Nigeria: Another two oil cremations

Oil fires the people

Anyone following the saga of Nigeria, its oil and its people would read the news gleaned from recent events and conclude that whilst Nigeria is blessed with oil, any contact between its people and the product always leads to an uncontrollable conflagration.

The Nigerian newswires have been quite tardy in reporting what I believe are two incidents in Port Harcourt, one on Friday and the other on Saturday.

TheNewsNG.com reports that there was an explosion at a Port Harcourt Nigerian Ports Authority jetty whilst a vessel was discharging petroleum products in a general cargo area – several Filipino personnel died in the incident.

ThisDayOnline.com (DisDayn) reports that the name of the vessel was MV Golden Lucy and only two people were injured. The petroleum product being discharged was Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) for a Nigerian firm, Segmon Nigeria Limited.

The International Herald Tribune (IHT) carries part of this story and corroborates the view that militants might have been responsible for this mishap by detonating a remote controlled bomb attached to the vessel.

This is worrisome because a militant organisation quite averse to the presence of the Nigerian Military in the territorial remit of the MEND has promised to menace the region with attacks on industrial infrastructure and poison the food and water supplies of the armed forces.

The report from DisDayn suggests the armed forces have been infiltrated by informants and sympathizers of the militant organisation who are providing information to thwart every move to flush out these “terrorists” and hopefully bring a modicum of peace to the region.

Oil tanker overturned in chase

I did not learn of this incident initially, I was trying to find additional sources to the news from the BBC that a tanker had exploded in Port Harcourt on Saturday on a busy road.

The Nigerian references I had, covered only the event of Friday, it was the IHT that made the stories two separate events just when I was about to question if both events were one and the same reported from different perspectives.

So, on Saturday, the police gave chase to a stolen oil tanker through the busy roads close to Port Harcourt, obviously, in the desperate attempt to avoid apprehension by the law, the driver took a manoeuvre that burst a tyre as he turned – this overturned the lorry and spilt petrol on surrounding vehicles as it exploded taking life and property in its wake.

Police car chases

Now, we are well aware that police car chases are not risk-averse but the determination (on the part of the police) over desperation (on the part of the suspect), the public being put at great danger in trying to keep the law.

Smart policing would be to try and determine where the car being chased is going and apprehend it with tyre-bursting stingers further along its course so that the driver is forced to stop.

It takes away most of the pressure of desperation to escape and hopefully the recklessness, whilst the determination to capture the culprit is better thought through.

Charting the course of the culprit however would require scrambling a helicopter to observe the vehicle from above; unfortunately, there were no helicopters to fight the inferno of the day before, also in Port Harcourt – so that puts paid to that idea.

To stop a stolen tanker

But this was a tanker and it is unlikely that it could have disappeared completely from the tracking activities of the police; they could have phoned ahead on a number of possible routes of the tanker and had other police personnel try to intercept the tanker on one of those exit points along the route.

I am not sure of how the police would have been able to chase down the tanker and stop it without a proper boulder road-block, something that would have required some thinking, initiative, intelligence and proper planning – something I cannot ascribe to the police and not in Nigeria.

Public-safety conscious crime-fighting

Much as criminals must be caught, it should not be by putting the public at unmitigated risk – a greater loss has now been incurred beyond a stolen tanker of fuel, these have included lives, cars, stops and livelihoods, all because both the culprit and the police were not thinking.

It was reckless and criminal on both parts, one expects the superintendent of that section or even the region to be reprimanded and if the police survived that episode, they must suffer criminal sanction.

Once again, one has to express condolences to the survivors of hapless victims of Nigeria’s oil wealth and rotten police.

A very sorry affair indeed.

The tea cosy

She’s a kitchen fuss

Every once in a while, I get hit with a haze of domesticated frenzy and all that matters is equipping my kitchen or kitchen activity with the right tools.

At one time it was getting the right apron, it took maybe three purchases to get one that was just right. Nice slip-on over the head and behind the neck, a good tie-around the back that would make a air-hostess envious of my life-jacket wearing abilities and two well-sized pockets for my oven-gloves.

Then, egg-timers, there are all sorts, I never really liked the digital ones, too fiddling, and by the time you worked out how to set one, you would be taking ashes out of the oven.

The digital timer on my deep-fryer was as inscrutable as being an emergency pilot in a dire situation where the best vehicle you have ever controlled is a pedal bicycle.

I found that a simple wind-round-and-set one was the best for my purposes as long as what I was cooking or baking did not take more than 60 minutes.

