THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT : FROM VIRTUAL TO REAL LIFE

Three months ago the President of the National Assembly arrived on social networks. This presence is such a great opportunity to interact with him. Friends or opponants are full of joy.

Through the social networks you can congratulate him or blame him directly, instead of saying all those words behind your TV. You can meet him in person, with no bodyguards, no tinted windows.


If wanting to get closer to the people is a good initiative, my greatest fear was to see the President of the National Assembly omit one important aspect. Actions.


Speaking to people is good, but listening to them is better. And listening is not sufficient if it's not combine with  right actions.


I was pleasantly surprised that Mr. Guillaume Soro funded the Yakro E-School 2012, a platform for training and exchange around the web, organized by E-Voir Agency.
My joy increased when I heard that the meeting between the promoter of the event and him was done only through the magic of the Internet.


It is so incredible to know that through a simple tweet the President of the National Assembly appreciated the concept, decided to associate his image and even give more than 80% of the budget. According to the communication service of the President of the National Assembly, it is not the first time for Mr. Guillaume Soro  to help young people he met via social networks.


But as the saying goes, nobody shows his village with his left hand. Lol.


The details of the aid, granted by the President of the National Assembly, were not disclosed.  I guess it is for M Soro not to lose his divine reward because holy books invite us to keep our acts of charity as secret as possible.

But I think it is also not to turn the presence of Mr. Guillaume Soro on social networks in an NGO.
Lovers or haters, people are  following his activities and it's nice to see that he also follows back with concrete actions. Hope that he will continue to consider the contributions of internet users even in the submission and adoption of laws.


To follow the news of the President of the National Assembly (All in french)

Le blog : http://www.blog.guillaumesoro.com
Son compte Twitter : https://twitter.com/SOROKGUILLAUME
Son compte facebook : Facebook.com/Guillaumeksoro
Son compte google+ : https://plus.google.com 
Son compte Linkedin :www.linkedin.com/guillaumesoro 
Son compte Pinterest : www.pinterest.com/sorokguillaume

PRESIDENTIAL VISIT AND THE COMEDY OF DEVELOPMENT

Let it be clear. This is not an Alassane Ouattara's matter. It is a problem that you can easily notice in most of our african countries. Côte d'Ivoire is just not an exception. When a president must pay a visit to a particular region, you can see people working hard and fast to make the area beautiful for the cameras. Suddenly, there is money to solve most of the problems.

See the exemple of Man. The President Alassane Ouattara must visit the population of the region. So, they are building roads, cleaning fields, renovating stadium, electrifying some places, painting buildings...Why ? This is not the reality of what people are living. This reality I think the president must see, live and experience to be able to take relevant decision to improve the well-being of population. This sound so fake to me. It's seems it's just a political move and not a real attempt of showing kindness. 

If there is money, the governement should not wait for a visit of the president to consider a solution to the problems of the population. Côte d'ivoire is not limited to Abidjan and Yamoussoukro. 

I'm persuaded that all these works done in the hurry won't remain very long after the passage of the president. But will the television go there again to show it ? This is not so sure. According to all that, I can finally say that there is an efficient solution for the development of the entire country. We should give a schedule to the President for the five years of his exercise. In this schedule, he will have to visit every single area, town, street and village of this country. The governement will give money for the comedy of development and everybody will be happy... for a while.

SOCCER : BROTHERHOOD AND RECONCILIATION PROMOTED

I don't like soccer. But the team of Drogba, this team of « All Stars », made the miracle in 2006. I spent  90 minutes of my life watching 22 grown men running after only one ball, without this feeling that I was wasting my time.

After 5 deceptions through the past 6 years ( 3 African Cup of Nations and  2 World Cup), I went back to my old habit. I even decided, not to watch any match of the Elephants. In fact, any match of this cup at all. I have many projects in my head and I don't want to die of a heart attack because of a soccer game. Cause of the death : SOCCER ! What a shame !

However, I realized that my vow was quiet impossible to respect. Though I didn't sit before TV to watch it, the comments on social network and the shout of people in their home, made me able to  identify the score, the good players, the bad ones.

In addition, I noticed that many "soccer hater", were not missing games. Why ? It 's just because this competition has became a pretext to forget their daily problems. People are making plan to watch the games with family, friends, in restaurant, at home. The most important is now brotherhood, friendship and no more the national Team, even if each victory is another source of Joy.

