The Unlawful privileges

It amazes me how the law enforcers in our society tend to break the law they are to enforce so easily. This is common in Lagos where I reside and I always ponder and feel weak to see what is going on . I am not talking about the court system but those that suppose to work and in hand with the court, to either curb corruption or bring offender to book. The job of enforcing the law and punishing the offenders is an Herculean task that suppose to be done with seriousness and dignity. You have to be disciplined and focused to succeed.

Let's look at the police force, Not that the Nigeria police force and the other officers in uniform are not aware of why they are here and of what they need to do. They just choose to do the opposite.

Commercial vehicles drivers/conductors always capitalise on having one police officer in their bus to be able to commit all the offences against the traffic rules. They look for a police officer or another officer in uniform (by saying another officer in uniform, I am reffering to road safety officers, LASMA, VIO's, army etc), make their conductor hang by the bus door; risking his life, have incomplete papers, overtake unnecessarily. All because our officers in uniform would not pay a dime, they always ride for free. But I really wonder if this riding for free translates to “you are free to break the law”. Officers in uniform always encourage this act. I call this an unlawful privilege.

Worst still, if you know of any officer, if you like go and fight out there. You will be acquainted and the poor victim will be further victimised because he/she knows an officer!!! The officers themselves try to victimize innocent citizens because they have got guns!!! If they ask you stupid questions and you challenged them, they go into a wide and endless rage and would easily threaten an arrest and all that. Why? Whatever happened to freedom of speech? I doubt if they mention that to them in their training.

A lady was said to be beaten up by two hefty men in mufti for putting on a camouflage cap. They told them she disrespected the army and did not give her a change to say sorry. She ended up in a hospital. I wonder why this had to end the way it did. 

 

If you are in Nigeria and you are a "Lagosian" (or you live in other part of Nigeria) and you go out on daily basis, you must have witnessed or contributed to this in one way or the other. Do you care to share your thought or experience for further discussion?

By the way, do not forget to visit Blue Eyed Blonde Blog. Let’s welcome our systa to blogville. She writes well and has got a lot to share.

Welcoming Blue Eyed Blonde

To my ever consistent, articulate bloggers, how una dey? I would like to invite you to join me in welcoming our new systa to blogville. She has got a promising blog and I would appreciate if we can all visit her blog and encourage her as we all have a wonderful weekend.

When will the violence stop?

She was pregnant and the beating went on. She was always weak and tired but she could not tell anyone what her loving husband does to her. He beat her up at every chance he got. Even the fact that she was carrying their second child did not alter the pattern. One day, after the delivery of their baby, she was beating again!!! Something turned her head that day for she picked up a coca-cola bottle using all her strength; she broke it on her husband’s head!
This is the story of WOMAN “A”

 

She assumed the role of the breadwinner of the family. For better for worse they say. Hubby lost his job but that didn’t deter her from doing all in her power to put food on the table for her family. By 4:30am she is up to care for the children before leaving for work at 6:00 am everyday. She would come home in the evening to prepare their dinner. The fact that her husband was in the house all day did not alter her role of cooking the dinner no matter how late she got back from work. On top of all her effort not to make her family suffer, she was constantly beating up by the love of her life. She was beating today as usual, her siblings had to phone one another to come and rescue their beloved sister in the hands of the monster called her husband. The only means they know of rescuing her is to give her husband his own taste of medicine. They beat him till he shit!
That went the story of WOMAN “B”.

Discharged from the hospital, from an accident that nearly claimed her life. She lost members of her family in this accident. They were all in the same bus that was gutted by fire. She was the only surviving person. She left the hospital in a fairly good shape at last but still she was traumatized. She would still need to see a psychologist though she wasn’t sure how she would find or pay for one. She left for her home to begin the recovery process but her husband saw to it that she got NO rest. She was beating up the first day she got home! He ignored the neck brace on her by dishing out hot slaps on her already damaged and broken body. Alas, the neighbours could not watch this maltreatment any more. They took law into their hands and beat her sweet love till he fainted! 
That was how WOMAN “C” was treated.

“I have come to report my husband sir, he wants to kill me, see the bruises on my body from the beating” she cried to the police officer she met at the police station near her house. The police officer looked at her for a moment with no compassion reflected on his face and barked at her; “What did you do? A beg, e be your husband and this is a domestic matter, go back and resolve it between you 2”. She was dumbstruck. “So, the law cannot protect me?” She thought to herself as she turned her back on the police station. She did not live long after that. She died in the hands of her husband when she was receiving her last beating. 
WOMAN D got no protection.

