Thursday, July 13, 2006

The day before, words versus headbutts, two arrests and making headway with Soyinka

Tomorrow is a big day work wise and so I am in that kind of place where everything appears anti-climactic; and sitting at my desk and looking out on to the sunlit square opposite with skimpily dressed men and women sprawled basking in the sun, I get the sense that I can hear the buzzing of the heat, as if the air is treacle thick, yet clear......

A few days ago on the train I fell into a heated argument over whether or not Zidane was justified or not. While I chanted my mantra, long honed in my childhood playground "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me", my friends were as resolute in saying that sometimes words could cut as deep if not deeper than blows.....as the temperature in the train carriage soared, so did our passions, as we slung our arguments back and forth....in the end we stopped as normally-reticent London tube travellers swung their heads in our direction.....I've mused on this, long and hard but still struggle to accept that the spoken word, no matter how hateful can be equated with physical violence, but perhaps this is coloured by who I am and my experiences........

This morning on the news, Tony Blair's tennis partner and confidant Lord Levy is arrested on suspicion of peddling peerages. Perhaps this cash for peerages scandal, innocuous as it seems may end up having more serious repercussions than we think......

Meanwhile, back home in Naija, Mike Adenuga, the multibillionaire Chairman of Globacom the telecommunications company who's alleged to have close links to Babangida was apparently also arrested and is now under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, just as the Vice President Atiku Abubakar's bank records are seized by "security operatives" Obviously the stakes for 2007 are rising, especially as Atiku and Babangida recently met to join forces towards 2007

Last night I stayed up late reading Wole Soyinka's "You Must Set Forth at Dawn" I'd tried a few months ago and lost interest, mired in the dense opacity of the first few chapters but yesterday lying on the couch, I went back to it and ploughed through, and once past the first few chapters am now enjoying it...as eclectic and inscrutable as the man himself

2 comments:

Kush said...

The dude was playing in the world cup final there must have been some serious provocation for him to lose control that way after all he hardly the teenage thug called Rooney...

ayoke said...

I second Kush. Let's know how Soyinka's book goes. I may be convinced to read it when I get the chance.