Are you as such insinuating that it is right for Herakles farms to lease a hectare of land at 250 CFA a year for 99 years? What new technology do you also think they will bring that will drastically reduce the labor force? Am afraid you are advocating slavery again in another form. Your approach equally defeats the argument that the farm is going to alleviate poverty in the region. Shall Herackles farms make a handout to the inhabitants of the leased lands ? How then shall they make profits out of it? If you want to help someone and he tells you he does not need your help would you go to court to force that help on such a person? No capitalist invests anywhere to lose his investments else they should just pack out bag and baggage and move to where they will be most welcome. Land grabbing has become very fashionable now in the name of development. You and Herackles farms should leave us alone in our jungles. Look at how we tried to bring civilization to the pygmies and have instead put them in trouble. They lived comfortably by the wild fruits and vegetables found in the forests. We in the name of civilization have cut down the forests destroying their habitats and are unable to feed and house these people with our modern agricultural achievements. When you want to destroy a civilization you come in the name of development and deprive a people from developing in their own way. Pygmies have been known give birth without ceasers like is common with us the civilized world because they know the kinds of herbs that are administered to a woman in labor for easy delivery. Why could we not stoop low and learn from them how to avoid unecessary deaths both for the mother and the child at delivery? Do not forget that the Inca Empire was destroyed by the so called civilized groups destroying technology that was far advanced than theirs in the name of civilization. Let Herackles farms use their modern technology and plant palms or some other crops in the Sahara and Kalahari deserts and we will of course understand that they are out to help a people. Which government are you asking us to fight? Do we really have one? If indeed we had such a responsible government, Herackles proposals would have been thrown out of the window a long time back. Find out the kickbacks some hoodlums had before approving this project. My first job in Cameroon was with a Korean company working on the Nguti portion of the Mamfe road. They tarred parts of the road and the thickness of the tar was less than the breadth of a fingernail. The guy who came from Yaounde to receive the road after completion was offered a 'pajero' then a status symbol vehicle and he approved the project without more. I felt like vomitting but could do no more. I was dishonored with helping them bring in prisoners from Korea to execute their prison terms in Cameroon. The evidence is there for all of you to see. Women were raped in their farms and of course a good number of children with squinted eyes were left behind. As soon as a rape case was reported they connived with the commissioner in charge of immigration to whisk out the culprits over night back to Korea and their victims left uncompensated. The commissioner retired a multi miliionaire. That is the kind of government we have. There is no collective good for the people and of course Biya is practising governance by default. If you go through his repertoire of ministers for the thirty years of his reign you will realise that he prefers to opereate with those who have skeletons in their cupboards. If any of them dares challenge him he holds you by the balls and of course you know the rest. That is what we have for a government. Sorry for digressing but the truth is that Herackle farms has got a lot to gain and are bent on using unorthodox methods to occupy land for which they will not be held accountable after 99 years. How many of you still remember that the demise of the defaunt Cameroon Bank began with loans to individuals payable in 99 years? Can Pa Albert Ngwana enlighten us on that topic for we hear he was the last GM before the collapse of that most cherished financial institution in the Southern Cameroons? We shall be beaten hands down because we are a colonised people for now else Herackles and La rep. du Cameroun should have been sent packing out over night. Let them not forget that we may move away drastically from the force of argument to the argument of force. Amen. Visha Fai
--- On Tue, 26/2/13, ftroit <ftroit@hotmail.com> wrote:
From: ftroit <ftroit@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Echoes From Panel Discussion
To: ambasbay@googlegroups.com
Cc: "cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com" <cameroon_politics@yahoogroups.com>, "Southern Cameroons" <southerncameroon@yahoogroups.com>, "ambassonia" <ambasos@yahoogroups.com>, "Cameroon Diasporaforum" <cameroondiasporaforum@yahoogroups.com>, "camerooniancommunitymississippi@yahoogroups.com" <camerooniancommunitymississippi@yahoogroups.com>, "cameroonpatriots@yahoogroups.com" <cameroonpatriots@yahoogroups.com>, "Edimo Andrew" <esimoyamboka@yahoo.com>
Date: Tuesday, 26 February, 2013, 15:18
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.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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