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Independent Media (South Africa) reports:
The Internet ban on Cameroon's English-speaking population is cause for great concern in the language dispute, writes Azad Essa.
Millions of Cameroonians have been without the internet for 75 days after the government launched a ban on the service in English-speaking areas. The blackout, which is deliberately targeting the country's minority Anglophone population, started after lawyers began protesting against the overt use of French in English-speaking courts.
The protests spread rapidly across the country with English-speaking regions rallying against what they saw as the latest attempt by the government to "erase" their culture and heritage.
While Cameroon has cut off the Internet to the Anglophone regions for more than 70 days, the UN throughout the week of March 27-31 repeatedly refused to answer Inner City Press' questions about it [...] On March 31, Inner City Press put a question about the outrage of Cameroon saying it will accede to the UN "electronic communications" treaty while denying such communications to millions of people to UN Spokesman Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: Given that the internet has been turned off to millions of people for 76 days, I noticed that the Government says that it's going to be depositing a ratification of something called a UN convention on the use of electronic communications in international contracts. And I wanted to know, will the Secretariat... do they have any role in... in... in reviewing the sort of legitimacy of ratifications or... or... what would you say about a country that's turned off the internet to its own population depositing a ratification to an electronic communications convention at that time?
Deputy Spokesman: Those are separate issues. Regarding treaties, all treaties are looked at to see whether the instruments... whether the treaties are properly filed as they're being deposited.
[...] Inner City Press: I'd sent you a number of questions about Cameroon. Now I have those and something else. First of all, I wanted to know, what's the... what is the status of having a resident coordinator in the country, given that the internet has been turned off to two regions in the country for 76 days?
Deputy Spokesman: Right now, there is an officer-in-charge. There's no new full-time resident coordinator, but there's an officer-in-charge there.
Question: Can you say who that is or which agency it is?
Deputy Spokesman: I believe it's the officer for UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) right now.
But when Inner City Press later on March 31 visited UNICEF's Cameroon website to follow up, the most recent report was from 2012, and the top two press releases were about Nigeria, here.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by KiloByte on Friday April 07 2017, @05:13AM (6 children)
I'd say French in Canada deserves exactly as much respect as Breton, Flemish, Waloon and Occitan enjoy in France.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 07 2017, @06:00AM (3 children)
Quebec has been separate from France for longer than the US has been separate from England. Common historical legal frameworks aside, blaming one for the current laws of the other seems loopy to me.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by KiloByte on Friday April 07 2017, @06:13AM (2 children)
I used the example of France and its vile laws [wikipedia.org], although indeed Quebec is as bad [wikipedia.org].
The french language is as much a pox on humanity as Islam: when they're a minority, they ask for protection, when they get the upper hand, they outlaw everything else. Francophones will merely fine and jail you, instead of murdering unless you follow Islam (with some degree of toleration for two religions), but the concept is the same. In the US, the UK or the like, if you don't speak English the courts will provide you with a translator...
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Friday April 07 2017, @01:05PM (1 child)
In Quebec, if you don't speak French, the court will provide you with a translator.
(Score: 2) by KiloByte on Friday April 07 2017, @02:55PM
That's why I used France as the example. Quebec tries as much as they can to sabotage federal rules, but the constitution of Canada can still, at least on paper, overrule provincial laws. In France, they don't even pretend to pay lip service to the UN Charter.
Ceterum censeo systemd esse delendam.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Friday April 07 2017, @06:11PM (1 child)
I'd say French in Canada deserves exactly as much respect as ...Flemish... enjoy in France.
Spoken by tens of thousands and actively defended? [flanderstoday.eu]
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday April 07 2017, @07:51PM
https://www.uoc.edu/euromosaic/web/document/neerlandes/an/i1/i1.html#2.4 [uoc.edu]
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