On the street, she was stopped, before she could say "Obama", she saw the rains of slaps baptizing her already disfigured face. She recognised her violator, her husband!!! The same beast she is being running from for Months now. “Where are my children? You left my house with my 5 children, I will kill you today”. He said to his wife as he dragged her across the street. “What did you do?” “How can you abandon your husband?” Asewo/ ashawo/ prostitute go back to your husband” “Don‘t let her escape again o, useless woman”. These are all the comforting words she got from the street sellers and passers-by.
What is now the fate of WOMAN E?

When will these violence stop/end? When will it be told to the perpetrators and their accomplices that “THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR ANY VIOLENCE COMMITTED AGAINST WOMEN?

RESUMPTION PALAVA:

I worry a lot about the time I resume for work, I worry about the circumstances surrounding everything. I like to be perfect; I like to put my integrity first in all I do. I like following set rules and regulations. But it’s being very difficult to keep up with my principle as far as resuming for work is concerned.

I once worked at Victoria Island and I said to myself never to work in that end of Lagos again since I leave far away from the said place. You are faced with endless traffic in the morning and same in the evening when you are going back home.

Well, I am back to the Island, this time Lagos Island. I took the job because I love it but I still get late to work!!! I am supposed to be at work 8:30 am which is fair enough but I often make it to work after 8:30am. See me see trouble o.

Care to know why? I will just describe a typical day from Monday to Friday. But before then I will like to say here that if I leave home before 6:00 am, I will get to work by 7:00 am but if I leave home by 6:30 or 7:00am I get to work after 8:30 am most time. And the big unsolvable problem is, I wake up latest by 6:00am on the dot!!! My body has been so conditioned to this that it’s being so difficult to adjust. Let’s start:

Monday:

1. Long queue at the bus stop (this takes about 20mins or more than at times)
2. Traffic; blocked road, 3^rd Mainland bridge is worse, we could be there for an hour
3. Bus won’t stop me at my desire spot at my bus stop, I have to trek a lot to get to work

Tuesday:

1. It’s Raining
2. Conductors says my bus stop should not enter, which means more time at the park
3. Flat tire on the road
4. Traffic

Wednesday:

1. Bus enters the filling station to get gas/fuel. Takes forever to get done
2. Traffic phase one before we ever reach 3^rd Mainland Bridge
3. Bus overheat
4. Traffic phase two before on 3^rd Mainland Bridge

Thursday:

It could be any of the above or road might be free

Friday:

1. Overslept!!! Hurried out of bed to make it work
2. Traffic must add to my displeasure
3. Rain might now add to my trouble
4. Etc etc

I don’t like excuses and it’s now becoming increasingly difficult for me not to have or give one. I tire. I vex, am sad. I can’t help myself!!!

Reading Tools (RSS Aggregator):

I do not consider myself a good teacher but since I have something to share, I feel I have got to nonetheless. Blogging is great, getting to know how best to keep in touch with all your favourite blogs without visiting the blogs unless you want to leave a comment is greater. And being able to have all the blogs urls in a feed called RSS without forgetting any is the greatest. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". It is a way to easily distribute a list of headlines, update notices, and sometimes content to a wide number of people. It is used by computer programs that organize those headlines and notices for easy reading. Visit http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html

Back to the issue at hand, how does one get to keep all the blogs and other interesting websites close to one’s heart? There are some tools designed to fulfil this role. I am sure a lot of us know what I am talking about, but this lesson is meant for the rest of us that is yet to know about this opportunity.

There are some tools available for bloggers to keep in touch with all the blogs they read by getting regular update each time a blog is updated. This is made possible via blogline, google reader, newsreader (to mention just a few) which will enable you subscribe to all the blogs your read

Step by Step of using an RSS Aggregator/Reader:

Step one:
(using blogline for example): Log on to www.bloglines.com and create an account:

Step Two:

Click on the"ADD" text to your left below the feed, and when a box with “subscribe message shows up, then you type in the url of the blog you want to subscribe to

Step Three: After adding all the blogs you prefer ,which I believe will be a continuous exercise, all the blogs you subscribed to will appear in bold letters until you click on them to read. The subsequent posts of the already added blogs will be the ones in bold letter if there is a new update

Tips on keeping up with comments on different blogs visited:
Do you know you can keep track of all post comments of each blog you have visited if you left a comment? It will be nice to do this so as to know if the blogger is giving you a feedback or wants to generate a discussion. Some of us are guilty of not responding to comments meant for us, which is not good enough in blogville. Anytime, you are leaving a comment, try and tick the small box in front of “email follow-up comment to (your email address) then the deed is done!!!

