This is a phenomenon that is taking place in our country and the rest of the world. You can't know what another person is thinking, or how your jokes may affect them. Let's avoid the hindering of future talents due to the immaturity of some.

The short “Bullying” is rich in body language and expression, so even though it is in Spanish, the message is fully understandable regardless of your spoken language:

Image used is Bully Free Zone by Eddie~S, used according to Creative Commons' attribution license

I decided with the credit crunch looming over our heads like bomb sirens, it’s no time to be frivolous. Mind you, the sound of my teeth noisily crunching away on Maltesers like they are going out of fashion is the only sound more overbearing than the credit crunch round here! I have decided to be very organised with my baby shopping. Instead of going all out on mad shopping sprees, I’ve sat down and painstakingly drafted lists and budgets. I’m getting so good at balancing the books; I think I could give the Chancellor of the Exchequer a run for his money.

In relation to parenting, Mabi’s World discusses the challenges facing grandparents who have to take up full responsibility for their grand children:

In many homes and communities, grandparents have always helped to look after their grandchildren. They are so happy that they travel long distances to be part of the action. Some grandmothers have had to travel abroad to “babysit”. However, for a growing number of grandparents, the brief visits to welcome the new-born baby have now been replaced by the responsibility of providing full-time child care, while Mom and Dad are busy at work.

This relatively new blogger also posts health advice on managing typhoid fever and draws from her late father’s personlity to declare teachers as leaders in commemoration of World Teachers’ Day on 5 October:

My father, Ntunibu James Azefor, was a teacher. One, whose leadership qualities still call for celebration today. His students still remember him as a selfless, respectful and determined person, devoted to the cause of sharing knowledge. Every one of his former students I meet has a story of how he influenced their lives. They describe him as a good teacher whose diligence, vision, attentiveness, and passion to teach and share knowledge enabled them to achieve success and reach great heights. In InterAction parlance, he would be described as “enabling others do great work”. That is leadership.

Mabi azefor Fominyen is a journalist, radio and TV presenter with Cameroon's state-run broadcaster (CRTV), who is interested in family, leadership, gender and women’s empowerment issues.

Speaking of women's issues, Rosemary Ekosso bounced back this September after a dip. She is not pro-polygamy and she is clear about it when she reacts to a BBC report on a man who married 86 wives in Nigeria:

There is no valid excuse for polygamy in today’s world, and we know it. Let us stop pretending to protect the interests of women in such situations when we know full well that we are only thinking about preserving the status quo either because it does not impinge on our lives or because it is to our advantage.

But one of her readers had a different point of view and had the following words for Rosemary:

Did the women tell you it is unfair to them?Did they say anything about being forced into it? They choose the lifestyle they want and we have no right to impose our notion of what we believe to be the “ideal” marriage scenario on them. That would be trampling on their freewill as humans.

On the artistic side of things, Dulce Camer who describes herself as “a young Cameroonian trying to live out her dreams”, interviews Anrette Ngafor, a trendy 32-year-old up and coming Cameroonian female photographer with great ambitions:

My goal is to have my own label, own company, own business and own studio one day. Not long from now this should happen as I am working towards that and I hope to achieve it and make my dream come true.

Style and fashion is also a point of interest for Germany based singer, song writer and media designer – Menoosha. In The Pink Post – she tackles the issue of weaves that do not enhance the beauty of African women:

My dear Afro Sisters! Here is my solemn petition for a BETTER TREATMENT FOR OUR HAIR!!! Whether straight, curly, kinky, fake or real, PLEASE!!!! let's TREAT OUR HAIR SHAFTS FAIRLY!!!! LOVE YOUR HAIR, AS YOU LOVE YOURSELVES!!!!

Finally, Bamenda Babe’s at My African Father blog provides a few recipes from Cameroon. After living for years in the USA, this blog is the lady’s way of connecting to her roots and one way is by cooking Cameroonian dishes:

Making kohki-corn here in the USA is quite an acrobatic feat. Where does one find the plantain leaves to use for wrapping up the kohki into bundles for steaming? And before this–before all else–where does one find the kind of corn that works? The corn sold at stores here is too soft, contains too much water, and is way too sweet. Are there any fresh cocoyam leaves around here?

In the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the Palestine Teachers’ Union is one of the few remaining strongholds of Fatah, and is supported by Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah. It called a strike during the first week of the school year to protest the transfer of dozens of teachers, transfers which it claimed were made so that Hamas could install its supporters in key positions. Teachers were stuck in the middle of the conflict between Hamas, which controls the administration of Gaza, and the PA in Ramallah, which pays their salaries. They were threatened with having their salaries cut or being fired if they broke the strike, or if they accepted a promotion (indicating loyalty to Hamas); yet if they did strike then they risked being sacked by Hamas. While Hamas denied they were replacing staff, as soon as the strike started it brought in hundreds of new teachers; Hamas’ Education Minister estimated that 2,000 of the 9,000 government school teachers had been replaced.

Mutasharrid (‘homeless person’ or ‘vagrant’) is a pupil in Khan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, and explains what happened during the first week of the school year:

At the time of writing some teachers are still on strike.