The MOTIFS:

• Truth is singular; its variations are not.

You say he stands for the truth. She stands for the truth. They stand for the truth. 
Take a look again. Does he? Does she? Do they?



• When the “God” hocus-pocus is invoked, what should be changed?
        What becomes inviolable? 

Do we say: 

1. Keep the order as it is?

2. God is silent on the matters concerning women

3. Let them be subjected to abuse, shame, discrimination, rejection and prejudices?

4. This world is not my own, so whatever happens to it and the people in it I don’t care because my stay is temporary and Paradise with God awaits me. 
        The question is: which earth will that paradise be? If you can't make the effort to maintain and sustain what you already have, how do you hope to keep the 'future' one better?



•  ‘The weak are to be eaten by the strong’? Says who? Darwin?
         What does that statement really mean?
         Is it literal, a metaphor or just an expression?
         Is it a state determined by a condition or a pragmatic choice of self defense?
         Or is it a case of greed driven by the desire for absolute power and control?

        

FOOTBALL: The Price of Ignorance?

Football! What a game!! What an arena of emotions boiled over!!!

The game between Nigeria and Iran in Group F, no doubt will make a lot of Nigerians and fans of the Eagles feel 'slightly' disappointed. Over here in the UK from where I'm typing this piece, the roar of pain, shouts of disappointment, and subdued anger mixed with fear of what will happen in subsequent matches, leaves many a 9ja trembling.

Side comments like "Very fake match", "A show of crass mediocrity", "No be 9ja I come watch for world cup. It's serious people like Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, France, naim I kon watch o" became the gist amongst the crowd I watched the football with. A facebook mentee of mine commented on my FB page after the game and said: "opportunity comes but once, they've lost theirs." Another comment said: "Nigerians when it comes to football are Oliver Twist. Am heart broken here", simply shows you the depth of this football matter.

Nigerians are enthusiasts to infinitum. Their passion, love and ownership of the game transcend ethnicity, education, religion, social standing and lifestyle. When the Super Eagles win, they praise God for doing wonders (while most often they ignore commending the coach's and team's effort who made the goals happen - claiming it was God who made them score). They applaud, throw parties, get drunk or simply visualise frame by frame how the winning goal(s) turned the tables in their favour.

source: sugarsports.me

But when the Eagles lose, boy! you don't want to hang around them o. Insults, curses, accusations and counter accusations, condemnations, trading blames and in very rare instances some weird fanatic commits suicide. These are just a few of the ways they vent their anger, disappointments, frustrations over lost bets and dashed hopes.

source: www.rantsports.com

And in this case, there were just too many goal options that never got converted. What happened?

This takes my mind back three months ago when the issue of Nigeria's ranking in FIFA was questioned. This is what I think may be playing out here. If only fanatical fans can focus their energy in understanding the game and technique of moving up the game ladder of FIFA's ranking, surely it will help us see how team work matters in converting balls into goals.

Let me share with you a comment made by my friend Muyiwa Oladosu about the question of ranking: "Why do we always grumble over FIFA Ranking System when it's not favourable to us? We were here in 1994, prior to USA '94 World Cup, Nigeria was ranked 5th. Then the system was right. Today we beat Malawi, Burkina Faso, Taihiti, and we expect to move up. And instead of knowing how it is done, NFF, some ignorant sport journalists/Nigerians will be busy abusing FIFA. Play top grade games, beat those above you, and see if you will not move up. The price of ignorance is great!!!"

My position  on the Nigeria-Iran 2014 match? This is saying to Steven Keshi, you've done your bit in preping the team for 2014, what didn't work this time? Let's go get the goals. Surely it's not over until it's over, right?

Roughly two hours later, USA beat Ghana 2-1.
At least Nigeria and Iran pulled off the first draw in the tournament (common, that's got to be something, right?)

Perhaps you think this is all womanese talk?

By all means make your comments too.

PS: My neighbours just drove offf to their respective homes, happy to wear a small defeated smile: Ghana scored a goal - at least they've proven they're fighting for something. That's enough gist for my neighbours later in the day - since they can now join the office gist when the game talk begins (wink!)

HOW MANY CHILDREN SHOULD YOU HAVE?

Picture this: a biological Vector Virus, if inhaled can powerfully alter the human DNA in terms of randomly shuffling the reproductive ability of humans and all races in seven continents cutting across Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Europe, Australia and Antartica. 

