Nigeria: Our Marie Antoinette says, "Let Them Eat Rice"

It’s a rice race

On the eve of Nigeria’s Independence Golden Jubilee, I find myself writing what I in my heart of hearts would never wanted to talk about, but then the whole purpose of my writing is to address things that are too concerning to ignore.

A picture [1] they say speaks louder than a thousand words but at this time I will try to describe a picture in a thousand words.

I came across this news item on the 234Next.com news website [1], one man in uniform with a big sack on his head apparently of rice and another one with a shoe in his hands being jostled, maybe nothing much to read into it but another good look reveals a very disturbing situation.

Rats to the cheese

In a quest for cheap, populist and derisible publicity the 1^st Lady of Nigeria, a designation that should be consigned to ignominy decided to do the charitable work of distributing 2 million bags of premium Brazilian rice to the residents of the Federal Capital Territory.

One can only wonder how the news or rumours spread but as the news reports it there was a fracas, probably a stampede, people were hurt and the security personnel found it impossible to control the crowd.

There are too many issues conflated in this incident and one was to deal with them in their minutiae.

Foreign luxuries for local bellies

Journey with me for a while and consider another head of state on a visit to Nigeria being presented with traditional Nigeria crafts like an Ife bronze statue but only for the recipient to look at the base and see the hallmark – Made in China – sacrilege would not begin to explain ones disdain, disappointment and disgrace.

Nigeria, with all its arable land and large agrarian economy was done a great disservice when nothing was done to promote Nigerian products but 2 million bags imported from Brazil of the best kind thrown like food parcels to victims of a natural disaster whose eyes are popping out with malnutrition and hunger.

This by the 1^st Lady of giving foreign good credence over Nigerian, though there might well be the case that we do not produce enough for ourselves and have to import rice.

Securing his bag of rice

For whatever reason, there is no doubt that this could have been better organised such that those lead by their bellies for the lack they suffer as citizens of Nigeria did not have to come to any harm and still get of this largesse paid for by the taxpayers or resources of the people.

Tis would have been where the security forces would have been able to introduce a sense of orderliness but they are just as hungry and as impoverished as the people they were supposed to control, so they also joined in the scramble and chaos no doubt ensured.

We can safely assume the honourable officer of the law in the picture got out his truncheon and whack a few people on his way to claim the golden bag of rice and having acquired one with his colleagues decided to make away with the loot.

Meanwhile his other colleague might just have accidentally found himself in the thicket of a marauding crowd, a stamp there and a kick there and suddenly he has to feel for his shoe on the ground and because he was thronged he had to hold his shoe until he got of out the press of the crowd.

Machiavellian it is

What does this say of Nigeria @ 50, an opportunist grab of the publicity of philanthropy whose main purpose is to hold vulnerable people in gratitude in order to exact payback in the not too distant future?

As one of the lucky bag-catchers volunteered, the 1^st Lady was commended for her kindness with other people’s money and property and taking the accolades under the guise of Food Outreach Programme of the First Lady.

If the rice had come from China, it would have been apt for a Chinese proverb which states by inference, “Give a man some rice you feed him a day, teach him how to farm and you feed him for his life.”

However that would be belabouring the point that our leadership have no ideas but shortcuts and gimmicks for instant gratification.

Abrogate African 1^st Ladies

As for the matter of 1^st Lady, it does make me wonder why political office is allowed this excess, like for instance, do I as a Systems Consultant at work sometimes have the opportunity to call in my girlfriend or boyfriend as 1^st Lady or 1^st Gentleman in my place to do my job, stand by me and represent me.

Indeed, to have a partner and confidant is good, but to accord the partner office, status and the opportunity to abuse to the point of lavish aggrandisement that could rival the 1^st Shopper of Zimbabwe is just plain bad conduct.

Dare I say, Nigeria’s Marie Antoinette has declared, “Let them eat rice.” As for the primitive populist ploy of gaining votes through the bellies of the hungry, I have seen no dame as despicable; I cannot even mention her name.

Let us not be blindsided by the obvious philanthropy masking some more sinister ploy because what happens when the bag of rice is exhausted, it is definitely not seed for planting.

Shame on you for bringing such disgrace on Nigeria at this auspicious time. Shame!

