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Mes opinions sur le monde… JMFK
Mes opinions sur le monde… JMFK
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( Concours TIBlog) Pourquoi détruire le cœur de l'Afrique?
Related to country: Cameroon
Translations available in: French (original) | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | English | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

(TIBlog Contest) Why destroy C? ur of Africa?
Automatically translated into English thanks to WorldLingo
Photograph of Jean Marc FEUSSOM

Flora of Garden Zoo-Botany of Mvog-Betsi (Yaounde Cameroun)

Why destroy C? ur of the world? Consequences of deforestation

February 2, 2008 | 2:28 AM Comments  0 comments


Dommage - Cameroun: Bakassi - Le Cameroun perd 21 de ses hommes
Related to country: Cameroon
Translations available in: French (original) | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | English | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic


Automatically translated into English thanks to WorldLingo
The Daily newspaper Changes (Yaounde)

November 14, 2007
Publié on the Web on November 14, 2007

Leger Ntiga


They belonged like about fifteen casualties, at the headquarters N°3 tackled last Monday.

The new one was the subject of a special gathering yesterday, Tuesday November 13, 2007 with the district general of HQ Yaounde. The commander of this place of weapon which was addressed to its men, made the advertisement of the death of the continuations of a surprised attack, Monday November 12, 2007 at the end of the morning, a score of elements belonging to the headquarters N°3 placed under the direction of the commander (colonel) Mveng with Bakassi. This hard blow for the Cameronian army intervenes at the time when conflicts of any kind crosses the large abused dumb woman these last weeks by a business of “false coup d'etat”.

The new one caused a shock wave, as well on the place of weapons of the district general in Ngoa Ekellé as in the services of the minister delegated to the presidency of the Republic in charge of Defense (Mindef), Rene Zé Meka, who was dispatched at once on the place of the drama with Bakassi. At the beginning of afternoon yesterday. If this disseminated information buckles some on international chains of radio (Rfi for example), since the semi-day of yesterday, moves by the million Cameronian having greeted in the stop of the International Court of Justice (Cij), on October 10, 2002, they are numerous with décrier the circumstances of this climbing which has occurred with rebels of the area Nigerian of the Delta of Niger.

According to concordant sources' in the mediums of the army with Bakassi, Yaounde and Douala where the victims were led, all would have started from a traffic of ammunition between this group of Cameronian soldiers and the rebels Nigerians of the Delta of Niger. This illicit trade of the Cameronian soldiers of the opinion of various military sources, was the subject of a mission of the general Rene Claude Meka during October. All the military commanders having pled not culprit, they wanted, through the arrest of seven rebels, last weekend to testify to their good faith. It was without taking into account the temerity of the rebels who have, thanks to the effect of surprise, struck with the cŠ" ur of the headquarters N°3 and makes 21 dead and about fifteen casualties.

With believing the same sources of them, the attack of the rebels Nigerians would have found, Cameronian side, from the démotivés men, more carried towards the businesses which have course in the island since the beginning of the demarcation of the borders in 2003. In the rows of the army, the languages are untied to deplore the bad conditions under which the Cameronian soldiers with Bakassi exert.

Always it is that the attack of last Monday had been awaited for at least one year. In its edition of August 7, 2006, the daily newspaper Nigerian “Punch”, announced that the rebels of the area of the delta of Niger, in support with the traditional chiefs seized the federal high court of Abuja to tackle the agreement of Greentree signed between presidents Biya and Obassajo in the presence of the secretary general of UNO of then, Kofi Annan. At the time, under the crook of Tony Ene near collaborator to Donald Duke, governor of the State Cross-country races To rivet, the rebels had proclaimed the independence of the State de Bakassi whose currency sounds like a rallying cry: “God is our force”. Members of the independence movement of the area of the Delta of Niger had also invested the place of Ekpot Atai in the day of Sunday August 6, 2006.

After having hoisted their blue and red flag comprising ten stars symbolizing the ten clans which remain on the peninsula, they proclaimed the independence of the democratic Republic of Bakassi. These militants of the movement secessionist of the area of the Delta of Niger, to believe our fellow-member Punch of it, had sworn to go at the end of their logic. From where certainly these remarks of their spokesman, Tony Ene, “it are out of question of lending our territory, as want to do it Nigeria and the United Nations, with another country”.