As usual, some evil minded people are trying to find a political reason behing this simple game.

.

 "A victory of our national team will mean that those guys were against Gbagbo"

"We are going to win because Alassane Ouattara paid it! You think that the government played a soccer game for nothing"

"If we win, it will be a good thing. Maybe the President will die next year. Remember in 1992. "

Shame on those people. They have not yet understood that as the past failures of the national team were the failures of all the ivorian, it will be the same for a Victory.

I don't know if I'll watch the next game. But I'll be happy if soccer can show the way to reconciliation, the true reconciliation.

DEAD PEOPLE VOTING

It is not easy to guess it when you see some of our politicians, but there are wise men in Africa.
I think Birago Diop is one of them. “The dead are not dead” he said in his poem “Spirit”.
He was so true ! If they used to remain in the trembling of the trees, in the groaning of the woods, in the water that runs, our “modern dead” are now in voting booth.
Once again, it happened in Côte d’Ivoire during the legislative elections. This lead to the cancellation of the results in 11 localities.
I think that dead people are not to be blame in this matter. They mean no harm. They are just bothered by the well-being of the living. How can they lie down quietly in their graves when sometimes, the winner of an election is not the one with the best program but the richest ? No fair-play at all ! Blackmail, threat, assault...

Dead people have to intervene to show the way to the living. They don’t need money, or clothes, or food ! They cannot be bribed or threatened! So there is no need to organize another election for the 11 localities as planned ! Because dead people will surely come and vote again. Whether you find an exorcist, or you choose a representative of the dead to sit in the national assembly, so that their voice can be heard ! 

FIRE BREAKS OUT AT PRIME MINISTER'S BUILDING

I heard shacks were burnt when fire broke out at the Prime Minister office.  At the moment, I thought the journalist was talking about some Slum. Because here in Abidjan we used to have our own "Washington", a reknown slum of the capital. But as amazing that it could seem, he was really talking about our own Prime Minister Office. 

This is not the first time this kind of fire is breaking out. Fire here, fire there! Always happening in strategic places. Abidjan is becoming very hot these days. Whether it some markets strangely burning when a big businessman is trying to buy the place, or it is government offices. Finance, Budget, Accounting! Massive loss of evidence or not...according to the great art of pyromania! Of course this is the version of all those people gossiping all over town with their bad mouth. 

We, "good mouth", can only sincerely regret the huge and irreversible damages caused by these fires. 

Investigations as usual are ongoing and those champions of endurance will certainely continue to go their way forever. 

Fire, at the prime minister building, two offices containing records of the Department of State, Ministry of Interior, were totally destroyed. I am even too kind to talk about office. Because as far as this matter is concern we must use the right term of wooden shelter to qualify these offices. Indeed, this is quite good material for Gossips.

In a great country like Côte d'Ivoire, we are keeping our archives in wooden shark? No more cement in town ? We all know that wood is ideal for important documents. Good conservator when you need them, good fuel when you want to get rid of them. 

 Photos: notrevision.net

THE BATTLE OF CARLALIE OKOU ...THE BATTLE OF ALL CREATIVES

Since the "spectacular" fireworks which was offered to Ivorians for the end of this year, it is another matter, a less glorious one, which is making the entire blogosphere shake. The #carlaliegate. 

The facts 

Carlalie Okou, a young Ivorian photographer, was surprised to see her photos of the event, she had posted on her facebook profile, copied by many newspapers (Le Jour, L'intelligent d'Abidjan, Le Nouveau Réveil, abidjan.net, ...). People could say that Carlalie has no reason to complain because this is an incredible opportunity for her to have more visibility.

But the root of all evil here, is that none of these media had the courtesy to ask permission to Carlalie before using her work. Worse, some of them added insult to injury by erasing her watermark on the pictures, showing that their evil purpose. 

Unfortunately for them, Carlalie  didn't remain silent. Today, the number of member of the ivoriancommunity supporting her is increasing faster and  the campaign for the restitution of her rights to her pictures is on. 

 The compensation proposed

 Abidjan.net has simply removed the pictures from its site. L'intelligent d'Abidjan has proposed the following compensation: resumption of the picture with her name in the newspaper but not on the front page, a collaboration to pay her photos and sending for one month the PDF version of the newspaper to Carlalie.  

