Re: Echoes From Panel Discussion

Another reason why Herakles may employ less people may be because the archaic CDC may not use as much technology as Herakles. Ever thought of that? I've said time and time again. We need to do to the Chinese what the Chinese do to the Americans. That is, we need to copy their technology, make ours, without regard for intellectual property or trademark rules. If the Americans bring technology, we can copy that. And we won't need manual labor at every stage of the process. That's healthy. Our people need to be educated that you don't need to break your back for you to be productive.

I remember growing up. We had 2 kinds of brooms at home. The long (stick) broom and the bamboo or is it rafia broom. An elder would scold at me for using the stick broom, and would call me lazy because I refused to use the rafia broom which requires that I bend to use. Do you know what that eventually does to the back? In the West, folks live longer than we do. It's not only because of penicillin. It's also because of care for the body.

If Herakles employs technology, a savvy Cameroonian can copy the same, get his own land, employ his own 7500 too and get a loan and get the technology. If 10 people do the same, trust me, Herakles would leave Cameroon in a heart beat due to competition.

On Monday, February 25, 2013 10:08:01 PM UTC-5, somamo wrote:

Dear All,

 It is over a week since I forwarded my invitation to the first ever international Panel Discussion on the Social and Ecological threats being posed by Herakles Farms; organized by  Greenpeace USA in Washington D: to all Cameroonian e-groups that I belonged.

 The Panel Discussion which took place on Tuesday February 19, 2013 was well attended but only a handful of us were from Cameroon, even as the Greater Washington Area is fondly called Cameroon in USA due to thousands of Cameroonians living within the area.

 The four presentations were educative, informative, revealing and sometimes disturbing and saddening. Attached are copies of two presentations which any right thinking Cameroonian in particular and African in general should afford to download, read and digest because they embody all descriptions I have outlined above and answers some of the nagging questions we have being asking.

 These links are good readings.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/nasako-besingi/land-grabbing-looms-plantation_b_2744015.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/media-center/reports/Herakles-Farms-in-Cameroon/

After reading them, the legal minds in these forums should tell us why any foreign company operation in Cameroon should be above the law of our homeland?

Our economists should tell us why the Cameroon Development corporation with plantations covering 41000 hectares of land area should employ 157000 workers and Herakles Farms with over 73000 Hectares should employ just 7500 workers?

 

If you do the arithmetic, dividing the number of hectares each company covers by the number of the workers employed or to be employed, you will find out that while one person who is employed by CDC will have to work on about 2.5 hectares, Herakles Farms will be employing one person to work on about 10 hectares and our people call that employment. Remember, Herakles Farms will exempted from paying any form of taxes to the Cameroon government for 10 consecutive years.

A 10 hectares family farm will certainly employ more people and generate more money annually than the salary of a laborer working on 10 hectares on Herakles Farms palm plantations.

It is amazing that while the company that makes sugar in Cameroon pays over 6000 CFA francs to the government Cameroon for each hectare of the sugar cane plantation east of the Mungo and farmers  around Panja pay up to 100000 CFA francs per hectare annually to their landlords, the government of Cameroon is willing to  mortgage the ancient tropical rainforest in the Southwest Region for as less as 250 CFA  francs per hectare annually, for 99 years with little or no consultation with  the indigenous people of the area affected. To me it is a troubling palaver.

If the government of the triangle called Cameroon tailored the land tenure in 1972, that any land without a land certificate belongs to her, she should remember that before the colonial master fused the different clans, kingdoms and fondoms to call it Kamerun, Cameroon and Cameroun, which became independent on January 1, 1960 and October 1 1961 respectively, the indigenous people have being living on the land for centuries, as such their rights should respected.

If I may ask, how many native lands have land certificates in Cameroon? As per the Southern Cameroons land tenure which was abrogated in 1972, all land belong to natives of area. And the government has to consult with the native if they want to put any land into use.

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