In other words, if you have inhaled the pores of the victor virus into your system, you will never be capable of conceiving if you're a woman. And if you the man becomes the vector carrier, you will never be able to impregnate a woman no matter how hard you try. You think it's impossible?

After reading Dan Brown's novel the INFERNO, of how a genetically engineered vector virus can alter man's reproductive ability in this manner, it struck me how powerful the issue of human population, or rather overpopulation is fast becoming a global discuss. You read about 

The World Health Organisation is also very concerned about the astronomical growth of human population raising issues that borders on human rights and reproductive health choices. The United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Population Division that provides national, regional and world population estimates and projections is not left out in this global concern.

With the current world population hitting over 7 billion on planet Earth, little wonder that the issue of child birth control is now seen not just as a personal decision but as a global one (really?) 

Top 15 Largest Countries by Population (www.worldometers.info)

1	China	1,393,445,645			8	Mexico	123,738,674
2	India	1,266,771,861			10	Philippines	100,026,033
3	U.S.A.	322,478,690			11	Ethiopia	96,406,122
4	Indonesia	252,690,638			12	Vietnam	92,512,167
5	Brazil	201,964,790			13	Egypt	83,331,720
6	Pakistan	185,009,245
7	Nigeria	178,313,052			14	Iran	78,427,972
8	Bangladesh	158,433,413			15	Turkey	75,799,692

      According to Unomaha Education, "the Chinese government has used several method as to control population growth. In 1979, China started the one child per family policy (Juali Li 563). Other methods of population control that have been used by the Chinese government to restrict rising population totals include birth control programs and economic changes. In the early '80's, sterilization target goals were set and made mandatory for people who had two children (Hilali 19). At its peak in 1983, tubal ligations, vasectomies, and abortions amounted to thirty-five percent of the total birth control methods (Hilali 20). In addition, the economy changed from primarily one of agriculture to industry (Hilali 22). 


The government used this to its advantage;spreading the view that economic growth would hinder population growth (Hilali 22)."

On the defensive side however, religions such as Catholicism and some other Christian and non-Christian Faiths have fought any form of birth control, insisting that their adherents not tamper with the reproductive powers of man given to him by God. 

At the rate of population explosion, it seems the issue of overpopulation cannot be ignored as it raises serious concerns regarding: climate change, unemployment, congestion, pollution, spread of contagious diseases, and so on. 

source: http://www.informationng.com

The question therefore begs: 

How many children will you have? One, two, three, four, more or none?

What would be your answer? And why?

Should the government of any country take it upon itself to control its population? 

Is the issue of birth control a religious matter or a personal matter?

THOUGHTS...

Confusion Leads to Chaos

Tell people the truth,

The whole truth and nothing but the truth

And they will know what cause they are fighting for.

Ignore it and they wonder why they’re fighting the cause the way they are.

At the end of the fight, pre-historic meets futuristic.

Still the question remains: what are we really fighting for?

When The Wind Blows...

Eyes look up to the sky 

Mouths whispers confuse nothings 

Legs thrusts forth in quick anticipation 

Hands flay in all directions 

"To the Shade" becomes the chant!

RACE FOR LOVE

Kadijat is a thirty-five-year old unmarried journalist whose choice to remain single has not only caused controversial sentiments about her to run amok, mothers, sisters, wives, brothers, fathers, and uncles now points at her as an example of what girls should not aspire to be.

Kadi as she’s fondly called, is the first of seven children: five boys, two girls. Her mother and father both civil servants.

Kadijat’s parents are sitting in the parlour. Her father is reading the sports section of the newspaper while her mother is randomly re-organising the room, putting back in place picture frames and table mats randomly misplaced. Her father was addressing his wife without directly looking at her.

“Mama Kadijat?”

“Hmm...Yes daddy? What is that tone in your voice now?”

“It is high time you talk to your daughter.”

“O-ho-oh! She’s now my daughter? When she came first in her primary school, even up to her to secondary school she was your daughter abi? Even when she graduated second best at her school in the university, you announced to the world that she’s your daughter. But now that she’s not married or should I say no man has found her good enough to marry her, she has now become my daughter abi?

“Is that not how it is often said: ‘like father like son; like mother like daughter’?”