Please rate this teaching to make me better in the future from 5 (poor), 10 (good), 15 (very good) to 20, (excellent)

I think you should know:
I just finished an interesting and refreshing session of Yoga and aerobics classes. Believe me, nothing could be better. You might want to try this too. You get home training if you want too. This is for Naija bloggers though since the instructor resides in Nigeria except you want to pay for his trip to meet you where you are (lol). To contact the instructor, send an email to blazingdaola@gmail.com or call 234-805-773-4783

The Legends

Don’t be carried away by this title a beg. I am simply going down the memory lane of people that have their names written firmly in peoples mind. I wont be too serious about this and I wont go the line of Martin Luther King, Ghandi, Cleopatra, Mandela, Margaret Thatcher but I will simply discuss the ones that have got stuffs named after them.

Let’s start with Bob Marley: In Naija for real, when a lady or girl goes carry braids, they call it Bob Marley. Not even dreadlocks is ever referred to as Bob Marley but braids. It has always being called BOB MARLEY! Is this peculiar to Nigeria alone?

Sade Adu: this is another tiny weave to the back hairdo. I hear Sade Adu every time. Just mention this at a salon and every hairdresser knows what it means.
 

Anita Baker: hmmm an all the time short perm with low cut at the back as it is commonly done in Nigeria. I wonder if this style originated from Anita Baker or if is just simply named after her being a famous style at that time. But the truth is this Anita Baker hairs rocks!!! I still see people waering it till date.

Alicia Keys: “I keep on falling in love…” and boom every stylish girls/women in Nigeria fell in love with the hair style she was wearing when the song came out. My head was filled with Alicia Keys this and Alicia Keys that, when the hairdo was crazily popular. And up till now, people still wear the hair style.

Other hair styles popular among guys are Evenly King, Tyson etc

The question is what are you known for, what makes you legendary? You don’t have to be rich or famous to be one. Just make a change!!! Touch a life; do something that worth remembering you for. Yeah do something!!!

JUST RANTING

For the lack of a better title, I will just call it “just ranting”. Well, I got me a friend that stays with hubby and I. She is a good friend of mine. Our friendship spans 12 yrs!!! We have a spare room and we asked her to move in.

She is got her space; she's got her privacy, totally no intrusion. There are some concerns though as it is known you get to know a person better when you are together, like she pours water on the floor and won’t look back to mop it until she is told or I simply would do it. Hubby cooks if he gets home before us and my friend now believes that either hubby or I would cook, she will simply disappear into her room when she gets back from work not that she does this all the time but it’s a normal practise. She would finish eating and drop the plate in the sink till the following day. At times, she leaves her used plates and pots in the morning and dashes off to work. She is always out on weekends and that is always an excuse not to wash the toilet and bathroom when it’s her turn.

What happened was that one day she left the used pot and plates in the kitchen and went to work. I sent her a text message so she could know that the act was not appreciated. I did this in order to avoid saying the wrong thing if I tackled this on face to face basis and making her feel bad. So, that passed after she generated an excuse for not washing them (as usual) though she never stopped the habit of leaving her plate in the sink till the following day or just leaving it behind for me to do the washing or hubby would wash the plates if he is doing the chores.

Just a few nights ago, she came from work, went to sleep, woke up later to eat out of the beans that hubby cooked, left the only plate she used in the sink (the truth is, I can’t stand that dirty habit, wash your plates after use and don’t pile them up), dressed up for vigil. She came back in the morning and the plate has already being washed, only for her to use up another plate and pot, drop them in the sink and left for work!!!

When I saw this, I thought I had to address this issue, I sent this text message.

My text: “Ore (friend) na wa o, please be taking time to wash your plates instead of leaving them in the sink, it will only take 2 mins! Have a nice day”.

Her reply: “ Na wah for you o, must you talk all the time? How many times have I done that this week? The Abo Ajase (pot) burnt this morning and I soaked it. Please I am not a baby!”

My reply: Well, I don’t expect this reply. I don’t see any big deal in talking to a friend about an issue that should be resolved. And this is not about how many times you have done it this week because I am not counting. All I am asking is wash your plates after eating and stop leaving it behind. I am not referring to Ajase (pot) alone; you left your plate too. I sent the text as a sign of respect and to avoid confrontation. And since you think you are being treated like a baby, always do what is right so I can keep my mouth shut!”

Do tell me something blogville, have I overreacted? How best do I handle issues like this taking into consideration that it’s natural to be freer to one friend than the other, when serious issues are involved?

Speak freely please.

N:B. Another June 12 is here. This is the true DEMOCRACY DAY!!!

I am a cat Lover

For all ya cat lovers. I got me kittens avaliable for sale or adoption
whichever you prefer. Criteria for buying/adopting !!!

1. You must demonstrate clear passion and love for cats
2. You must swear to take care of the cat
3. You must be in Nigeria at the time of this exchange
4. I must be the godmother to your cat!!!

N:B Watch out for an educative information about how to read all the postings in your favourite blogs without visiting the blogs!!!

