Presidential prerogative, pride and persuasion

Pardon me, forgive them

Whilst I do not in anyway condone the way in which an active secret agent was exposed to discredit her husband, I think the case that was built up against Lewis "Scooter" Libby was chasing after the wrong things.

He was charged and convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice as a peripheral issue to the case of who really revealed that Valerie Plame was an agent.

However, I am amazed at the prerogative of the President who regardless of what the courts have decided can exercise the power to commute, forgive or pardon the convicted with the judiciary having no recourse to appeal that decision. Clemency is an amazing demonstration of humanity and mercy.

The United States Constitution, Article II, Section 2 states - ... and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offences against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

Interestingly, this is a power that the President has not exercised with too much political patronage 76 pardons and 4 commutations, none however for murders or heinous crimes, which is understandable.

So, Lewis "Scooter" Libby had the jail portion of his sentence removed by presidential reprieve and though the probation and fines remain, the President has not ruled out a complete pardon - Lewis simply has to continue to be a good boy to obtain grace and find mercy which is in the gift of the President.

With such power can come serious abuse, but I think Presidents have been quite disciplined with the use of this instrument even though there has been controversy about this half-pardon and the Clinton pardoning of Marc Rich - it is still the President's prerogative - take it or leave it.

My son, the President

Then President Putin went visiting George W. Bush and isn't it a pleasure to have an ex-President seeing his son become President; we might call that Presidential pride. George W. Bush has put his father George H. W. Bush to work on a number of projects as the Indian Ocean Tsunami fund with Bill Clinton. My heart warmed when he had his father greet and receive Vladimir Putin for their informal summit at the blue-blooded family retreat of Kennebunkport - Our dear Dubya is no red-necked Texan cowboy with a ranch, he was born with a gold spoon in his mouth and he wore silver slippers around the house.

The Olympic Linguist

However, President Putin had a stop-over in Guatemala where he pushed the case for Sochi the Black Sea resort in Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics in impeccable English and French charming IOC members and jetting off before the vote of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). For months, I had been wondering about the adverts for Sochi and then suddenly there were adverts for PyeongChang, South Korea - it took a while for me to realise we were being subliminally programmed for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Strangely, I never knew Salzburg, Austria was in the race till they were eliminated yesterday.

Sadly, for PyeongChang, they are now second-time losers for the hosting of the Winter Olympics - strategy back to drawing board, I could not help but notice that within minutes of the announcement the PyeongChang advert was played again by BBC World - what cruel irony - I seemed to subconsciously have name-recognition for Sochi, that is how effective their campaign was, whilst I thought PyeongChang was in China - Go figure.

In the end, it was Presidential appeal that put this in the bag for Sochi and good luck to them before the environmentalists get all excited and destroy the games as their clamour destroyed the livelihoods of the Inuit in seal-hunting without consideration for alternative means of income.

Those rotten single-issue advocates who never consider the consequences of their actions apart from achieving their selfish narrow interests in the guise of saving our planet - even the planet needs people who can live their lives without townies imposing ideal values on traditional folk.

I digressed - this was about the presidential prerogative for pardons, presidential influence and appeal through persuasion and not to forget the presidential pride of seeing ones offspring do well.

I Go Chop Your Dollars - 419 Song Expose

We need to show the positives

I could not help but note the comment left in my blog about police recklessness in Amsterdam. It is a sad reflection on our society that there is a "White man's paranoia" when there is a gathering of people of African descent.

We who legally live in Western societies should and must not be afraid to gather for social events reflecting our culture, humour or traditions and we must not allow the nefarious activities of the few who besmirch the good name of our homelands to deny us the freedom to associate just because the police can be up to no good.

The freeing of the arrested detainees indicates a number of facts, the police were wrong in their assessment and actions; there are Nigerians who are law-abiding and legally resident in the Netherlands regardless of the impressions other prejudiced sections of society might have and the authorities can still be seriously embarrassed for being utterly irrational if people speak up for their having their right trampled over.

