived my life on these moments.  They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

The alleged Chinese curse has it as follows: May You Live In Interesting Times May You Come To The Attention Of Those In Authority May You Find What You Are Looking For

Les mots toujours tres lourds de sens du poete Senegalais Birago Diop a la memoire d'Emmanuel, de Frederic, de Michel, de Jean-Philippe et tous ceux qui nous precedent dans les vents de Dieu. Les morts ne sont pas morts, ils restent aupres de nous si ce n'est en nous ou encore ils marchent parmi les vents du monde selon cette phrase que j'affectionne particulierement du poete Allemand Rainer Maria Rilke. Pour Leopold Sedar-Senghor, dans la preface des contes d'Amadou Koumba , Birago Diop nous rappelle ce Pacte lourd mais essentiel qui nous lie a la vie : " Birago Diop ne fait que traduire, à travers la loi de l'interaction des forces vitales, la dialectique de la vie qui est celle de l'univers. A l'anarchie et à la mort s'oppose l'ordre de la vie. " Ecouter  ce poeme. Ecoute plus souvent Les Choses que les Etres La Voix du Feu s’entend, Entends la Voix de l’Eau. Ecoute dans le Vent Le Buisson en sanglots : C’est le Souffle des anc...

En boucle sur mon ipod, la voix suave et rauque de la chanteuse equato-guineenne Concha Buika que je decouvre a trvers son troisieme album : " Niña de Fuego ” (qui signifie littreralement, "petite femme de feu").  L'album en effet vous laisse en feu, avec des frissons, malgre le fait que je ne parle pas espagnol, je me laisse aller a un truisme car elle prouve que la musique est universelle et que nul besoin de comprendre les textes pour saisir l'emotion et la profondeur quand elle conte avec ses mots et sa langue d'adoption l'amour ou le manque d'amour. Je vous laisse decouvrir, mon clip prefere : " La Falsa Moneda " (la fausse monnaie), mais vous invite a acheter son album et vous laisser porter par sa voix sur les rythmes de "Minetieme Bien" (mens moi bien) , sa reprise magnifique du classique " La Bohemía " ou encore " Volver, volver ". Enjoy!

Yo, je sais que ca fait vieux mais il faut croire que notre part ne nous laisse pas Christelle et moi. Donc en vrac, quelques liens interessants histoire de reprendre le fil de l'histoire: Une succession a la "Gabonaise" est-elle possible au Cameroun? ( Dibussi Tande Blog ). while the ruling elite in Cameroon may have reason to jubilate over the Gabonese transition, they are most likely drawing the wrong lessons from the said transition, and/or not paying enough attention to the actual details of that transition which reveal a number of disquieting issues that could be potentially destabilizing for Cameroon in the same circumstances.   Destination : marriage. Route : anybody's guess. ( Wall Street Journal ). So why are "Marry Him" and "Committed" flying off the shelves? Because they do what all popular books on the subject have done over the years, decades and even centuries: They lay out rules, treating love, romance and relationships as if t...