Nigeria: Why are we leading the Sickle Cell Disease tables?

A worrisome statistic

I am saddened to read that Nigeria ranks highest in the incidence of sickle cell disease [1] according to its Health Minister.

This is unfortunate because whilst procreation in a general sense predicates from social compatibility in terms of love and the emotional baggage it carries, there is a medical imperative for prospective Sub-Saharan African and African descent couples to ascertain their suitability for bearing children who are not prone to the disease.

It has been a standard part of our biology lessons that carriers of the sickle cell disease [2] gene have the possibility of bearing a child in four with the full-blown disease.

Between faith and daring-do

It is irresponsible for such parents to play Russian Roulette with a life on the uncertainty of what the child might turn out to be and it is faith completely misplaced regardless of religious conviction to hope that a child might not have the disease when it is clear that both parents are carriers.

The true test of faith and belief must be that either parent who had been a carrier had received the miracle of healing with the medical certification of that cure before engaging in the act of procreation.

It cannot be justified that because the parents have never suffered the ravages of sickle-cell anaemia their love, their faith and their hopes can be sufficient to assuage the almost certain very low quality of life of pain, of sickness, of disease and revolving hospital doors that the child will be subjected to.

There might however be aspects of ignorant, illiterate, rural and undeveloped communities that might not be too conversant with the genesis of sickle cell disease, but even they should be a minority in the year 2010.

A commanding responsibility

The excuse the children are God’s gift does not wash in this matter, a responsibility is demanded of us to ensure that we do not bring children into avoidable suffering especially that which comes with the knowledge that both parents are carriers of the sickle-cell anaemia gene.

As a child, I watched the 3 boys from the same family suffer from the disease, the eldest of them died at the age of 12. My mother recommended the use of the prickly ash bark [3] (orin ata) chewing stick which was supposed to have some palliative effects on sufferers but we were all affected by this condition because of the close friends impacted.

That was over 35 years ago, in 2010, there is just no reason why we should have such a high rate of sufferers born which goes on to reflect in high child mortality rates.

Misguided superstitions

The sway of the superstitious and the unintelligent application of the spiritual leaves many thinking child mortality is related to re-birthing cycles of abiku [4], ogbanje [5], witchcraft and other mythical or supernatural phenomenon when all that is required is a simple blood test and an intelligent decision not to copulate to procreate rather than wishing, hoping and praying in vain for what we have been given the intellect to decide for ourselves.

We really can save ourselves all the hassle and not bear children with the throw of the die of chance, if some medical procedure is developed to ensure the child does not take on the genetic trait, that would be fine but for the yet unborn, if you love her but you are both carriers, get the snip and get the cap – if you really want children, then, you true love might just be a wish while you seek another who would not leave you in danger of giving your child an avoidable life-long legacy with the possibility of the child pre-deceasing you.

Now, for those already born, one can only hope for greater medical discoveries that ameliorate the situation or even offer the possibility of a cure. God be with you, it was not a lot you chose but I do hope that your lives are as significant in the love, the hope, the faith and the achievements you can bring to bear in your families and communities in the midst of your sufferings.

Sources

[1] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Country Ranks Highest in Sickle Cell Disease -Minister

[2] Sickle-cell disease - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] PRICKLY ASH BARK (Zanthoxylum species) - Important Herbs from Around the World - Tillotson Institute of Natural Health

[4] Abiku - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Ogbanje - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beware of deceptive LinkedIn recommendations

Professional social networking

LinkedIn* is more or less the professional networking site that allows for people to keep tabs with people one has somewhat interacted with in professional life.

For a person who has been self-employed most of my working life and has worked in many organisations, LinkedIn offers a forum to keep tabs with people I have worked with and also allows one to keep abreast of the careers of those same people.

Most recently, I tapped this professional network for job opportunities after having been out of work for almost a year and that mostly due to serious illness. I was glad to find that many of my ex-colleagues responded with sympathy and help which eventually lead to a job.

Self-referencing resource

I have also found that the LinkedIn profile can serve as an adjunct to a curriculum vitae (CV) because it can contain information that would not necessarily appear on a CV for instance, it can be a self-referencing portal if an employer reviews the profile finds people you have worked with and probably knows those people or organisations and make qualified assumptions or deductions of the prospect.

A slightly more subjective but useful function in LinkedIn is the recommendation feature, it can be interesting and indicative of the views ex-colleagues have of a person, hence, it is important that the writer and recipient pay particular attention to the construction, content, context, intent and import of the recommendation.

The recipient is given the opportunity to edit and recommend to the writer changes that would reflect better in order not to have the opinions misconstrued by other readers.

