Friday, July 6, 2012

FUNNY HANSEL QUOTES (part 5)



1)    An Apple a day keeps the doctor away. Get six iPods...and you’ll see the police everyday.

2)    It took me three years to get my university degree. After graduation, it took me
        three days to know it was worthless.

3)    If loving you is a crime...then goodbye!

4)    Love should not be built on money, rather on trust. Girls, you must trust your man is rich.

5)    Roses are red, Violets are blue. Whoever started this rhyme is surely a fool.

Monday, July 2, 2012

PROMOTING ENGLISH ENTERTAINMENT IN CAMEROON: WHAT ARE WE REALLY PROMOTING?



There exist several media outlets for the promotion of talents in Anglophone Cameroon. There are TV shows, entertainment websites, radio shows, show-biz magazines and so on. They exist to promote those talents of people who strive to make a difference in their spheres of influence. Be it designing, editing, film making, acting, comedy, music, arts and craft, dancing, there must be a great deal of promotion needed to exhume these talents and bring them out to the world. Now comes the difficult part; what are we promoting?

In this modern age, we as Anglophone Cameroonian entertainers need to understand that the time has passed when people used low tech equipments to shoot movies or music videos. This is the age of High Definition (HD). The world of technology is fast advancing, so we too need to cope with that blurry pace. It’s either that or you remain an amateur.

I am happy to see that some people have embraced this future and are working towards a constructive provision of entertainment. However, it bothers me to see movies or music videos done with poor video and audio qualities, yet these so- called entertainment promoters continue to shine the spotlight on these ridiculous works of art. I am not trying to ruffle feathers here, but I believe if you are an entertainer or musician or film maker, and you are feeling uncomfortable reading this, then step up. 

Allow me illustrate my point with movies. Oh God. Where do I begin? The uninteresting plots, the terrible video and audio quality, the bad language skills, the mediocre acting talents, the horrible directing, the atrocious editing, the dreadful packaging (thanks to PRINCO CD’s), and the awful marketing... the list is endless. Allow me tell you about the invention of movies. 

Movies were made to entertain the people and let them be acquainted with things they never would have imagined. Then came the onset of informative movie making, which set to recount societal ills. The Nigerian film industry abused this privilege and passed it on to Cameroonian film makers who have sucked it dry. Now, the imaginative skills are left to the Western film makers, who thrill us with spectacular movies. Too bad. Shame to us. 

We all know about HIV/AIDS. We all know that jealousy doesn’t pay. We all know that wickedness is evil. For Christ’s sake, TELL US SOMETHING NEW!!!!!  I have watched over a thousand American movies and over 100 African movies. We Africans are the best...in the world of boring movies. We should create our own characters. Being African doesn’t necessarily mean being backwards or primitive. We can come up with a compelling story about our heritage. 

After the movie has been hastily done, there comes the packaging. This is where I often weep. In order for movie packaging to succeed in Cameroon, the owner of PRINCO CD must be killed! The cheapness and availability of these CD’s have made it almost impossible for some ‘movie makers’ to provide a presentable packaging for their products. They present you with poorly designed posters and CDs and pester you till you buy them. 

In the end, the inevitable happens; they get top class promotion from these show biz media outlets, and they will be contented that they did a great job. Nonsense. Arrant nonsense! Now, they develop premature celebrity status and give themselves a false status in the society. We should understand that whatsoever we promote from Cameroon never ends in Cameroon. If we promote mediocrity, the whole world will continue to look upon us as a confused set of people.

Promote something that will make the whole world understand that we have emerged from the dark clouds of ignorance into the bliss of constructive entertainment, a change that will separate the bad seeds from the professionals. If we must promote, let us promote the best. You know them. Unfortunately, they don’t make a lot of noise, like empty vessels do.