The Desperation and Hopelessness in the American Inner City.

“A young man had been shot at by another teen. He was willing to let it go. Only now he is hanging with buddies who tell him, ‘Man you’re a bitch. You let them pop your ass, and you ain’t did sh— about it.’ They’re harassing him every day, and it’s psychologically destroying him. Now, he’s got to show his friends he’s a man. So one day he gets in the car and goes looking for someone to aggress against so he can come back to his buddies with a story. He sees a group of kids, talking loud. The boy shoots at them, the kids scatter, and now he can go back to his friends and say, ‘We aired them ni--as out.’ But in the process, he accidentally kills an innocent child. That isn’t gang violence. It’s desperation, hopelessness, despair, cultural confusion.” – Essence magazine. July, 2013.

[embed]https://youtu.be/6am8V5KNJ4A[/embed]

Narcissism: Between Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé.

According to Wikipedia, to be narcissistic is to have an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one's physical appearance. Narcissistic individuals are vain, self-loving, self-admiring, self-absorbed, self-obsessed, conceited, self-centered, self-regarding and egotistic.

Narcissism is a social disease that afflicts the rich and the famous. This disease is regularly sustained by the media which routinely feed on the gullibility of the famous. At the height of her “social sickness”, Britney Spears was notorious for her desperation for the limelight. And when it appeared that some other fellow narcissistic celebrities were stealing the shows, Spears resorted to the absurd. She shaved her head and, promptly, the young woman was back on top of the news. But in spite of all that nonsense, the time came for the media to get their hands on a fresh set of suckers.

Right now, the most notorious in narcissism among the celebrities are Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter a.k.a. Beyonce. Amidst a very tight competition, these two women will go to any length to display their obsession for public attention. From marrying some “unusual” men to giving their kids names that are most ludicrous and wearing outfits that make them look as good as stark naked, just anything will do in feeding their insatiable lust for public attention. And this was evident at the last Met gala where both Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé wore outfits that left nothing to imagination.

In the above picture, the gross hypocrisy of the American media was glaring. One picture that shows celebrities in the erotic movies genre is captioned as “Porn stars at the 2014 AVN porn Awards”. But the other picture showing Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian is captioned as “Influential people at the Met gala.” Objectively though, the “porn stars” dressed like choir girls when compared to the so-called influential women who looked as good as cheap whores.

 

 

 

Yoruba Liberalism and the Reactionary Igbo.

Poor Oba of Lagos! He was simply unlucky to have inadvertently made a statement that got exploited to turn him into a whipping boy at the hands of a people who always hide behind every excuse to heap insults upon the Yoruba race.

Ironically, this singular issue would “unite” me with some “Internet Tigers” of old who were my major adversaries in those days of Nigerian-oriented websites such as the Nigeria World, Lagos Forum, Kwenu, Nigerians in America and Gamji. Those were the good, old days of internet “combats” among Nigerian columnists in the period between the late 1990s and the early 2000s. In the past few days, the arguments that took place between me and those guys via e-mails were reminiscent of our past encounters.

The Yoruba people are very well-known for their liberalism which sometimes, can be on the extreme side. At the beginning of the civil war (for those of us who were around) the Yoruba initially chose to be neutral. In fact, some notable Yoruba sons such as Wole Soyinka, Fela Kuti, his brother (Beko) and Tai Solarin put their lives and freedoms in jeopardy by publicly expressing solidarity with and sympathy for the seceding Igbos, some of whom were allowed to move about discreetly all over Lagos. But how did the Igbo reward us? They bombed Casino Cinema at Yaba where several innocent people, especially women and children, were murdered in cold blood. The same Biafrans went on to make an attempted incursion into Yoruba land through Ore town. This act of treachery prompted the great Awo to declare that we “Go On With One Nigeria!” (Gowon). This rallying call would lead thousands of young Yoruba men to enlist in the army, forming the core of 3rd Marine Commando.

At the end of the civil war, only the Yoruba people welcomed the ex-Biafrans back with open arms. It was only in Yoruba land that no case of “Abandoned Property” was recorded as it happened in Port Harcourt and elsewhere across the nation. In our then Ebute-Metta neighborhood, for instance, several houses belonging to Igbo owners were duly returned to them by the Yoruba friends in whose hands they were entrusted. Many of us can still remember vividly how the returning Igbo were given accommodations and allowed to settle in Lagos Island, Makoko, Amuwo-Odofin, Iganmu, Amukoko and other parts of Lagos. It was in those places they sold all kinds of stuff such as chewing sticks and roamed about as “London tailors” (ejika ni shop). Yoruba people went out of their ways to make them comfortable. But what did we get in return? All of a sudden (as in the story of an Arab and a camel) the Igbo have since been claiming that Lagos is a “no-man’s land”. They have also resorted to peddling an abominable tale that Lagos State was developed by them. One can only wonder why they don’t deem it fit to first go develop their terribly impoverished states in line with the adage of “charities begin at home”.