A determination galvanized by sasine, on July 21, 2006, of the federal high court of Abuja by seven traditional chiefs of the peninsula (among which Chief Orok Eneyo, Chief Emmanuel Effiong Etene, Ndabu Eyo Umo Nakanda, Emmanuel Okokon Asuquo, Ita Okon Nyong, Richard Ekpenyong and Elder Tony Ene Asuquo) about the agreement of Greentree signed on June 12, 2006 between presidents Paul Biya and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Source: http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200711140620.html

November 14, 2007 | 2:16 PM Comments  0 comments
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Sénégal: Le CUR de Bambey lance un projet dénommé "Porter le savoir"
Translations available in: French (original) | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | English | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Senegal: The CUR of Bambey launches a project called “To carry the knowledge”
Automatically translated into English thanks to WorldLingo
Arrange of Press Sénégalaise (Dakar)

November 14, 2007
Publié on the Web on November 14, 2007


Id/Adc


the regional university College of Bambey introduces as from this year a project called “To carry the knowledge”, consisting in organizing formations for the students of the areas of Thiès and Diourbel without moving them.

The advertisement was made Tuesday by the director of the college, professor Abdallah Cissé, at the time of a press conference.

“Traditionally, one will quérir the knowledge. We, we will carry it to the student where he is ", in particular Mr. declared. Cissé by specifying that this project “was studied, documented and worked” with the persons in charge for the inspections of Academy for Thiès and Diourbel.

“This project is an innovator and it is in conformity with the spirit of CUR in term of decentralization of teaching. It testifies to our responsibility as an academic institution to find solutions with the problems with which are confronted the company sénégalaise in term of austerity, access to the formation and search for outlets ", it explained.

On the whole, 1.160 graduates will be received in the various sites of the CUR with Diourbel, Bambey and Thiès.

Abdallah Cissé stressed that the government authorized a budgetary extension to accompany this project. A “important program of sponsorship” to convince the parents to on their premises receive students is considered.

Financings for the extension of the CUR are also available. Thus 33 classrooms, 2 houses of students, a new library, a hearth of students and a cyber will be built in Bambey. These achievements will have to make it possible the CUR to receive between 4000 to 5000 students from here 2008.

A multi-media center will be also set up within the college. This center is financed by the French Co-operation and covers the three new universities (Bambey, Thiès and Ziguinchor). The university of the La Rochelle (France) is the partner who will accompany this program in the development and teaching.

For the director of the CUR of Bambey, its institution set up in paradigm “success instead of the failure”.

In the 3 dies (Economy and management, Community health and trades of communication and information technologies), the rate of passage in 2nd year is 92,94%.

Source: http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200711140823.html

November 14, 2007 | 2:13 PM Comments  0 comments
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EPA Negotiations: Where do we stand? - West Africa -
Related to country: United States

West Africa is unlikely to complete a comprehensive EPA by 1 January 2008 , due to insufficient progress in major areas of the negotiations.

Outstanding issues include the ECOWAS market access offer in goods and services, accompanying measures and the financing of these, rules of origin, the definition of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism and the legal text. No joint draft text of an EPA exists yet; a proposal has been submitted by the EC and a reaction by ECOWAS is still expected.

The way forward

Different views have been expressed on how to proceed. In the beginning of September, ECOWAS and UEMOA officials have proposed to the governments of their member states to negotiate with the EC an extension of the deadline of 31 December 2007 in order to allow more time to negotiate a comprehensive EPA.

Their preferred option for a transitional trade regime is to request an extension of the WTO waiver to maintain the current Cotonou preferences. This has been endorsed by West African ministers at a meeting in Abidjan on 5 October 2007 .

Ministers mandated the ECOWAS chief negotiators to demand an extension of the Cotonou trade regime from the EC and requested the EC to apply for an extension of the WTO waiver covering these preferences . According to press reports , Ablasse Ouedraogo, special adviser for trade negotiations to the ECOWAS President said it "should take less than two years" for the West African bloc to prepare to sign the deal.

The EC has rejected the demand to request an extension of the waiver, as it considers this not to be consistent with the commitment to treat developing countries equitably under the trade preferences granted by the EU and regards is as not compatible with the provisions of the Cotonou Agreement.

The EC considers concluding an EPA by 31 December 2007 to be the only viable option, as an extension of the WTO waiver would be likely to face resistance by other WTO members and applying the GSP regime would imply high costs in terms of increased tariffs paid and/or a reduction in exports for several West African countries. Accordingly, the EC has offered to ECOWAS to agree a goods-only EPA as an interim solution.

This has been refused by ECOWAS, as market access in goods is one of the most controversial aspects of the negotiations and concluding such an interim EPA would presuppose agreement on rules of origin and sensitive products.

Both sides still need to agree on the way forward. Nevertheless, chief negotiators have been invited by both sides to continue work on the joint definition of support programmes, market access and the legal text.

