I think we can help, can’t we?

The page you see cut and pasted above has stuck with me all day.

I first clicked on the link when @Rachie posted it on Twitter earlier with a plea for help.

I think what first moved me is the message that appears to have been written by Clive himself. But most of all it’s the “Red Devils” (spelt out in red) and those exclamation marks.

What an incredible adventure to be embarking on.  Putting aside, just for a second, the piece of equipment that he’s raising money for – his sky-diving day will stay with him forever.

But what of that equipment – £1,400 to help him walk.  Funding it in this manner would make his Red Devils day the start of something, rather than just a fabulous memory and a few minutes of unforgettable freedom.

We can help him here – can’t we?

And I know, my timing sucks – Red Nose Day on the horizon back in the UK – but it’s all to the same ends isn’t it?

Like I said – that page and its message has stuck with me all day.  Put it down to classic case of isolated volunter over-emotiveness but, well, you know.

As ever I’ll ask people to retweet it, blog it, link it etc.  But don’t *just* do that – make a small donation too if you can.  It takes two minutes. Thanks.

Impossible Missionary

If you’re here you couldn’t fail to know that the Pope’s heading this way soon.

Not here in Bamenda obviously – not sure the Popemobile could deal with the roads, but he will be in the capital and ahead of his trip the Government has been doing some spring cleaning.

YAOUNDE, March 10 (Reuters) – Cameroonian security forces have smashed up the street stalls, where thousands of people earn a living, to give the capital Yaounde a face-lift for a visit by Pope Benedict next week.

The report continues:

“My 10 years of investments have been ruined. I don’t know now what to do to survive,” wailed Mariane Ngoupendji on Monday when she found her typing and printing shop reduced to rubble.

“Will the Pope’s visit replace what I’ve lost?” she said.

And:

“I saw gendarmes and police chasing after fellow Cameroonians, beating them up with such ferocity and smashing their goods,” said a Cameroon Telecommunications company worker, who watched from a third storey window as police cleared stalls near Avenue Kennedy on Saturday.

So far so horrible.  I watched the story break on Twitter and there was plenty of coverage and condemnation.  A new VSO intake were in town and saw much of the “clearance” going on.  The Pope will arrive to a spring cleaned city – they arrived to one of ugly violence and intolerance.

You’d think it would be a hard job to defend the government on this one.  But support for them comes from an unlikely source – a US missionary based in the capital.

He writes: (Post now removed by Impossible Missionary – see update below)

…even if these people were asked to leave, they would probably not do it anyway until they were forced to.  So it’s easy to read an article and accuse the government of being so mean and nasty – which indeed could be very true, especially if the reports of police brutality are factual – but the vendors are not simply innocent bystanders in the whole process either.

He also refers to the stall holders as ignorant saying:

I’m glad that the city is getting a face-lift – it sure makes things look a lot nicer, and the big street lights make driving at night or trying to get a taxi along the main route so much easier and safer.  But it’s sad that some of this clean-up has to mean the destruction of people’s way of life.  Unfortunately, these people were simply ignorant, some willfully so, of the rules and are now facing the consequences.

Woah.

Street stalls are a way of life here.  They are everywhere.  It’s easy just to say they are illegal but they can be pretty solid structures.  What’s more, if they are illegal I’d imagine that they have only been allowed to remain because someone, somewhere is taking a regular few thousands Francs in bribes.

People here struggle.  You can bet these structures don’t turn over much and in a country where enterprise and entrepreneurship is so minimal…well what a way to reward it.

I ask you, if you are in general agreement with what I have written and also find the missionary’s take as ignorant as I do, to leave a comment.  Not below but instead on the missionaries own blog.  Go here.

Thank you.

Update 18/03/09: Our Impossible Missionary after posting something akin to an apology in his own comments box (you’ll also find it in mine), has decided simply to delete the post from his own website.  Also, his apology has gone too.  Anyone who knows anything about blogging will tell you that you live with your own mistakes and when you’ve messed up you don’t just press delete and pretend it didn’t happen.  The home page of the IM’s blog is here.

On the side of that page he writes:

Whatever your hardship or affliction, bear up under it for the sake of the gospel.

I guess that doesn’t include comment box criticism – easier just to delete everything and pretend it never happened.

Elsewhere I particularly like this article on fasting – very relevant for Africa that one.