The Ferret

So I’ve been scouring the internet for ideas as well as to keep abreast with the latest fashion trends. Never knew people have started ankaralizing their fasion accessories, especially purses and shoes. I came across this on Facebook and I must say; I WANT ONE!!!!

Wicked!

Simply Ankaralicious!

I love this country… it’s a more of a love hate relationship though.. I may hate what she has become… but I love that she IS.

I love my country… I love her her beautiful landscapes, her clear blue skies, even when it rains everyday I still love her.

I love the soil I walk upon… I love the sun that kisses my face… even on a very hot afternoon when the heat from the asphalt rises up as if to brew my face, I still lover her. I love her star lit skies.

I love the different seasons… I love how mangoes and fresh corn trail the wet season. I love how the nights are very cool during harmattan and I love seeing little kids playing around in the sand with skins that seemed to have been coated with ash. I love how they sometimes don’t bother to clean their wet noses on those cold mornings.

I love her vibrant people, how versatile they are… I love our diverse cultures, and how you can’t go from here to there without encountering, at least, two different languages.

My people, I love their strenght and endurance. Uncoutable burdens their shoulders have carried… and continue to carry. I hope to be there the day they unload their burdens and stand tall, proud, as Nigerians.

HAPPY 48TH BIRTHDAY NAIJA!

Browsing through the WordPress blog entries tagged ‘Nigeria’ one can’t help but be inundated by all the negative reportings. Tales abound from the ludicrious to the downright bizarre. Whether it be about Nigerian scam artists, the ongoing crisis in the Niger Delta, Nigerians and their fondness for dog meat or claims that (some) Nigerians are proposing to buy the defunct Newcastle football club. If that last one doesn’t prove that we have our priorities messed up, I don’t know what else will.

When it comes to Nigeria, it would seem that good news is no news.

Recently the ThisDay newspaper organized a music festival purpotedly to ‘improve the image of Nigeria abroad and promote tourism. The event held in a choice location and promiment African American and Nigerian artists were paid millions invited to grace the event. It was all fun and fanfare, but I doubt it did much to improve the image of Nigerians overseas. If anything, it showed that Nigerians love to party! After all the merry making ended things were back to the way they were.

With all the negative press, on one hand you want to defend your Motherland, on the other hand you can’t help but acknowledge the truth in these happenings and the stark reality of a country whose innards are twisted and mangled almost beyond salvation. But there is salvation in the persons of individuals who are not swept away with the grandoise, but are focused on getting the little things right.

Getting the little things right, that should be our motto!

I’ll take Lagos state where I’m currently residing in as an example.  The newly elected governor has embarked on a beautification project. Green lawns, water fountains and well trimmed lawns are springing up all over the place. People are praising him because of the tangible results they’re seeing within a short period of time. Personally I think what he’s doing can be likened to someone without feet admiring the array of beautiful shoes displayed through a shop window.

What I’m trying to say is I’ll take functionality over aestheticism any time. What Lagos needs is massive restructuring. It is massively overly populated. I read somewhere that it’s infrastructure was initially built to cater for less than half a million. It’s currently supporting over 10million! The traffic situation is one of the worst in the world. The only solutions are to either build new roads or reduce the number of cars and people.

I propose the government start building low cost housing estates in the outer parts of the state to seduce the masses and encourage emigration thus reducing the sheer number of people clamouring the scanty resources. The issue of taxation has to be fully explored as well. Once upon a time people paid tax at the toll gate upon entering Lagos. Then the roads were something to boast about. Now it’s not so. In saner parts of the world you pay your taxes in exchange for a comfortable living.

These are just a few of my grievances. People are singing Babatunda Fashola’s praises up and down, but I can only praise someone for doing a good job by the quality and consistency of their reformations. By now Nigerians should know better than to be suckered in by the shock and awe techniques of our politicians.

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By the way has anyone else heard about the  Daily Trust African of the Year award which according to the newspaper is going to “be conferred on an African who has made impact on the lives of Africans positively or negatively through his/her decisions, ideas or inventions”

Conventionally, conferring an award on someone is a mark of recognition in honour of their efforts and achievements in expressing their independent faculty of reasoning. Oftentimes to a constructive end. So, can someone please explain to me why they are inviting nominations for people who have impacted the lives of Africans in a ‘negative’ sense? Imagine giving an award to the likes of Robert Mugabe (who single-handedly destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy. You’d be lucky to buy a loaf of bread there for 10million Zimbabwean dollars!) or Omar Al Bashir (the presideng who stood by and watched hundreds and thousands of Sudanese slaughtered).