References

[1] 234Next.com | Commotion at Independence rice distribution venue

[2] The Nation - Scramble for First Lady’s rice

What rice for Christmas

Up and about late

My Christmas day was a very slow start, it was probably well into the afternoon before I managed to slip out of bed by which time a number of phone calls and text messages had come through that I did not get to handle because my phone was in vibrate mode having been set to that ay church the day before at the Christmas carol service.

When I did get up my friend was already cooking the beef and tripe but was unsure of what we should have for Christmas lunch.

Rices for choice

There was one for making stew and white rice, the other for making jollof rice and fried plantains. Considering I had put much stock into acquiring ingredients suitable for jollof rice, we went for that and postponed the making of stew till later.

So, there I was in the kitchen, softening the dried barracuda fish cuts in hours of boiling and preparing the seasoning for the jollof rice – my eventual scheme involved first frying the rice and then pouring the cooked vegetables and seasoning into the rice afterwards.

The plantains then went into the electric fryer and within 90 minutes we were done for our Christmas meal which we had to the strains of the gospel of Saint Matthew.

Giving Jesus a look in

An interesting difference that started with the nativity story through the ministry of Jesus Christ, there was no way the significance of Christmas would be lost on Christmas day.

Unfortunately, by the time we settled down, the Queen’s speech was over and television was a bit of a drag between those who are fed up with Christmas and those who make Christmas a complete fawning annoyance – forget the religious significance, Jesus nowadays cannot get to blow the candles on His birthday that is if he ever gets invited in.

After a few cups of Smokey Earl Grey tea, it was really time to put our feet up or in my case lie down on the inflatable mattress and watch television through shuttered eyelids.

Of Christmases past

It is a long way from my Christmas days in Lancashire where after dinner my surrogate mum, my dear friend’s mother tries to get us out of the house looking for Sambo the slave who was buried some 200 plus years ago in some windswept wilderness whose grave still gets tended today or plodding in the snow where my wish for the sun is so intense, I cry for warmth.

In truth, my last three Christmases were spent in the sun in Gran Canaria, the memories of being at the beach at Christmas are fond.

As the night drew nigh, my friend suggested we watch his District 9 DVD; there has been much Nigerian angst about the film, it was important I had a good viewing before i comment on the film – this was a good opportunity to do that.

Christmas was quiet, good, fun and wonderful; I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day too.

Diplomacy is dead, long live diplomacy

Sometimes, they scare me

I had to read it again and again, just in case I read it wrong. Well, what she said is really what she said; in fact it simply confirms that leaked memo that her successor in the position of National Security Advisor wrote which left George Bush being snubbed in Jordan a few months ago.

Yesterday, the President laid out an elaborate plan of troops surge and needing the cooperation of the Iraqi government which none of his advisors, generals, ambassadors or the Iraq Study Group wanted – that is why they were all swept out in a purge surge for presumably grateful people who being called to the service of their nation would be hamstrung to challenge the president’s views.

Hardly 24 hours after we heard the President’s great idea, his Secretary of State tells the Senate says the linchpin of this grand plan, their partner in bringing peace to Mess-O-potamia, the Prime Minister of Iraq is living on borrowed time.

Diplomacy is dead, long live diplomacy.

How on earth did they assume power?

Maybe the Bush regime is not that aware that they have lost over 3,000 soldiers and they spend $2 billion daily on this debacle to fight terrorists in Iraq rather than on American soil – this is prodigal to the extreme and it is not helped by the tactlessness of everything this administration represents.

They might as well appoint an American as the Prime Minister of Iraq, John Negroponte for instance; at least the president has great confidence in him. Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki must be in a bind, he has borrowed time from the Americans and they are seeking pay back.

How did these people get into power? The world is definitely a dangerous place.

Can Bush be a great man?

Sorry is the hardest word

Let us pre-empt the President before he announces another idea that seems to promote more militarism rather than diplomacy.

A letter in the International Newsweek (January 8, 2007) suggests Mr. George W, Bush saying something along these lines.

“I’m sorry, we made a mistake. There were no weapons of mass destruction. But, hey, we freed you of your dictator, and now we’d give you a hand in rebuilding your country to live in peace!”

Matthias Weislmeier from Augsburg, Germany might be in the running for the Nobel Prize in the not too distant future, this a quote from his letter to the editor.

If Mr. Bush were to give voice to these words, mouthing them with clarity, purpose and conviction, this would cause tectonic shifts in the insurgency – chance would be a fine thing – we can however, hope.

