Last week as I told you there were supposed to be riots allover Cameroon… Instead , Douala which is usually the hot spot of all insurrection in my country was pretty quiet except for the administrative quarter. Reportedly as soon as the protest of less than 50 started the police rounded them up and drove the protesters to 12km outside of town to give them a walk for their money… You got to give it to them, our officials have a great sense of humor!
Not so funny, it was later reported that some of the protester ended up in jail.... Still Compare these handful of people to the thousands in Egypt or Libya...
Last week too in Senegal, a young man set himself ablaze in an attempt to emulate the Tunisian revolt.
There are several lessons to be learned here: First of all, you cannot start a revolution just because someone else did. Whatever happened in Tunisia, Egypt and now Libya worked because there are large enough number of people living in these places at a point where the quality of life can be relatively traded for death. Second of all, the political climate has credible alternatives to the status quo: In Egypt for instance, the people trusted their army as a reliable alternative government whereas in Cameroon everywhere we look there are steady elements of the system intertwined with the people interest. To finish Egypt and Tunisia were grassroots sprung not the doing of a political party. You cannot says the Cameroonian people approve what we are doing no: The Cameroonian people has to be part of it for it to be successful. The fail attempt of Mba Obame to claim victory of a presidential election 2 years after contest just because of the Ivorian template is another great example of why social change cannot be artificially produced.
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