Espionage-real and imagined, notable books, disconcerted by gmail etc

Listening to the news this morning I am struck by how at almost the exact same time as the latest James Bond film is released we are assailed by a real-life espionage drama. Each morning the airwaves are agog with the latest twists and turns in the story of the Russian ex-spy hospitalized in London after allegedly being poisoned. On the day of his poisoning, he had met with a mysterious Italian acquaintance (described variously as an academic and elsewhere as a security expert) who said he had revealed that he had information implicating the Russian government in the murder of Anna Politkovskaya. The Russian government has stoutly denied any involvement either in the murder or in the alleged poisoning. Amidst the swirl of rumour, half truths, allegations and counter-allegations, I am transported back to my childhood in the days of the Cold War when such happenings were common place and am struck by how much the world has changed. The makers of the new James Bond film can't be complaining too much, tragic as this incident is . Should Scotland Yard be looking that way rather than towards the Kremlin?

Two books by Nigerians make the New York Times Notable Books of 2006- Chimamnda Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun and Uzodinma Iweala's Beast of No Nation. For other books on the list- see here http://www.nytimes.com/ref/books/review/20061203notable-books.html .

I've just finished in quick succession (and enjoyed) two books from the Booker longlist for this year. James Lasdun's Seven Lies was charmingly elliptical as it slowly unwound from contemporary New York back into Stasi dominated East Germany, while Edward St Aubyn's Mother's Milk was a witty elegant inquisition into the nature of parenthood, relationships, New Age religion, death and the United States. I must really go and search out his earlier work now, so enthused am I....

I also recently quite enjoyed Toby Young's The Sound of No Hands Clapping. Having earlier read and enjoyed his deadpan account of his attempt to break into New York's media world in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, I was eager for this his second offering. It's not as good as the first I think, but still Young had me mouth agape reading about some of the things he got up to- he is so crass and commits the most crashing blunders and yet somehow in the end he emerges so clueless that you can't help but feel some sympathy for him. Like his friend Boris Johnson, I often wonder how much of it all is an act....

I recently signed up to Gmail, only to find that when I'm reading an e mail from Lagos, adverts about Lagos pop up on the screen, ditto when I read e mails from say Scotland- I get ads offering cheap flights to Scotland. It's slightly disconcerting to think that someone or some machine is scanning my email and reading it and deciding what adverts to send on to my screen. I know Google says it's all automated but even then....

Meanwhile in Nigeria the attempt by the Nigerian Navy to take a tougher line with the Niger Delta militants ended tragically with the death of a British national. I notice that they were no Americans involved- I wonder how the US government would have reacted if there had been.....

And to politics where the prehensile chairman of the PDP gloatingly counts up the takings as more and more candidates beat their way to the party's doors- 5 million naira in hand to pick up nomination forms for the party's presidential primaries. It's a pity that the opposition is so gormless that it's pretty obvious whoever gets the PDP nomination is a virtual shoo-in for president. Would that the PDP delegates would display some sense of national duty. Judging from the performance of their representatives in the National Assembly, their votes will be up for sale to the highest bidder. No wonder there was bloodshed last week when delegates to the primaries were being selected....

Meanwhile, a very interesting account by Dr Bolaji Aluko of registering to vote (complete with pix) can be found here http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/4341/55

Stumbled across another interesting Nigerian blog by a recently qualified medical doctor who thinks deep and writes beautifully http://houseofficer.blogspot.com/ even as the ferociously frank and bold Disillusioned Naija Girl leaves the blogosphere http://nijaoffspring.blogspot.com/ And so the ebb and flow continues....

