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In her "presentation liminaire", Ambassador Janet Garvey brushed a range of topical issues of the day in Cameroon while using the normal and expected "Diplomatic Speak" to push under the carpet such "Hot Button Issues" that would have been interpreted as "meddling in the Internal Affairs of a sovereign state and abusing her Diplomatic privileges".

On ELECAM, she said she and a host of other foreign dignitaries had made their position very clear to Cameroon authorities i.e. ELECAM could not conduct free and fair elections in Cameroon under the present dispensation, especially after the appointment of CPDM heavy weights into management positions at ELECAM and that information reaching her from the general Cameroon public was one of total apprehension as to the objectivity of the said ELECAM...and obviously it was left to Cameroonians to decide for themselves if they wanted ELECAM or not. She said even the French Embassy usually ambivalent and sometimes supportive of the Government was scandalized with this ELECAM charade.

On the ever recurring question of corruption, she reminded the audience that it takes two to tango. She said in the two short years she has been in Cameroon, she came to the conclusion that Cameroonians in general like the easy route out..."Cut Short". Every family wants their sons and daughters to go to ENAM, EMIA, CUSS, Ecole Normale, CNPS, Customs, Taxation etc and would do "anything" to get them there. Corruption is a canker-worm that must be combated by all for the benefit of all. In short if everyone refuses to GIVE BRIBES, no one will TAKE BRIBES. If close collaborators of Ministers and other high Government officials refuse to collaborate, these high officials will find it difficult to embezzle State funds with impunity.

One participant asked whether the corruption syndrome had infiltrated the consular service of the US Embassy, where visas are systematically refused to the meritorious only to be issued to the highest bidders. She said she had no knowledge of such practices at the Embassy. She said she wished she could issue as many visas to Cameroonians as possible to come to America, but she had observed that many Cameroonians apply for visas under false pretenses and most present phony documentation to buttress their application files, Most who are even granted the visas tend to abuse their visa obligations with staying above their agreed period of stay. This main factor alone makes it impossible to view those with a genuine intent to visit with an objective lens. It is easier to obtain a visa if you have visited the USA and returned home as stipulated than when you come up with bogus excuses and phony marriage, birth and other "DOKKY"(her exact words) to justify the unjustifiable.

She said any Cameroonian/ American willing to establish a business and is having difficulties to navigate the tortuous Cameroon bureaucracy, should feel free to contact her office(the Economic division) for assistance. She is prepared to go to any Ministers office to fight on behalf of Cameroonians in the diaspora who have good projects to alleviate the plight of their fellow Cameroonians.

She reminded Cameroonians to revisit President Obama,s speech in Ghana which was a blueprint for good governance and for Africans to take their destiny in their own hands. If anyone is awaiting some kind of American intervention in the internal affairs of any Government, then they have themselves to blame as they will wait for a very long time.

At one point, she had to remind the audience that she was the US Ambassador to Cameroon and not the President of Cameroon to answer some of the pointed questions about "Catching and Locking" up of corrupt CPDM officials.

Cameroonians wanted to know if the Ambassador could facilitate reopening of USAID offices in Yaounde again. Two companies present said they had been awarded AID packages (Nascent Solutions, Inc.) totaling more than a million US dollars in health care related development NGO,s.

I might have missed other important points, but these are some of the issues that were discussed in her town hall meeting at the Silver Spring Hilton Hotel.
Please don,t kill me for this report. I am not a trained verbatim reporter, I am not a Journalist, I was not one of the organizers, neither was I appointed as "Secretaire de Seance"...I am simply, my humble self...reporting for Camnet News at the Hilton Silver Spring down town...

Unappointed Town Hall Kongossa Man
MISHE FON

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