Pseudo-ambassadors undercover

If we all stay in our homes and refuse to associate with other countrymen and I can understand the reticence and suspicion of many, where would our host societies get to know about our culture, learn not to be afraid of our traditions and appreciate the good and worthy values we can bring to their societies?

We cannot allow ourselves to be completely subsumed into other cultures in the quest for acceptance, assimilation or integration, we are products of multiple cultures and we should celebrate all that makes us what we are.

Celebrating 419

This brings me to the "I go chop your dollars" song, it was released a few years ago, one does have to read the lyrics and understand what is being said because it is not so much about praising the scammers but highlighting a whole range of issues that affect the scammer and the scammed.

Having obtained the lyrics from Nikke's Index which appears to be pre-occupied with the public service of exposing scams, it is important to understand the language and the satire or irony that the song conveys - it is by no means a glorification of scam or 419 practices.

I would try and provide an exegesis for each line in order to help convey the thoughts.

I Go Chop Your Dollars

This is the song title - Chop means eat in Nigerian Pidgin English, but in this context it means swindle to spend. It has a corrupt connotation and this should be the giveaway about the song.

I don suffer no be small

Upon say I get sense

This highlights the socio-economic malaise in Nigeria, smart, intelligent and well-educated people who cannot seem to get opportunities for a career or more, it feeds a desperation to survive - in some cases, by any means possible - some turn to crime.

Poverty no good at all, no

Na im make I join this business

An excuse and a situation, one needs means to survive and we do not have the safety net of social services in Nigeria. Most of the time, the only people would have any means automatically become responsible for their extended families that whatever income they have is spread too thin to be of any effect.

Eventually, the benefactor would not be able to meet any of these needs and the supplicant has to come up with something.

A comment on Nikke's Index implied that most Africans are given to kleptocracy as a culture, we can ignore that comment, but there are issues in our societies that need to be addressed with good governance, infrastructure development, career opportunity and anti-graft revolutions.

419 no be thief, its just a game

Here he says that Advance Fee Fraud is not stealing, well, that is debatable depending on perspective. It is fraudulent no doubt because there is a false pretence in acquiring the trust that allows people to part with money for some sort of shady and corrupt deal.

Some people have turned this elaborate deception into an art or a craft and they are winning the game of deception, unfortunately.

Everybody dey play am

Everybody is playing this game. I think not, but probably everyone in that circle of desperation seeing others benefit from fraudulent activity is enticed into having a go and somehow, they do have rich pickings.

If anybody fall mugu, Ha! my brother I go chop am

This is the punch-line; if anyone is stupid enough to believe the stories then that person is game. Mugu means stupid fool - the etymology is Hausa but it has been adopted in Nigerian Pidgin English to mean the same thing.

Chorus

These are the tall tales that people believe and trust to become willing partners in the fraud and hence getting fleeced.

National Airport na me get am

I own the national airport

National Stadium na me build am

I built the national stadium

President na my sister brother

The president is my sister's brother - well that would translate to the President is my brother. However, sister in the Nigerian context could be a sibling, a relation or even close friend indigene of your town of origin.

You be the mugu, I be the master

If you believe all this, you are the stupid fool and I am the smart one - Mugu, appears again.

Oyinbo I go chop your dollar

White man, I would swindle you

I go take your money disappear

I would swindle you and be untraceable

419 is just a game, you are the loser I am the winner

Advance fee fraud is a game between you the losing fool and I the winner smart guy

The refinery na me get am,

I own the refinery - that is almost plausible, Nigeria is an oil-rich country, but really?

The contract, na you I go give am

But you go pay me small money make I bring am

I have a contract for you, but you have to pay kickbacks to get it signed over - Does the Al-Yamamah deal sound like this?

You be the mugu, I be the master... na me be the master ooo!!!!

Once again, if you believe all this, you are the stupid fool and I am the smart one

When Oyinbo play wayo, them go say na new style

When country man do im own, them go de shout bring am, kill am, die!

When a white man comes up with some money making (swindling) scheme, it is celebrated as a financial instrument, however, if my fellow countryman comes with a similar scheme he is criminalised, booked, jailed and shot down.

