There’re so many disagreements/disputes in international relations or world politics today. The US versus North Korea, Israel versus Palestine, Zimbabwe versus England, 3rd world countries versus the developed West, the list goes on. In this post I want to give my own explanation of why things are the way they are and what can be done to make things better

I’ve always been the inquisitive type and good at critical thinking thus able to discover the truths about situations and get very good points of view about them. I studied Economics and Political Science in the University, maybe it fostered that inquisitiveness, I don’t know for sure. Anyway props to Dr. Assisi Asobie my lecturer in the Political Science department; he sure was a damn good lecturer; I only wish I was much more serious with my academics back then. Also when I was younger I guess I didn’t really cherish the concept of friendship (I wasn’t good at keeping them) and social interaction; plus being a late developer (puberty thing) I got picked on a lot. Also of recent I’ve learnt from interactions in real life situations and on the internet that beef/quarreling is of very little benefit and very anti progressive. Because of all these I’ve grown to be a freak for relating with people cordially and diplomatically.

I guess I over did it there anyway back to what I’m trying to say, here’s my theory. Nations in the world are like brothers (siblings) in a family. Some merely 13 years old, others as old as 50. Some wild and headstrong and some reserved. Some very wealthy and some poor. Thus for peaceful coexistence it’s natural that while the rights of all should be respected it should also be that some brothers be accorded more respect than others based on factors like age and achievements in life. All should recognize their role and position in the scheme of life/things and play it well. It’s really simple, we all know at home we respect our elders and in return they should behave in a matter to justify the respect accorded. For example 3 brothers A, B and C embark on a journey, A being the eldest and C the youngest. A brings the car for the journey and the cash that might be needed, B brings along cooking utensils, while C brings along only a football for recreation. While each of them contributed to the success of the journey it’s clear that A contributed the vital things needed, followed by B and then C. Night time comes and what they have is a mattress and two mats, who do you think then deserves to sleep on the mattress? A of course. It then baffles me why in the university (in a lot of the courses I took from my first to final year), Nigerian press, Nigerian circles on the web and in the country there is so much agitation for we the 3rd world to be neck to neck with our more developed brothers in absolutely all aspects. In fact there are so many irrational anti-west beliefs. It’s a crazy world, headstrong North Korea, Jihadist and terrorist in the Middle East, people too eager to walk before they crawl among the Nigerian masses and among the Zimbabwean government. And yes the US at times getting carried away by their super power status. If we all reason along line that we’re all brothers and no one wants to see another die some of these disagreements would be laid to rest soon.

Bush and Obasanjo. Oga sirs, what’s so funny. How country now?

What should we consider as hip hop in its truest form? Of late I’ve heard and read so much talk on what is fake and what is real in hip hop. That guy’s not representing the culture well, artist A shouldn’t sing at all, artist B raps too much like an American while in fact he is Nigerian, artist C should stop making commercial songs (songs that are about chicks and partying), artist D gets it wrong as he promotes gun violence and the idea of quick money making etc.
I see this same old thing day in and day out on hip hop forums, blogs and websites and in discussions among hip hop lovers in everyday life. Well if you ask me I’ll tell you I stand and always will stand by the idea that’s it a free world! We all should do music the way we feel we can best do it/express ourselves in and are comfortable with. WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS THAT IN WHATEVER STYLE YOU CHOOSE TO DO YOUR THING YOU SUCCEED IN THE END IN MAKING BEAUTIFUL MUSIC WHICH IS PLEASING TO THE EARS. MORE SO BECAUSE IN THE END IT’S QUALITY MUSIC THAT IS REMEMBERED FOR LONG. So I say leave Modenine alone to do his hardcore thing, 2Shots his Naija pidgin English thing, afro-beat, high-life and Fuji peeps to do their songs, jazz and classical music peeps to listen to their music. Guys that like swearing to do so in their song, old school and conscious hip hop guys to do their thing and Lil Jon, Ying Yang twins and co to do their crunk pimping thing etc, It’s a free world man. It’s just like in the legal system; law should not be confused with morality. Its variety that makes the world interesting so we should learn to appreciate and live with it.

One world, different styles. 2Shotz, Modenine, Common.

***Chun Kin Yong is just an imaginary character from North Korea. That’s just one for the rhyme and for the humour.

Yes Oh! It’s really been long since I blogged last. As long as 3 weeks ago! And peeps (especially Obi and Garry Nixon) have been like what’s up? Well nothing much guys, I guess I write only when I really feel like writing. I’ve been around though both on and offline doing my thing. Some of which were:

Redesigning my blog’s template. I sort of got sick of my old blog template, I wanted something unique. And the only way to go about it was to brush up a little on my HTML and CSS (The key word is “a little”. It takes lots of devotion and time to master web page designing). The end result of which is what you see now. Props to 360 Degrees of Sky (one of the best blogs design-wise on the net) for the inspiration.

