Martin Jumbam

Catholic Meditation - First Sunday after Christmas – Feast of the Holy Family

By Martin Jumbam

Today, December 30, 2012, is the first Sunday after Christmas and the Universal Church celebrates it as the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “The shepherds hastened to Bethlehem, where they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. Amen.”

We are celebrating not only the feast of the Holy Family of Nazareth, the family of Jesus. Mary and Joseph, but also the feast of each Christian family, our family, and all that it means to us. The readings of this day’s Mass from the Old Testament as well as from the New Testament all focus on the family. In the first reading, from First Samuel, the birth of Samuel is shown as a miraculous event, emphasizing divine intervention and the child’s importance. A childless woman, humiliated by her husband’s other fertile wife, seeks a way out of her anguish by asking God, her only hope, to give her a son, which he does. In the Second Reading from First John, we see the Apostle contemplating the marvelous gift of being God’s children. We have been created to obtain the dignity of children of God, through the grace that raises us up to a supernatural level. In the Gospel, Saint Luke, the only evangelist who reports the event of the Child Jesus being lost and then found in the temple, also reports how Jesus grew up in physical stature and in wisdom, obeying his parents as all good children should. .

In the course of this Eucharist, let us pray for our families which, in many parts of our country today are showing signs of weakening as harmony and unity are sometimes absent from our homes. Many of our homes no longer give room for God who alone can strengthen the love members of the family have for one another.

Catholic Meditation: Christmas Day: Liturgical Year C

By Martin Jumbam

Today, the Universal Church and humanity as a whole celebrate Christmas, the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the Entrance Antiphon we pray: “A child is born for us, a son given to us; dominion is laid on his shoulders, and he shall be called Wonderful Counselor. Amen.”  

On this day, God has acted on his promise of old and given us a Saviour. In the first reading, from Isaiah 52: 7-10, the prophet Isaiah sings a hymn of praise to God who has brought salvation to the city of Jerusalem. The messenger is seen running along the mountain ridges to the Holy City with the news of the return of the exiles. The watchman takes it up and proclaims it to the ruined city of Jerusalem.  In the Second Reading, from Hebrews 1: 1-6, the sacred writer recalls how throughout the Old Testament, God revealed his plan of redemption to the forerunners and ancestors of the Christian faith: the prophets. But now, God has revealed and achieved all he promised through his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. In the Gospel, from the Prologue of Saint John 1: 1-18, the traditional Gospel of Christmas Day, the evangelist John tells us that the Word shares the Father’s divine being and his creative activity. Through him comes the communication and revelation of true and eternal life.   

Disability and press coverage in Cameroon: a personal perspective.

Martin Jumbam

 The theme for this year’s International Day of Persons living with Disabilities (December 3, 2012) is “Removing barriers to create an inclusive and accessible society for all.” To mark this event, the Bamenda Coordinating Centre for Studies in Disability and Rehabilitation (BCSDR) and the International Centre for Disability and Rehabilitation (ICDR) of the University of Toronto, Canada, organized a conference in Bamenda, on Saturday, December 8, 2012, titled the “Bamenda Conference on Disability and Rehabilitation”. I was given the opportunity to address participants to that conference and I spoke on how I see the press in Cameroon covering persons living with disabilities among us.

"The African economy of tomorrow will be driven by information and communication technology," African employers told.

Martin Jumbam

The African employer, who fails to become more information-technology savvy tomorrow than he or she is today, will certainly miss the train of change that is cruising through Africa at such dizzying speed. That was, in essence, the clearest message that participants took with them from the recent symposium on the place of the African employer in the Africa of tomorrow, that held at the GICAM head office in Douala from September 26 – 28, 2012. GICAM serves as a shelter for many of Cameroon’s employers’ organizations that, to a considerable extent, serve as the spine of the Cameroonian economy.