If they want to spark debates and discussions about the sorts of leaders not to have, they ought to have come up with another name. Why must we acknowledge much less celebrate mediocrity and outright impotence when we should be naming and shaming.

As we near independence day on October 1st, my feelings are numbed, as always, I ask myself, do I mourn or celebrate or remain indifferent?

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I stumbled across this very disturbing piece of news on Saharareporters.com

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THE GRUESOME MURDER OF A FOREIGN STUDENT IN MALAYSIA

Posted by Admin Sahara

23rd September 2008

The Prime Minister,
Malaysia.

Sallam Alaykum Waramotulah Wabarakatuh

Introduction

“O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former; nor let (some) women scoff at other women…..” Qur’an 49, vs 11

the 21st of September, 2008 of a Chadian student at Wangsa Maju, Selangor, Malaysia.

Facts relevant to our complaint

A 22 year old Abdel Aziz Hassan Abdraman from

Chad republic was gruesomely murdered in the full gare of the public and reportedly under the supervision of some police personnel. The incident which happened at Wangsa Maju, Selangor, Malaysia took place at around 9pm as widely reported in news especially the “The Malay Mail” of Tuesday, September 22nd 2008. According to the reports, the victims of the attack were on their way to the International Islamic University Malaysia to join the Tarawih prayer. While within the vicinity of the Wangsa Maju LRT station, some Malaysian youths numbering about twenty, and armed with weapons, swarmed at the deceased and his friends, inflicted them with severe injuries which ultimately led to the death of one of them – Late Abdel Aziz Hassan Abdraman (the other victims are still suffering from the pains of the attacks).

The Wangsa Maju incident is only one in a series of attacks that foreigners have suffered in this country. The locals’ sense of tolerance for guests is almost zero. The most disturbing dimension to these developments is the feelings that unprovoked attacks on foreigners enjoy government’s support. It was frightening to read, in the media reports, the statement credited to a top Malaysian Police officer – Chief Assistant Commissioner,  Zakaria Pagan – that the attack by the youths was meant to teach the foreigners how to behave in public. It should not be a surprise therefore that police men actually witnessed the incident and saw the attackers but made no arrest.

Signed,

Malaysia.
cc: All Human Right Groups
cc: All Heads of Tertiary institutions in Malaysia
cc: All Major International Press outfits
cc: The Chadian Government

http://www.mmail.com.my/Victims_of_hate.aspx

http://www.mmail.com.my/Cops_nab_hate_crime_suspect.aspx

http://www.saharareporters.com/www/letters/detail/?id=517 

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I’ll be back later with my comments.

Whenever I discuss politics with fellow Nigerians, majority of them are in the habit of saying things like ‘we need prayers’ or ‘we should pray to God to improve the situation’. And other stupid things along that line.

I get very angry when I hear asinine statements like that, because first and foremost, the individual has relinquished the responsibility of physical involvement in the process of betterment to God. As if God Himself will come down and undo the evil we ourselves have perpetuated. As if God Himself will come down and re-structure our social, economic and political circumstances.

Secondly, I’m even more angry by how easily Nigerians are carried away by blind spiritualism. They feel prayers cures EVERYTHING. Like, if you’re hungry, prayer will fill your stomach. We have religious leaders promising miracles left right and center. Rather than work hard, the average person is expecting a miracle. He/she is hoping some God sent good samaritan will show up and be the answer to all their problems. Only in Nigeria will religious institutions be packed full on a working day! When people are supposed to be at their more productive, they’re busy praying. Yet they expect things to get better!

People think I’m odd, or not ‘religious enough’ when I say it’s not prayers this country needs. Well, I insist that when over two hundred million people are praying everyday, years on, and their prayers are not being answered, clearly there’s a missing piece in the puzzle.

Untill we figure that out, all our prayers are going down in the gutter!

Phew!

I made, or should I say tried to make my first skirt today; entirely on my own. Turned out a disaster. The assignment was a fish tail skirt with an insert at the back. Mistake number one was to cut out the insert from the front and back of the pieces instead of just the back. When I realized what I’d done it was too late. (Yet, I thought I had it al figured out).

I tried to improvise by adding some designs in the front. That was mistake number two. It would have been wiser to abandon the concept all together and sew a flared skirt instead. But no, I just had to try and I’m actually glad I did because now I know what NOT to do.