As far back as 2004 before we crossed the bridge over which we can no more traverse because the burnt bridge represents the killing of Saddam Hussein – a member of a U.S. Special Operations unit after one of those Fallujah “wars” who remains anonymous said, “I feel we should let Saddam out of jail and say, ‘Sorry, we didn’t realize you were so brutal because you had to be’”.

Look and learn

If anything, it shows how America did not understand the complexities of the Iraqi society and how he held it together even though he was reviled by his people. It did not mean that their release through America’s invasion would yield a World War II type acclaim of the public filling the streets with ticker-tape parades of jubilation.

The disbanding of everything Baathist from the army to all other personnel in government establishments completely destabilised the country and fuelled the insurgency – contrast that with Nelson Mandela who did not visit the evil of Apartheid on the whites of South Africa by seizing their businesses or property, it prevented a white insurgency that would have completely destabilised the country and turned it into a penniless Zimbabwe.

The inability for the Bush administration to employ the tools of diplomacy to address the neighbours of Iraq who have more than a vested interest in ensuring Iraq is peaceful means the opportunity for resolution of the Iraqi problem has been lost, time and time again.

It is surprising that Condoleezza Rice still retains her post considering the failure she has been to speak softly rather than bluster like a lose Texan cannon with complete intransigence.

If we cannot learn to say sorry, we would be sorry when the sorry state of our affairs leaves no one about to say sorry to us and help us along.

Many U-turns required

Can you pull back?

It would appear the Bush Cabinet is in the process of trying to negotiate the U-turn of an Australian wagon train in a cul-de-sac on Iraqi strategy, we can only wait and see what becomes of the surrounding buildings and lawns as people are left askance at the stupidity of getting into the cul-de-sac first place.

As the debate goes on about what to do about Iraq ranging from sating the course to pulling out, one fundamental we seem to be forgetting is that the US and Britain opened this Pandora’s Box and there is no easy way to shut it back up tight.

The fact is, Iraq was like a grenade with the pin ready for pulling out, Saddam Hussein for all his evils kept that powder keg from exploding – very much like how Josip Tito kept the Yugoslavia bottled up till he died and the whole place became a conflagration of ethnic conflicts.

Much as many would like America to cut and run, the fact is there is a lurking ethical complex that requires that the mess after Saddam be becalmed to some pre-invasion quality of peace, something that I would think impossible in the foreseeable future.

Squandering the Clinton legacy

Then for all that can be said about the Clinton administration, I must highlight a few seminal points, they at least got the Israelis and Palestinians talking, the highpoint which was that handshake between Rabin and Arafat on the White House lawn.

With North Korea, Madeleine Albright did do to Pyongyang and there was a possibility that Clinton could have visited – however, more striking is that North Korea did not become nuclear on Clinton’s watch.

In fact, with Carter and Clinton, the Democrats did much more with the symbolism of getting the Arabs and Israelis to talk to each other than the Republicans have in 30 years.

Bad diplomacy

In the six years of Mr. Bush’s tenure, what we have gained is a consuming obstreperousness to refuse to talk in a bilateral relationship with Iran, North Korea, Syria, Hezbollah or Hamas as well as Iraq before the war.

This really cannot go on; it does not help the cause for diplomacy if there is no dialogue and hiding behind the Europe initiative with Iran or the 6-party talks about North Korea does not cut the muster.

In the end, it leaves US with second-hand information that lets Condoleezza Rice say that she does not believe the promises given to China by North Korea are as iron-cast as they are supposed to be.

Well, at least China sent someone to Pyongyang to hear from them; Europe and Russia have send people to Teheran, the UN Secretary General has been to Damascus and Teheran too, America has just been skirting the issue rather than getting stuck into really seeking world peace.

I am not hot on Rice at all

At this juncture, I have come to the conclusion that Condoleezza Rice, though a highly accomplished scholar in the dynamics that exemplified the cold war is a lightweight in the New World Order – she is no Henry Kissinger (that would be to besmirch him, though in these present times he could be indicted for a good number of civil rights and human rights misdemeanours), nor is she a James Baker III who is now co-heading a group to rethinking the American Iraqi strategy – probably because the administration has run out of ideas and she is no Madeleine Albright, at least she got the President to do something – Yugoslavia for example, though she denies influencing the situation.

Where America could have been the impartial arbiter with the respect due to a superpower they have taken sides and lost the ability to leverage resources and power that they have become bit-players in areas where they should be prime-movers.