Migrant's dilemma- corporal punishment or child abuse

Just stumbled on the news that the Nigerian professor in the US who was charged with child abuse has been sentenced to two years in prison. When the news first broke, I was horrified at some of the things that he was supposed to have done to his child- putting hot pepper juice on various parts of the child's body, putting ants on the child and so on. I was angry when the Nigerian columnist Reuben Abati tried to paint a picture of this poor man maintaining his culture and being oppressed by an insensitive alien US system and I had meant to blog about it or even write a rejoinder. However a number of people beat me to it, including a few who detailed their experiences in Nigeria of what must only pass for cruel and inhuman behaviour regardless of the context. And yet, reading the account of the sentencing I was moved with pity for this man and his family caught in what is indeed a clash between two cultures. I suppose it is the classic migrant's dilemma- how much to hold on to and how much to let go. Read the account and Abati's article here http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/4142/46/

Read some of the rejoinders here


Reading the article took me back to a debate about corporal punishment which I had with some Nigerian friends a while back. This was when there was a strong move to ban corporal punishment in the UK and various opinions were being aired. All of us agreed that we had been beaten or smacked as children, but disagreed on whether that had affected us negatively or not. Those of us who said we had not been scarred by the experience were effectively shut up when one of those present, a psychiatrist laughingly said "well you all think you're okay, but are you really?" And we all had to admit that he had a point. Another contributor argued that corporal punishment in a Nigerian context was fine because there were always mediators/moderators to prevent chastisement from escalating into dangerous physical harm. As she put it "The neighbours, the grandparents, the whole community will rush to stop the beating from going too far. The problem with migrants is that that regulatory mechanism is no longer there and so parents are more likely to overstep the mark"

I thought about it all long and hard that evening as I made my way home. Reading this article brought it all back and I wondered if there was not a kernel of truth in her thesis

War on London streets, remember Saro-Wiwa and marriage in southeastern Nigeria

In these days when darkness falls almost immediately after midday, I find myself making my way through cold huddled crowds heading home. This early darkening still takes me by surprise but then I remind myself that it's payback for all those long summer nights when we sit sipping Pimm's and lazing in the sun till 9pm or later... I realize that everything is balanced

On the streets of London, there's a war going on between free two evening newspapers- the london paper and London Lite. Now for the four or so years I've been here- there's only been one evening newspaper- the Evening Standard which cost 40p until recently when it went up to 50 p. It's on sale at all the train and underground stations and many commuters grab one to avoid having to look their fellow commuters in the eye.....Then a few weeks ago, vendors appeared on the streets every evening handing out free copies of something called the london paper.....free paper versus 50p paper? Hmm not a tough choice there, so the Evening Standard guys hit back with their own free paper- London Lite which is like a dumbed down version of the Standard. So now commuters on their way home have to run the gauntlet of not one but two sets of vendors handing out free papers. Looking on the positive side, most of the vendors on my route home are black or Asian, so they're obviously providing jobs for the brothers and sisters. On the negative side however, the streets and the train carriages heave with discarded free newspapers....Surely these two newspaper giants should make some contribution to the extra cleaning costs which their commercial war is generating. And I haven't even started on the forests that are being massacred to feed this paper war....

Angela Davis and Ken Wiwa are appearing at City Hall on Friday in the final event in the Remember Saro-Wiwa programme for this year http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/ . I'd hoped to go but the main hall is full up and I really will not go to all that trouble just to sit through a video link- sorry.

Stumbled across another paper by the anthropologist Daniel Jordan Smith on marriage in contemporary South Eastern Nigeria...very interesting reading http://paa2006.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=60281

Meanwhile, the launch of the Heart of Africa project appears to have received very little if any coverage in the media here. I haven't seen any. Even the Nigerian newspapers concentrated on the bizarre attempt by protesters to hijack the event http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210309.html . Yet there are Nigerians in strategic positions in the media here, but I bet no-one asked them....and so it was the usual suspects...