Earl Grey Smoked Out

Recently, I had taken to having Earl Grey or Smoky Earl Grey (Earl Grey with Lapsang Souchong) tea strained from my teapot on idle Saturday mornings when I am at home.

I happened upon Smoky Earl Grey tea by accident, I had visited Fortnum & Mason on the Piccadilly in London and picked up this can of tea which tasted quite different from my usual Earl Grey Tea – it was when I bought another can on another visit that I looked closely at the labels and found there was something added.

It took the assistant in the Simon Levelt (Dutch) coffee and tea shop at the Amsterdam Central Station to give this blend a name. After sniffing the aroma of 4 blends of Earl Grey tea from 10-gallon cans, I was about to swoon with tea delirium – such bliss.

For all the warmth in the world

My problem was, I took my time with tea that by the time I was ready for the second cuppa, the tea in the teapot was lukewarm. Now, only a tea-Philistine might be tempted to do the sacrilegious – put the teapot in the microwave oven – My heart stopped.

Besides, tea only really releases its best flavour with freshly boiled water, all that ceremony for another cup did not appeal to me.

I needed to get that old-fashioned English tea cosy, but what is it called in Dutch? My friends at work helped out there – thee-muts – that is what I should ask for at the shops, Blokker (Dutch), being the most likely one to stock it.

This morning before Polly put the kettle on, she went shopping for a tea-cosy (thee-muts), I doffed my hat as I asked the shop assistant with a mix of English and Dutch for a thee-muts.

She pointed to this thing, far above our heads, which did not look like my idea of a traditional tea-cosy which is usually a cap or balaclava thing fitting completely over a teapot; she got the steps and fetched it – it was like a padded doctor’s bag with an interlocking latch fastener - a sophisticated tea cosy with a handle.

By the time I had my second cup of tea; it was just as hot as I would have liked it.

The tea cosy - thee-mutts in Dutch - the slideshow .

Boats, Threats & Videotape

A voice out of somewhere

“I am coming to you”, Could this be a father saying to his daughter who is distressed at school as a voice of assurance or is it a voice carried in the un-calm winds of the Persian Gulf in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening the existence of a coalition vessel convoy?

No one can say, just as the United States military command in the Gulf cannot now confirm that the video of seemingly or allegedly Iranian speedboats in aggressive posturing to their fleet is the source of that cool but eerily sinister voice.

We have seen boats, threats and videotape – you can make what you want out of both.

Far away war a day

The United States, very far away from home causing enough trouble in the Middle East was in international waters close to the territorial extent of Iran – this was no doubt a recipe for close encounters with their enemy.

The US then released a video of seemingly reckless speedboat riders playing chicken with a belligerent world power – they were at the point of being blown to smithereens when a voice was recorded with this chilling threat.

Iran then released their own video and the storyline takes a completely different course – a calm and collected officer asking about the coalition vessel, definitely not the voice we heard of the US video threat.

The curse of propaganda

If anything, it shows why we need multiple perspectives of any story, because each side had a propaganda element to portray and we are at risk of being persuading of what might be entirely false.

Had Iran not released a video view of their perspective of the incident the US reported, we would have satisfied ourselves with the usual staple of Iran being a lawless, ill-disciplined, faction-ridden theocracy that needs to be blown up to instigate regime change.

The Iranian version of events, though edited for consumption just as the US version was, gives us another pause for thought that Iran might not as horrible as we get told they are – it also shows that we would try to get away with anything, if other parties are not smart enough to take a record of their engagements with the West.

The UFO threat

I find this whole thing utterly reprehensible, I would hate to think that people are manufacturing videos to reflect a situation that does not represent the truth – between the US notion of provocative and Iran notion of routine, there must be something that is closer to the truth.

As the US backtracks about the coincidence of the voice with the appearance of these speedboats which one could almost say are probably Unidentified Floating Objects (UFO) – mirages of the sea – recorded from the fatigued lenses of a battle-weary cameraman and edited by excitable agents for more blood and gore of war.

As this story unravels, I do not think the entire truth would be revealed – however, for the sake of truth, fairness and justice, it is incumbent of all these aspiring Hollywood film-makers to release the entirety of their recordings of the event.

The news wires and channels should also keep out the analysts – at least, give us viewers the opportunity to decide for ourselves who is closer to the truth of the event.

A new premise for war

Beyond this is the opportunity for the US to contend that they have been provoked into attacking Iran having lost the impetus from the recent report that states that Iran has suspended any nuclear weapons development programme for years.

