Cult of the Frozen Cow

Escorting Daisy

Taking Daisy the cow by the raised hoof and chaperoning her to the Repose Enforcement Centre (abattoir would be inhumane) where she would be selflessly be engaged in the service of nourishing men, one could only reflect on man’s inhumanity to her kin.

As some of her friends stood in line without the luxury of a valet, they became exhausted that they could not stand on their feet, they still submitted to repose without the respite or reprieve that might have come from a sympathetic judge.

In the end, we have reluctant and incapable personnel forced into service putting at risk the usually unquestioned professional service of the cow and all that might be result from it.

Call back the beef

The reality is, before you to send the men in white coats over to take me away; the United States has had to recall 64.9 million kilograms of beef that might have been tainted.

Tainted, in that sick or seriously distressed cows might have entered the food chain, the bigger scare being some of the cows might have had Mad Cow Disease.

Just over four years ago there was a similar situation of a probably infected cow entering the food chain; I am still amazed that meat from one cow ended up in eight states and the island of Guam.

Spare me the details

Sometimes, it is good to be spared the details of the food processing industry because this frozen beef being recalled dates back to the 1^st of February 2006 – someone is about to tell me that I am could be eating beef that first landed in the freezer two years ago.

I might well be living in Antarctica and digging down miles to retrieve million year carcasses of long dead dinosaur meat – this is really getting crazy.

The want to kill our babies

To crown it all, the beef would supposedly end up in school lunch programmes and other federal nutrition programmes – if I had kids, I would be hysterical by now; but we all should calm ourselves down and react with a modicum of comportment.

Do not let your federal government be involved in your nutritional plan and be very wary of school dinners – basically who can you trust to do anything right?

People’s Burma or cattle’s America

In what does not look too far off from how repressive regimes clamp down on civil protest; the video, “showed crippled and ill animals being prodded with the blades of a forklift truck, kicked, given electric shocks and sprayed with high-pressure water hoses by staff in an effort to get them to their feet before slaughter”. BBC Source.

I could safely assume it was mad cowboys herding mad cows – I am off beef for the foreseeable future.

References

The Humane Society of the United States Undercover Investigation

Charged with Cruelty - The Video is quite graphic

Nigeria: Governor's reputation goes up in hospital flames

Useless Health Ministers

If this is not a case where Nigerian politics and the service to humanity has lost its priorities, focus and purpose, I would wonder what is.

I have railed before about so-called professors in medical science who have been appointed Ministers of Health and they have failed to grasp the extent and import of their briefs.

It informs the reason why for a simple fracture that the erstwhile vice-President had or the complicated ailment that the current President had before his selection required them being flown out of the country.

We have at least 4 teaching hospitals that have been in existence for at least 4 decades and we still end up with situations where one was particularly involved in obtaining sub-standard drugs from the black market that the Health Minister of the day could not be persuaded to act decisively on the report from the drug standards body; because the report was addressed to a predecessor he replaced a few weeks after the report was submitted.

If there would ever be a Health Minister in the mould of the late Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti who in spite of the strictures he had to work in, still made improvements and adjustments to health delivery in Nigeria, one cannot yet tell.

Junket beclouds purpose

The news reaching me today is appalling to say the least, a general hospital that had been built in Maiduguri, Borno State, with possibly start-of-the-art medical equipment was burnt down.

That is unfortunate, but reading the detail leaves one quite livid with rage; for the sake of stupid ceremony, the culture of junketry (for the want of another derivative of junket) that gets in the way of getting things done expeditiously and properly for the people; the hospital which was completed in June 2006 has remained closed until the day it was torched.

It had remained closed because the State Governor, Senator (Dr.) Ali Modu Sheriff, wanted the President to fly over with his entourage of leeches at great expense to the taxpayer to cut the tape to open the hospital.

So far, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had been otherwise engaged than to do bed-pans that a number of visits were postponed until one that had now been set for March 2008.

I would contend that if the hospital had been deployed to the service that it was built to provide, it is unlikely we would be reading of arsonist attacks, rather, it would have breakthroughs in healthcare delivery hugging the headlines.

Misdirected anger

I am not surprised that the people of Bulunkutu were angry and shouting abuses at the alleged arsonists but their anger is completely misdirected and this is where the education of the masses is required for a clear thought process.

The governor stated that there was not one state-owned hospital in the country that had the type of world class equipment that could be found in the hospital complex – if that was the case, the next question should be whether the hospital was built for the people or for the opportunity to bring the President to this far-flung North-Eastern state.