Liking Scotland, BBC ojoro,Naija politics and adoption palaver

I've been away for work just outside of Edinburgh- it was my first visit to Scotland and I really enjoyed it. Autumn must be the best time to visit, the hills and valleys are covered in the most amazing browns and reds and yellows- literally on fire. I think I like Scotland- there's something about it that I found vibrant and attractive- apparently the vision of the Scottish devolved government is "to be the best small country in the world" I like that and the idea that they have also built a strong partnership with Malawi- in health and education and economic development.....how that works in practice, I don't know but the partnership seemed to have a really high profile in government documents and in the media in the period while I was there....Perhaps my liking it is to do with my affinity for the underdog.... I was surprised at the number of Englishmen I met who complained of the Anglophobia of the Scots- one in particular was upset that most Scots felt that it was only a small minority of the population that was responsible and failed to appreciate the subtle ways in which the media and wider society perpetuated prejudice. Welcome to the club, bro, was my response.....

The food was great and I got to taste the famous haggis- it had echoes of pepper soup for me- I guess it was the combination of offal and pepper that did it. It was not at all as unpleasant as English friends had led me to expect.....

In the week that Nigeria was rolling out its image laundering team into London for the launch of the Heart of Africa project, I wake up to the news on BBC Radio 4 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6163700.stm that a new report has indicted the UK and Nigerian governments for not doing enough to tackle financial crime. The timing of the report release does make one wonder if it was not a calculated attempt to rubbish the Heart of Africa project....besides the BBC report completely ignored the corrupt practices by British businessmen and businesses in Nigeria, and the repatriation of looted money to the UK by Nigerian politicians both of which were also highlighted in the report http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/pdf/research/africa/Nigeria1106.pdf Thank you BBC for another balanced piece......

I've finally found one person who's been able to register to vote, Ore blogging from Nigeria describes her experience http://orenotes.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_orenotes_archive.html I like the idea of voter's cards with photographs on them, but am still surprised at the potential for multiple registration. Perhaps the electoral commission should repeat the 1993 style where voting held at the same time throughout the country, using transparent glass boxes and results were announced in front of everyone by the officers before everyone dispersed. While that method is inconvenient and resource intensive, it did mean that those who registered in several places could only actually vote in one place as they could not physically be in more than one place at a time....

I see Atiku has moved out of his official residence prior to formally declaring his presidential ambition under the auspices of the Action Congress, having left the PDP for Obasanjo and his acolytes....interesting to see how that plays out. Does he stand a chance of stopping IBB? Part of what IBB has done in coming out is reducing the race to a pro and against IBB matter, and so yet again he is responsible for harming the Nigerian political space and process.....selfish so and so that he is...

On the way to Scotland I finally finished Korouma's Allah is Not Obliged- it's a darkly funny historical account of the wars in west Africa in the 90s seen through the eyes of a child soldier....highly recommended

Meanwhile, the father of Madonna's adopted Malawian son has married his pregnant girlfriend- and looks forward to making a home with his new wife, her daughter from a previous marriage and the expected baby........just when I'm sure Madonna was heaving a sigh of relief that the publicity had died down.....Chimamanda Adichie weighs in on the adoption controversy in the Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/12/AR2006111200943.html

Velasquez, classic combos, poppy debates, recent reading& heart of Africa launch in London

On Saturday to the National Gallery to see the Velasquez exhibition that just opened. His paintings are powerful and still speak contemporary...I was particularly moved by his representations of ordinary people in powerful extraordinary ways imbuing them with as much dignity as the royalty and nobility who are the subjects of many of his portraits. I was particularly moved by the gravitas and nobility of the African king in his Adoration of the Magi....

Then to dinner with friends and our host had served up a warming winter stew with carrots and parsnips and chunks of tender delectable beef, followed by cheese and pears a combination I was convinced to try and came away admitting that it was a classic combination- right up there with banana and groundnuts, roasted maize and coconut and other well known and acknowledged clasiic combinations.....

Still mulling over IBB's declaration for the PDP presidential contest- now he's no fool, so what assurances does he have that have given him the confidence to throw his hat into the ring? Besides he doesn't need to convince the whole country- just buy the votes of the PDP delegates and he's halfway there- the sleazy machinery of the "largest party in Africa" will do the rest...or at least try to. He's misread the Nigerian electorate before though- in 1993, he thought Tofa, his shoo-in candidate would beat Abiola especially as the latter was running on a Muslim-Muslim ticket. Nigerians astounded him then and I hope they'll do so again. If only Obasanjo had properly referred him to the EFCC for his financial crimes then he would have been barred from contesting and the whole question would not even arise....