TO DO LIST THIS WEEKEND

1. Be grateful and thankful

2. sleep and sleep and sleep

3. watch a movie

4. hang out with friends or partner

5. Refuse to have a busy weekend but a fun-filled one ( I don’t know if I can cos am busy as it is, but you all must)

6. Call or send a text to a friend, colleague etc you have not seeing in a while

7. Don’t answer your calls nor use your phone(s) today(give your phone a breathing space)

8. Clean out your physical closet and mental closet (it’s a good therapy for the soul)

9. Try and forgive someone

10. Adopt a pet or simply buy one

11. Do something unique that you have not done before or that you have not done in a long while putting in mind God’s approval

12. Visit an orphanage

13. Be nice to someone

14. Do not litter the road

15. Fast at 6pm (lol)

16. Be generous to your kids or those kids you know. Impart in their lives

17. Refuse to get angry

18. Say Standtall I love you

19. Claim that you are a standtaller

20. feel all right and be all right

21. Do not hesitate to fart and fart and fart (pls eat beans first)

I wanna know how many out of this above list you managed to accomplish. What other extra sutff did you add?

Creative Writing Workshop with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

To all ya creative writers or those that are interested in creative writing. Here is the opportunity, here is a quick excerpt....
Creative Writing Workshop with Chimamanda Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina, Dave Eggers and Marie Elena John

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be organizing a creative writing workshop in Lagos from August 19 to August 29 2008. The workshop is sponsored by Fidelity Bank. Guest writers who will co-teach the workshop alongside Adichie are the Caine Prize Winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina (author of Discovering Home), the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominated Caribbean writer Marie-Elena John (author of Unburnable) and the Pulitzer Prize nominated American writer Dave Eggers (author of A Hearbreaking Work of Staggering Genius). Workshop participants will be expected to read and discuss a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, as well as complete short writing exercises. The aim of the workshop is to encourage published and unpublished Nigerian writers by bringing different perspectives to the art of storytelling. Participation is limited to those who apply and are accepted. A symposium open to the public will be held at the end of the workshop.
Application: To a pply, send an e-mail to Udonandu2008@gmail.com Your e-mail subject should read ‘Workshop Application.’ The body of the e-mail should contain the following:

1. Your Name 2. Your address 3. A few sentences about yourself 4. A writing sample of between 200 and 800 words.

Please indicate whether your sample is fiction or nonfiction. Acceptances will be based on the quality of the writing sample. All writing material must be pasted or written in the body of the e-mail. Do NOT send any attachments. Applications with attachments will be automatically disqualified. Deadline for submissions is July 12 2008. If accepted, you will be notified by August 5, 2008.

Bestest luck!!!

Which Grammatical blunder is this?

Anyway, just for a funny Sunday. Some of us, depending on where we grew up in Naija or which tribe we belong will always have accent when we speak English. A proper (by “proper” I mean the ones that grew up in their home towns and attended public schools, correct me if am wrong) omo Ibo will let you know she/he is one when she/he speaks, same goes for omo Yoruba and Hausa. By their accent you shall know them.

Like me gan-gan wey dey talk na one ‘lil town I grew up and we have issues with pronouncing “h” in front of words that has “h” in it. Like I would say Enry instead of Henry, Ow is for How, Enshaw instead of Henshaw. Love comes out as luf, very as fery. Worst still our “sh” and “ch” don’t come out right!!! I try to be more careful since I am conscious of this deficiency.

If you happen to go to a public school where they speak your dialect all the time to teach you, you might end up not knowing much on how to use the right vocabulary or apply past sentence when you start speaking or working!!! I am always guilty of this and I would go “how is work today” instead of “how was work today”. Then I would go "I mean…"(Fill in the gap). It’s really annoying having to correct myself all the time.

As imperfect as I am, I am even an authority in some way. Take for instance, what do you say when someone or a friend asks you “can we take a stroke”? Or tells you “I crack my brain all the time trying to figure out your name”, or says “why do you frank, any trouble?

And in your mind you were like the right words were stroll, rack and frown, but you still hear it all the time. One day in a bus, a guy that looks well educated asked an apple seller to bring him one and he goes “give me one anpple madam”. And in my head I was like where did that “n” come from. Well, guess I am in no place to always make mental notes of all these grammatical blunders after all, I make mine. I can assure you though that I am improving before they will ask me “which univesity did you go to?” and I will go disgrace my great great Ife!!!

Let me leave you with this: 

1. I didn’t did it
2. He maded soup
3. Get losing (instead of “get lost”)

P.S: I was stopped by some police officers on my way to see the vet with my male cat Scofield, one of the officers asked for the receipt of my pet!!! Since when do we start showing a receipt for owing a pet? 

HAPPY NEW MONTH TO ALL YA STANDTALLERS OUT THERE!!!