Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

2007 World Index of Economic Freedom: Cameroon ranked 117th

The 2007 Index of Economic Freedom, jointly published by the Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal, was released this month. Hong Kong and Singapore are the world's two economically freest countries with scores of 89 and 86 percent free respectively. At the bottom of the pile are North Korea and Cuba with freedom scores of 3 percent and 30 percent respectively. 

According to the index, Cameroon’s economy is 54.4 percent free, making it the world’s 117th freest economy. Cameroon is also ranked 22nd out of 40 countries in sub-Saharan Africa:

Images of the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope

Go to The Entrepreneur website for a minute-by-minute coverage of the Mount Cameroon race, along with pictures of athletes trying to conqueur the "Chariot of the Gods".

Mount Cameroon: All is Set for One of the Most Grueling Races in the World

This Sunday, February 18, 2007, over 600 athletes from about 12 countries will gather in the town of Buea at the foot of Mount Cameroon, West Africa's tallest mountain. for one of the most grueling but least known extreme sports events in the world; the Mount Cameroon Race of Hope.

Mt. Fako Towering over the Town of Buea (c) Bobby10 - flickr

The race kicks off in the Molyko stadium in scorching tropical temperatures. As athletes scale the mountain slopes, they go through a dizzying array of climatic and geographical zones;

Coming Soon to a Network Near You: The Mount Cameroon Volcanic Sprint

Culled from the Pilot Propopsal

Africa: The Volcanic Sprint - a primetime hour-long television event. Presented by DorstMediaWorks and Autumn Productions (Click below to watch trailer)

At the Base of the tallest mountain in West Africa, 500 ultimate runners assemble in a dense lush rainforest to summit a live volcano. A sprinter's pace. Here, in one of the most extreme competitions on earth, Mt. Cameroon rises abruptly more than 13,000 feet from the African rainforest to ashen con. It last erupted in 2000, and features absurd 50 degree grades.

Chicago: A Winter Tale in Pictures

January 2007: Global Warming!!! Where has Winter Gone?
 
February 2007: What Global Warming??!!!

www.flickr.com

The World’s Worst Dictators for 2007: Africa Dominates the List

Parade Magazine, which is distributed with the Saturday editions of major daily newspapers in the United States, has published its list of the world’s 20 worst dictators for 2007.

(c) Parade Magazine

The magazine defines a dictator as “a head of state who exercises arbitrary authority over the lives of his citizens and who cannot be removed from power through legal means. The worst commit terrible human-rights abuses.”

Obama Sets out on His Mission to Excite and Unite a Divided Nation

Culled fromThe Independent

A gaffe, they say in politics, is when someone inadvertently blurts out the truth. Thus it was when Joe Biden, the incorrigibly loquacious senator from Delaware, held forth the other day about Barack Obama, his fellow aspirant for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

(c) The Independent

"Look," he declared, "you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Reporters Without Boarders: 2006 Difficult Year for Cameroonian Press

The French-based press freedom watchdog, Reporters Without Borders has released its 2007 report on the state of press freedom around the world.
 
According to the report, in many African states, "contempt towards journalists and towards the treaties they have signed up to was a constant factor... in 2006". African regimes, says the annual report, "continued to treat journalists with aggressive condescension", while "police and intelligence services, or more generally all those in uniform, took a sly pleasure in physically attacking journalists who displease them."