A coffee blend bereft of Java beans

The last hurdle

Having spent two years on my masters programme towards a degree in Information Technology, I have reached the last hurdle but one. I have done 7 out of 8 modules and now this would have been the last module before my 8 month dissertation.

The module I have left till last is a programming module, just when I found out through the wording making object-oriented programming a core requirement for the degree I could get a could get a waiver, the rules changed.

This is one bridge I must cross, this is one chalice from which I must drink to attain the wisdom of sages as object speaks to object, revealing some, concealing some and at times changing into other things.

Who C, U C, I C, no way

When I first tried C++, it appeared I had entered a class where everyone had their dreams C and spoke to their dog in C++ not forgetting the C# (C – sharp) that accompanies anyone with any musical talent.

I saw it all and I just thought, I cannot compete in this class, I still dream in plain English, I don’t have a pet and I am probably tone deaf – nothing piano-nanny cannot cure with a teaspoon full of sugar.

Unfortunately, C++ does not attract as much a crowd as the alternative object-oriented programming module in Java.

Java addiction

Everyone sniffs the aroma and they are high on the caffeine of Java beans and every kind of macchiato and latte you can concoct from that exclusive blend.

After going through some tutorials, I almost got intoxicated on the stuff, I was day-dreaming of possibilities and opportunities, casting myself as a programmer that has come of age – I almost deluded myself, but it is not an impossibility.

Am I afraid of this thing? Not really, I have my deep premonitions, but I have done quite well in other modules, this is not a cinch but I intend to do well against the odds.

I need a long holiday – Now!

Now, in the impasse between contracts, I feel I need a break, going out to some sunny climes is a moot point, and Spain has been on holiday in the Netherlands for the past 4 weeks. It does not however tempt me to breach the Arctic Circle.

Anyway, I still have a thing for the Canary Islands, but cannot guarantee that I would be able to get a hotel that offers uninterrupted Internet to my room.

My mind, my body craves for a break, somewhere distant from home, the routine, the smells and the everyday people including school work.

So, Java is postponed for another 24 days, by which time, I hope there is inspiration, heart, gusto and a serious inclination to mount the Java bull and steer it in the direction of a good grade.

I really feel like a long holiday – have card, would travel.

A Dog's Dinner from your Grocery

No Dutch on my palate

I have not been one to heap praise on Dutch cuisine, but it is not fault of the Dutch, the fact is a national dish depends on the kinds of crops, ingredients and animals for food that can be obtained local to that region.

Potatoes, pulses and members of the cabbage family feature in many dishes which are either dark or bland compared to colourful Mediterranean or Tropical dishes.

Like the English, many cuisines have come from the sub-continent to augment local dishes; the English variety of Indian cooking is probably the most eaten kind of food in England, here exotic tastes from Indonesian are very prominent.

There was a time I had a salad full of grit which I took back to the chef, rather than replace the salad with a fresh one, he took one leaf ate it and the declared the salad gritless, you could imagine my amazement.

Food snobs they are not

However, that exemplifies the difference in care and attention that the Dutch have towards food compared to the French, Italians or even Spaniards.

Furthermore, I have the advantage of a supermarket on the ground floor of my apartment block. For light shopping, I take down a bag, for serious shopping, I wheel the trolley home – living on the seventh floor of an apartment block which has a supermarket should count for something.

Albert Heijn is the biggest supermarket chain in the Netherlands as part of the Ahold group of companies. There have been lots of improvements over my last 6 years of residence in the Netherlands – shelves are better stacked and labeled, you rarely find out-of-stock stuff, tills get opened when queues get longer, they have not gotten to a bagging service yet.

Unfortunately, what has gone into a decent and organized shop floor has been lost in food psychology.

Yikes!

I picked up a pack of meat – heart cubed for stews – I use it for pepper soup and an assortment of stew recipes. Apart from the label signifying what it was, it had another sticker – (Dier Voeding) – Pet food in Dutch.

Don’t get me wrong, I would suppose most human food is dual purpose, that is, it can be served to both humans and pets, but that should be an unwritten prerogative of the pet owner.

One other explanation might be, the cost of gourmet pet food might be so high that preparing you own pet food is a cost saver, and there are humans whose work it is to taste the edibility of pet food. That, said, this would have better be put in the pet corner and not amongst food for human-beings.