“Baba Kadijat, you who have male friends, can you not help your daughter with links to any of them who has an unmarried brother or son? Can’t you help find a suitor for your daughter? Is it not a shameful matter---?”

At that moment Kadijat walks into the house.

Photo credit: GE-fActor Model

“Mama, Baba, good evening.”

Her father reacted rather than respond “Is that how it is now done? You greet the woman before the man? What is this world coming to?”

“Baba, I’m sorry. No offence. It’s just that my eyes saw Mama first and so the natural sequence of speech would follow that pattern.”

“Something must be wrong with you Kadijat. As long as you’re still under my roof you had better recognise who is head of this house!”

“Baaba...” she teased him good naturedly. “Hmm, okay I’m sorry. Baba good evening, Maami good evening.”

“You’re welcome jare. Just leave your father alone because too many things are on his mind including that you’re not married.” Mama turns her attention to Baba who pretends not to have heard his wife’s comment. He always felt very uncomfortable discussing women matter and relationship issues with his daughter one-on-one.

Kadijat looks on from mother to father hoping one of them will continue the discussion. As usual when they open this can of wriggling worms, they are first to turn away from looking at the contents. Taking that as her cue, she heads to her room.

 - Excepts from my upcoming novels

MOVIE REVIEW: Cloud Atlas

You’ve got to be in the zone to appreciate, enjoy and really think afterwards about a particular movie: the story, the plot, the language, the themes, philosophies, metaphors, historical relevance, the characters and the seamless way each is interwoven to the entire picture. And these ingredients are what make the film CLOUD ATLAS such a powerful and extraordinary film to watch. A True First.

Do you still think you're exactly the same person you were 5, 10, 15 or 20 years ago? Each time I watch Cloud Atlas I come away feeling how even in one lifetime we change. We evolve. We grow survival skills. Circumstances tests us, a deluge of choices overwhelms us, decisions we make questions our judgement, our ethics and values and how we live by them reveals who we truly are. And when no-one’s watching, when we think we can get away with it – now that’s what transcending in Cloud Atlas is all about. For me, watching a movie is a personal experience; an immersion of a being into someone else’s creative imagination.

credit: cloudatlas.warnerbros.com

Cloud Atlas? You ask again. "I know...I know..." Your friends may never have watched it too. And maybe you missed its premier too. Don’t worry; it is not your fault. But wait...let me take you inside the movie. Guess who were the stars in the film? Try one more time...Would you believe IF I told you that each of the actor/actress acted no less than four different characters in this film? Unbelievable! Meet the actors: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishhaw, James D’Arcy, Zoun Xun, Keith David, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon and Hugh Grant. Phew! What a list. Now you get the picture.

Tom Hanks plays 6 characters (man from the future, outraged writer, Scientist, Professor, bad doctor...), 3 of which are rather usual. I can bet you £20 you’ve never seen him play these sort of characters before. And I mean EVER! Can you imagine Tom Hanks a villain? Still, you can trust Tom Hanks to play the man with an accent or quirks like he did in Forrest Gump and Lady Man Killers. He delivered all 6 characters he played in Cloud Atlas spectacularly.

With its creative language and dialogue expertly produced by the writer of the same-named book, David Mitchell, uses powerful rhetoric and element of eloquence to write a masterpiece: hyperbaton, anadiplosis and the likes to craft a language to tell his stories, embellishing the characters in this. You hear words like “I’ve got my eyewise on ya...” and you simply double over with laughter. The timeline for this story begins in 1849 through the year 2321.

source: http://www.cinemablend.com

Halle Berry plays 7 characters: a journalist, a Jewish woman who settled for the man society dictates she should marry, the woman from the future, a scientific doctor with a disfigured face, the slave girl from a distant past, a woman at a literary party and the older woman of the future. Rather than saying "that's the fact", Halle Berry tells us to say “True-true” in that soft but richly subtle accent she uses for that role. You’re also going to love the versatile characters Tim Broadband and Hugo Weaving played (who’s actually a Nigerian because he was born in Ibadan [wink!]). 

The actor who took on the most unexpected character and delivered it with gusto beyond imagination was Hugh Grant! He was a cannibal! Unbelievable I tell you. 

Do tell: what was your experience like when you watched Cloud Atlas?