It is unlikely that the President would have needed to use the facilities, the people of the state however, would have benefited from using the hospital considering other Borno State hospitals are poorly equipped and overcrowded.

The people should have been foremost in the mind of the governor and after being unable to get the President he should have settled for another delegated functionary or even done it himself.

Now, he laments the arsonists had a ploy to damage his political reputation – How do we get to elect these cretins?

This hospital should have been opened 19 months ago and it should not have lain fallow and unused for another one month until March 2008.

Another rape of the people

Not only is the governor culpable in this travesty and rape of the people, his advisers should have seen that his political reputation stems from the people not from junkets that have him play host to the President.

The healthcare delivery hierarchy should have prevailed upon him; if indeed we had healthcare delivery statistics all around the country, to open the hospital and give respite to the people who most definitely have no opportunity to jet out for Aspirin.

The anger of the people should be directed at the idiot that is the governor, just as the arsonists who were wrong could no more stand seeing a white-elephant in their neighbourhood.

I would suppose the President would be visiting next month to cut the tape and allow fire engines access to fight the fire after which he can shovel the ashes and see the hospital rise like a phoenix before the eyes of the junketeers.

Sometimes, incredulity is the norm in great Nigeria.

Today, We are Kosovans

The Flag of newly independent Kosovo (WikiMedia Foundation)

The people have spoken

Many regimes have rolled tanks over the aspirations of their people and shot bullets into the hearts of a few of the people who yearn for freedom.

Men, women and children they can kill but a hope that has become a movement for the emancipation of the people can be delayed, it can be obstructed and it can be temporarily crushed but it cannot be destroyed.

The Balkans has always been the tinderbox that has set Europe on fire much as peace in the Balkans keeps an uneasy calm in Europe.

This day, the people of Kosovo by their democratic will and earnest desire became a nation – the parliament unanimously declared independence from the Republic of Serbia.

A promise to all

Many have welcomed this realisation and others have rubbished the reality as false.

The leaders of the people have vowed to protect the minorities in their new nation whilst they forge ahead building a new identity and ready to play their part in the commonwealth of global nations.

Any nation that would not recognise the validity of this declaration should reflect of why they would deny a people their aspirations and wonder at their democratic credentials.

A treasure un-cherished

Serbia for instance claims that Kosovo is the cradle of Serbia, if it were that precious and priced as a place of their heritage they should probably have been smarter about treating that heirloom with respect and recognition.

They should have striven to unite their different peoples rather than wage wars (Wars waged in 1389, 1448, 1915, 1944 & 1999) and belligerent rhetoric against the dominant and majority occupiers who have a considerably different heritage.

The deed has been done here and hopefully, we can keep the peace and watch this nation grow into a force for good in the old Yugoslavia, the Balkans, Europe and the world at large.

We are Kosovans

There is nothing illegal about realising the aspirations of a people, the memory of the martyrs whose blood flowed to realise this dream shall not have been shed in vain.

Today, we who seek freedom and liberty with safety are together at one with Kosovo.

Today, we are all Kosovans – Long live the independent Republic of Kosovo, we welcome you.

Reference

The timeline to Kosovan Independence

Nigeria: Abusing the Honours System

Honoured for service

A few years ago, my father was honoured with a chieftaincy title by the king of our hometown; when I heard of the news, I was certainly pleased for him knowing that he had been conferred this honour by reason of his work and commitment towards the development of our town.

Of his generation, he stood out as one who gathered the people, engaged his peers and encouraged the powerful to raise the profile of the town. Titles like these are primarily the means by which clans and tribes are able to honour leaders in their communities.

The electrification project, the building of the cathedral, the refurbishment of the primary school, the building of the secondary school, the mentoring of the younger generation – they were hallmarks of his service – work of over 40 years rewarded by a grateful people and their king.

The patriot that he is, I am definitely not and if he bore his traditional title in formal address, I would not begrudge him.

Dishonouring honour

However, I worry about the way titles and honours get dished out by whim or caprice by any traditional leader of the hut, hamlet, village, great city, tribal land or kingdom.

Everyone gets conferred with a chieftaincy title such that we are probably running out of people to give modernistic irrelevant but trendy titles that the pets might begin to feature in these ceremonies.

Ológìní of Gbókítí (Cat of Tumbler) or Ajáọba of Mẹ́ranyìí (King’s Dog of catch the goat) – The imaginary places could easily be your homestead.

People go out of their way to flatter and aggrandise themselves before traditional leaders who in turn are captivated and entranced by the show of wealth that could be used to buttress wanton excesses in the throne-room.