To put that dual-purpose label on food in a supermarket beggars belief – need I say more? I think we can conclude the Dutch have no clue about the concepts of food psychology; this is the fundamental of good cooking, if you could get that from Dutch ingredients.

Albert Heijn have now done the Dutch a disservice, but, if it is acceptable to the Dutch, I would not complain, basically, anything labeled dual-purpose like that, is for the lowest common denominator – in this case, I would not be eating pet food.

The cult of the burnt fornicator - religious abuse

Churches should be sanctuaries not prisons [1]

The worship of Moloch

When I read on NaijaBlog that a church was making some of its congregation pass through the fire for their sins, I dismissed it with the thought that this was related to the worship of Moloch and left it at that.

Well, on further research it appears this was a more serious issue that now includes charges of a homicide and other counts of attempted murder.

There is no doubt that religious cults do thrive in Nigeria, especially where people are offered seemingly quick-fix solutions that lead to other deeper problems as the people are absorbed into cultist and socially unacceptable circumstances.

Charlatans as Reverends

Anyone, can rise with any title and declare themselves the megaphone of God for these times and people can be taken by spectacular shows and illusions that depict supposed miracles, they are milked of all their wealth and well-being with the promise of safety and deliverance.

Indeed, when in a church, one should in ways submit to the leadership of that church, but in the wisdom that includes understanding clearly that this leader can be trusted to do what is right. It is called discernment.

Only fools tread

Unfortunately, as sheep lead to the slaughter, many forfeit their God-given mental faculties to submit to lies and Old Testament foreboding which fills the congregation with self-loathing, fear, low-esteem and subservience.

Leaders in the church are supposed exercise authority that exudes leaderships, mercy, mentoring and grace. They are to lift up their people so they can go out and face the world with a sense of purpose, self-worth, integrity, honour and trustworthiness.

Sometimes, some of the congregation falls to temptation or heinous sins like fornication or adultery, it is a time to come together and counsel them and strengthen them to move on from the guilt of sin, if that is the prevailing doctrine to a state of absolution and sense of redemption.

Burning the sinner

To now hear that jerry cans of petrol were poured over offending fornicators and then they were set alight leaves one bereft of composure. Wherever this quack Dr and fraud got this teaching from escapes me – witches might have been burnt in the past but witchcraft is not fornication.

Separating the church from the state

Regardless of church doctrine, it is no more in the remit of the church to mete out the kinds of punishment that exemplified the Spanish Inquisition; the law is managed and administered by the state.

The church or any other religious organisation should defer to the state on matters of crime or civil justice where the society would have determined the punishment for the crime as their legislatures would have proposed after a fair trial.

The worst the church can do is excommunicate members who refuse to abide by the rules of membership. A church must not convene a kangaroo court and mete out punishments as if it were a court of law carrying out the affairs of the state.

One of many victims of religious abuse

In this case, Ann Uzoh King ultimately lost her life having suffered serious burns, a victim of cult movements in Nigeria that get no scrutiny from the authorities because followers and adherents have been brainwashed into thinking these rotten organisations are for their good.

Any right thinking person would know that these acts are completely wrong – however, is it any wonder that like opium, religion does deprive one of complete control of ways, means and heads?

References

Attempted Murder: King Granted Bail, Re-Arrested

Religious Abuse

How to spot religious abuse

Opinions on cults and religious abuse

The doctor says good riddance

The doctor has moved on

I was writing the piece below as the news flashed that the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria has resigned. I am impressed with her grace her sense of integrity and the way she has maintained her honour.

This is all because a bumbling patriarchal president had turned his cabinet into a chess-board full of pawns that could be moved and sacrificed with impunity.

It is a loss to Nigeria that a technocrat of that worth and values should be frustrated out of service to her homeland, whilst we hear that Nigerians in Diaspora should return to help build the nation.

Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala would be the banner to the fact that we do not have the kind of government that helps develop the worthy and patriotic cause of serving our great nation of Nigeria. It is a sad day indeed.

The humiliation of the doctor

As the debate heats up on Ayoke’s Exodus; about the importance of the Foreign Ministry in relation to Finance Ministry in Nigeria.

One must once again look at the situation where the erstwhile Finance Minister who is now the Foreign Minister was stripped of the leadership of the Economic Management Team.

