The Cameroonian Anglophone crisis

This week on The Sound Kitchen, you'll hear the answer to the question about Iraq's prime minister. We have RFI English journalist Laura Angela Bagnetto with us this week – she'll tell you about her recent reporting trip to Cameroon. There's great music and of course, the new quiz question. Just click on the “Audio” arrow above and enjoy!

Hello everyone! Welcome to The Sound Kitchen weekly podcast, published every Saturday. You'll hear the winner's names announced and the week's quiz question, along with all the other ingredients you've grown accustomed to: your letters and essays, “On This Day”, quirky facts and news, interviews, and great music … so be sure and listen every week.

Send me your music requests! I'll make programs of your favorite music when I can't be in the kitchen to cook something up new for you … write to me at  [email protected]

For our DX enthusiast and shortwave listener friends: I am sad to announce we no longer have a shortwave frequency; we have severe budget constraints that no longer permit us to broadcast via shortwave.

"Paris Live", our afternoon news program, is on-the-air Monday – Friday, from 13:00 to 14:00 UTC/GMT. You can hear "Paris Live" on our website, rfienglish.com, or on  World Radio Network.

For North America: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 to 05:59, from 09:00 to 09:59 and from 15:00 to 15h59 UTC/GMT.

For Africa and Asia: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 05:00 to 05:59, from 09:00 to 09:59 and from 15:00 to 15h59 UTC/GMT.

For Europe: WRN broadcasts the quotidian RFI English programme three times a day from Monday to Friday, from 06:00 to 06:50, from 11:00 to 11:59 and from 19:00 to 19:59 UTC/GMT.

In Paris, you can hear us on World Radio Paris on DAB+, Monday to Friday from 16:00 to 16:59.

To listen to our features from your PC, go to our website and click on the three horizontal bars on the top right, choose Listen to RFI / Podcasts, and you've got 'em ! You can either listen directly or subscribe and receive them directly on your mobile phone.

To listen to our features from your mobile phone, the three horizontal bars are on the top left. Click and choose “Features”. There they are!

Teachers, take note! I save postcards and stamps from all over the world to send to you for your students. If you would like stamps and postcards for your students, just write and let me know. The address is [email protected]

Did you know there's an RFI English newsletter? If you subscribe, you'll receive our newsletter every day. Just click on Newsletters, fill out the form, and you'll stay up-to-date with RFI English.

RFI Clubs: Be sure to always include Audrey Iattoni ([email protected]) and Chrystelle Nammour ([email protected]) from our Listener Relations department on all your RFI Club correspondence. Remember to copy me ([email protected]) when you write them so that I know what is going on, too. N.B. You do not need to send them your quiz answers! Email overload!

We've made a Facebook page just for you, the RFI English Clubs. It is a closed group, so when you apply to join, be sure you include the name of your RFI Club and your membership number. Everyone can look at it, but only members of the group can post on it. If you haven't yet asked to join the group, go to the Facebook link above and fill out the questionnaire!!!!! (if you do not answer the questions, I click “decline”).

We have 16 new members to welcome! First, from Karachi, Pakistan, welcome to Arshad Qureshi, the president of the International Radio Listeners Organization Pakistan. Look on The Sound Kitchen Facebook page to see World Radio Day photos Arshad sent in.

There are 15 new members from Bangladesh: Yaara Ahmed, Feona Rahman, Zosna Rahman, Eti Mone, and Rozina Akter, all from Munshiganj, and from Narayanganj, there's Wasif Ahmed, Salina Akter, Badrunnesa Busra, Payel Ahmed, Anika Anne, Prothama Prome, Tanima Tanne, Yaara Ahmed, Tazrin Ahmed Toma, and Nusrat Zahan.

So glad you have joined us!
You too can be a member of the RFI Listeners Club – just write to me at [email protected] and tell me you want to join, and I'll send you a membership number. It's that easy. When you win a Sound Kitchen quiz as an RFI Listeners Club member, you receive a premium prize.

This week's quiz: On 8 February, I asked you a question about Iraq: there had been massive anti-government demonstrations in the country since October and hundreds of protesters had been killed.

Iran's prime minister was unable to quell the protests and resigned in November.

From his resignation in November until 1 February, no new prime minister had been appointed, as neither the Parliament nor the president had been able to find a prime minister candidate on which both the Parliament and the protesters could agree.

Finally, on the first of February, Iraq's president Barham Saleh stepped up and appointed one.

And that was your question. You were to send to me the names of both the new prime minister of Iraq and the name of the prime minister who resigned in November.

The answer is: Iraq's new prime minister is Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi. Adel Abdul Mahdi was his predecessor.

Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi is no new player in Iraq: he is a former member of Parliament and the former minister of communications. But he is not tarnished by the corruption allegations that dog many other Iraqi political figures.

The selection of Mr. Allawi is an effort to pick someone who has worked with a wide range of political parties and who is educated and secular, as well as having the requisite Shiite Muslim background.

Since the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iraq has had a political power-sharing agreement whereby the prime minister comes from the country's Shiite Muslim majority, the speaker of the parliament is from the Sunni Muslim minority and the president is of Kurdish ethnicity so that all three main ethnic and religious groups are represented.

Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi is a member of Iraqiya, a secular party that includes Sunni and Shiite Muslims as well as Christians and several women, but it has few seats in the Parliament compared to the religious parties.

The winners are: RFI Listeners Club members Jean-Maurice Deveault from Montreal, Canada, Luckson Dzingirai from Marondera, Zimbabwe, and Cornelius Dery from Kumasi, Ghana. From the RFI Listeners Club in Sheikhupura City, Pakistan, there's Mrs Asifa Shaheen, and last but not least, Mahesh Jain, the president of the RFI Club Delhi, in Delhi, India.

Congratulations winners!
Here's the music you heard on this week's program: “Cold”, written and performed by Olgha Nk; “An Eastern Love Story” performed by Nasser Shamma; “The Flight of the Bumblebee” by Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and “Hang on Little Tomato” by Thomas Lauderdale, China Forbes, and Patrick Abbey, performed by Pink Martini.

Do you have a musical request? Send it to [email protected]

This week's question ... You'll have to listen to the show to participate. You have until 13 April to enter this week's quiz; the winners will be announced on the 18 April podcast. When you enter, be sure you send your postal address in with your answer, and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

Send your answers to:
[email protected]
or
Susan Owensby
RFI – The Sound Kitchen
80, rue Camille Desmoulins
92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux
France
or
By text … You can also send your quiz answers to The Sound Kitchen mobile phone. Dial your country's international access code, or “ + ”, then 33 6 31 12 96 82. Don't forget to include your mailing address in your text – and if you have one, your RFI Listeners Club membership number.

To find out how you can win a special Sound Kitchen prize, click here

To find out how you can become a member of the RFI Listeners Club, or to form your own official RFI Club, click here