Honours by the basketful

This all for the sake of being addressed as chief with the most prized title being Otunba (Right-hand man of the king), though, I rarely see anyone interested in being the left-hand man of the king. You wonder if the king has lost a hand in battle.

I remember when Gbenga Daniel, the governor of my home state, Ogun State ran for election in 2003, he had already bagged about 50 chieftaincy titles from literally every named habitation in Ogun State and more from other states.

He is formally addressed as Otunba Gbenga Daniel; his wife currently holds the fanciful title of Yeye Aare Ajibosin of Owu kingdom and is addressed as Yeye Olufunke Daniel. Yeye being a synonym for mother in Yoruba.

Honours from anywhere

You then have people who seethe with religious addiction and superstitious stupidity whilst in the bondage of subjectivity that gives more credence to evil than good conferred with church or mosque titles.

Reverend, Canon, Venerable, Imam we know, but how would one handle titles which have become the formal style of introduction as Deacon, Senior Assistant Evangelist, Prophet, Apostle, Pastor, Senior Prophetess, Mother-in-Israel or Iya Adinni to mention a few?

This has become the raison d’être of the Nigerian elite, you are nothing if you are not titled, even if the title is conferred by some backwater king who has a wicker stool for a throne and nothing more than loincloth to retain his decency.

Bastardisation of Nigerian honours

A more recent development grates me, after the hairdresser hair-singe of Madam Etteh the erstwhile Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, the new 38-year old Speaker was conferred with the national civic honour of Commander of the Federal Republic.

Members of the House have taken umbrage about the class of honour and remonstrated that as the fourth citizen of the country, she should have received a higher honour because of her status and especially where the Chief Justice of the Federation who is lower in the order of precedence (seventh) has received a higher honour.

I am afraid; this clearly shows that our representatives are clueless about how honours systems work. This is not some conferment that comes by reason of office; it should come by reason of having a track record; a history of service. News of those honoured.

Two Ts short of a citation

Mr Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker, who has not yet been subsumed into the chieftaincy morass of Yoruba culture happens to be the son of a high-chief in Egbaland who goes by the chieftaincy title of Seriki Jagunmolu of Egbaland so, some of those titles might be on the way. I would not be surprised if people are not already needling some backwater king to make him Chief Chatterbox of Backwaterland.

It would go without saying that Mr Bankole’s political base stems from the influence his father exercises and the failed political forays into seeking popular electoral office; it could well be that coming from the same city as the last President (Olusegun Obasanjo) is a coincidence.

I am not convinced that Mr Bankole has the track record or body of work in service of Nigeria to be conferred a national honour at all, we only have to see what the Chief Justice of the Federation brings to the table.

Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi, was called to the bar at The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn on the 20^th of July 1965 and he enrolled at the Nigerian Law School on the 22^nd of July 1966 (I have records of all lawyers registered in Nigeria up until mid-1990 since I worked on publishing a Legal Desk Book for 1991), he became a High Court judge in 1976 and was appointed to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice in 1992, then became Chief Justice in 2007.

I think this citation would read for minutes and would attract deserving applause without having to consider the fact that he has been elevated to the post of Chief Justice.

The embarrassing thing about Mr Speaker’s national honour would have been the way the citation would have been bloviated with verbosity and filled in to justify the act after just 4 months of becoming the Speaker for a term that should last 4 years, although he has been a representative since 2003 - the key fascinating fact would really be his age, for which many clapped; everything else is par for the course.

Honour should come after service

However, one only has to see examples in the United Kingdom where Tony Blair was Prime Minister for 10 years and quite visibly a world leader for most of that time – he was not conferred with honours during his term and having left office he might not be conferred with honours for another year or so.

This does not mean he does not deserve honouring; at least a knighthood, but the case in Nigeria might well be compared with giving a Nobel Prize in some science to someone we anticipate would come up with a ground-breaking idea because he is a scientist rather than because of the work that has been done that has served humanity.

In the end, if people are honoured long before they should be with honours way beyond what recognition they should get, the whole exercise is cheapened, and it is made it worthless in the face of many other Nigerians who have no political influence but are even worthier and more deserving of accolade and honour.

The honour should not have been conferred at all, at least not at this time; but until we have objective representatives who are not caught up in the tide of emotion, we can expect such idiocy to grab the headlines.

Microsoft: Give me English in the Netherlands

English still matters

I have endured this for quite a while that I have now decided it is enough. I live in the Netherlands but professionally my business language is English.