Oyinbo people greedy, I say them greedy

Westerners who fall for these deals are greedy, indeed they are very greedy and that is what these frauds rely on - greed.

I don see them tire thats why when them fall enter my trap o!

I am already fed up with the fact that they are greedy, but that makes them easy prey, if they can be deceived then they are game for the consequences.

I dey show them fire

I would do them for whatever I can, their money most especially.

My take

For all intents and purposes, this is really no glorification of the criminal activity, rather is simple social commentary on how desperate society is that they turn to crimes which some rationalise as games.

It highlights the willingness of the victims to believe the incredible in the hope that they can make large sums of money in some shady scheme - it is criminal too.

In what is seemingly a dog-eat-dog world, it is about pitting wits and some would in the end fall for the con because they are not half smart.

Once again, governments and law enforcement should do much to stop these activities, but it is change in the social circumstances of these countries that would sort this out - opportunity through merit, zero-tolerance of corruption and building of essential infrastructure to feed innovation and industry.

Solving the wrong problem

However, it is all a cop-out as the war on drugs - there is a growing demand in the West for the goods and rather than deal with drug addiction at home, they are spraying crops abroad.

It does not in anyway deal with the problem, rather, the makes the marketplace for drugs more violent. In the case of Advanced Fee Fraud, people who are vulnerable to tall tales about making large sums of money for doing literally nothing should first be educated and after education criminalised - it would take away the ready supply of greedy and gullible people who allow 419ers to exploit them.

The victims of fraud are not blameless in this matter and they too should be visited for being accomplices in nefarious and criminal financial activity.

Somehow, after reading through these lyrics, someone somewhere cannot take a joke and thinks it is glorifying scammers - I think not, it is the truth we hate to hear - the game, the mugu and the chop.

Police recklessness in Amsterdam

On the town as a Nigerian

It is unfortunate this piece of news did not get reported in the mainstream expatriate media and it would have passed me by without realising that certain horrible things are happening in the Netherlands.

As it transpired, the Grand Café is a successful night spot run by a Nigerian in middle of vibrant South-East Amsterdam.

On June the 15^th a popular Nigerian comic was performing to an audience of Nigerians and part of his routine included a 419 sketch "I Go Chop Your Dollars" which appears to praise practitioners of the criminal advance fee fraud activity; but one can say there are some who know irony, fewer who know satire and others are oblivious of social commentary that comic acts depict.

I go chop your dollars video

Nkem Owoh who was part of the cast of the Nollywood film Osuofia in London was the performer and as people in Diaspora settled down to a night of "Naija" entertainment the police in riot gear and all sorts of mob control paraphernalia swooped on the place and carted everyone away on the premise that they were all fraudsters, illegal aliens or criminals.

Silence of the representatives

Nary an outcry came forth about this event which was just over a week after the judicial murder of Nigerian citizen in Spain.

What gets me so incensed about this is that the police presumed a simple gathering of Nigerians automatically was a gathering of crooks and used that as probable cause to raid a social event in the name of keeping the law.

Lawless police activity

This case did not last long in court, the judge was not impressed and the Mayor of Amsterdam thought the acts of the police were suspect if not underhand, the judge has since ordered that all the detainees be released forthwith.

We basically cannot have a blanket swoop to fish out criminals whilst exercising unwarranted duress inconveniencing other legal and law-abiding people in the same gathering.

There just were no reasonable grounds for that police escapade, but the unfortunate and surreptitious fallout from this debacle would be beyond the justice that has been offered, Nigerian businesses unwittingly become pariahs as people would refuse to patronise those venues just in case they get roughed up by overzealous and stupid law enforcement agents looking for cheap thrills at the expense of ethnic minorities.

As this raid ended, some of the people arrested were driven straight to the airport [Indeed some were definitely illegal aliens, but you do not raid a pure entertainment venue to fish out criminals amongst other innocent people] and deported instantly; as I heard, some were already calling back to the Netherlands the next afternoon.

The law does need to be kept and upheld, but to use the emotive issue of asylum-seekers and the criminality of certain members of ethnic minority descent to abuse due process is beyond the pale and atrocious at best.