Still on the poppy debate. On Sunday on my way to church, I saw a mother and daughter on the train- the mother was wearing the new pacifist white poppy and the daughter waswearing a white poppy and a red poppy. In a chat with a decidedly pacifist friend, he told me the retort that he had come back with...

Woman- Young man, why aren't you wearing a poppy? They died so you could be free you know

Pacifist friend- Yes, they died so I could be free to choose to wear a poppy or not

I'm well into Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men- it's a stunning portrayal of life in a repressive regime seen through the eyes of a child. In places I was reminded of Chimamanda Adichie's Purple Hibiscus. Reading it, you feel as if you are drawn into a dark sinister world with the oppression bearing down on you...

I've also just finished Selling Olga, an account of international women trafficking. It's well-written and readable and the sheer horror of some of the things victims have endured is nauseating. There're two interviews with Nigerians- one, Vivian Wiwoloku a pastor in Palermo who runs an organization Pellegrino della Terra which helps victims of trafficking and "Bright" a young Nigerian woman who was trafficked but is now studying in university in Italy. The book also highlights the debate about whether all these women are victims or whether there should be more recognition of the fact that some women choose to enter foreign countries illegally to sell sex. The author does acknowledge the difficulty in the distinctions- as always, the debate revolves around the question of what we mean when we talk about choice....

On the front page of Thisday today is a photograph of the newly installed prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria. Seeing him and his fellow princes of the church decked in their fine robes, brought to mind a conversation I had recently with a young woman who worked in one of the top ecclesiastical robe makers' shops in London. Apparently the Nigerian clergy are responsible for a huge chunk of their sales and they want all the extra fripperies and trimmings, regardless of cost. Much as she appreciated their custom, I sensed that she seemed slightly bemused at the flamboyant displays of extravagance in the midst of grinding poverty....

I'm falling behind on the cinema front- I'm told Anthony Minghella's Breaking and Entering is a must-see for every Londoner- it was apparently mostly all shot around the currently regenerating King's Cross area. I was at the tube station last week and was surprised to see the changes- it's gleaming new with signs for the Eurostar terminal which I suppose will be coming in there soon.....again I wonder what happens when an area regenerates- do the poor and down at heel just get moved on to other degenerate areas or do they actually benefit?

Browsing on the Nigerian High Commission website I see details of the launch of the Heart of Africa image laundering project in London http://www.heartofafrica.com/uk_launch.cfm Methinks the biggest boost to our image will be having free and fair elections next year

Sleepy, soul sista, reading Hisham Matar, family politics etc

I wake up this morning, slightly deadened and lethargic- it is the end of what has been a long and busy week. The radio cuts into my sleep-tinged reverie, the head of MI5, the improbably named Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller has announced that the agency is tracking no fewer than 30 terror plots involving nearly 2000 individuals in the UK. She warns that the threat of international terrorism will be "with us" for at least a generation. Various talking heads appear- some to defiantly suggest that Britain has been through this before with the IRA in the 70s, others to urge caution. It is unclear why she has made this statement public at this time....to influence the impending budget allocations? To genuinely alert the public? Who knows....

Yesterday I visited Soul Sista's Diary on Nigeria Village Square http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/4104/55 . In her latest column, she speaks about ringing a legislator from Anambra State to upbraid her on her role in the impeachment of the governor and how they subsequently have an interesting conversation which again reveal that like many things Nigerian the Anambra crisis has several layers and depends on who you believe. Again truth lies invisible beneath the murky layers of claim and counterclaim.....

I have just finished Sweet'n'Low: A Family Story in which Rich Cohen, a writer and disinherited grandson of the sugar substitute empire's founder deals spectacular revenge in a very readable and intriguing book. He weaves an intriguing picture of family politics in a Jewish immigrant family interspersing it with photographs and a history of sugar and all things sweet...