* IF YOU’VE MADE A GRAVE MISTAKE, TRY TO THINK OF AN ALTERNATE STYLE USING THE UNSPOILED SIDE.

Of course this only applies to when you’re sewing for yourself. You can’t go about changing what your client wants. For now friends and family members will have to do as guinea pigs, hehe…

Somehow I’m apprehensive about showing my mistake in class tomorrow. Maybe I’ll conveniently forget it at home and make up over the weekend by sewing something actually wearable.

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Okay, this might sound strange but I’ve had a sneaky suspicion about cartoons. Especially Disney movies. I think they encourage homosexuality and other deviant behaviour in children, innocuous as they may appear. They also encourage single parenthood. Almost all the protagonists come from broken homes. Why? Are they telling children there is no ‘happily ever after’? That the institution of marriage is dead? That sooner or later they’ll end up with just mummy or daddy.

Think about it…

1. LITTLE MERMAID – Ariel, a princess, last daughter of King Tritan. Father of seven children. SINGLE (no wife!) Ariel, a mermaid, falls in love with Eric, a human, and insists she must be with him against her fathers wishes.

2. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST – Belle, only daughter of a SINGLE parent. No mother. Falls in love with a monster… you know the rest.

3. TREASURE PLANET – rascal son of a SINGLE parent whose husband walked out on them

4. TARZAN – Jane was the only child of her SINGLE father. Tarzen was practically an orphan raised by a female gorrilla because her male partner would not accept him as one of them.

5. CINDERELLA – SINGLE father (widower) marries second evil wife and later dies.

The list is endless. In addition the cartoons specialize in enmasculating men. If you remember Belle’s dad and Jane’s dad were portrayed as effeminate midgets. While strong masculine male characters were practically selfish arrogant brutes that went about terrorizing everyone else if at all they are present. And the heroes, why do they always suffer from identity crisis; is it because they are latent bisexuals and can’t deside whether to go homo or hetero because GOD (?) ‘created’ them that way?

Give me a break!

Next time you allow your child induge themselves in cartoon, think about the kind of valus they are imbibing. It’s not all innocent as they would have  us believe!

HERE’S TO WISHING ALL MUSLIMS OUT THERE A WONDROUS RAMADAN.

MAY THIS HOLY MONTH OF OURS BRING RICHNESS AND GLADNESS TO YOUR LIFE.

MOST IMPORTANTLY MAY WE ALL EMERGE BETTER INDIVIDUALS; TRANSFORMED FROM INWARD.

RAMADAN KAREEM!

Just when you think you’ve heard it all something new comes along that takes the zinger. We’ve all heard about the case of the man with 86 wives making the rounds. He was brought to the fore last month when a popular dialy published his story. He claimed to have recieved divine order from Allah to marry those women, many of whom have children for him. He calls himself a religious man, and at the same time insists that there is nothing in the Qur’an that forbids a man from marrying as many women as he wishes.

The man is obviously unwell. If someone tells me God positively told him to marry that many women, I won’t even break my neck arguing with him.

Rather than proffer psychiatric solutions to his predicament our religious leaders publicly denounced his multiple marriages with unnecessary pomp and peagantry. Why is it that they hurriedly stride into action when it suits them? While it is unquestionably against the religion (as even non-Muslims know the maximum number of wives is four) one has to wonder what crime the man has committed to warrant him banished from the Nupe kingdom? To the best of my knowledge no where in the Qur’an or Hadeeth (sayings of the Prophet) does it say that if a man marries more than four wives such and such is the punishment for his offence. As far as the Shari’ah is concerned, there is no prescribed punishment. So the committe of Islamic scholars who came up with the wonderful idea to banish the man themselves have to be inspected thoroughly beause I’m certain all is not well with them.

They must really be unwell because these very same leaders keep mum, and by their silence are complicit in the looting and plundering of state treasury. The so called Shari’ah states are no better than the rest of the country. The only thing they are good at is shouting their holier than thouness down at the rest of the world and intimidating the masses with harsh punishment while they’ve failed woefully at fulfilling their own end of the bargain. Didn’t we hear recently tonnes of grains that was released to the Northern states as a way to subsidize the rising cost of food and alleviate starvation was reportedly shared amongst their various leaders. Bloody hypocrites!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Nigerian is too corrupt for any meaningful system of governing to work, be it religious or wordly. We would first have to totally uproot ourselves from the status quo and lay down a brand new foundation for there to be a semblance of synchronimity as per our national psyche. As long as our leaders are pooled form the same populace, any attempt at reformation is just plain talk shop!