The stench of 419

In fact, sources indicate that this is not the first time their raids have literally closed down businesses where no crimes have been committed apart from the unfortunate pall of ignominy that others elsewhere have bestowed on the good name of Nigeria and Nigerians.

There is a serious Advanced Fee Fraud problem about and the Netherlands was at one time considered the capital of such activity.

There are a few Nigerians up to no good at all and the news wires create fantasies of their rotten exploits, but a lot more of us go about our lives in respect of the laws, as productive members of civil society and generally above reproach.

Something doing

Much does need to be done by the Nigerian government to discourage these activities, but citizens in Western countries have to realise that this fraud simply exploits personal greed; falling for these scams and acquiescing to the activities is just as criminal and should be punishable.

Unfortunately, we give too much sympathy to the fool who has so stupidly been parted from their money when both the scammer and the idiot need to be doing time - we cannot have criminals in our streets neither should we endure cretins on the same streets we walk.

References

Dutch police arrest 111 West Africans in 419 clampdown

Amsterdam: home of the 419 lottery scam

'I Go Chop Your Dollar' star arrested

Police force invaded café southeast undeserved (Dutch)

NaijaLive - PS. Aggregation not poor duplication

Amateurs aping professionals

Thinking aloud - I received an email/blog comment yesterday from someone who had decided to exploit an opportunity - the absence of the Nigerian Bloggers Aggregator (NBA).

It would appear NBA is quite dead that the managers of the service would not be inclined to resolve the issues and bring it back up.

This is an unfortunate development because it reflects badly on the service-centred acumen that pioneers and entrepreneurs are supposed to have, I have seen too much self-aggrandisement from Nigerian webmasters who think running a website is a fiefdom in which they can exercise unreasonableness as power-trips.

With NBA some people already had problems with the professionalism of the managers where a "take it or leave it" attitude prevailed in some experiences - I was just happy to use the service because it was a microcosm of Nigerian blog thought.

Allowing something as benign as running out of space on the server to happen is rank unprofessionalism of the highest order and really beneath contempt, you really cannot do business with people like these and it is a shame - just because it was free does not mean it could be run with such levity.

Requires more than dabbling

So, I read this email and this young man had been dabbling with the dynamics of blog publication and aggregation. Now, I am no technology expert in this field, and I welcome competition that forces other services to improve on their fare.

In this case, there is no competition but a pretender replacement for once established NBA service.

Back to the email, it contained a request that I adjust my RSS feed to display the whole blog rather than my summaries because everyone has offered their blogs in that format.

I at first reacted positively to that request from a complete stranger offering a service similar to the one I was missing without really checking out what he was offering. However, I am disappointed that this replacement service is very much like re-inventing the wheel and it is in no way improving on the standard and quality of the service that went on before.

I have been blogging for over 3 and a half years, why should I suddenly change the way I offer my feeds to an untried, untested and fledgling service, considering there are other aggregators that use the same feeds without complaints? My blog has reverted to summaries.

Keep my stuff my way

Then I visited the site only to find that all my formatting and structure has been subsumed into a bland interface with no backlinks to the original.

Comments were left on that blog and those did not reflect back at the source - I am sorry, it is not my intention to have a backup of my blog on another site without agreeing on the quality and state of publication - the key should be aggregation and not sub-standard duplication.

Like more knowledgeable people have opined, there are better aggregators than the one implemented, another indicated it looked like an illegal scrapping of contents. In fact, I expect that any publication of my material in sites I do not exercise control over should include citations and acknowledgements.

Besides, I know full well how I want my blogs and material to be displayed, they are displayed as you can find on my blog, any aesthetic changes to the layout or formatting should and must only be done with my expressly granted permission. More so, it is really better to publish the headers and probably the summary, just like NBA did.

Confer with the experts

My candid advice is for the mover of NaijaLive to confer with the owners of AfricanLoft (now defunct) and AltNigeria (now non-existent), probably an email to a techie like Chxta would come in handy too - they all seem to know a good deal about the technology and the implementation, they are also developing the blogging environment into vibrant communities - then the mover can come up with a decent product; this well-intentioned but amateurish attempt just would not wash. No, not at all.