With an admiral suggesting that Iran risks a Gulf conflict, one fears that some activity very similar to the Iraq Dossier on the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction on which the war in Iraq was based but found to be groundless is being orchestrated to justify an unjustifiable attack on Iran – someone is fanning the embers of discord and one wonders who.

More so, having failed to execute the war in Iraq with finesse, or handle the issues in Afghanistan with a conclusion in sight; it is contemptible that a new set of planners are probably trying to see if another war in Iran can be a lessons-learnt success to redeem the supremacy and credibility of the United States.

Perish the thought, but let it pass your mind for a second!

Both pieces of footage

Brood of vipers or leaders?

Names of great political graft

A few days ago I wrote about the First Jezebels who in the position of first ladies of their countries do not see the sense of duty in promoting and advancing the cause of women and children in their countries. Instead they satisfy their lusts for untold ostentation and extravagant living in the midst of the suffering that calls for the attention that their good office can help alleviate.

Now, the brood of African leaders also makes interesting reading – anyone would want to have a name that opens doors and gives access to privileges that would normally not be available to less fortunate people.

It cannot however be said that people then use that to good effect for anything than to move into some super-rich cadre hardly representative of the average of the societies that they have left from.

Criminal death

Last year, we read of the death of the son of the President of Chad, Brahim Deby at 27 in Paris in suspicious circumstances. This young man was in a position of privilege as a presidential advisor then got caught in criminal straits was convicted of weapons and drugs crimes – he got sacked.

Not many people get to be presidential advisors at 27 in any part of the world and definitely not in Chad where there was recently that fight to keep “orphaned” children from being abducted to enjoy the kinds of pleasures Brahim Deby might have commanded when resident in Paris.

Showy Nuisance

Then in Germany, Seif al-Arab, 25, one of the seven sons of Colonel Gaddafi, the strongman of Libya had his $340,000 Ferrari impounded for exceeding acceptable decibel limits for noise from an exhaust.

The fact is, this young man had been stopped and warned before, possibly the police were trying to avoid a diplomatic incident by not arresting him as might have happened to someone with a lesser name.

Indeed, one can assume Seif is a very successful Libyan businessman and it would be nice to see some ordinary Libyan attain that kind of status, if the policies of the government of Libya open up that kind of opportunity to lesser people with no names of political import.

Seif can get his car back with an undertaking to reduce the noise from 110.5 decibels to below the permitted 98 decibels along with paying a paltry fine. A fine ambassador for Libya, one would say.

Utter Embarrassment

Kofi Annan’s good name earned such great opprobrium when it surfaced that his son Kojo Annan, 34, had been seriously implicated in the UN Oil-for-Food Scandal. Apparently, he was a consultant with a firm that was part of the inspection party that was to supervise the programme.

The stench of a conflict of interest and the possible peddling of influence along with the innocuous connections with the UN that Kojo exercised as the son of the Secretary-General, albeit, allegedly unknown to his father, almost left the entire career of this great African in ignominy and disgrace.

How nice it would be for any son of Africa to have been able to gain such a position that allowed for a non-compete sweetener of $30,000 per annum for 5 years whilst you peddled influence elsewhere.

The sins of the fathers

In Australia, the visas of 8 students who are children of senior members of the Zimbabwean regime of the Grand Despot of Africa – Robert Mugabe – were revoked.

This was done on the premise that these children should not enjoy the privileges of a superb Western education whilst their parents and the regime they represent denies the ordinary citizens of Zimbabwe the very basic needs for life, of which education is an important part.

More so, it would have the tendency to entrench an elite of children-of-former-leaders who for all the advantages they have received, exact undue deference from their peers when the time comes for a new generation of leaders.

Beyond the fact that their experiences would almost certainly be too far removed from the people they might eventually subjugate due to dynastic machinations; the problems of the people never really seeing the possibility for resolution in the foreseeable future.

In response, the force of government was utilised to seek places in the elite South African Rhodes University for the expelled students.

One pines for an opportunity where regardless of who you are, the government can champion the cause of its people in a way that celebrates their ability rather than progeny. One must say that the university does draw about 25% of its student population from Zimbabwe, in any case.

The Nigerian whelps

In 2006, the son of Ibrahim Babangida, Mohammed Babangida reputed to be the Godfather of Modern Corruption in Nigeria was arrested by the EFCC, quizzed and later released. But it exposed a number of deep-seated nepotistic and corrupt influence peddling activities of children of power-brokers in Nigeria.

The children of the erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo who is busy suffering the dismemberment of his rotten legacy were not with columns of newsprint for the wrong reasons.