When Asiwaju Tinubu became the state’s governor, he exhibited the typical Yoruba liberal attitude by appointing some Igbo individuals to important positions, including that of a Commissioner. This has not been reciprocated by any Igbo State governor till date. Instead of an appreciation, these unprecedented gestures have been seen by the Igbo as entitlements in a “no-man’s land”. The same Igbo finally over-reached themselves by resolving to collectively vote against the APC at the last elections. Unwittingly, it was a crazy gamble as they “cut their nose to spite their face”.

Now that Ambode of APC has won the governorship election in Lagos State, it’s a clear evidence that the spiteful Igbo had rendered themselves politically redundant at both the national and state levels. In the new dispensation therefore, it’s absolutely unnecessary for Lagos State government to “allocate” a commissioner’s spot or any other public position to the Igbo community. If this nonsense must continue, then similar slots have to be given to the Hausa, the Edo, the Calabar and other sojourners in the state.

The Height of Moral Degradation in Gods’ Own Country.

“The Strawberry letter” segment on the Steve Harvey Morning Show is one of my favorites. Every morning, people write letters to the show, baring their souls on some very personal issues. Some listeners are of the view that the letters are fictitious. But the presenters and, especially Shirley Strawberry, have often stated that the letters are real. And I believe them.

Today’s strawberry letter was a two-handed, heart-wrenching type. A man ( the letter-writer) wrote to say that he loved his wife (to whom he has been married since ten years ago) but that at the moment, he was at what I would describe as an emotional cross-road.

On the one hand, he started an affair with a sibling of his wife about three years ago. The sibling in question however was the twin brother of his wife. Now, the lover is threatening to inform his sister about the affair unless the letter-writer divorced her. Here was a guy desperate enough to break his sister’s marriage just so that he and the letter-writer could continue their gay relationship without hindrance.

On the other hand, the letter-writer wanted to justify the affair with his brother in-law by disclosing that his wife had cheated on him shortly after they got married. And guess who she cheated with? It was the letter-writer’s father. In fact, the woman got pregnant and had a baby boy for the older guy. The little boy is now being raised by the letter-writer. In view of this cheating issue therefore, the letter-writer believed that he had the moral right to comply with his gay lover’s demand.

Tommy Nephew’s response to the bundle of absurdities was the best in my view. At a future family re-union, Tommy gave hints about the way principal characters in that letter would be introduced?  To start with, the man’s wife would simultaneously be seen as his wife and as a step mother. The man’s gay lover would be introduced as his brother in-law and as his “significant other”. And the letter-writer’s hapless son could also double up as his brother. What a spectacle that family re-union would exhibit?

And I thought I had seen and heard everything about moral degradation in God’s own country. But that strawberry letter on the Steve Harvey Morning Show has since convinced me that I “ain't seen nothing yet"

A Special Plea to Hackers.

Why is this blog threatened as a major target of hackers? For motives or reasons best known to them, hackers have been making strenuous, continuous attempts at breaking into this blog. Just yesterday alone, 780 (seven hundred and eighty) attempts were made to hack into this blog. Why???



This is a small-scale blog that stands as a humble pedestal for the conveyance of opinions that are personal to me. The blog is relatively new on the cyberspace and it’s influence and reach are not enough to warrant the interest of any serious hacker worth his/her “salt”.



I am therefore using this medium to plead with all the concerned hackers to please leave this blog alone. Let it be!

 

 

Old People and the Get-Rich-Quick Syndrome.

What is it with all those old people 

who are displaying too much desperation for money?

Each time I walk into a grocery store lately,

I often notice a lot of old people buying lottery tickets.

Just this morning alone, 

I saw them all on a line opposite the lottery machine.

One old woman bought 

a whopping $170 worth of lottery tickets!

And I thought...

with that tidy sum of money,

she could have done something better for herself.

Besides that...

I wonder why anyone would be so desperate 

to get-rich-quick at that age anyway?