On the train to work I begin to read Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men, the book set in Libya which was shortlisted for the Booker- the language and imagery are dreamlike serving only to accentuate my lethargy and somnolent state.....

Donald Duke, the debonair governor of Cross River State has thrown his hat into the ring for the race to become Nigeria's next president. He's young, educated and forward looking and has set up a blog to boost his campaign. I like his youth, his laidback nature (witness his sax playing at public events accompanied by vocals from his elegant wife Onari) and his achievements in making Calabar, the state capital clean and vibrant. And his efforts to promote Calabar and Obudu as tourism destinations coupled with his investments in agriculture and education and the ambitious Tinapa free trade zone are all marks in his favour. And yet there are worrying issues as well- he's very close to Obasanjo for one and has had bitter falling-outs with rivals and supporters alike in his eight years as governor. But then that is in the nature of politics and perhaps Nigeria needs an adept political player to make the compromises that leading such a complex nation demands. I'll be watching to see when he begins to put forward a manifesto.....compared to many of the other contenders though, he's looking quite attractive..

Last night I had a late meeting and then drinks and dinner with colleagues, one of whom is going through a divorce at the moment. He's had an affair and his wife has kicked him out. He admits that the affair was only the symptom of a deeper malaise- his chafing at a number of things which he now wishes he had been brave enough to confront rather than taking what he calls the coward's way out....

Bush now looks like he's going to be forced to change his UN ambassador as well. He thought he was being smart appointing him while Congress was on recess and so bypassing the need for their approval. Now with the shift in the balance of power and time running out, he'll need to come up with someone more acceptable to both parties..... Ah the joys of democracy!

Poppy brouhaha, farewell to Rummy, no to IBB, missing Gukira& looking for a new mobile network

I remember as a child in Nigeria the teacher selling and us wearing red poppies in primary school. I'm not sure I knew what they were for but I remember pulling at the black disc in the centre which always reminded me of a sweet, and I remember my shock that it was plastic. I was probably about four then. Looking back I suppose that was when Nigeria still remembered its war heroes on the 11th of November following the British tradition honouring the end of the First World War on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918. Later it switched to the 15th of January, honouring I think the end of the Nigerian civil war or the military coup of 1966- not sure which. Similarly instead of the poppies, we had red vaguely heartshaped symbols with the Nigerian flag and a bleeding heart in the middle. This tradition continues.....I give this history because poppies are in the news here in London- yesterday in the free Metro newspaper given out on the tube, a certain person wrote in from Doncaster chastizing non-white Britons for not wearing the poppy. She/he argued that he had noticed that it was mostly whites who wore the poppy and stressed that the soldiers whose memory the poppies honoured had died for everyone- white and non-white. There were no figures to back his assertion- just something he/she had noticed. Predictably it drew angry responses today, one chastizing the correspondent for trying to turn the whole thing into a race issue and others attacking the broad generalizations in his statement. Another black person said he/she refused to wear the poppy because the contributions of non-white soldiers had been ignored by the British establishment...and so it went on. Then on the radio this morning, a Christian group Ecclesia called for a white poppy, which Christian pacifists could wear, arguing that the red poppy glorified war and blood....... I wore a poppy last week on my way to a meeting in Scotland, simply because I felt sorry for the elderly veteran selling them outside the train station. But on getting to my meeting I was the only person under 40 wearing one- never mind that I was the only black person in the room.....who'd have thought poppies could cause such a fuss?

Rumsfeld's gone and I cannot hide my glee. In many ways he epitomized the casual, sneering arrogance of the Bush administration and this was evident in many of his photographs- or perhaps I just imagined the sneering smugness driven by my antipathy to his utterances and policies. I wonder though if it isn't a deft move by Dubya to put the Democrats on the wrong foot... A kind of "Okay you asked for Rummy to go and he's gone, watcha gonna do about Iraq now?" The new nominee for Defence secretary is described as a realist where Rumsfeld was a neo-con ideologue so perhaps good things may yet come from this...

