Editorial: Eleventh of May 2011

No jumping to conclusions with closed doors

One may never understand what informs irrational behaviour by some that their actions endanger themselves and the lives of others.

It goes without saying that the complexity of the mind whilst allowing for moderation of behaviour by societal mores still has some just appearing to go off tangentially and it is only providence that prevents a catastrophic mishap.

We can be irked and piqued by circumstances beyond our control that make us lose patience and or even cause lateness that the people responsible do not do enough to placate the situation.

Air travel is generally safe but it has lost most of its allure of pleasure, there are others that do not fly well, they take to the bottle and other agents to help them through the journey.

The case of a man caught between different episodic issues trying to open the door to an airplane which was halfway between Orlando and Boston implies the airplane did not have steps set to the door for disembarkation.

Whilst the man would see a face of the law scowling and breathing fire, it is incumbent on us to keep an open mind and since the door was still closed there should be no danger of us jumping to conclusions either.

No invective enough to lambast this cretin

The sad death of 11 National Youth Service Corps members during the recently concluded Nigerian elections tugs at the heartstrings with sorrow and anger. This situation was in every way avoidable if all those responsible for their safety had not shirked their responsibilities.

Passing the buck is bad enough but the governor of the host state whose remit it was to ensure security and peace plumbed the depths of calumny and issued utterances that made many think he lacked both a heart and a mind.

Having first averred that the deaths of the people were a course of destiny they could not avoid, he contemned their memory by comparing their loss of life to the loss of replaceable property.

The backlash that followed his insensitive, intemperate, irresponsible and atrociously stupid comments had him trying to redeem himself by saying he would, given the opportunity personally shoot the killers of those people.

It leaves reasonable people completely lost for words as it belies a cretinous crop of nonentities that Nigeria has been cursed to have elected for public office.

There will be life insurance pay-outs, compensation for loss of life, help for their families, the memorialisation of martyrdom and much more, none of which can attempt to make amends for these tragedies.

The greater worry is what the smell of money might do to others who scenting a largess would be more preoccupied with how they can deprive those families of that blood-money for their selfish ends.

It goes without saying, the deaths were avoidable, the mobs should have been corralled and no government official should have been caught unawares by the eruption of violence and how it developed into carnage.

The UK: My thoughts are with David Laws

One revelation and a story

I have just read with sadness the resignation of David Laws the coalition Secretary to the Treasury on the matter of claiming expenses for accommodation on the premises of his partner.

The unfortunate consequence is that Mr. Laws has inadvertently been outed as gay in a long-term relationship with the man purported to have been his landlord.

There are many angles of looking at this story but the one that most draws my sympathy is that Mr. Laws who is just a month older than I am had settled into the convenience of being in the closet as a single man in public office without any of his close relations knowing of this secret affair – however, it is all now exposed and ones thoughts are prayers are with all concerned.

An ambiguous rule of life

Obviously the commons rules about claiming accommodation expenses require that claimants do not do so when with partners, relations or business associates.

Technically, if Mr. Laws had not declared his residence in plush Kensington to the West of London people might have said there are a quid pro quo scenario developing leaving a Member of Parliament open to influence, his claiming expenses however has lead to this rather human tragedy of sorts from which I do hope he does recover well.

The nation has lost a smart and possibly very able minister to scandals and the plural is deliberate – the scandal that prevents people from being confident of acceptance as gay if they should so choose to declare that fact, the scandal of claiming expenses whilst living with one’s partner even though there is no legal or common law basic for same-sex relationships in the UK except where a civil partnership has been entered into and the scandal of newspapers that have no compunction in exposing anything that would help sell their copy.

The Daily Telegraph has averred that it had no intention of outing Mr. Laws but there is no way that story would have made any news without that consequence as part of its sensational import and interest.

Politicians are not saints

I do not believe that our politicians should be subject to the kinds of moral standards we should expect of the clergy, they are not saints, they are people like you and I who have offered to serve our country in whatever capacity they have been elected and selected to serve.

This would obviously not encourage capable and competent but seemingly flawed people to enter politics for the fear of being mauled by the rabid dogs of the press pretending to be cuddly kittens.

It reminds me of the resignation of Lord John Browne from the chairmanship of BP when in trying to conceal the matter of his sexuality he perjured himself and was vilified for perjury despite the more personal issue at stake.

Acceptance is not a given, even in the West

There is no doubt that even though the middle-classes in the general sense might have the liberality of accepting and tolerating homosexuality, those with influence and in authority, politics or even international sports are not that at ease with revealing who they truly are – it leaves them prone to blackmail and possibly ignominy – the saddest case of those consequences of declaring ones sexuality can only have one looking at how that revelation lead to Justin Fashanu’s suicide in an abandoned garage in East London.

