Moundou, Chad, June 7 – 12: A Chadian was stopped by a corrupt Ivorian policeman who told him « I’m going to give you problems. » The Chadian responded “and I will give you solutions.”

When President Idriss Deby in January told his security forces to impose a draconian ban on the use of charcoal in Chad in a bid to fight desertification, he did nothing to help people find alternative means for cooking. Deby responded to his critics by saying Chadians are people who find solutions to everything. He insisted nobody is starving in the country.

While teaching journalism in Cameroon last month, I was once again astonished at just how big our cultural divide can be when it comes to determining who the victims are in society. 

The Yaounde train station is a two-story concrete rectangle with a grill-gate shutting off the main hall.  When we arrived an hour-and-a-half before the train was due to leave for its sixteen hour journey North to Ngaoundere