Surfing the Web. As I said I dey but I no dey. That is to say I’ve been online as usual, in fact for longer hours then is normal of me. Just that it was spent doing other things and not making posts on my blog. In fact I’ve been commenting on other people’s blogs and on forums I’m part of like crazy in the past few weeks. The internet is life man, it’s a crazy place full of an uncountable number of sites so I guess there’s never a dull moment surfing it.

Chatting. Yep chatting; it’s a wonderful invention online which we all can’t do without. And so I’ve been hard at it these past few weeks. And it seems it’s because I’ve rediscovered the art of logging into my Yahoo messenger as visible. In the long run it helps you relate with people better. Long live the Visibles! All you peeps going about your business in invisible mode big ups to you; but I ain’t down with that school no more

Learning the lessons of life. No man is perfect, we learn new stuff everyday and that’s what I’ve been doing big time these past few weeks. It’s funny how one would lay down plans at times days or weeks in advance to get something done and in the flick of an eye your parents would shred it to pieces with a single decision of theirs. Most likely you’ll get mad at them but in the end after analyzing the whole situation you’ll see the wisdom in it and realize that it was quite a good thing that things didn’t happen the way you planed they would. You still don’t get me? Well someday you will, surely.

Shout out goes to my fellow blogger, Uche Nworah who tied the knot some days back. It’s such a pity that I couldn’t make it despite the fact that I was in town. Josh knows why, we should have hit there together; but it’s all good though.

Seeing the world change around me. Change gon’ come nephew, that’s what Snoop always says and that sure is true. Changes everywhere, MTN Nigeria has been stepping up their game of late in the area of services and freebies. That’s real good; I guess they’re starting to denounce their title of the stingy boys in Yellow. When you consider the fact that abroad people have a swell time enjoying the freebies GSM companies dish out you’ll understand that we here in Nigeria or Africa as a whole are still very much in the early stages of growth.

Biafra Biafra! What’s this Biafra currency thing I’m hearing? Please spare me, the Biafran Pound can go to hell for all I care, for me it’s always gon’ be the Naira and one Nigeria. Yes I’m Igbo and proud to be one but I ain’t feeling the continued agitation for a sovereign state of Biafra at all. Naija stands more to gain as one united entity, the sooner we learn to tolerate each other and put our selves in other people’s shoes to see how they feel before doing things the better for us.

And the recent wave of terrorist bombings going off in London, Egypt, Iraq etc is damn scary man. Having lived in Finchley Central London between 1989 and1992 I guess the bombings touch me more this time. My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Like R. Kelly peace is what I pray for.

Peace is what we pray for. Ask Tayo she’ll tell you better.

The notion that our leaders don’t care was partly proved wrong to me recently. I received a mail from David Clark in response to a post made on my blog where I explained why I ditched my MTN line for a Globacom line. He’s the Operations Manager for MTN in the Western Region and he’s based in Lagos. He wasn’t happy that I was abandoning my MTN line for a Globacom line and he wanted me back. We exchanged ideas on the MTN and Glo subject matter via e-mail and on phone (he should be a white dude from his voice). And it all amounted to him sending me 6,000 Naira airtime credit to recharge my MTN line. That’s about two months of validity/access days! I was stunned cos it’s girls that normally receive such stuff from their numerous admirers. But all the same I’m highly grateful to him for the kind gesture; though I sold the credit cos I had more pressing financial matters to deal with. I will recharge my MTN line with a 400 Naira air time credit later on. That’ll guarantee that my MTN line will be active for another four months and make everybody happy . Final word: if MTN rocks your world big ups to you, but as things stand now I’ll still be using my Glo.
An MTN kiosk. One among thousands that are situated all Nigeria

So much for MTN making my day, now on to being gay (not the sexual type, embrace your dictionary)cos of football. The Nigerian Under-21 team: the Flying Eagles have been making our day here in Nigeria for weeks. Under the tutelage of Coach Samson Siasia (an ex Nigerian international) they’ve been excelling in the FIFA World Youth Championship: Netherlands 2005 and are into the final which is to be played today. They’re a wonderful squad full of talented players. Here’s our journey so far in the tournament
The Flying eagles before one of their games.

0-0 versus Brazil (Group stages). Cautious game, once it’s Brazil, whether it be the Under-13 or Over 50 team it calls for caution.
1-2 versus South Korea (Group stages). Painful loss, lost concentration and threw away our lead in the final minutes.
3-0 versus Switzerland (Group stages). Handled their biz well and spanked the Swiss, to send us into the 2nd round.
1-0 versus Ukraine (2nd Round). Nice game, Taye Taiwo saved the day with a wonderful free kick.
1-1 [10-9] versus The Netherlands (Quarter finals). Nerve racking game, beat tournament host on penalties.
3-0 versus Morocco (Semi finals). Very sweet game, taught our North African brothers the game of soccer.
?-? versus Argentina (Final). Big one, reminiscent of the Atlanta 96 final. What’s it gon’ be? We pray our boys prevail. The match’s coming up in a few hours time. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and wish our boys the best of luck. Peace!
The Flying Eagles celebrate after scoring.