No hope for resolution

With this approach to global issues, not only will North Korea conduct a few more tests, they would manufacture nuclear warheads, Iran definitely would develop a nuclear weapon just to show they can, the nuclear race would hot up with other countries in the Far East and the Middle East considering their options.

So, somehow, this leads to a new Republican National Convention political advertisement which plays on the fears of Americans with the premise that they might suffer a nuclear attack brought on by terrorists.

Well, the fear factor did work in 2004, I would hope it would be a damp squib in this year’s mid-term elections, because, the whole Bush administration attitude to terrorism with their untrammeled control of the Congress has lead to a more unsafe world – change is required and checks are needed – the Congress in the hands of the Democrats is the only alternative between the partisan evils we have to contend with.

As Clinton once surmised, we have the choice to choose between someone exciting our fears or lifting our hopes, this terrorist message is now old hat.

References

The Fear Factor video

Condi is not welcome in Lebanon

This represents the kind of propaganda we are fed about the Middle-East conflict. I read on CNN a headline, that Condoleezza Rice has cancelled her trip to Lebanon.

Well, the BBC television news, tells me Lebanon has snubbed Condoleezza Rice and told her not to visit Lebanon till a ceasefire has been agreed.

Indeed, Dr Rice would have had cancel her trip, because she has been told quite clearly, you are not welcome, I must say, that appears in the body of text.

Like I said in an earlier blog, regardless of the American aid which is a sop in expiation for seriously letting Lebanon down, Lebanon knows this for sure, America is definitely not a friend in time of need.

Unfortunately, the UN building in Beirut is now taking the brunt of a violent protest as Israel argumentum ad consequentiam passes the blame for bombing up civilians to Hezbollah.

As I am writing, the culmination of events had now lead Dr Rice to request an immediate unconditional ceasefire. So, much for doors and bolted horses – this doctor is some mean gambler.

References

Sky News: Airstrike 'Kills Or Injures Dozens'

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid

No talks with Rice before ceasefire

Rice says "time for ceasefire" after Qana bombing

The defence of the YesMen Generals

A time to go

The clamour for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld has not gone unnoticed, as retired generals have wrangled with each other taking on whether or not to defenestrate the embattled Secretary of Defense (American spelling).

To date, a 4-star General, two 3-star Generals and four 2-star generals have voiced their opinions about the fitness of Mr Rumsfeld for the duties that he has been assigned.

In the numbers game, of all retired generals, this could be insignificant, but when viewed in the context of the fact that six of those generals have reported up the chain in his tenure, you begin to wonder if it is the generals or the secretary that is the issue.

Yes, from the Generals

However, two other 4-star Generals have come forward to defend the tenure and abilities of Donald Rumsfeld; they being General Tommy Franks and General Richard Myers.

One could feel great sympathy for their stance since they represented the highest link in the chain between the forces and their political masters.

The risk of having both their reputations and legacies sullied is evident if tactics and modalities surrounding the execution of Iraqi war and peace are brought under the harsh light of unrelenting scrutiny.

However, if people in authority cannot speak up when they should on matters of expertise, principle, honesty, integrity, tactics and/or experience, they are bungling miscreants not worthy of giving counsel to anyone.

This was not helped by the fact that the Secretary of State in the person of Condolezza Rice did say there were tactical errors regarding the execution and process of the Iraqi war when she was in the UK powwowing with Jack Straw.

Donald can dismiss, disdain and disparage

Rumsfeld in his characteristic manner dismissed her comments with the flippant “I do not know what she is talking about”.

It goes without saying that Mr Rumsfeld’s arrogance sometimes beggars belief, the unparalleled hubris with which he singularly deprecates other views to the elevation of his opinions is dangerous at best and globally lethal at worst.

Since the Abu Ghraib episode, anybody of useful and commendable reputation has asked for Rumsfeld to step down, for the sake of loyalty, dignity and possible self-pride.

However, he has stuck to the position, clammed shut and irretrievable from the Pentagon whilst the White House engages in the Window-dressing of changing staff to raise the popularity of the president.

Sack him for the polls

I could almost promise an amazing 10 to 15 point surge in the president’s popularity if he left that office this afternoon. Changing the press secretary, budget director, chief of staff or some other brown-nosing functionary would do nothing to budge the downward spiral of squandered opportunities the president finds himself in.