According to press reports of 31 October, the ECOWAS position is still unchanged, asking the EC to request an extension of the WTO waiver. Reportedly, the European side would require evidence of progress, in particular “a deal on market access and lists of "sensitive products"”, to “be able to make the case“ for such a request at the WTO.

Further, press reports indicate that the EC envisages concluding an agreement with the non-LDCs Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana. [Without an EPA, non-LDCs would fall back on the EU's GSP regime from 1 January 2008 , while LDCs would be able to export duty and quota free under the EBA initiative.] Some observers indicate that an agreement with Cote d'Ivoire would have to comprise also the other members of the UEMOA customs union in order to comply with UEMOA rules.
Reportedly, Nigeria, which is the third non-LDC in the region, is considered by the EC as blocking trade negotiations in the region. Nigeria and ECOWAS have led a majority of West African countries holding the position that more time is needed to conclude an agreement, as the joint preconditions agreed in February for signing an EPA had not been met.

Next meetings

A meeting of ECOWAS-EC chief negotiators is scheduled for 29 November in Abuja, Nigeria. It will be preceded by meetings at the technical level on 26-27 November and at the senior officials level on 28 November.

Source : http://www.acp-eu-trade.org/index.php?loc=epa/

November 13, 2007 | 2:39 PM Comments  0 comments
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Economic Partnership Agreements

On 27 September 2002, the European Union and the ACP countries officially opened negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs). These negotiations, which are to to take place over 5 years, are aimed at redefining the trade regime between the two groups of countries.

2 years on, Tom Sharman looks at how far the EPA negotiations have come, and analyses the development prospects for the ACP countries under the new regime.

The recent WTO meeting in Geneva gained media attention and appeared to revitalise the Doha round. Yet while much comment focused on whether multilateral or bilateral negotiations are best for poor countries, in reality this is a false choice: all economic superpowers undertake both kinds. What they cannot secure at the WTO, due to the clout of countries such as Brazil, India and China, they seek to impose through bilateral negotiations where the poorest countries are weakest.

Trade negotiations between the EU and the African, Caribbean Pacific (ACP) group have now entered a critical phase. Six sub-regional groupings of the ACP have entered into Phase 2 negotiations to agree Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the EU. The outcome of the negotiations will be a series of new Free Trade Agreements (FTA) replacing the Lomé system of preferential access to the European market for the ACP from 2008.

While the Lomé regime was far from perfect, it did allow ACP countries the space to pursue pro-development policies. Protection for local industries and access to the European market was a successful formula for Mauritius and Botswana who saw their GDP per capita rise from less than US$300 at independence to US$10,000 by 2002.

The replacement of the Lomé regime with free trade areas is a massive risk for the ACP but the EU has nothing to lose. ACP countries are unlikely to gain better access to the European market but will see their local industries put under severe strain by competition from cheap European imports, often subsidised and of poor quality. The European Commission's own impact assessment notes that, ‘EPAs could lead to the collapse of the manufacturing sector in West Africa’.

The EU is also keen to push the new issues that developing countries rejected at the WTO. ACP countries face further constraints on policy-making while European corporations gain new powers. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) precedent suggests an investment agreement would lead to corporations undermining environmental and labour standards. The experience with Bilateral Investment Treaties between ACP and European countries shows that investment agreements do not by themselves attract foreign capital; what matters is infrastructure, market size and human capital.

The Cotonou Agreement [1] intended that EPAs contribute to regional integration. But regional integration projects are being undermined. EPA negotiations divided the Southern African Development Community in two. The poorest countries are put in a no-win situation: either they maintain their non-reciprocal access to the European market under the Everything But Arms programme but leave their regional grouping, or stick with their regional partners and open their market to the EU.

The Pacific provides a telling example of how bilateral negotiations contribute to a multilateral patchwork quilt of rules that favour the rich over the poor and circumvent concessions won at the WTO. On 10 September, the Pacific region became the last EPA group to commence Phase 2 negotiations. Under an Australia-New Zealand agreement with the Pacific countries, the launch of FTA negotiations with the EU triggers similar negotiations with them. For this reason, the Pacific group has deferred talks on trade in goods (as these would constitute FTA talks) and brought forward talks on new issues, no doubt to the delight of the EU due to the precedent that this sets.

The EU is refusing to look at alternatives to free trade EPAs, despite a requirement to do so under the Cotonou Agreement. Even under the current restrictive WTO rules there is scope for pro-development trade arrangements. The EU could extend the Everything But Arms deal, currently applied to the Least Developed Countries or expand the Generalised System of Preferences to continue non-reciprocal market access to the ACP.

The EPA negotiatio