"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

ENGLISH VERSION Members of the civil society group "Ça Suffit Comme Ça" have decided to put their networks and brains together and play a different and more prominent role in advancing democratic principles in the Gabonese political system and society in general. Because of the refusal of the Ali Bongo regime to implement such democratic principles, this civil society group as issued a declaration we are printing below. COALITION OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS FOR DEMOCRACY AND ELECTORAL TRANSPARENCY Call for all Gabonese who believe in democratic and republican values to unite for electoral transparency in Gabon The upcoming legislative elections are crucial for our country Gabon. Either they will lay the foundation for true democracy through the establishment of good political governance policy, or they will be the logical continuation of the 2009 disputed presidential election, in the denial of the expressed will of the people. In the event that the second h

ENGLISH VERSION A jukebox is by definition, a large coin-operated stereo containing several albums and operated by a mechanism to select and play songs. Jukeboxes were traditionally found in bars where customers who wanted to hear songs would put coins in the slot and select the favorite tunes. Nowadays, a weekly magazine aimed at African affairs practices jukebox journalism, it is "Jeune Afrique". That magazine is no longer in the business of providing information, but only exists to provide advertisement for African dictators. It has been well documented by former "Jeune Afrique" journalists, that African dictators from Omar Bongo, to Houphouet-Boigny or Mobutu, Eyadema or Kadhafi, have all in various times, paid that magazine for extensive complementary articles disguised as news stories. Despite growing criticism of these “pay-for-play” practices by "Jeune Afrique", they have not stopped that practice. It is a well known fact that "jeune Af

ENGLISH VERSION The euphemistic Libyan "rebels" have taken Tripoli, and Kadhafi's days in power are all but over with his family scrambling to find safe asylum, it may be time to reflect about what this means for us in Gabon. It is to be made clear that this blog has no particular sympathy for Kadhafi, as we recognize him to have been a dictator. However, we are asking ourselves what is the difference between Kadhafi and Bongo? Why the dictatorship of Kadhafi must end and that of Bongo can continue infinitely from generations to generations? If both regimes are to be classified as ruthless dictatorships, then both must ne unacceptable. The other aspect is that both families have spent a considerable amount of time in power in their respective country and we could compare what has been their performance regarding the economy, education, infrastructure, health etc. Today, a comparison between Gabon and Libya shows the following: 1 Infant mortality rate: Libya: 20

English version Although the Gabonese constitution states that all citizens have freedom of speech, press, assembly, association, and demonstration, one must realized that such activities are permitted only in support of government and the Bongo’s family objectives. The fact is that the Gabonese people and government controlled media are asked to follow certain norms dictated by the regime, if they are to be considered part of the fabric of the country. Any attempt to have independent idea is viewed by suspicion by the regime. The needs of the regime take precedence over individual, political or civil liberties. Domestic media censorship is strictly enforced, and deviation from the official government line is not tolerated. Often, the regime prohibits foreign media broadcasts from reporting within the country as we saw during the election in 2009, the TV network “Africa 24” expelled from the country because they were providing a forum for candidates other than Ali Bongo to sprea

English version To expose as many as possible, the situation of dependency of Gabon vis-à-vis France and give to the average Gabonese the visibility of the open-air prison in which he is the locked, we propose today the following documents regarding development aid and defense agreements between France and Gabon. All these documents are in French. Click on the links in green below after the french version. Version Française Pour exposer au plus grand nombre la situation de dépendance du Gabon vis-à-vis de la France, et donner au gabonais moyen une meilleure visibilité de la prison à ciel ouvert dans laquelle on l’enferme, nous vous livrons pour lecture, les documents suivants concernant l’aide au développement et les accords défense entre la France et le Gabon. Cliquez sur les liens ci-dessous. Accords défense 1 Accords défense 2 L’aide publique au développement

Ali Bongo providing his fingerprints. Ali Bongo fournissant ses empreintes digitales English version Every country with a constitution has clauses determining the eligibility requirements for any citizen to become president. No, these requirements do not have anything to do with need for nerves of steel or charisma etc., but fundamentally with where the candidates were born, how old they are and since when have their families been citizens of the country? In the United States of America, to be eligible for the presidency, one must be either born within the territory of the USA, or born abroad but to parents who were both citizens of the USA. This is why Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan but because he was born in the USA, he could be president. However, Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in Austria from Austrian parents and naturalized American, could become governor of California, but could never become president. So are the rules, and everybody must follow them without exceptio

The former Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe-Ndong. L'ancien Premier Ministre Jean Eyeghe-Ndong. English version Former Prime Minister, Jean Eyeghe Ndong, who may be arguably the most genuinely popular dissident against Ali Bongo’s rule, delivered an address to the Gabonese people on the occasion of Independence Day on the 17 of august 2011. As usual, Jean Eyeghe-Ndong did not disappoint. He was factual, clear, concise, direct and most of all, called a spade a spade. The people of Gabon can always count on Jean Eyeghe-Ndong to speak the truth and this is what they expect from political figures. Below is Jean Eyeghe-Ndong’s statement. Statement of Forces for Change by Jean Ndong Eyéghé Ladies and gentlemen, On august 17, the independence day of our nation, which is an important moment in the life of the nation, we should try to examined where we are and what could be done to improve the well being of the country and its people. But what do we see? In his address to the nation o