My view is that developing economies have more to gain in promoting trade and development which is linked to the management of resources and consequently their economies than trying to peddle vacuous influence without requisite backing of good governance and sensible economic policies.

With Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala being stripped of this economic profile and then being advised to concentrate on the Non-Aligned Movement, this makes interesting reading on deeper analysis.

The Non-Aligned Movement does not include any country in the West, probably; the only countries of note would be Nigeria, South Africa and India, with China as an observer.

The rest of the list which consists of 55% of the UN lists the poorest and the most deprived countries that require aid to keep things together, including the State of Palestine. I must say, it includes all the OPEC countries.

What is the relevance of the NAM?

However, in a new world order where globalization, makes every economy susceptible to global financial swings and machinations, one wonders the value of the NAM apart from the kindred spirit of having been colonized or having once had their economies shackled to IMF poison pills.

Also, the 14^th NAM summit is in Havana, Cuba between September 14-15, 2006, whilst the 2006 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group is in Singapore between September 18-20, 2006.

No marks for thinking the more familiar face of a former vice-president of the World Bank could help a lot more in the negotiations than a meeting Nigeria would be the proverbial one-eyed man

Mind that language

Doing the Double Dutch

Not that I can say much about my command of languages, having been in the Netherlands for 6 years and find that I cannot string together one sentence without looking like a clown on Sesame Street. Back to classes for me.

The Dutch are generally known to be polyglots, the notion is that that can speak a number of languages at levels of proficiency that rate better than average.

I can agree to some extent if the purpose is basic communication, however, when it comes to serious conversation in the adopted language, the cracks and the holes begin to show.

Friendly and tolerant Dutch colleagues

In my case, I cannot hold it against any of the speakers, their attempts are a lot better than my attempts at Dutch and I am very appreciative of every attempt they make to me feel welcome and comfortable in their environments, despite the aberrant nationalistic inclinations of their populist politicians.

However, some university research now shows that the basic command of Dutch itself amongst the young Dutch is poor; this presents a problem because if one does not have a firm grasp of ones mother tongue it is difficult to formally learn another language from the grammar/usage perspective.

I perceive you know less

The research goes on to assess user perception of language knowledge to actual knowledge and understanding of the language. It appears managers believe they have a good command of English when in reality the standard is very poor.

That perception is an aspiration in some cases, I like to think I understand a lot more Dutch than I do, and I remember when someone commended me for my African dress and that the clothes make a man, which I did understand, then she said maybe I do not understand her – and that, I did not understand. Funny, the way Dutch just pays you up.

Et tu?

The twist in this research is the finding that other Europeans are less confident of their command of other languages, but they are a lot better than they think they are, the Dutch however are the opposite.

Sometimes, generalisations are not the best source of useful knowledge.

A doctor without a patient

Our best finance minister

When Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was redeployed to Nigeria from her position as vice-president of the World Bank, having an MIT doctorate in regional economics and development made her probably the best person to take up the office of Minister of Finance in Nigeria.

She has held that office with distinction, bringing transparency to the way moneys are disbursed in the country, all down to local government and the paying off debts to the Paris Club was a signal of prudence that had come into the management of Nigeria’s oil-derived economy.

After 3 years in that post, a cabinet reshuffle moved her to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs while retaining the leadership of the Economic Management Team.

On speed or up to speed?

Apparently, the new Minister of Finance who deputised for Dr Okonjo-Iweala was not ripe enough to assume that position and handle it with the despatch and expertise of her former boss.

Her not relinquishing the post with the ministerial appointment might also have been a sop to keep the doctor in the cabinet and quell the fears of global economic monitors who would have thought Nigeria was about to descend into pre-election profligacy.

It now transpires that whilst the doctor was busy negotiating Nigeria’s exit from the London Club of creditors she received a letter indicating with immediate effect she no more was the chair of the Economic Management Team as the post would now go to the current Minister of Finance who in less than six weeks supposedly mastered the brief.

This is the same brief, in which she would have been a deputy in liaison with her boss for at least 3 years before.

The executive president’s prerogative

Obviously, the president in the kind of democracy that Nigeria runs is the chief executive of the country though I wonder how he manages and accords respect to his team.

