As Cameroon suffers, president takes a luxury vacation – The Wall Street Journal
DUBLIN – Leaders rise and fall, industries change, companies boom and go bust. Yet through it all, since 1975, one thing has been constant – Paul Biya has been the leader of Cameroon. And what's more, he has been a loyal and frequent guest of one of Europe's most glittering five-star hotels, the Intercontinental in Geneva. Under Biya, Cameroon has failed to thrive. The country is currently the site of an unacknowledged and increasingly violent conflict between English-speaking separatists and the state. Yet, following the example of Nero, who fiddled while Rome burned, Biya has been spending months at a time at his favourite luxury spot, and Cameroonians have been footing the bill. It's a good reminder for South Africans. While things aren't going perfectly, at least South Africa's president isn't spending months dodging his responsibilities at the spa while militants kidnap children en masse.  – Felicity Duncan
By Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson
(The Wall Street Journal) GENEVA—Blinds were drawn at a back office of the Intercontinental Hotel one day last year, as a man known to staff as The General emptied a white cloth bag stuffed with euros. It was time to pay for one of the world's longest-serving leaders.
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