Now, I know that my grasp of Dutch is not that strong having spent a good few years here but that is beside the point – correspondence that I receive concerning my private life usually arrives in Dutch which I can read and sometimes get a friend to help with the context and interpretation.

However, as many companies have their European or Global Headquarters in the Netherlands, you can have the choice of either English or Dutch as the language of correspondence in mails or emails.

They speak English

The interesting thing is a majority of the local supply companies for energy or services have staff that are multi-lingual. I have perfected my second sentence after my “Hello” greeting.

Ik spreek maar een beetje Nederlands, kan ik met Engles spreken? The quality of my Dutch is bad, can I speak in English?

Most of the time, the people are quite obliging and the business gets done, where they have not been able to raise an English voice, I have sometimes muddle through if I have a request or closed the call especially if it was one of those cold calls.

Technical speak favours English

My crusade is now on a war-path with Microsoft, a company that has a global reach beyond any other that tries to localise its content based on the country of operation and tailors its services accordingly.

However, I have worked for a good few “Dutch” companies that have plumbed for English concerning all their software. Whilst Dutch might help people understand processes, most of the technical terms are in English that technical experts seem to prefer English.

With my Microsoft Hotmail account, I have found it impossible to switch the language of communication from Dutch to English; my emails have ended up in some communication black-hole in that behemoth.

Dutch privately, English professionally

This is considering the fact that I am probably one of the rare fee-paying users of Hotmail and I have been for many years for all sorts of reasons including being able to expect a level of customer support and service.

I have endured that, but after joining the technical forum called Microsoft TechNet, I was not going to keep receiving stuff in correspondence I barely understand, this considering the fact that after the façade of Dutch emails you ended up one websites that were in English.

So, I asked that I receive my correspondence in English and an email ping-pong ensued where first I was told it could not be done because the content was tailored for the Netherlands.

Let us say, if the content was tailored for Dutch-speakers that would be a valid point, but if it is for residents of the Netherlands, whilst Dutch is the predominant local language, it almost shares an equal footing with English in businesses that have an international focus.

It is a request not a complaint

I informed the responder that I would be publishing my concerns in a blog, interestingly; this request which should make business sense to any company doing business in the Netherlands has now been pushed to the complaints department within the behemoth.

Are they now going to send many other people like me who live in the Netherlands on Dutch courses or just translate the stuff and give us options on the Microsoft portal to receive correspondence in either the local language or English?

It makes you wonder how they handle Switzerland which is a country that has the option for 4 languages and where a German-speaker lives in a French-speaking area having only learnt German, Italian and English in school.

Basically, I am not impressed at all.

Who would be Lucky's friend?

Friends unliked by mum

Ever had a mother who judged your friend in the most polite terms by saying the friend is too good for her liking?

I probably have had a few friends that have received that assessment and consequently gotten me into trouble – in those times; if they were too good for mummy’s liking it was probably good for you to give them a wide berth.

Unlucky Lucky

The former Nigerian governor of Edo State “Thief” Lucky Igbinedion is having such an unlucky spell with friends who might have deserted him in a time of required liberty.

Having been arrested and committed to detention for charges of corruption brought by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), his legal team has successfully argued for his bail which has now been granted.

We have a little problem, the conditions of bail require that Lucky have friends in high places ready to serve as surety – it appears no one wants to be tainted by association with his cause.

Almost impossible bail

The terms of bail are quite strict and exacting that anyone who steps up as surety would probably have the piercing eyes of the EFCC peering down their activities.

The court requires bail in the sum of NGN 10 million ($84,400) from the governor and another of NGN 10 million each from federal permanent secretaries who are not due for retirement for at least three years, this comes to over a quarter of a million dollars.

These permanent secretaries must be introduced to the court by the Head of Service of the Federation whilst showing evidence of payment of income tax in the last three years.

They must make themselves available when the court requires their presence.

Not wanting any of this

I would say that is one tall order that hits on people who would be more concerned about their integrity, honour and standing in society, if they had any, or who through self-preservation would prefer to keep under the radar.

I would opine, only a fool would get wrapped up in this saga which could lead to the loss of status, liberty and face or in a setting like Nigeria, lose of privileges of aggrandisement; if the principal decides to abscond or does things that contravene the conditions of bail.

No friend

If anyone were to put their money where their mouth is, they should probably keep out of this mess and let Lucky bang the prison cell table as much as he likes, scold his aide till the aide fills his pants and refuse to eat prison food as part of a fitness regime – the clear message where thieves have decided not to have honour amongst themselves is – He is on his own.

For a man fighting for his freedom but weighed down by charges that question his honesty and integrity in public office, too many would be aware of the other saying – Show me your friend and I can tell who you are.