The fear of rejection looms large, more so the threat of homophobia which has not been eradicated even from Western societies and the misfortune that might accompany being disowned by loved and trusted ones – it is not an easy life and our humanity is the poorer for how difference stops people from being the best they could ever be by first being truly themselves.

Sources

BBC News - Treasury Minister David Laws resigns over expenses

Other references

Lies - Between human frailty and the law [akin.blog-city.com]

Obituary: Justin Fashanu - Obituaries, News - The Independent

Nigeria: Why politician became a drug mule

A belly full of coke

When I learnt this morning that a Nigerian politician had been arrested [1] on suspicion of drug smuggling at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport on his way to Frankfurt in Germany, I was not surprised.

Rather, I was surprised that this had not been the norm for quite a while, but there are other things to address with the publication of this event and those are the things I will concentrate on.

The fact that he was caught in Nigeria rather than abroad is a compliment to the Nigerian Customs and border control officials – most notably because his office, bearing and influence did not preclude him from being assessed just as any passenger using the international airport facilities should.

Give the eyes to software

Then after the pants-bomber incident in December 2009, the airport introduced body-scanning X-ray systems which from what we have now learnt are as intrusive of privacy as to reveal uncommon contents of one’s stomach.

That should be a cause for concern as to how much detail is revealed and whether such machines should have added sophisticated software that does not require human eyes to determine if flesh, blood and bones in clothes passing through have the wrong compositions or foreign objects that then require further scrutiny.

Enough has already been said of those who have found out that their not too generous endowments have become the butt of jokes – forgive that turn of phrase.

Desperate campaign finance ploys

In any case, the matter of this politician reveals a failure of the political process in Nigeria that needs serious reform. The fact that a man could risk his dignity, integrity, position and office to become a drug mule in order to finance his election campaign might just be the tip of the iceberg of the extents to which people might go to gain or retain political office.

Mr. Eme Zuru Ayortor is a US-educated pharmacist who for all intents and purposes if the economic and political situation had allowed should have been content to dispense drugs for a living whilst making an appreciable impact on his community.

The reality is holders of political office are in a completely different class of their own, they are neither middle-class nor upper-class but the power and influence class who thrive on patronage and every corrupting activity to maintain their power base and electability – I would presume Mr. Ayortor needed to grease the palms of those that believe they can put him in office.

He portends that he was bankrupted by his last electioneering campaign but it also shows that you need to have an almost inexhaustible source of funding to run for office – it allows serious-minded people might put their money where their mouth is, but it also puts political office out of the reach of ordinary people who might be better representatives of the common people.

Perks beyond belief

The risk he took should also be measured against the possible gains of office – Nigerian political office offers possibly the [2] for any job – I dare say, in the world – the benefits beyond the basic salary are multiples of the salary, there is no way anyone who has enjoyed those benefits would give them up for accountable hard-work which the majority of Nigerians do - it is also aspirational for anyone who dares.

This remuneration way beyond any other middle-range to senior management employment feeds the desperate and do-or-die aggressive quest for office that losers never lose gracefully but clog the courts with petition after petition – it is unhealthy for any career quest and most especially for a democracy.

This should become part of our electoral reform process, a system that allows us to select the best people without ending up with the worst characters whose greed and hypocrisy damage the system.

It should get us thinking but one just wonders what other desperate and reckless thing other politicians are doing to gain or retain office in Nigeria – it does make one worry.

Sources

[1] BBC News - 'Cocaine smuggling' Nigerian politician held in Lagos

[2] Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators [akin.blog-city.com]

No harsh tongue for Mrs Verdonk

Love Holland, hate Holland

I find that living in the Netherlands excites extreme emotions of love and hate as each day brings interesting review.

Nowhere is that exemplified better than in the antics of the government of the country where populist politicians hold sway as they tinker with the assumed norms of Dutch tolerance proposing incredible hiss-making ideas.

At times, one does wonder if it is worthwhile wasting copy on this stuff, but there comes a time that commentary is needed before the extreme becomes the common.

Pim Fortuyn the populist politician was murdered by another pure Dutch man in 2002 all because questioning tolerance intolerantly creates scope for some to become intolerant to the extent of tolerating themselves the acts of intolerant crime.

That could also be read backwards, where dealing with intolerance in an intolerant way rather than instructively and educationally helps foster more intolerance that shocks a nominally tolerant society.

A language ban of sorts

Two issues excite my commentary, the first being the endorsement of policy that requires Dutch to be spoken in public places by the Minister of Integration and then the nomination of a ethnic minority politician for the Nobel Peace Prize. (topic for another outing).