Understand before acceptance

Where English is used but not the mother-tongue, it is even more pertinent that the matter be reviewed by an English speaker before publication. I have at least in a number of cases had to decline recommendations that were subject to unfavourable interpretation even though the intentions were noble and generous – such however should not be enough to allow a recommendation or it would be the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot.

I was completely mortified when I read a recommendation posted on a LinkedIn profile, I was half persuaded to highlight that the intention and the meaning were at complete variance. However, on reflection, the writer might well have meant what he wrote and the recipient none the wiser about the nuances and pitfalls of the gentle English putdown has proudly published this damning assessment of abilities sandwiched in passable praise.

The short recommendation

“Person is a great consultant with a lot of knowledge from everything. Doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things. Really a great team worker and a nice colleague.”

Three short sentences that speak volumes that are either lost in translation from a Dutch context or are a good excuse to use language as a deficiency to castigate in the most unfair light.

Person is a great consultant with a lot of knowledge from of everything. Either way, the knowledge from or more correctly, the knowledge of everything could easily read as a Jack of all trades and a master of none. The more charitable turn of phrase would probably have been a very broad knowledge of technical concepts – giving it a more specific frame of context. Whilst Dutch allows for verbosity and generalisations that could be easily contextualised, English is not that forgiving.

Does he bother or does he mind?

Doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things. This is the damning part because it reads like he doesn’t mind helping you in every way but it says he is the most unhelpful person you can find regardless of the situation presented to him.

It might be that the writer thought bother was synonymous with mind; in some contexts ‘Are you bothered?’ or ‘Do you mind?’ could be interchangeable but definitely not here. With Google Translate to Dutch the meaning did not carry as well until I modified the sentence to read as “He doesn't bother helping you with all sort of things.”

Dutch requires that the object and subject are very explicit in a sentence, it is not that good with implicit references and so this passed the censorship of the recipient when it should not have gone any further.

Can he really be?

Really a great team worker and a nice colleague. This would leave one almost wondering what the writer was trying to say after the first two sentences and it might well allow one to consider the possibility of a Freudian slip. Malevolently, this was the sweetener to the bait, obfuscating the intentions in the second sentence.

You might call it pedantic but recommendations are read with a greater attention to the detail rather than the general idea of what the writer is trying to convey – this recommendation has in my opinion torn the professional reputation of an otherwise knowledgeable and great consultant who is a nice colleague to shreds.

To think this recommendation has been published for over 2 years might well mean the damage is already done.

As for my opinions of the recipient, I could not possibly comment any further. The advice is, never accept wholesale a recommendation you do not fully understand and comprehend regardless of the good intentions of the benevolent writer.

* LinkedIn - Wikipedia

Thought Picnic: Légion d'honte to the French XI

Unacceptable conduct

The indiscipline of the French team at this World Cup is breath-taking in its depiction and despicable in all respects. Regardless of whether the manager of the French team had lost the respect of players and fans there was nothing that could warrant the insult and abuse that he suffered of the words from Nicholas Anelka.

If anything, what we must take away from this is that talent and success does not necessarily breed good character and conduct – in football, we do celebrate talent but that should not transform the talented into an automatic role model, much more should be desired and expected.

The haughtiness of success

It is unfortunate that players can become so full of themselves that their ability to submit to authority and respect leadership is lost, they thinking that by their ability they are not answerable to anyone and have by reason of prowess become indispensable and irreplaceable.

When one plays for one’s country, it is an honour, a privilege and a calling to a cause greater than oneself to participate in a team committed to bringing glory to the motherland – the case with the French-XI 2010 has done more to bring shame and derision to a country that once was the pride of world football when they lifted the World Cup in 1998.

Missing the point

The captain of the team completely missed the point when he said Anelka was not the problem but the traitor that made the abuse public. Well, there would have been no need for seeking a traitor if Anelka had been of impeccable behaviour at first and even if the case were made public and Anelka had gracefully apologised, the situation would have not have descended into a farce.

The situation was just not acceptable and it was right regardless of the opinions of other team players to send such a perpetrator of reprehensible behaviour home in disgrace and ignominy.

Treasonable is the word

The decision of the team to refuse to train plumbed the depths of juvenile obduracy bordering on treasonable by reason of the bringing the name of the fatherland into disrepute which should be punished once their tenure in this World Cup is over.

Not one of those players should ever wear the colours of France again as an example to others who might be tempted to treat the call to national duty with levity. It should be a salutary lesson to every player called to play for country anywhere else in the world – the French must lead in the instilling of proper discipline in national teams as an example and template for the future.