English version The experts, specialists and analysts agree that an opposition is an integral part to a functional democracy. In fact, the presence or absence of institutionalized opposition is considered to be one of the criteria for the classification of any political system or a society into one of two categories: liberal or dictatorial, democratic or authoritarian, pluralistic or monolithic. Therefore, we can say that the history of the world demonstrates that political opposition is the sine qua non of democracy and is required in one form or another for a given regime to be called “democratic” with any real meaning. In Gabon, under pressure, Omar Bongo accepted political pluralism in 1990. At the time, political opposition was very robust and the Gabonese people wanted real democracy in the sense of a system in which the people choose among alternative contenders for public office. However, Omar Bongo clearly did not want to relinquish power. So much so that during the pr

English version Dear readers, today we provide you with the news from Gabon published by a French bi weekly magazine called “La Lettre du Continent”. Because this publication is pay per view online, we cannot go beyond showing you what is on screen as we are trying to not violate too blatantly their copyright. Therefore you can only see the French version. They also publish an English version but we would be going beyond what is acceptable if we were to translate their content from French to English Version française Chers lecteurs, voici les dernières nouvelles de La Lettre du Continent. Nous ne pouvons pas traduire ces articles en anglais pour nos amis anglophones, car La Lettre du Continent étant un service payant, publie déjà en bilingue et nous ne voulons pas abuser de leur compréhension dans la mesure où nous publions déjà leurs articles en français.

English version Yesterday, on Monday 22, 2011, a group of Gabonese activist decided to stage a demonstration to protest the purchase of the late senator Ted Kennedy’s mansion, for 6.5 million dollars, by Ali Bongo, while the country of Gabon continues to suffer from chronic poverty, disease, malnutrition, lack of schools and infrastructure etc. The Gabonese citizens were incensed by the fact that in a country that has been found to heave one of the lowest human development index among oil producers and a country in which more than 60% of the population has been found by the United Nations agencies to live on about 2 dollars a day, the president deems that the priority is to buy a mansion in France for about 100 million Euros and another one in Washington for 6.5 million dollars. These purchases indicate that the Bongo family absolutely does not give a hoot about the people of Gabon. Several videos are presented and these videos are all in French. Version française Hier, lundi 2

Ali Bongo, tout sourire, rendant visite à son « ami, grand frère et père» Kadhafi en mai 2010 à Tripoli. Aujourd’hui il renie Kadhafi English version This week end, the spokesman for the Gabonese ministry of foreign affairs announces that its government was recognizing the National Transitional Council as the legitimate representative of the Libyan people. In that press release, it is clear that the Gabonese government ironically said that it was recognizing the Libyan rebels because of some of the same abuse the Gabonese government is often found guilty of inflicting upon the Gabonese people. In other words, the Bongo regime is not much better than the Kadhafi regime and should be in no position to chastise anybody. The Gabonese government said that they were recognizing the rebels because: 1. The Kadhafi regime has killed civilians. But the Bongo regime has done the same on numerous occasions. 2. The Kadhafi regime has a very bad human right track record. The Bongo regime

ENGLISH VERSION While the buffoons running the Gabonese government’s controlled media, which are nothing more than mouth pieces for the Bongo regime, are carrying on with their ridiculous assertion that Gabon is a country functioning based on the rule of law and on its way to becoming an emerging nation, some independent people and international media outlets are beginning to let the word out regarding what is going on in Gabon. In an article published by “Sudan Tribune” looking for an economic path forward for South Sudan, a new African country blessed with numerous natural resources. In that article, an analysis of economies primarily driven by natural resources such as oil, was performed. A professor from the University of Pennsylvania, John Ghazvinian, is quoted in the article as saying: "Since 1990 alone, the petroleum industry has invested more than $20 billion in exploration and production activity in Africa. and, a further $50 billion will be spent between now and t

This blog has been publishing daily bulletins for about 20 months now. Until today, we had been publishing in French only as our intended audience had been those coming from the country of Gabon. However, as our readership has grown, we have realized that people living in the English speaking world may also be interested in finding out how Ali Bongo, as his father did for 40 years, was hell bent in keeping Gabon as their family private fiefdom, so they could continue to plunder its riches until nothing is left. This is why, beginning today, we will dedicate ourselves to the publishing of a bulletin that would describe in both French and English our latest opinions of what is going on in Gabon. Below is our first bilingual bulletin. WHAT TO THINK OF A GOVERNMENT THAT DOES NOT WANT FREE AND FAIR ELECTIONS In Gabon, the ruling party and its ruling family have been in power since 1967 or soon to be 44 years. Needless to say that the Gabonese people are more than sick and tired of t