The bail condition would inadvertently but help to implicitly notice the amount of influence peddling that works and attempts to circumvent due legal process or allows people with influence to break free from the machinations of delivering justice - somehow, the judge has struck one big blow against impunity and moneyed power-brokers.

The question is, who would like to be Lucky’s friend?

Meanwhile, we have a lot on our minds; let the rich scoundrel rot in jail.

Academic theologians creating Islamic disquiet

The Purview and the voice

The Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict XVI are superb intellectuals and formidable theologians – it would be far from me to suggest with my little learning and experience the ability advice on any matter that decides to offer an additional erudite perspective on their pronouncements.

However, I can recall that when the Pope gave an academic lecture at Regensburg University in September 2006 entitled Faith, Reason and the University: Memories and Reflections; he touched on a topic that should probably entertain the purview of the learned but not the voice of the powerful.

Debate and reason

There, he alluded to the seventh conversation between a Byzantine Emperor and a Persian scholar on the subject of the truth of Christianity and Islam.

Emperor Manuel II Paleologus said “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

This was a conversation recorded in the 14^th Century and I am sure the Persian scholar would have reasoned intelligently and probably answered with views and ideas that validate Islam and Muhammad positively whilst trying to broaden the view of the Emperor to an enlightened perspective of Islam.

Unfortunately, very few would have taken time to put this all in context of the 14^th Century conversation or the academic lecture of the 21^st Century.

Whilst that question or statement should have offered the opportunity for those most concerned to reflect and offer a “gospel” of Mohammedanism that makes that view insignificant, many rose to the gathering of the mob and gave credence to that contention.

Stirring troubled waters

The wisdom of the Pope in giving voice to a latent view of the violence of Islam is still a matter for debate and history; in the end, he was able to placate the offended and make peace with those who mattered.

Lessons should have been learnt from the fact that Christian leaders are better suited to commentary on their areas of specialisation than on their appreciation, understanding or even ignorance of other religions where they hold no offices.

For Sharia Law relevance

Whoever the advisors of the Archbishop of Canterbury are, they surely must be pensioned off because in an academic lecture - Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective - delivered to lawyers in London preceded by an interview (BBC audio) on Radio 4’s World at One the archbishop did touch on viewing aspects of Islamic law in a favourable light but it has created another set of unintended consequences.

It is quite revealing not a squeak has been heard from any of the major Anglican Archbishops in England in support of Dr. Rowan Williams, he might just weather this storm with the voice of support from the Presbyterian Prime Minister .

Considering the furore this has created, this great knight of the Anglican faith might just fall on his sword.

Allowances of the law for conscience

One cannot dispute the fact that certain aspects of conscience or conscientious inclinations by reason of religious belief are given the benefit of exception from legal duress in civil law.

However, the primacy of civil law must remain when a conflict arises that either removes the premise of equality before the law or religious law allows for illegal or unlawful actions.

Sharia law might be used to settle disputes for adherents of that faith but in cases where the female sex does not have equal access, evidence and representation before those courts; it becomes incompatible to existence in broad Western democratic societies as the interviewer stated when chatting to the Archbishop.

The popular Sharia view is scary

Obviously, the concern that has drawn the greatest opprobrium has been the vision of the more dramatic Sharia law judgements that include floggings, amputations and beheadings – these definitely have no place in the Western criminal justice systems, they should for all intents and purposes of a modern civilised world be consigned to history.

Meting out those punishments are considered deterrents that instil fear in the general populace acting as an opiate of contrived civility though they are as cruel and as barbaric as anything dragged out of the darkest ages.

Failed to convey understanding

Dr. Williams whilst understanding these complexities in his interview failed to demonstrate those differences clearly enough for people to appreciate the facts and temper their reactions to the possible visitation of the presumed evils of Sharia on our liberal Western comforts.

As one commentator stated on one of the Daily Telegraph columns; it is amazing that a man whose job it is to be clearly understood failed to convey understanding that he has become so misunderstood and left many seriously displeased.

Like smart person knows well to stick to their own knitting; the leaders of the church should stick to matters that concern the church and stop peering over the wall into mosques with academic lectures that get delivered to select audiences but create an unedifying rumpus amongst the masses.

If he survives, the grace of God with the munificence of Allah does abound towards him, he might find mercy but he would need to do a lot for the forgiveness of men. I, for one can see their points but the wisdom in giving voice to issues that can be so easily hijacked, misinterpreted and manipulated for unintended ulterior ends leaves one rather suspect of their good judgement.