If I get proscribed from this new aggregator, that would be par for the course, but I hope I would be doing a sub-par round on this matter - I was thinking aloud about the new NaijaLive SuperBlog site.

Deserving neither liberty nor safety

Losing the protection of our liberties

Sometimes I bewildered about who is becoming the extremist in this unceasing War on Terror or War on Terrorism, could it be the terrorists or our governments?

The indicators versus the reactions are just too outlandish for contemplation, one sometimes wonders if the terrorists have not now achieved well beyond the nominal goal of curtailing our freedoms and overrunning our liberties with impunity.

A few years ago, it was the shoe bomber that lead to security staff asking us to take off our shoes at the security screening posts, one would have thought we were about to enter a mosque.

Last August it was the alleged desire of some terrorists without passports or air tickets to take down transatlantic planes with everyday cosmetics and whilst an outright ban on cosmetics would have left us no different from women in Purdah, the inability to take through drinks might just eventually lead to the inability to use toilets on the plane, just in case the contact between bodily fluids and toilet disinfectants causes noxious fumes.

Thankfully, the ban on hand luggage was relaxed as sense eventually prevailed.

The vigilant public

So, a number of vehicles have been apprehended before their lethal cargo was detonated to create great havoc. None of the two vehicles in London were noticed by the security measures we have in place, rather, the public observed smoke coming out of one car and another had been towed away for wrongful parking.

Luck, rather that methodical data mining or some counter-terrorism measure sifting through yottabytes of data and CCTV footage got these culprits and nipped a possible carnage in the bud.

Out goes the argument for identity cards preventing terrorism; it is a consciously alert and observant community with clear social responsibilities enhanced by trust and NOT a nannying state that overcomes terrorism; our vigilance must be cultivated and nurtured to the good of society - they should not take advantage of the circumstance to and unwarranted suspicion in our multi-cultural communities.

However, because one such vehicle approached the airport in Glasgow by ramming into the entrance as a burning object, we cannot now approach airports in our cars - there is a car ban. The drop-off/pick-up culture has met a sudden demise, as our cautious application of preventative measures encroach seriously on our rights of access and movement in the quest for some temporary safety.

The perception of temporary safety

Generally, we would all acquiesce to this curtailment whilst the Home Secretary goes into overdrive enacting new laws to protect us by denying us a few more of the rights people spilt blood for in the 20^th Century.

One cannot expect a commonsense approach to the threat of terrorism as the authorities are caught in a no-win situation - to do nothing is to be careless and when something is done, it is irrational but made to look sensible.

There is probably an amusing perspective to all this, which is how the threat of terrorism is able to create governmental hysteria or paralysis coupled with paranoia whilst the government tries to create a calming atmosphere for the general public.

If airports and aircraft are really the soft targets for terrorists, these bans are hardly working, we should just ground the planes and tell passengers to stay at home - even the Carbon Nazis would rejoice that the sudden reduction of carbon pollution.

But like the oft-attributed and oft-misquoted saying of Benjamin Franklin in 1759 - "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - how that rings truer today than then.

So, our governments give us temporary safety from terrorist threats by untrammelled curtailment of our essential liberties, we find that we are neither in safety nor in liberty and frankly, we deserve neither.

Who is winning this war?

Seven things

This tagging business is becoming a fanciful fad of social networking or dare I say busy body snooping into other people's business.

I suppose if I now want to know anything about anyone, I only have to surreptitiously draw up my loaded questions and allow viral-tagging to get it out to person indirectly; ones patience would eventually be rewarded once the intended party unaware of the fact that they have been baited.

By the time you have read my blog from end to end, I doubt if I have anything else to say about me that I have not explicitly or implicitly documented, however, as the tagging tradition demands, I would humour Chxta with my responses.

Is it "blogally" acceptable to reserve the right not to be tagged?