Bad conduct deserves no rewards

The greater providence in this matter should be that no success should emanate from this behaviour allowing for them to proceed to the next round, this kind of saga cannot dominate the headlines to the detriment of better behaved and performing teams at this World Cup.

With the already known change of coach should be the clean sweep of the stink of this delinquency and even though now they have returned to training and stated they are playing for honour, it smacks of hubris and cant to even pretend to virtue after atrocious conduct and rank immaturity presaging a pall of irresponsibility and bad example.

They can only be deserving of one honour in France and it should be the Légion d'honte. Shame, on all of them.

Dreaming of alarmed cars

When alarms slumber

As vivid dreams go, they could be stranger than fiction and that is how I felt this morning. I had been out partying the night before and set the alarm on the television to wake me up at a time I knew quite well I might not be able to respond to.

A few hours sleep after a night out cannot necessarily give the body the needed rest and recovery to approach the next day with any vigour. A smarter side of I did consider using the alarm on my mobile phone which with its distinct sound would get me up when my mind computes that the sound is for a particular purpose and a response ensues.

I must have settled into rapid eye movement sleep when the alarm went off, I heard it well but it had moved into the setting of my dream.

Memories and innovation

The driver and my mother had gotten out of the car and activated the security system of the car which from what I can recall was an Audi TT – the addition to the context of my dream must have come from John Grisham’s effusive praise of the model in one of his novels I can no more recall*.

The system was quite advanced that we were kept locked up in the car and it started a few manoeuvres to keep us in the car – the self-driving was not erratic though I noticed it had problem with pedestrians that suddenly crossed the road without obeying traffic signals – it swerved rather than hit them, I thought that was cool.

Some idea for reality

So, we tried to call the driver, riffled through all the glove compartments and found that he was a professor in a university and just our luck to find the details and phone numbers of all other member of his faculty listed but his.

Then I thought about why I had not bothered to note the telephone numbers of my father’s friends – well, some idea I need to explore in reality, I am told they all ask after me whenever I speak to my dad.

It stopped with exaggerated prompting

This cacophony of security went on for a while and then we saw the driver run up to meet us and the car return to its original position after the fifth time of rigmarole. I remonstrated with him as he gesticulated to us to stop the car – well, we could not, he had to and he jabbed incessantly at his key fob to stop the alarm and the car’s waywardness or dare I say the security breach anti-flight algorithm.

Then the alarm stopped and my phone rang, all in the dream, I was making some adjustments to allow the driver get in the car so I tossed the phone to him to answer the call, when he handed the phone back, I mustered all the calmness to tell the caller that I had just been messed about by a mad robot of a car due to the built-in security measures.

Triggered by another ring

Just then the bedside phone rang and it was the reception that had been alerted to the fact that my television alarm had been ringing for the past 5 minutes and I had not responded to it.

If that ring had found its way into the dream, I could be sure that the door to my room would have been mowed down to determine if I was about, around and alert-able.

This I believe represents the danger one faces when you sleep with some background sound on, there might be cases where such external stimuli might well get integrated into your dream sequence, I could do with next week’s lottery numbers but in other cases I need to expect my mind to discriminate between dreams and reality, then instruct the appropriate system to respond as required.

* The Summons by John Grisham

Berlin: Home-cooking at Roots

Continental African Restaurants

One of the things that excited me about visiting Berlin was last year I found a Nigerian restaurant called Fifty-Fifty which in Nigeria parlance is a euphemism for equal share of halves.

Living in the Netherlands, we have been regaled with the dastardly service of African Kitchen in Amsterdam, the illegal restaurant of Obalade and travelled over 50 kilometres to The Hague for fare that left us shocked at the service at Swingin’ Safari, which last time we were there.

WaZoBia in Antwerp has disappeared and the only seemingly classy restaurants are in London, but to London for a taste of home-cooking? I had better get my pans in line and turn the heat up.

Just up my straβe

As I got to Berlin, I asked Loomnie, a fellow blogger and Berliner but not a jam doughnut if Fifty-Fifty was still open because I was going to make a journey right across town to have some Nigerian fare.

On hearing of where my hotel was he said there was a restaurant just down the road from my place and that was the truth.

The Roots Afro-Caribbean Bar is in the centre of commercial and shopping street Berlin, not too far from Europacenter. You will be forgiven for thinking the prefix Afro- is a qualifier for Caribbean when in fact it does mean catering for African as well as Caribbean tastes.

The word is silence

It is unfortunate that many of these African restaurants seem to rely on the African advertisement culture of word-of-mouth when essentially a pervasive web presence is required.

A search of African restaurants in Berlin does not yield a list representative of the fact that there might be many more gems of exotic cuisine hidden in some back street almost content that they already have the clientele they require and the odd visitor is a bonus of sorts.