Enter the Economist through a piece by Lexington and suddenly, I read a whole message that shows the Rumsfeld should long have been pensioned off to some home for bureaucratic bottlenecks and enemies of reasonable discourse.

Yes, from the generals, again

Here, we find that General Tommy Franks is considered a one-dimensional strategist and General Myers is a yes man– call me anything but never a yes man.

Then we hear from Dr. Henry Kissinger who would be so welcome for trial in any international court of justice commend Donald Rumsfeld as “the best practitioner of the art of bureaucratic infighting” he had ever seen.

It is then no wonder that he can disparage the Secretary of State, dismiss the opinions of the generals, deny that there is a problem anywhere whilst opportunistically linking his efficacy to the wishes of the president to keep him there.

Load bearing furniture

A contemporary assessment of the Bush Presidency is beginning to look like a case of moving around the furniture to keep a building from collapsing; furniture might bear up the building for a while, but the problem is structural and fundamental.

Some of the major players in the President’s team need to be sent packing of which Mr Rumsfeld is the chief liability and millstone around the president’s laden neck.

An opinion worthy of attention

The Economist says this better as the casualties of the tactical errors continue to rise in Iraq and in America; Mr Rumsfeld is worth the greater sacrifice for the nation and fatherland, regardless of the idea changing horses mid-race, it might be the right thing to do to win the race and turn this sordid matter around – once and for all.

In the coop as coup sounds like coon so soon

Words on the radio

It is with interest that I read that an American radio talk show host has been sacked for using a racial slur in pressing a point about Dr Condolezza Rice’s qualifications for the presidency of the National Football League.

Whilst, one is saddened by the event, it still goes to show that somehow a general public acquiescence of racial harmony is not necessarily underpinned by a deep honesty of expression.

It appears the talk show host was trying to say coup and ended up saying coon twice.

Speaking your deepest thoughts involuntarily

One can be forgiven the situation that allows for things to come out of the mouth without thoughtful processing that weighs the context, tone, intent and delivery.

However, it is unlikely that one would in a setting like a talk show use words that have not had some deep-seated meditation or analysis for a the very first time.

Most involuntary activity comes from the cerebellum part of the brain where things are learnt, recorded and replayed effortlessly; it allows for reaction to betray intention even if what is said is different.

Having read the excerpt of what was said, it is definitely an ambiguity in context that coon and coup could so easily be juxtaposed.

"She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon,"

Politics of failure

It reminds me of student union days in Yaba College of Technology where I got my fingers seriously burnt and my life turned upside-down with the rotten game of getting pitched against the authorities.

In 1984, I with another good friend, of the Estate Management 1 constituency and I of the Electrical Engineering 2 constituency were probably the best political partnership in the history of student union politics in Yaba Tech.

We basically, wrote the agenda of events with the vested or troublesome interests we brought to the house, each time we walked in the speaker of the house wondered what the drama would be.

That was the time when a very populist student was elected president of the student’s union which eventually lead to riots and the closure of the polytechnic for months.

The lecturers then read some article criticising the polytechnic in the Nigerian Guardian and took it upon themselves to play detective, sometimes, I wonder about the megalomania and childishness of Nigerian lecturers.

I was even once asked if I had written the article, even if I did write it, would I have said I did.

The authorities constitute themselves into demigods answerable to no one and beholden to moneybags.

A doctored constitution

Anyway, when the student’s representative council convened the populist president offered to make copies of the constitution for all members.

I happened to have a copy of the constitution, but when his version came out, there were 47 major errors playing on words.

In one instance, an elected officer had to present himself, but it read resent himself – the subtlety of that missing P negated the intention of the constitution.

That was the only motion I failed to bring to fruition in my tenure, the motion to impeach for tampering with the constitution.

Many of us activists had the polytechnic pass through us but we did not pass out, in the end, that populist president committed suicide a few years after.

What would have been, if that change of words had been allowed the scrutiny that would have prevented greater trouble?

As for the coup of the coon, the talk show host did not end up in the coop; rather he was out of work so soon.

As usual controversial talk show hosts get snapped up by other inconsequential radio stations looking for increased ratings and notoriety. This is a country where race both makes sense and nonsense.

Sphincter melody - seriously parental advisory

Another opinion in vision and song that might have you nodding your head in agreement.

The deal - requires flash - plays back vision and sound.

Warning: The lyrics and subject are very colourful.