1. I probably over-analyse every bit of information I receive, I view things like light coming out to me from a crystal, what you see depends on the angles you are viewing from; there is always so many perspectives to all sorts of things and because of this I can make assertions but try never to jump to conclusions - I am not perfect though.

2. I generally believe the best of people and expect the best of people, I have been disappointed many times, but something in me strives to understand why people are the way they are and find ways to accommodate them. I can be angry but never for long, I can hold a grudge but it exercises me too much, so it is better to find a way to rationalise and accommodate.

3. I sleep with my lights on and my television or radio on - my imagination and dreams are too vivid to be left to the unconstrained desires others to have a quiet and dark night to sleep. In fact, I cannot sleep if there is no sound about because my ears go into overdrive, I would pick up sounds miles away, if necessary.

4. Religion has been the main schism in my family; it affects my relationship with my parents to the extent that if I cannot cultivate a pragmatic understanding with them, I wonder how I can truly do that with an invisible realm. It drives my passion not to see anyone sacrificed to customs, traditions or religious allegiances just because that is what is always done. Religion has its purposes but I think I am becoming anti-religious.

5. I cannot say if I am addicted to sex, but I do not think I have been faithful, I moved on from "you are the only one" to "you are the best" a long time ago - we all have our needs.

6. I hate life-size statues of human-beings especially if I have to walk by those things at night; there is always this feeling that they would come alive. There is nothing beyond my imagination, I can visualise any situation and circumstance and see it all unfold like a slow-motion picture - sometimes, my mind can be my own horror movie which is why I never watch horror movies - I do not want that input.

7. I enjoy the company of young and old people who have something to say that inspires me; I used to collect quotations and sayings, I seem to try to find an analogy to every situation - it is a trait I have seen in wise people, proverbs have a deeper effect than just blurting out the words - calling a spade a spade.

I shall keep my counsel and tag no one else.

Parents of kids on booze should do time

The untouchable subject

Combining the right of centre demagoguery of the Christian Democratic Appeal ruling party with that of its second coalition party of the Christian Union; might just be like approaching the mount that cannot be touched or hearing terrifying sounds like roaring thunder.

There is no doubt that they both want to take our liberal Dutch society to Calvinist subservience where we all knew our places and let the social hand of authority and benevolence guide us to where we would fear no more.

There is no doubt however the age of alcoholic consumption initiation is falling like meteors to as low as it can be causing great concern.

Only recently a mother who provided alcohol for her 16 year old's birthday party got severely sanctioned that she would spend 2 years in prison in the United States. It was harsh, but I am hardly sympathetic about it.

Some countries have been considering bringing parents to book for allowing their children to consume alcohol and whilst we do not have laws prohibiting the use of alcohol in the home, some responsibility must surely be borne by parents for children who end up consuming alcohol in public.

Drug and alcohol fuelled

When 3 kids beat me up in December 2004, I should have known better to run for dear life when one of them picked up a bicycle and threw it at me. It should have occurred to me that only a drink and drug fuelled temperament would allow for such an exhibition of lunacy.

Basically juvenile alcoholism is a growing and serious problem; it is hitting our streets in the most unacceptable way, so as Dickensian as the plan of the governing parties might sound; breathalysing juveniles might be a welcome development - if they are immediately taken off the streets and their parents seriously inconvenienced as a deterrent with the kids put through a strict discipline and drying-out programme.

The extension to this is the rising violence of kids of immigrant descent who happen to now harbour less liberal values than their parents or the society in which they were born - they have taken to harassing other minorities, especially homosexuals, two of whom got beaten up on a popular gay street, in fact, there has been a rise in homophobic attacks in Amsterdam of late.

That should put paid to the idea of Amsterdam being the Gay capital of Europe.

Thankfully, the kids, 6 of them and all of foreign descent Morocco (4), Suriname (1) and Turkey (1) were apprehended by the police with the notice that they are repeat offenders in this atrocious banditry.

The study that most juvenile offenders use drugs and alcohol has long been read and digested, we now need some serious community action to curb these rotten activities before our peaceful cities get overrun with juveniles imitating lowlifes.