In what was obviously a sad moment for Nigeria, the amoral military dictator- almost single handedly responsible for entrenching a kleptocratic culture in Nigeria- picked up a nomination form for the presidential primaries of the People's Democratic Party yesterday. With his glamorous fashion-plate Evita-like wife beaming at his side he spoke eloquently as always of how he had come to seek the votes of the Nigerian people. Knowing him and his Machiavellian tendencies, I worry for my country and am almost driven to make the kind of vow that die hard military apologists made in the hey day of the Abacha regime, when they swore to leave Nigeria if Abacha was not allowed to continue as President. I cannot help thinking that if, we Nigerians by omission or commission allow Babangida to return to power it will make it difficult for many not to be convinced that the country has a death wish....He says he believes in democracy - let us tell him in no uncertain terms that we want no part of him and his cabal. Any of our IT whizzes up for an anti-IBB website?

Meanwhile Omoyele Sowore of Saharareporters continues to serve up stories of the misdeeds of Obasanjo's close aide Andy Uba who was indicted in the US for bringing in USD 170 000 undeclared in cash on the presidential jet. The court documents can be seen here http://saharareporters.com/eLibrary/
As long as people like these continue to be clasped close to OBJ's expansive bosom, and continue to be promoted for higher office (in Uba's case as governor of belaguered Anambra State) his frequent anti-corruption noises will continue to ring hollow in the ears of people like me, even if foreigners are taken in.....

Returning to the blogosphere, I note a gap where Gukira, the highminded, beautifully written blog of Keguro Macharia, a Kenyan postgraduate student in the US used to be. He tells me he's concentrating on his dissertation and will be back. I have however stumbled, courtesy of Jeremy of Naijablog on Funmi Iyanda's blog http://fiyanda.blogspot.com/ . Years ago, I loved Funmi's column in Tempo, the Lagos evening newspaper . Called Jisting, the writings of an opinionated female- it hit the spot totally. Ah the ebb and flow of the blogosphere....

Finally I would appreciate recommendations for a mobile telephone provider in the UK, having had it up to here with Orange. Right now I have a headache having been on hold for twenty five minutes and then being passed from Directory Enquiries to Billing and back trying to sort out errors on my bill. I'm finally told to write a complaint to a given address as this is the only way they deal with complaints- a mobile phone company asks me to write a letter- not call? Not even threatening to leave the network wakes them up....They claim it's the same with all the other networks but if anyone knows a network that at least picks up their customer service number within 10 minutes, please let me know..... (I know 10 minutes is still a lot but Orange have forced me not to aim too high)......Dang if I had a couple of hundreds of million quid maybe I could set up my own all singing and dancing customer focused network....

Mulling over paradoxes, unhugged hoodie and sneaking lunch

Still haunted by the plane crash and asking myself whether it's time to head home, so frustrated by all the ineptitude and madness. And then as I toss and turn and mull over this decision, there's the rational voice saying "Yes, I appreciate your desire to contribute and your frustration but what exactly are you going to do when you get there?" I suppose I could try and get a job with one of the new telecomms companies or the new mega super banks or join the 4X4 driving brigade of NGO employees....or what? Or perhaps I could run for local government chairman- but then I'd need to win the party nomination first and spend lavishly and maybe not even get elected..... or perhaps I should wait a bit more and try and do an Okonjo Iweala- ie build up your international credentials to a point where you can leverage them as bargaining chips into a position where you can actually achieve some change- but even then look how she ended up....

Work is as hectic as ever, interspersed by a visit to Buckingham Palace and the paradoxical pleasure in saying to the taxi driver "Buckingham Palace please" and walking up the red carpeted gilt encrusted hallways and stairways to the drawing room and meeting the Queen- she's small and bustling and grandmotherly with a dazzling warm smile that vaguely reminds me of my own late departed grandmother- even though their lives couldn't have been more different. I suppose that's the essence of the human, or maybe I'm just star-struck. I feel less guilty about this than I did at the time because even some of my more senior tightlipped English colleagues did confess to a frisson of excitement at the prospect of being in the palace and in the presence of Her Majesty.....

