Latest news with #Anglophone
Morocco World
04-08-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Is Nigeria's Ex-FA Boss Secretly Running CAF?
When the Confederation of African Football (CAF) quietly axed its head of refereeing, it looked like a bureaucratic reshuffle. It wasn't. It was the smouldering tip of a scandal years in the making – one that reeks of political payback, unaccountable power, and the ever-present fingerprints of Amaju Melvin Pinnick. The former Nigerian FA president, ejected from FIFA's Executive Council earlier this year, now holds the title of 'Special Adviser' to CAF President Patrice Motsepe. A role so ill-defined it could really be benign or powerful enough to be dangerous. But what exactly does he advise on? And how much authority and influence does he wield? The Rotten Core Last week, CAF discreetly dismissed its head of refereeing, Noumandiez Désiré Doué, following Morocco's formal complaint over abysmal officiating in the Women's AFCON final against Nigeria. The Moroccan football federation (FRMF) submitted a dossier of damning clips, including a denied penalty that left head coach Jorge Vilda fuming. Yet the most pertinent question remains unanswered – who orchestrated the referee appointments? And why were nearly all officials selected from Anglophone countries? Was Pinnick, with Motsepe's silent blessing, handed the reins to ensure a Nigerian triumph – a symbolic gesture after his humiliating loss for a FIFA seat in Cairo? Let's be clear: refereeing in CAF has always teetered on the edge of farce. There's no transparency in refereeing appointments, no clear performance metrics, and no public record of internal reviews. The VAR system, touted as Africa's entry into modern officiating, has become a theatre of chaos plagued by technical errors, dubious calls, and apparent favouritism. But this isn't about a few missed calls. This is about a system compromised from the inside – a politicised cesspit where decisions are made not in the name of fairness. A Puppet Master In March, Pinnick narrowly failed to retain his seat on FIFA's Executive Council, garnering 28 votes – just one short of rivals from Mauritania and Djibouti. Morocco's Fouzi Lekjaa led with 49 votes. Behind the scenes, a bloc within CAF had pushed for a new code: only sitting FA presidents could hold FIFA seats. Pinnick, having stepped down from the NFF, was thus hung out to dry. As a result, Pinnick was removed from FIFA's corridors but was reinstated three months later as Motsepe's whisperer. The CAF boss himself said Pinnick would 'attend all CAF meetings' and provide 'strategic advice.' And with five months to go before Morocco hosts the men's AFCON – billed to stand as the best in history – that influence becomes particularly dangerous for the fairness of the beautiful game. CAF's refereeing crisis is not new. But never before has it appeared so politically entangled. If Motsepe permitted Pinnick to influence referee appointments, this would undermine the last shreds of CAF's credibility. The question is not whether Pinnick is involved in refereeing decisions. The question is how deeply entrenched his network is, and why Motsepe continues to entertain him. Imminent Fallout Morocco, seething after the recent officiating injustices, is preparing to host AFCON 2025 with a pang of mistrust. And should refereeing controversy rear its head again – as it inevitably will – the fallout could be nuclear. If Pinnick is allowed to continue in his nonsensical seat, it could prove catastrophic, not just for CAF's image but for its future. Sponsors will walk. Fans will switch off. And African football, already riddled with dysfunction, will become a political battleground. If Africa is to host world-class tournaments with world-class integrity, it cannot afford to be run by a club of wounded egos and backroom pacts. Referees must be appointed on merit, not loyalty. Influence must be earned, not inherited. Otherwise, every match result will carry the stench of politics. And every whistle blown will echo with suspicion. It's time for CAF to start acting like a governing body. Tags: Amaju PinnickCAFFIFAFouzi LekjaaFRMFGianni InfantinoPatrice Motsepe
Business Insider
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Insider
Over 7,000 Cameroonians face deportation as U.S. court backs Trump's move to end TPS
Thousands of Cameroonians living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) now face the threat of deportation after a federal court ruled in favor of President Donald Trump's administration. A federal court ruled to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Cameroonians in the U.S., allowing possible deportation. The ruling affects approximately 7,900 Cameroonians and 14,600 Afghans under the TPS program. Critics, including lawmakers and advocacy groups, argue against the decision citing safety and humanitarian concerns. On Monday, a U.S. district judge lifted an earlier injunction that had blocked the administration from ending TPS protections for nationals of Cameroon and Afghanistan, effectively clearing the path for the implementation of Trump's April directive to revoke their protected status. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, about 7,900 Cameroonians currently benefit from TPS. The court's decision could compel them to return to a country still plagued by political unrest and violence, especially in the conflict-ridden Anglophone regions. The ruling also affects approximately 14,600 Afghans, many of whom face similar risks amid ongoing insecurity in their home country. Trump's immigration crackdown targets TPS In April, the Trump administration announced plans to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for thousands of Afghans and Cameroonians living in the United States, intensifying its sweeping immigration crackdown. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed the decision, which marks a significant shift in America's humanitarian immigration policy. TPS offers temporary legal status and protection from deportation to nationals of countries facing armed conflict or natural disasters. Cameroonians were granted this protection due to ongoing violence and a deepening humanitarian crisis in their country. Following the announcement, more than 100 Democratic lawmakers urged top U.S. administration officials to reconsider, warning that ending TPS would force vulnerable immigrants back to ' devastating humanitarian and economic conditions. ' Despite widespread opposition, the Trump administration maintains that conditions in both Cameroon and Afghanistan have improved enough to justify ending the protections, an assessment strongly contested by human rights groups and immigration advocates. Critics argue the move not only endangers thousands of lives but also reflects a broader, hardline approach to immigration under President Trump's renewed tenure.
Indian Express
21-07-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
World's oldest president, 92, seeks another 7-year term as opposition calls for change
Cameroon's President Paul Biya, 92, has announced he will run for another seven-year term in October, despite growing frustration among many citizens and calls for him to step down, The Guardian reports. Biya has been in power since 1982. On 13 July, he confirmed his candidacy on social media, writing, 'Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet. The best is still to come.' The well-being of our youth and women will be at the heart of my priorities. Together, there are no challenges we cannot meet. The best is still to come. #Biya2025 #PaulBiya#Cameroon — President Paul BIYA (@PR_Paul_BIYA) July 18, 2025 But in a country where the median age is just 18 and many struggle to find work, some say the president's time is over. 'Papa, you have done your best. Can you not leave for another Cameroonian to take over?' asked Christopher Nkong, secretary general of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement (MRC). MRC's candidate, Maurice Kamto, hopes to rally young and undecided voters. But mistrust in the electoral system runs deep. Cameroon's electoral body, Elections Cameroon, is supervised by a senior official loyal to Biya and includes several ruling party members. 'Everybody is feeling the pinch of mismanagement, embezzlement, non-development, low standards of living, and poverty,' Nkong said. 'But to uproot a dictator is not a day's job.' Biya's rule has seen voter turnout fall steadily. Only 53.3 per cent of registered voters cast their ballots in 2018, compared to more than 80 per cent in earlier elections. Despite having one of the best-performing economies in central Africa, many people live in poverty, with a third of the population surviving on less than $2 a day. According to a national survey, 80% of workers are informally employed. 'We stopped relying on the government for anything years ago,' said André Ouandji, a 27-year-old motorcycle taxi driver in Douala, who is unsure whether he will vote. A growing number of young people feel disconnected from the political process. Serge, an 18-year-old student, told The Guardian: 'My dream was to be a lawyer, but you need connections. I settled for becoming a teacher because it's easier.' The election is scheduled just after the anniversary of the declaration of independence by Anglophone separatists in western Cameroon, raising concerns about security. In 2018, several people, including a priest, were killed in clashes during the election weekend. Two of Biya's former ministers, Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma, resigned in June and announced they will run against him. 'We are in misery,' Tchiroma said from his hometown of Garoua. Some political figures are pushing for reform. Léon Onana, a local councillor, has filed a case demanding the ruling party hold its first national congress since 2011. 'We cannot remain in a party where everything revolves around a single individual,' he said. Meanwhile, other opposition figures, such as Kah Walla, leader of the Cameroon People's Party, say the elections cannot be fair under current conditions. 'If I cannot hold a normal political meeting, then I cannot be a candidate,' she said. Her party will again boycott the vote. Kamto was placed under house arrest shortly after a rally in Paris, and some supporters were detained. One witness told The Guardian, 'The police, gendarme and military came.' On social media, there is growing talk of a post-Biya future. MRC leaders are calling on young people to guard their votes like voters did in Senegal. Others say the country could see unrest similar to what happened in Gabon after disputed elections in 2023. 'There will be no error in 2025,' said Nkong. 'CPDM's time has ended.'
