Hate your job?

I got this rather disturbing picture by e-mail today. Here's the text of the mail:

ONE SOLID REASON TO THANK GOD FOR YOUR JOB!

INTERCONTINENTAL BANK TEST SOME WEEKS BACK IN IKEJA

I actually saw them that day at Ikeja....... ..I was amazed!!

No, it’s not a political rally, neither is it a Refugee Camp nor did it happen in Rwanda .
It is very much a “Nigerian Thing”.

It's a picture of applicants scrambling to write an Employment Test @ Fototek Plaza, Opebi Ikeja, Lagos. Nigeria .

Police had to disperse the mammoth crowd with teargas!


What more can one say? I was feeling a little tired today when I got to work ( I worked from last week, straight through the weekend to today, Monday). But this perked me right up.

If we have so many people on the street struggling to get legitimate jobs, is it a wonder then that the crime rate is so high? That we are well known for our 419 skills?

We need prayers in this country.

Photo Op

Someone sent this photo to me. Guess what it is!
A plane? A bird?
No, Its a HAIRCUT!

Nyama!

Sex Does Not Equal Love

I had dinner in front of a televison and caught 5 minutes of a Nigerian home video on Africa Magic. I do not know what the title is. It got me thinking.

Scene one:

Village setting. Young girl and young boy strolling though the woods/forest. He is obviously from the city whilst she is from the village. He uses fly words like "baby" and "yeah" walks as though he has great sores under both feet (bouncing) and has a fake American accent.

He says to her “My heart is yours, baby”

She says in a very Igbotic accent “Heart, kwa?”

"Yeah, baby” he replies, looking as sincere as a new born babe.

She looks unsure, he coaxes her some more and the movie cuts to a new scene with young boy adjusting his belt and young girl adjusting her skirt. He thanks her, puts N500.00 in her hand " buy yourself something!" and they both walk away in opposite directions. As soon as she is out of earshot, he whoops and shouts “YES!” He has scored! As he leaves, the watchers know that this boy is either going to disappear forever or show up again when he has an itch he needs scratched. The girl meanwhile, goes off in the other direction and we can almost hear the mechanical whirring of a machine as we imagine her she daydreaming about how she is going to move to Lagos with her new boyfriend, have a society marriage, bear him at least 3 children and come back to show her village mates how she is living it up!


This is something that constantly happens. I last went to my village about 7years ago (much to my shame because I love the place). The first thing I noticed was that a lot of unmarried teenage girls had fallen pregnant. On enquiring on what the heck was going on, I was told that there had been a lot of construction work done and the girls had been in “relationships” with the laborers that had come from out of town. They had been wowed by the worldly men who had traveled around the country doing manual labor for a living. It was cool to be one of the chosen ones as the men had “money” and were so knowledgeable about things beyond their scope.

Even in the “city”, we have our young ‘uns and even older ones being wowed by the sophisticated and debonair attitude of guys and on that basis of alone, enter "relationships" with them. The outcome is hardly never good.

I am not saying that there are no other reasons why “relationships” go wrong. I am just saying that if we could adopt the "Not everything that Glitters is Gold attitude" we may save ourselves a lot of trouble.

Like a fellow blogger said in a letter to her young self, " Sex does not equal love".

I'll talk about scene two later!

On the safe side

I went for a mammogram today. I should be getting the results tomorrow. It's a really simple procedure and not in the least bit painful. It just might save your life so don't procrastinate!


You can fund mammograms for underprivileged women by clicking here. Just click. It's free and you may just be making a great difference in someone's life.

Stay safe!

Gated Music Festival

I was not at the LARGEST SHOW IN NIGERIA, but a friend of mine was and she took some pictures.

The ones I want to share are those of a rather disturbing gate that was used to demarcate those that had paid the premium ticket price of 100,000Naira from those that paid 30,000Naira to see the show for the two days it ran. The first picture is a close up of the "cage" whilst the second one shows properly the distance from the gate to where the premium payers were seated.

Through the gate, you can see the stage and also the big screen TV behind.

I had to re-work the 2nd picture to cut out the girl leaning on the gate (She's publicity shy). I just want y'all to see the distance to the stage.

When I saw these pictures, I was rather dismayed and thought to myself that this is just typical of Nigerians. Our need to prove that we are different from the masses just keeps finding new ways to humiliate those that have less than we do. Nouveau riche attitude really, something garish about it.

Well, trust my naija people, they eventually found their way into the VIP area on both days.

All that said sha, they obviously had FUN!!

Shine on!

Sometimes, you come across words that are deep and profound and have you nodding violently. They may be words that act as a reminder to you of what you should be. I watched Coach Carter some days ago, heard this recitation and was nodding so violently, my head almost fell off.

Anyways, here it is. Hope it touches you as much as it touched me.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
....Marianne Williamson