When you watch a movie, what are the themes about it that strikes you?

The movie yarn, a philosophical look of Cloud Atlas continues in part 2...

Welcome! to Conversations with Lady E.

What a delight to have you on board.


Volume 1 takes a look at four main areas of interests:

• Misplaced Perception
• Confusion Leads to Chaos
• In the Zone with Lady E: Movie ReView
• Excerpts from My upcoming Novels

A CASE OF MISPLACED PERCEPTION (part 1)

I do not believe in that cliché: “what a man can do, a woman can do even better.” Rather, I believe that any human being who sets his heart to doing anything productive will excel at it. But I do see how the only option (that was most powerful in the short run for women at the start of the fight for women’s rights) was that, for women to established their right and be recognised for their worth, they had to quickly prove how well they can ‘compete’ with men in fields long dominated by the male species.

Now that women have ‘fought for equal rights’, I believe that somehow along the line, the women suffrage that began before 1900s and most significantly after the 1980s seems to me to have lost its steam. Why? Because it is not so much about the rights – women already have it – rather it is so much about the recognition and treatment perception of those rights.

Do you know why women issues will always be on the front burner of news and social discuss? It is because of how men, in the majority, still want to perceive women and how they want women to be treated. It is this perception that’s at the core of the chant for women’s right.

From India to Britain. Nigeria to Australia. From Italy to United Arab Emirates. By Christians and Muslims. By Atheists and Traditionalists. Even by pagans alike. In monogamy or polygamy, in partnerships and courtships, the perception of women cuts across. The only difference is perhaps the degree and individual case studies that are sometimes far and in-between. Nonetheless, assumptions of the perception of women still exist.

Women from creation are liberated persons. But ‘society’ (that long dictated by the patriarchs) sort instead to define women’s perception by ensuring that they change the perception of women in their liberated state. And I must say they succeeded. That however changed when the women suffrage reached its height turning the tables a little, to create the balance. The fight for the rights of women did gain momentum and great changes have since been recorded. But the perception of how women should be treated still lingered in the most unlikely places. 

Thus, once again the women are raising their voices. Many are beginning to be tired of playing the ‘good woman’, ‘the submissive one’, ‘the obedient one’ especially at their own cost as can be seen in what happened a week ago in Pakistan in the case of Farzana Parveen who was beaten and stoned to death by 20 male relatives – in the name of "honour killing"– because she decided to marry a man not chosen for her by her family. Today, the cry by women in countries where barbaric acts such as these has reached its peak is reawakening the hot topic of the recognition of a woman’s right.

Figure 1: Symbol for Women Liberation. Source: Commons.Wikimedia.Org

Oh yes, that’s the koko of the matter. That is the gravy that makes the casserole tastes so delicious we yearn for the warmth and satisfaction it will give us. And that brings me to the crucial issue: why would someone like Monica Lewinsky have to be the scapegoat in a situation where there was mutual consent? Why should it be difficult for her to be hired or not called for interviews for jobs she’s very qualified for? And for that matter, is it ok for a Prince in Britain to be free to marry whom he wants after divorce but it’s such a biggy – a taboo of sorts – for the Princess not to marry whomever she wants?

A male friend of mine told me the answer is because Monica and the Princess where so up there in the social ladder that any man or company who dares ‘accept’ them would not survive. In the case of the Princess, it would be ‘who is that man better than the Prince?’ My friend further explains “His business will certainly suffer a blow from what is considered a perceived negative attachment to any of the women as ‘word will get around’ and so, somehow, his business will begin to crumble because everyone who wants to deal with him will always first ask: “So how’s this relationship of yours with the Princess or Monica doing?””

In other words, those who have been long standing business clients will forget about the business and now focus on the gist about his relationship or even marriage to the woman of that calibre. Even newer clients who want to do business, come not because they’re really interested in the business, but do so because they're more interested in getting the inner scoop! Thus, In the Princess's case, only someone like Dodi who is a Prince in his own right and from a different race, religion and thinking will qualify to ‘marry’ her. But even then, it seems it came at a very hefty price, (if the conclusion reached is in fact proven beyond all reasonable doubt).

Are you seeing what I’m pondering?

What does this tell us about how men think in relation to other men? When is a conquest really a conquest to a man?

My analysis of this continues in part 2...