"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

Seraphin Moundounga (Photo: U of Oregon) English version This blog has examined the contents of the presentation by Seraphin Moundounga, the Minister of Education, who recently was addressed the PDG Parliament of Gabon. If the purpose of his statement before the parliament was to enlighten the legislators and the general public opinion on the current situation of Gabonese education and more specifically on the ongoing crisis in that sector, we must tell you that he fell short. We explain why. Generally, when a sector is faced with difficulties, when it is facing a given problem, a serious and deep evaluation of the sector is required. For this evaluation to be effective, there must be a formulation of hypotheses to explain the problem in question, thorough analyses that are accurate and deep must be conducted, which will allow everyone to validate or invalidate these assumptions and to ultimately better understand the problem and the resources needed to intervene ...

English version They want to turn the Gabonese people into a people without memory, a people without direction, and therefore a desperate, uneducated and malleable people, who would accept that any foreigner comes to sell them recipes that have failed elsewhere and that they would not dare not propose in their own countries. Yet in Gabon, there are thinkers and individuals who are looking at the past of the country to propose concrete ideas going toward the consolidation of the present and the building of a stronger future. In the rather special current climate of the world of education, the killing of which the Ali Bongo’s regime is trying to finish, this blog came across a must read from a Gabonese scholar, André Wilson Ndombet, whose title is: Knowledge and Development in Gabon: From 1960 to the Present. Anyone wishing to understand the evolution and present involution of the Gabonese education system should get it and make it their bible. The reader will come out ...

English version This blog joins the thousands of Gabonese that the spectacle of carnival or sporting events in which Ali Bongo plunges them since 2009, puts into a deep malaise. The disorder is that much deeper than these events cost Gabonese taxpayers already poor, money that could enable them to educate their children a little better, if not cure their rheumatisms in a half-decent hospital. But the worst is what we hear from the mouth of the Director of the Marathon of Libreville to be held at the end of the month, in the video above. He said on TV-5 that this expensive and unnecessary event is part of a plan by Ali Bongo to make Gabon into a sports destination. But what is this nonsense? Who could give us the meaning of "sporting destination"? Is there even a developed or emerging country that has sports as a destination? The famous tourists announced since 2009 but that nobody sees, would they come to Gabon because the country would have become a sports de...

English version This Monday, despite all the noise made by the government announcing the resumption of classes, a general meeting of the CONASYSED informed public opinion that the strike continued. What would the regime say? Version Français Ce Lundi, malgré l’annonce tonitruante du gouvernement de la reprise des cours, une assemblée générale de la CONASYSED informait l’opinion que le mouvement de grève se poursuivait. Qu’en dira le régime? (Photos:  Jef Allogho Mintsa  )

Usain Bolt (photo: CNN) English version Version Française

Students being gassed in Libreville Elèves en train d’être gazés à Libreville (Photo: France24) English version We are told that education is the builder of the future, so if it is on Ali Bongo-Seraphin Moundounga system that the Gabon of tomorrow would be built, God help us! It is now clear that, in general, the educational professionals such as teachers, and consumers of education whom the students are, backhandedly reject all the bullshit proposed by the pair of Ali Bongo-Seraphin Moundounga. These teachers, pupils and students, and the parents are entitled to demand, and that is what they are doing now, the reformulation and reorganization of the Gabonese education system according to the requirements of the society which we want to live in the third millennium. The method of Billy clubs for students who dare to protest anything, and forced labor for teachers, some of whom can work for 5 years without wage and when payday arrives, it is sometimes 80,000 CF...

(usainbolt.com) English version While the schools are still closed in Gabon due to pupil protests, we have learned that Ali Bongo is spending taxpayer’s money to bring Usain Bolt to Libreville for the marathon later this month. We therefore have looked at all available information regarding how much Usain Bolt asks to be paid for such an event? This blog contacted Usain Bolt’s booking agent and other sources susceptible to know what would be paid. We were able to confirm that on average, Usain Bold demands 300000 dollars to appear at a track meet. This number is confirmed by Yahoo finance which establishes Bolt’s appearance fee at about the same amount. This means for the Gabonese people that Usain Bolt would be paid about 150 million CFA francs, plus the price of a privet jet to bring him to Gabon and back, plus his entourage, their hotel accommodations etc. All of this in a country where some teachers earn less 200 dollars a month. We will continue to pursue...

Pupils marching in protest in Oyem in the north of Gabon. Les élèves marchant en protestation à Oyem dans le nord du Gabon (photo: Ngoua) English version What is going on in Gabon in the education sector is the latest and more glaring evidence of the decay of the Ali Bongo regime. When students take to the street spontaneously, in several cities, with the same demands for their education, and that as a response, the regime has nothing better to offer than to close the schools indefinitely, this can only mean that Gabon has become a failed state! What is a failed state? Noam Chomsky, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor, provides a simple definition for that concept. For him, a failed state is one that cannot satisfy these 3 principles: 1. To provide security for the population 2. To guarantee the rights of the people 3. To maintain functioning democratic institutions As you can clearly surmise, dear readers, Gabon fails mi...

Usain Bolt (photo: usainbolt.com) Gabonese students currently on a hunger strike because the regime refused them scholarships they have earned Les étudiants gabonais en grève de la faim parce que le régime leur refuse la bourse d’étude qui leur revient de droit. (Photo : Jules Bib) English version While many young Gabonese people are in the streets demanding by hue and cry, better study conditions for a more serene future, Ali Bongo is about to answer them in the most contemptuous manner. Indeed, while the Gabonese youth lack almost everything in terms of education, Ali Bongo is ready to use, if that is not already done, the taxpayer funds to pay for the appearance fee in millions of dollars of Usain Bolt, for his presence at the Libreville’s marathon, to be held very soon. We got this information from several sources and we want here to appeal to all our readers to launch a massive campaign toward the international opinion, newspapers and sport...

(Lonelyplanet.com) English version Because Francophone Africa continues to live essentially under the cloak of the Françafrique, which requires that the voracious African nomenklaturas put at the disposal of their masters all the resources of their countries, almost everything, even their souls; for in exchange to get the masters backing to keep hold on power in these countries and its main corollary which is often the countries financial income which are often converted into family assets; Democrats of francophone Africa can no longer operate in isolation. People are not going to eternally witness the lamentable spectacle of brave Africans, because they are being maintained under sustained poverty, must in their country go scratching their head to the gates of the compromise, of bribes and of fat crumbs thrown their ways by the oligarchs of our junk states. Françafrique will fall in Gabon only if it happens to have been weakened in Côte d' Ivoire, Togo ,...

(Photo: AVAAZ) English version Why this is important: "Dictators at the Elysee. Say No to the Summit of Shame." At the initiative of François Hollande, a summit at the Elysee on peace and security in Africa will be held in Paris on 6-7 of December. Most African dictators of the French "pre-square" will be present; Chad Idriss Deby, in power since 1990, Paul Biya (Cameroon, 1982), Denis Sassou Nguesso (Congo-B, 1979), Blaise Compaore (Burkina Faso, 1987), Omar Guelleh in Djibouti, not to mention the heirs Ali Bongo in Gabon, Faure Gnassingbe in Togo. All benefit from the diplomatic, economic and military or police support from France. All support France in its numerous military interventions, such as the one recently conducted in Mali. In return, France keeps silent about their abuses. Chadian, Togolese and Djiboutian Democrats have been subjected in 2013 to the consequences of the support by their heads of state of the Ser...