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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Kumbo-Nkambe Stretch of the Ring Road: Calamity, Calamity, Calamity!!

 Fai Cassian
 I have often heard people say that it is forbidden to make a critical judgment analysis on the neglect of the stretch of the Ring Road from Kumbo-Misaje via Nkambe and that making such a critical judgment is like writing satanic verses that lead to divine sentence. But let the word go forth from this time and medium to friends and enemies of progress alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation that will talk than die in silence.
The transport fare Ndu-Nkambe sky-rocketed this week from 2000 FCFA to 4000, Nkambe-Bamenda from 5000 FCFA to 7000 FCFA. Yet cars are now moving anti-clock wise, that is from Bamenda through Bafut, down to Wum passing through Nyos to Misaje before getting to Nkambe... Strange Indeed!!
Traveling from Kumbo to any part of Donga Mantung Division is not just a nightmare but demands a week of serious fasting and prayer because you never know when you will get to your destination. However, anyone who would maladroitly sit on the fence to declare that the stretch of road from Kumbo to Donga Mantung is not a necessity or a priority should be considered as being in a state of sin. Even though there is a statement in the Bible which states that people should not pass round for judges on others, I believe it is often quoted out of context because the Bible still tells us that people should be judged if their acts are injurious. I am aware that this critical judgment analysis is badly needed. It is imperative because the people of Donga Mantung are in tears again and the bells of anguish are being heard signaling that Donga Mantung Division may cease to exist in the map of this country. I am also aware that this bit will offset many people but it is a fact. Even so, who is even going to twist my arm for speaking the truth? Is it not a right for the people of Donga Mantung to have a good access road and even enjoy more as a border Division? It pains and kills my imagination as well as the picture post-card I got from my father that they decided to unite with La Republique because of what was happening up the road. 52 years after reunification the situation of this road is more pathetic than before. When I look across the river and see the road network, I cry for my Division. I wish I could put down on paper the picture that comes to me from the restrained of anger. I need not dwell upon the authenticated horrors of the Nazi internment camps and death chambers for Jews. That is tragic but a kind of insane horror like our ring road. The essence of tragedy is not the doing of evil by evil men but the doing of evil by good men, out of weakness, indecision, sloth, inability to act in accordance with what they know to be right. The ring road, until its termination, presents the classic existential argument about the existence of God or a higher power: if he did and does exist, then the only natural choice is to become a disciple; but if he did not, and there is no afterlife, then life is meaningless outside the present moment for the people of Donga Mantung given that wise people have often said and proven that where the road passes, development follows. Hence, there is nothing to be done except to live every moment without a thought to the next but look only to God Almighty for Divine Intervention. The state of nature of the Ring Road has made Donga Mantung an Island on land. Today, thoughts and feelings are more and more separated from each other, and this separation leads either to an almost schizophrenic intellectualism or to a neurotic, irrational emotionalism. Only if emotions and reason are brought together can man function in a way which makes life interesting and hence creates the possibility of a productive life. To put it briefly, what Donga Mantung people need is not good speeches, not UFO councilors, not politics of hatred but politicians with character and conscience. In fact, a breed of politicians who would sit on one table to create the Donga Mantung Intelligensia (forgetting about “C” or “S” dogma to make life more meaningful and bring back humanity from the wilderness closer to the people. God bless Donga Mantung Div.

When News Breaks Out, We Break In. Minute by Minute Report on Cameroon and Africa

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