So, I walked up the road, crossed Kurfurstendamm and within a few blocks I was at bar which was half-bar half-restaurant seating and asked if I could have some African food, Nigerian in particular and I was given a few choices.

Menus in the head

I did not get to choose off a menu and since it was just soon after a Nigerian World Cup match there was the possibility what I really wanted might be out.

I had catfish pepper-soup, I still prefer the meat variety but that was out and then pounded-yam with egusi soup and assorted pieces of beef, all washed down with a malt drink.

The atmosphere was vibrant as it was showing the France-Mexico game and it did have quite a large proportion of German clientele which I do not find for many other ethnic restaurants I have been to.

The manager was friendly, welcoming and engaging; it was nice to be there even though I was eating alone.

Get the word out and book ahead

To think this restaurant had been there for 11 years and I have been visiting Berlin for 15 years, even Loomnie only discovered this haunt recently – I had a few words with the manager about the lack of marketing, the poor website and a few other things.

I will return to the restaurant but under advice that it is best to phone ahead so that preparations can be made to fulfil your preferences, even in this upmarket setting, the prices are reasonable, the service friendly and the rapport engaging – the food is delicious and really, what else can one wish for?

The Roots Afro-Caribbean Bar
Nürnbergerstraβe 17
Am Europacenter
10789 Berlin
http://www.afrobar.de
+493021968244

Nigeria: Cast as the football prophets of Baal

Showing up ourselves

The Nigeria-Greece World Cup match was being played as I made my journey to Berlin yesterday, I inadvertently and rightly missed the sorry case of red mist that flung in football terms the always promising country into ignominy – the game yesterday was a clear reflection of the country in its 50^th year of independence.

We had such high expectations of ourselves but very little in preparation and confidence to meet those expectations – the haphazard management of the football association that in times does need political interference for the fact that left to their devices and the leadership of FIFA is a joke through to the selection of a coach to plan our strategy to fail catastrophically.

If anyone thought just because the World Cup was being hosted in Africa African teams must perform, they would now realise that football is a game of two halves of skill and ability not one of wishful thinking celebrating sentiment.

The prophets of Baal

I was so amused on Saturday when I read a tweet that talked about prayer warriors praying up Nigeria’s ability to run Argentina off the field – for a team and people who did not appear to have the kind of faith and resolve that snatched the Olympic Gold Medal off Argentina in 1996 – the prayers were in vain.

For a country so steeped in religious genuflection to the point of self-harming flagellation it all looked like the battle of gods on Mount Carmel between the prophets of Baal and the Elijah only that Nigerians were re-enacting the part of the prophets of Baal who appeared to be doing everything humanly possible and got nothing.

In response to that tweet, I said the time for praying was over and the time for demonstrating our skill at playing was now - it was time we believed we could do it. By the game with Greece, people even dared think it was possible.

The prophets of false hopes failed to foresee that red card but were offering prophecies of a semi-final berth, who pays these purveyors of dishonesty and why do we ever give them a hearing at all?

Playing for I

As I arrived in Berlin, I was told that Nigeria was out of the World Cup, the next match would be playing for consolation and maybe pride but really I am glad that I do not have to watch performances with my heart always in my mouth wondering when 90 minutes would end as if it were a minute just to spare me a worse fate.

The advantage the country gained was given up by a selfish, ill-thought, ill-judged and bad-tempered act of one person and that has always been the issue in football and the country. A team carrying the hopes of 150 million people has the members playing as individuals hoping for personal praise and ending up doing the irresponsible.

Once again, we must return to the fundamentals of selecting a viable national team that has the ability to surprise, very much that the team that won the Under-17 World Cup in 1985 – no prima-donnas, no corrupt influences and in faraway China they brought the goods home to the chagrin of the great sponsors who expected the cup to go anyplace but a third-world country.

Preparations 2014

That was 25 years ago, since then whilst we have taken the spoils in junior World Cups with the disputing about age deflation those amazing whippersnappers do not seem to be able to take it to the top.

In my opinion, we need hungry-for-success home-grown players, indigenous coaches with some international exposure and a better commitment to developing football for Nigeria rather for the talent pool of foreign countries.

As Nigeria prepares for 2014, I would now concentrate on the activities of the other interesting but sometimes unfortunate prospects of my country of birth, England and the amazingly promising prospects of my country of residence, Holland.

Did I feel so proud wearing an orange tie on Monday when Holland showed the world they were coming – This World Cup will surprise and it will be so unpredictable but some of the known names are shining too.

Bring on Wimbledon, I need some excitement.