Hindustan Times
21-07-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Changing aspirations of Indian students and the global education shift
Over the past decade, the aspirations of Indian students regarding higher education have undergone a quiet but profound transformation. Students today are navigating a dynamic and more complex educational ecosystem, both within India and across borders, shaped by globalisation, technology, policy reforms, and shifting social values. College (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Earlier, studying abroad was largely a privilege of the few—often driven by aspirations of Western exposure, a better quality of life, or job opportunities in developed economies. The destination countries were limited to a few Anglophone nations, and disciplines like engineering, medicine, and computer science dominated the choices. Today, the landscape has changed dramatically. Indian students are now considering a much wider range of countries—Germany, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Ireland, and even countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. This is not only because of affordability and policy shifts favouring international students but also due to the rising awareness of diverse career paths and better information access. Interestingly, the motivations behind studying abroad are evolving. While earlier generations pursued foreign education primarily as a springboard to permanent migration, today's students are more nuanced in their goals. Many seek short-term international exposure through exchange programmes, dual degrees, or professional certifications, intending to return to India with global skills. Others are drawn by specific research opportunities, entrepreneurial ecosystems, or social impact sectors rather than merely financial returns. The very concept of 'success' is being redefined—from high-paying tech jobs abroad to creative careers, sustainable development work, or contributing to social change back home. Simultaneously, the aspirations of Indian students within the country are also shifting. A growing number of students now prefer to stay in India due to the expanding scope and quality of domestic institutions. The emergence of Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs), Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs), National Law Universities (NLUs), and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) has created world-class opportunities within national borders. This trend is partly a reflection of changing socio-economic dynamics. Education is no longer viewed only as a means to upward mobility but increasingly as a space for personal growth, innovation, and societal contribution. Urban youth, especially in metros and tier-1 cities, are exploring humanities, design, media studies, psychology, environmental studies, and gender studies—areas that were once dismissed in favour of science and commerce. The rigidity of 'doctor-engineer-CA' pathways is loosening, replaced by an openness to uncharted careers. This has been catalysed by a new generation of Indian educators, ed-tech platforms, startup culture, and exposure to global trends via digital media. At the same time, India's National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has aimed to fundamentally reshape the higher education sector, encouraging multidisciplinary learning, skill integration, critical thinking, and global academic collaboration. The policy's long-term vision is to make Indian institutions globally competitive, reduce rote learning, and align curricula with the needs of the 21st-century workforce. For students, this opens up the possibility of getting an international-style education within India at a fraction of the cost. The pandemic further accelerated this dual transformation. On one hand, it disrupted traditional international student flows due to travel restrictions and uncertainties. On the other, it triggered a mass adoption of online and hybrid learning models, making international faculty, courses, and certifications accessible from one's bedroom in Mumbai or Patna. It levelled the playing field to an extent, allowing Indian students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds to participate in global knowledge systems. Institutions across the world began to offer online master's programmes, bootcamps, and micro-credentials, breaking the monopoly of physical mobility on international education. What stands out today is the rise of agency among Indian students. Empowered by technology, access to peer experiences, and social media, they are more informed, more vocal, and more strategic in their decisions than ever before. They consider cost-benefit analyses, visa regulations, cultural compatibility, work rights, and mental health support systems before choosing institutions—whether in India or abroad. Parental influence, once absolute, is increasingly balanced with personal vision and individual choice. Moreover, the global shift in education is not just about where students go, but also how and what they learn. Traditional lecture-based teaching is giving way to experiential learning, project-based curricula, and interdisciplinary approaches. There is a growing emphasis on skills like emotional intelligence, adaptability, digital literacy, and sustainability—attributes that transcend degrees and align with global citizenship. Indian students, whether studying in Bengaluru or Berlin, are gradually embracing these paradigms. Whether studying in India or abroad, students are redefining education as not just a ladder to prosperity but as a journey towards purpose. In this changing global educational scenario, India stands at a threshold—not only as a source of global talent but also as a rising hub of knowledge, innovation, and transformation. This article is authored by Vinu Warrier, founder and managing partner, eduVelocity Global.
