French President Emmanuel Macron’s walk through the streets of New York this week was more than a diplomatic inconvenience — it was a symbol of the contradictions at the heart of global politics.
By The Independentist editorial Desk
French President Emmanuel Macron’s walk through the streets of New York this week was more than a diplomatic inconvenience — it was a symbol of the contradictions at the heart of global politics.
Stranded for half an hour behind Donald Trump’s motorcade, Macron was forced to abandon his car and pace Manhattan sidewalks like an ordinary pedestrian. “Guess what, I’m waiting on the street because everything is frozen for you,” he told Trump in a half-joking phone call. An NYPD officer, embarrassed, apologized: “Mister President, everything’s frozen.”
In that moment, the French leader’s predicament mirrored the paralysis of a world order that routinely blocks weaker nations from justice.
Recognition for Some, Silence for Others
Hours later, Macron stood at the United Nations General Assembly to announce that France would officially recognize the State of Palestine. The declaration earned him a standing ovation. For Palestinians, this was a long-overdue acknowledgment of their struggle for statehood and dignity.
But for Ambazonians, Macron’s gesture highlighted the selective nature of international recognition. France, which played midwife to the annexation of Southern Cameroons in 1961, now denies even the existence of the Ambazonian question. The same government that applauds Palestinian sovereignty has spent years financing and arming Yaoundé’s war of extermination in Ambazonia.
Why is one people’s demand for self-determination celebrated while another’s is buried in silence?
The Frozen Road of Diplomacy
Macron’s walk through New York — blocked, humbled, forced to improvise — is a vivid metaphor for the frozen path Ambazonia faces. At every turn, powerful nations erect barricades: French vetoes, Cameroonian propaganda, and UN inertia.
Yet just as traffic lights change and blockades eventually move, history shows that frozen struggles thaw. Namibia waited decades before apartheid South Africa lost its grip. South Sudan endured generations of war before independence. Palestine has now received new momentum.
Ambazonia too will one day step forward, not because France allows it, but because justice cannot remain gridlocked forever.
Editorial Note: Time to Break the Freeze
Britain, the Commonwealth, and the United States cannot continue hiding behind France’s obstruction. Britain created the trusteeship, walked away without completing decolonization, and left Ambazonia to slaughter. The Commonwealth has remained complicit through silence, even as its own charter demands the protection of member peoples from oppression.
And America — whose presidents once championed self-determination from Wilson to Kennedy — now has an opportunity to reclaim moral leadership. If Washington can applaud France for recognizing Palestine, it can also call London and Paris to account for the frozen injustice in Ambazonia.
Macron’s frustration on a New York sidewalk should remind the world that motorcades of power cannot block freedom forever. Britain must honor its unfinished duty, the Commonwealth must uphold its principles, and the United States must step forward as guarantor of justice.
The road to Ambazonian freedom has been frozen for too long. It is time to break the blockade.
The Independentist editorial Desk
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