The paradox of Anambra State underlines the paradox of Nigeria. The news that the first female governor has been sworn in should ordinarily be a thing of joy until you begin to read of the sordid machinations that led to the "impeachment" of the substantive government and how half the impeachment panel and the Chief Judge all come from the new "governor's" village. I met the impeached governor Peter Obi once in London and was struck by how impressive, human and humble he appeared. I was also impressed by his sticking through for three years with the legal case after he was rigged out in 2003 and finally taking up office only this year. And then this.....

It's cold on the streets of London now, feels like someone turned on a huge airconditioning system- one minute it was warm and we were walking about in thin cotton shirts and then the next it's out with the heavy gear- the scarves, the gloves and the hats and caps. I'm just sticking to my very warm hoodie picked up in Vancouver earlier in the year...it's brilliant- a garment for all seasons.....I haven't had many hugs though in spite of David Cameron's hug-a hoodie exhortations....I live in hope....

Have just finished Aminatta Forna's Ancestor Stones- the story of four women growing up in Sierra Leone. It's beautifully written in lyrical almost poetic language but the chop and change between the lives of the four sisters is sometimes difficult to keep up with......

Have discovered a new place for lunch tucked away in the basement of an office building- the most fantastic Thai food- egg fried rice, vegetables and a meat dish( changing every day) I suspect it should not really be open to the public (is a canteen for workers) but I was taken there by a colleague and have not been accosted yet on my frequent return visits to the venue.... and the food is so delicious that I keep going back each lunchtime. It certainly beats the sandwich man...

Good to hear the news from the US elections. After the elections in 2004 when I stayed up till 12 30 and then went to bed thinking Kerry had won, and then waking up to learn that Dubya had won a second term I promised not to bother this time. At a meeting on Monday I was sitting next to an American who was surreptitiously filling in her postal vote- she voted Democrat I was pleased to notice and I flashed her a smile and a thumbs up....so waking up to the news that the Democrats had taken control of the House was good. At least hopefully the smug arrogance of Dubya and his team cannot continue- they will need to engage and negotiate which is no bad thing for democracy. I'm not sure why I'm so passionate about the US elections but I remember getting into heated arguments with some Nigerian friends and relatives in the US in 2004 who were going to vote for Bush because of his position on "family values" When he won, I couldn't bring myself to speak to some of them for a while.....

Meanwhile on Iraq, the Democrats say a change in policy is needed but stops short of calling for withdrawal. The other side says we must not cut and run with one gentleman saying that there will be scenes reminiscent of Saigon in a few months as a result of the Democratic victory. I was on the anti-war march in London with 99,999 others but I honestly do not know what the way forward is- either way it seems there will continue to be mayhem and bloodshed in the area for a while to come....

Too numb to blog

Has anyone seen the manifest for the aeroplane that crashed in Nigeria on Sunday? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

It was like deja vu, Sunday morning leaving church, phone vibrates. Plane crash in Nigeria, Sultan of Sokoto feared among the victims. Run home and switch on the television, BEN TV (the so-called Nigerian network) showing some cash madam's birthday party in some church hall in London. BBC News 24 and Sky News only talking about the two children found dead in Corfu and then the twenty people killed in Iraq that day. Absurd as it sounds I begin to compare body counts. My disaster is bigger than yours- 104 bodies versus 20 something versus......I know I know don't blame me just so frustrated especially as I can't seem to get through to my folks in Naija. Finally get through and they have only just heard....Finally catch something on CNN. Only the next day do I begin to realize that people I know have been on that flight. Been in a state of shock ever since. Trawling the Naija blogs today, there's a welter of opinions. I am numb. What does it take I ask you, what does it take for my people to say thus far and no more?

In another month or so it will back to business as usual....until the next time?

I feel so helpless, so numb