The first can only be so instructive that one definitely feels utterly fortunate to live in the Netherlands as a full-fledged European citizen with very marketable skills.

I can only wonder how much sleep is lost by the government in trying to think up the next “smart” thing that makes people involuntarily pliant to a state that is looking like a lot worse is about to happen.

We have been getting used to laws in other lands that ban smoking in public places, which can be understandable for social and health issues. Where a law exists, the flaunting of it can exact due legal process leading to sanctions.

Even is the law to ensure that everyone carries a form of identification around on the premise that it stops terrorism; I would even try to research the logic behind that.

Every now and then the police obstruct bicycle paths at night to nab riders who ride without lights at night; they exact fines and cautions which is understandable for safety reasons to protect riders and the public.

Spreek je Nederlands? (Do you speak Dutch?)

The speaking of Dutch in public places is an interesting development in the debate of trying to retain Dutchness in a country overcome with the paranoia of losing their identity to that of immigrants of North African ancestry.

This is followed on with the concept that speaking Dutch automatically confers a congenital infestation of knowing everything Dutch in manner, comportment, societal values and integration.

It makes one wonder where indigenous Dutch criminals and social misfits got it wrong since they probably cannot speak any other language than Dutch.

Language as part of culture

Language does help foster an identity, along with traditions, customs and accepted values of the people. However, I am of the opinion that the Dutch would always be caught up in this paranoia until they have learnt to be glowingly proud of their heritage.

For instance, every summer, I am dressed up in traditional Africa attire for work and it excites interest from everyone as to the origin of the clothes, what they are made of, what occasions warrant the wearing of the clothes and many other points of costume trivia.

I cannot say that I have ever seen any Dutch person in anything typically Dutch, and where that is mentioned, it elicits derisive commentary.

It is therefore no surprise that people adhere to their cultures in Diaspora than adopt host cultures when the host citizens cannot find enough to celebrate of their heritage, history and culture.

Introducing the speech police

Most interestingly, the thought that fills all with trepidation is how to enact a law that forces people to use a particular language in public and how it is enforced through the use of the police when the law is broken.

With the promise of a reward everyone can inform and spy on one another and report on the Openbaar Taal Misbruik Aangifte (Public misuse of language reporting) Internet site – www.Op-ta-mis-an.nl for short.

Better still, declare a war on all other languages and put the country in a state of emergency as a threat to the survival of the Dutch requires every means to call all patriots to arms against the onslaught of other insignificant and culture-busting tongues.

Using your mobile phone you can record the event and MMS it to a toll free number, the national crime-watch television programme can then air the footage to nab the offenders.

It might be that someone speaks out loud in their home in another language and because it is heard on the streets that infringement can bring an unsavoury sanction.

I did not live in either the Nazi times or the McCarthy times of the 1950s in America, but one can only begin to see how this once rather tolerant country is unconscionably being lead down a path of unspeakable restraint in the quest for maintaining their identity.

It probably would mean that no other language can be taught in schools just as the black South Africans only had Afrikaans as their language of instruction in the Apartheid times.

So widely spoken, indeed …

Language can be used as a tool to prevent people from being relevant in any other place than their locality.

As Dutch is so widely spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, Suriname, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles and partly in Indonesia and France with South Africa speaking a variant that is not considered Dutch; it is so tumultuous a requirement for a language spoken by a grand total of 24 million people, with two-thirds in the Netherlands.

If only the language were more forgiving to those who strive to learn it through imperfections and inadequacies, it might probably be more widely spoken. That difficulty probably informs why the only one known pidgin Dutch is Papiamento and that only consists of 25% Dutch.

A seriously difficult tongue

That is most enlightening; but I lament my grasp of the language after almost 6 years of sojourn, and it contrasts sharply with how much I picked up of German in three months of evening lessons in the United Kingdom.

As it happens, this idea which is promoted as a “code of conduct” in Rotterdam by the party gave birth to the likes of Pim Fortuyn is heralded as bastion for the protection of the Dutch psyche.

Innocuous as it seems, it is probably the most sinister abuse of premise and purpose this century.

Pioneers of another misery

We should not forget that the Dutch pioneered the profiteering in slave trade having taken over from the Swedes and left it long before it became popular with other Europeans as the East Indian Company brought cleaner profits from trading in spices.

Pioneering another dastardly set of repugnant ideas which on the surface would make even right-thinking people acquiescent should not come as a surprise of Dutch ingenuity embedded in their heritage.

Mastery of the language is a commendable goal, trying incentive through expressed pride would probably do it better than the coercion that is really aimed at immigrants of no particular means.

If only I could find a harsh tongue for this “code of conduct”, I would not have half expressed myself with greater indignation.