At first an unguarded interview by Gbenga Obasanjo where he laid bare a number of issues as well as castigating the then vice-President and rival of his father.

Then all the rumours about how he peddled influence with all sorts of deals and contracts that brought in members of his extended family showed a network of intertwined conflicts of interest and matter that would not endure the spotlight of investigation in a good way.

The other sons

Another son keeps a clearer head and leads a more responsible if not respectable livelihood running a technology blog and working at Microsoft with an opportunity to sing the praises before Bill Gates of his father’s laudable democratic credentials in 1979 which were not so in 2007.

At one time he succumbed to the lapse of judgement by caricaturing a worker in his father’s household in a picture that spoke volumes about the abuse of the under-privileged in Nigeria. That photo opportunity won Dare Obasanjo, Ijebuman’s Foot in Mouth 2007 Award.

In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak who has been in power for a generation since 1981, has his son, Gamal Mubarak (b. 1963) who is quite politically active and is involved in trying to positively reform Egypt with the possibility that he might succeed his father.

Dynasties anew

There have been dynastic successions in Togo when a seemingly democratic setup allowed for Faure Gnassingbe (b. 1966) the son of Gnassingbe Eyadema to assume power after his father’s death.

I remember standing at the railway crossing waving a Nigerian and Togolese flag in Bukuru, Jos, Plateau State in 1974 when he visited with General Yakubu Gowon, the then Head of State to Pankshin as a pupil of Shamrock House, Corona School.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila (b. 1971) succeeded his father who was killed by his father’s close associates. He eventually got elected to the office of President.

Living responsibly

This is not to say that children of African leaders cannot rise to positions of responsibility by sheer merit, but any child born in Africa should by reason of good leadership and progressive government policies have the opportunity to rise by merit to any office in the land of their birth.

Having the head-start of name recognition is a good thing and it is used everywhere, but where that advantage has been gained, it should not be used to deny others opportunities and positions they aspire to and would have attained if the system and nepotism does not weigh against them.

Where however, children of leaders fail to realise their responsibilities to live their lives with a modicum of moderation rather than the excess of wanton debauchery earned by looting treasuries of countries their parents rule; neither should their parents continue to rule nor should they continue to live on the sweat and the fruits of the countries they have plundered.

Back home

Getting back

Having spent 19 days on holiday, I still had to phone up the travel agency because my arrangement for a hotel-to-airport transfer had been left off the roster.

After a few phone calls, I was told a taxi would arrive to pick me up by 13:50 which gave me a few hours to have breakfast at Moby’s and an hour at the Internet café a few blocks down the road.

Getting to the airport was easy and once I got in line for check-in it was no more like I would be travelling Comfort Class, it was like waiting for dis-Comfort service as the queue for Economy Class moved at almost three times the speed of ours, one could only wonder what was so difficult about checking in the lot of price insensitive people like me who were travelling Comfort Class.

Why do I say price insensitive? I have been reading The Undercover Economist and the scales are falling off my eyes as to how I have been fleeced and cajoled into spending a lot more than I need to for anything I purchase, be it goods or services – a must read for anyone who is looking for a dummies guide economics.

Not back to doors

I was in this ‘shorter’ queue for 70 minutes, but which time I was trying every stretching, yoga or bending move I could think of to alleviate the pain in my back – my cane was definitely not helping here because it is useful for when I saunter or walk but not when one is standing still.

Through the pain, I was offered a window seat, I went through security checks remembering that I had bought a few pairs of shoes for my birthday and consciously decide they would not have fiddly laces but buckles or zippers.

One pair of shoes did have buckles and the other was a pair of boots with zippers down the inner sides – it shows how the encumbrance or rather the inconvenience of travelling through London Heathrow where the strip tease includes taking off your shoes can affect decisions further down the line.

These footwear would be easy to take off and put on, though at one time I wondered if it was not folly to take two new pairs of shoes on holiday without having worn them in.

Below sea level

When I finally got on the plane, I found my window seat was really the emergency exit, I could not see myself doing the doors at 35,000 feet, no, not even at 4 feet with a back like mine.

The air steward eventually persuaded a couple to take up my place and the one next to it as I was moved to a three-seater shared by two.

When we got to Amsterdam Schiphol, it was interesting to see the altimeter read as low as -15 feet below sea level – as it were, it was once a lake reclaimed in 1852 – is it any wonder that God created the world and the Dutch created Holland?