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Death and the Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov review – how it feels to lose a father
The Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov was published quietly in the Anglophone world for years before he won the 2023 International Booker prize with Time Shelter, about an Alzheimer's clinic that recreates the past so successfully, it beguiles the wider world. He is perhaps now Bulgaria's biggest export. Ever playful, never linear, his new novel Death and the Gardener consists of vignettes of a beloved dying and dead father, told by a narrator who, like Gospodinov, is an author. Gospodinov has spoken publicly about losing his own father recently, and the novel feels autobiographical in tone. When we read 'My father was a gardener. Now he is a garden,' it is not the beginning of an Archimboldiesque surrealist tale, but rather a more direct exploration of how we express and where we put our love. It is harder to write about fathers than about mothers, the narrator says. 'The father is a different sort of presence – shadowy, mysterious, sometimes frightening, often absent, clinging to the snorkel of a cigarette, he swims in other waters and clouds.' The book attempts a remedy, capturing a gentle man whose passion is his garden, and the grief of losing him. Odysseus and the biblical Joseph are used as examples of elusive fathers, but not ones without heart. The novel references the episode in Homer's Odyssey where Odysseus, after years away, watches his aged father, Laertes, tend to his garden, and this book is in a sense an expansion of that particular scene. Death and the Gardener is also a rebuff to the kind of toxic patriarchal culture that flourished under communist rule. The narrator recalls the story someone told him of a classmate who, when asked by a teacher where his father works, replies 'the slap factory', one of the book's both sad and funny anecdotes. Communist party officials destroy the narrator's father's too-tight trousers and make him cut his own hair and the 'Beatles-like' hair of his young sons. The father's life is one of poverty and lost dreams, but he 'managed to turn every place into a garden, every house into a home'. As the father ages and sickens, the narrator develops a love-hate relationship with his garden. He loves the 'buzzing Zen of the bees', its beauty, the way it is a declaration of love in a culture where 'it is not customary to say things like I love you', but he also thinks 'there was some fatal connection, some Faustian deal, between them. I imagined it slowly sucking away his strength, feeding the fruit and roses within it, the rosier the cherries, tulips and tomatoes grew, the paler he became.' We sit with the narrator in the hospital and at his father's deathbed. Overwhelmed by medical language – 'suspected propagation in the cerebrospinal canal' – he muses that 'until now I had known that Latin was a dead language. Now I know that it is the language of death.' As well as describing Bulgarian funerary traditions (eat boiled wheat by someone's grave, and you will dream about them), the novel also captures how technology has changed our relationship to death. 'After death the phone is a source of metaphysical horror.' A few days after his father's funeral, the late man's mobile phone rings. A voice on the line says, 'Hey Dinyo, hope you're not sleeping…' We are told of a woman who buries her dead husband with his phone, only to have it ring her a few days later. 'I was scared, then I decided to call him back and he didn't answer.' The narrator, too, keeps almost accidentally calling his father before remembering. There are some cliches, and the luxurious jetsetting of the narrator grows tiresome, but the occasional slip is easily forgiven in such a warm and melancholic writer – the kind who also remarks, 'I wonder whether flowers aren't covert assistants to the dead who lie beneath them, observing the world through the periscope of their stems'. The book is endlessly quotable, and the narrator's travel bragging is put into an empathetic context by the lack of travel allowed to Bulgarians under the Soviet regime. He tells us of his father's one trip abroad to Finland, a reward from his agricultural collective for good work. The amount that Bulgarians are allowed to spend there is limited by the Communist party. Another man on the trip smuggles extra spending money, hiding it in hand-rolled cigarettes. In a fit of excitement over finally getting to travel, he accidentally smokes it. Death and the Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel, is published by Orion (£18.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