When the reshuffle occurred in June, it was evident that the doctor was informed out of the blue and was in some ways reluctant about the plans, however, to be stripped of the leadership of an important position whilst negotiating in the self-same authority to rid Nigeria of some of the most burdensome encumbrances to our development is a tad disrespectful at the least, if not annoying to person who commit themselves to the service of the country.

Stripped by letters

They were informed by letter it appears, so the doctor would have received a letter whilst in London negotiating on our behalf that she has with immediate effect lost the clout to press issues.

If her erstwhile deputy were on the negotiation panel, the doctor would have been speaking for Nigeria in the centre and the next day, her deputy would be calling the shots as it appears the doctor does not have any roles in that team.

There is a tendency for the president due to his tenure of military leadership from 1976 to 1979 and his advancement in years to be so patriarchal in outlook to forget that it takes teamwork to run a great country like Nigeria, and people may as well have positions of similar clout in any part of the globe without having to be pushed around for being willing to serve their country.

As the elections of 2007 appear over the horizon, here is hoping that the machinations of the president do not lead to an implosion of the cabinet feeding into uncertainties and foreboding about the future.

The doctor might be of greater value to the World Bank; this is one doctor who has no more patients to treat in Nigeria.

References

Economic Team: Usman Replaces Okonjo-Iweala

Scotland Yard in Nigerian murder backyard

The need to improve the police

And so Scotland Yard is invited to unravel the mystery behind the brutal murder of Funsho Williams – a gubernatorial aspirant for the ruling party’s primaries in Lagos State, Nigeria.

Whilst many might lament the tacit admission that the Nigerian Police, is ill-equipped, ill-prepared and unqualified to handle high-profile political assassinations, it is a first step to seek help where you know you are lacking.

My concern is it whether it would contribute in any appreciable way to improving the standards police work in general and then detective agency leading on to effective homicide investigation practices.

Eschew Nigerian histrionics

Mainly, I would hope that Scotland Yard would just get down to the nitty-gritty of the case by first cordoning off the Dolphin Estate premises of the deceased as a crime scene – if any clues are still left to develop a murder trail.

They should also avoid unnecessary photo opportunities and press conferences which would allow our apparently incompetent criminal investigation services to appear as if they are doing something.

Then on to the President who went to great lengths to justify inviting Scotland Yard, his words bring some sort of comfort that political murders must stop and the perpetrators must be nabbed and brought to justice, having himself lost his Minister of Justice to murderers a few years before.

Curses are not helpful

It is important to keep an objective perspective to this whole matter and one would take exception to comments like – “Those who killed Funsho will experience sorrow for the rest of their lives, they and their families and they will never know peace”.

It is important we do not get emotionally carried away with ferocious passions that make public statements sound moot, irrelevant and unhelpful to attaining focus on the issues at hand.

So, an entourage of ruling party governors with the President visited the victim’s mother to pay their condolences at which he said the victim was “an apostle of politics without bitterness”.

Now, we should not speak ill of the dead, that level of praise does help express loss, but in reality, the man was the day before his death in a meeting with other aspirants and the police where they were advised to restrain their supporters and eschew violence – such slanted praise taints the victimology profile necessary to help detectives in profiling possible criminals.

That is not to say that these pronouncements do not help to taking sympathy to the level of empathy.

Ghosts of murders past

It also appears the victim’s family has returned to Nigeria to do the requisite things for arranging internment once the body is released after autopsy.

They have been receiving visitors sympathising at their loss, one such visitor is Senator Iyiola Omisore – is that not the man implicated in the murder of the Minister of Justice where the police bungled the investigation and the case was so bogged down with submissions and retractions that the toll of it all most definitely lead to the death of the widow.

Hope for new leads

Senator Omisore was eventually discharged and acquitted after 18 months in prison, all because the case was completely messed up.

It does not augur well that such a person should have a prominent platform in the another political murder – having this said of him - Describing it as sad, Omisore urged investigators to fish out the killers and bring them to book – he probably knows more about resolving political murders – the fish are usually big and they have the books.

In this case, hopefully, the police are bigger sharks than the big fish and they would scent enough from bloodied scales to home in on their quarry. With the help of Scotland Yard, they just might.

References

Funsho Williams' murder investigation: Why we brought in Scotland Yard –Obasanjo

The Ige Family & Omisore Trial

Daily Headlines : Omisore Freed

Williams: Ehindero Hints of Major Breakthrough