He´s Barack but she´s back

Polling falsehoods

Once again the mystery of American electioneering unravelled before our eyes as the results came in for the New Hampshire presidential primaries.

As it transpired Senator John McCain, 71, took the spoils for the Republicans whilst the big-spending Governor Mitt Romney who was governor of the neighbouring state of Massachusetts came in second.

As for the pollsters, there is a dividend of democratic resolve that they and the news agencies are not willing to pay and they obscure reality if not will the result to a situation that should not normally exist.

First, they put Senator Barack Obama at double-digit percentage points ahead of Senator Hillary Clinton and they were baying to give the nomination to Senator Obama – this did not turn out as they expected and we now have to hear a lot of excuses.

Then, they declared the result for Hillary Clinton with 40% of the vote to be counted and only a 3% difference between Clinton and Obama – it got me worried that things could still change.

Dummies guide to false predictions

There is probably an art or dare I say, a science to psephology, but I am only convinced of the historical significance of this study than for the prognostication that derives from trying to predict with any accuracy the will of the people, because it no doubt gets abused in contemporary commentary.

This whole impatience to declare a result before every single vote is counted bothers me especially when we are regaled with the phrase – “Too close to call”, if it is not clear, why not then wait till it is all done – it was what made a complete mess of the 2000 Presidential elections.

Beyond that, too much credence has been given to the youth vote; but it is one thing to attract pop concert audiences, it is another thing to take them to ballot box afterwards – it is possible that the message of change was still not convincing enough to persuade the young to get off their fat arses and move beyond the entertainment of great oratory.

A Moses not Joshua

Senator Obama inspires me with his talk of change and it sounds very much like change I can believe in, but when everyone starts to speak of change because of the groundswell of interest that Senator Obama brings to this contest, we begin to look into how that change can be made – that is where we need an agent for change.

Somehow, drawing on Scripture for buttress a point, Senator Obama sees the promised land and he would lead the political debate towards the change required in the way things are done in Washington, but it requires a Joshua to take us into that promised land – I see Moses talking and Joshua is waiting somewhere in the wings and no, she would not be doing the ironing as one sexist heckler opined through a placard protest – even America still has a long way to go on these matters.

Two states and 0.5% of the American population down, 48 (Maybe 49) to go and still 99.5% to decide.

Jeremy Clarkson teaches Data Protection

Clarkson learns data protection

If there was anything that would make people learn the fact that the protection of personal data is so important, we have Jeremy Clarkson to thank for that.

Now, Mr. Jeremy Clarkson is someone you would very much love to hate as an opinionated right-wing commentator who for all his faults does present a very entertaining car programme called Top Gear.

In many ways, as our society has growth soppy and more intolerant of political incorrectness, the man has tempered his opinions with a bit of restraint. The attempts to gentrify the man with more cerebral engineering programmes did not however endear him to me anymore than I can accept his professional judgement about cars.

Mr. Clarkson pooh-poohed the whole uneasiness about the loss of data concerning 25 million people in the UK by publishing his details in his column on the Sun newspaper.

These details included his full bank account information and his address, enough for someone who must have wanted to prove a point to set up a Direct Debit of GBP 500.00 to the Diabetes UK charity.

Every little data helps

Obviously, it also shows how such details can be used maliciously by others to extract a lot more than a gesture to charity from unsuspecting people who are careless with their data.

I, for instance would never dispose of anything containing my details without shredding the lot and like I observed a few weeks ago, I need a better shredder when I saw a lady trying to put together strips from a shredder waste-basket.

This matter of details could be as minor as envelopes that have just my postcode and house-number or the till receipt after paying with my bank card at the supermarket. Every little data helps the thief assume your identity on the one hand and sometimes conduct harmful transactions in your name.

Mr. Clarkson happens to be someone who checks his bank statements or else a few more transactions would have been made before he found out about the shenanigans done in his name.

Privacy from excessive data accumulation

This brings me to the Advance-Fee Fraud emails that people receive asking for their bank details in confidence so as to pay in supposedly ill-gotten gains from which the bank account holder can benefit up to 25% of the deposit.

Well, in most cases, these accounts get fleeced and emptied because the information the culprits have is good enough for either debits or credits to the account.

As penance, I would expect Mr. Clarkson to honour this Direct Debit to the Diabetes UK charity for at least a year whilst the bank works at completely changing his account details from what was published.

It also shows why our liberties have to be protected by preventing the government from acquiring more data than they require to transact any business. The fact that the Data Protection Act would not allow for the banks to pursue the “criminal” who showed up this problem of loose data management is a great enlightenment for all.