Carlalie, who made calls to legal counsel can not speak on the subject, but the last time I got her, the other media had not responded to her attempts of establishing communication. 

 My questions 

This situation can happen to any of us, web users and content creators. It is raising several questions: 

1-Is Internet really a "no man's land" here in Côte d'ivoire? Everyone doing what he want ? 

 2-Does an article, a photo, or any other private content published on the Internet, automatically falling into the public domain? So anybody can found one morning, one of the pictures of his Facebook page in newspaper without his consent ? Just because it was published on internet? 

 3-If putting a huge watermark can be a solution for photographers, what can I do as a blogger to prevent such behaviors of the media?  Insert my name every two words? Yehni Djidjii Yehni Djidji? 

I think that the Battle of Carlalie Okou is the beginning of a change. Beyond Carlalie, and any monetary compensation coming or not, there is a real awareness because of the #carlaliegate. 

Journalists, who are becoming too much lazy would do a little more effort to restore the prestige of their corporation. In addition, where an apology and a fair agreement would have been enough, they are letting the matter being worse. How unprofessional! 

On the other side, we, creatives and web users, shoud start learning our right and duties. We must organize ourselves in order to protect our work from dishonest people. We need to be trained. There are organizations related to the Web that exist here Côte d'Ivoire. I am sure they can do a difference in this fight.

Rather than meeting only to talk about contests, technological innovations, or even to eat, they should planned a training in law. It's an emergency. 

The resolutions 

1) Now we must clearly indicate the sources of all photos and content that is not ours, that we take on our blogs, websites and other publications. And I'm starting today. Even if we do not always know the author, the site where we took the picture or the text is still known: DO MENTION! Whe shoud not do to others what we won't like people to do to us.

2) Each of us must undertake research to learn more about our rights and duties as Web users and content creators until an organisation join the battle to help.

3) We need to follow the press closely. Those who are stealing the intellectual work of others should not do so with impunity. 

4) We must be more united, when such cases happen. It is purely a shame to hear people predicting the failure  of this battle, simply because they were once victims of such injustice and that their protests has led nothing. There is always someone from whom the struggle begins. If it is not you, you should not be bitter. You should rather join the movement. We must support each other, unless of course we think that the initiator of the mobilization is wrong! But to give up too early when you know that the person is right is not acceptable! It is time that we see a little further than the end of our flat nose. 

Carlalie keep it up ! All creatives should be full of courage! We will win or we will lose this battle, but in my opinion, the war has just begun. We will no more remain silent over the theft of our creations! 

Another article on carlaliegate: http://www.drogbascountry.com/?p=486

 photo: carlalie Okou http://www.carlalie.blogspot.com

IVORIAN ARMY: ANOTHER CHANGE OF NAME

Cameroonvoice.com

There is power in the name, said a pastor. Wrongly chosen, it can slow down blessing.There are many examples in the Bible and Prime Minister Soro Guillaume Kigbafori, former spokesman of the rebellion seems to share this view.

Otherwise, How else can  we explain the multiple name changes experienced by the so-called rebellion?We went from "assailants rebels" to IPMGW (Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West), MECI (Patriotic Movement of Côte d'ivoire) and MJP (Movement for Justice and Peace). Then we had the NF (New Forces) with their army AFNF (Armed Forces of New Forces ). Finally, the RFCI (Republican Forces of Côte d'Ivoire) that have emerged in favor of the post-election crisis are now known as NAFCI (National Armed Forces of Côte d'Ivoire).We begin to lose our Latin but it is not the case for all. Our president Alassane Ouattara and his prime minister (which name Kigbafori means "The Invincible") are very cool with that.

 This frantic search of the name most likely to pour blessings on this hybrid army, still suffering from disorders of the mutation, is commendable. It is the wish of all, that life returns to normal, to enjoy the fruits of this new hardworking Côte d'ivoire. For exemple,  we want to have the flexibility to travel  this famous third bridge, without being extort money or control by someone who confuses a prescription and a birth certificate.However we can reasonably ask ourselves, if this name lottery  is not a way to satisfy a most obscure motives. I mean, bluring the  historical tracks to put confusion in the mind of future generations, so that several years later, we will end up not knowing who was who. Who was rebellious and who became that later, who attacked first, who replied, who was right and who was helped to be right ...
Even me, living when all these event are happening, I'm confused ... like many others, unfortunately!