Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Missing Nigeriaworld, and musing on terrorist piss-taking

For the second day running, Nigeriaworld, arguably the most popular and comprehensive Nigerian news and current affairs website is down. It's strange how easily you become attached to a website. I'm used to going there first thing to read all the Nigerian newspapers. As it's down, I've had to go the individual papers' websites which is a whole lot less efficient. I wonder what the problem is. Initially when I tried getting into Nigeriaworld and failed and then tried the Thisday and Guardian websites without any luck, I wondered if it was some conspiracy related to the third term manoeuvrings in Abuja....but then I was able to get into the Guardian and Thisday websites and realized that nothing earthshaking had happened as yet. The inability to get any sort of information about why the site is down, is frustrating, as I'm sure it is for thousands of others. Plus, the owners of the site must be losing money judging from the inordinate number of pop-ups that littered the site when it was still up.....in any case I hope they're back online soon....(sans pop-ups)

On the radio this morning, lawyers for a man found guilty of terrorist acts in Jordan, but currently living in the United Kingdom, are reported to be fighting to prevent his being deported to Jordan as they say he is likely to be tortured or killed there. Even though the Jordanian government has assured the UK government that this will not be the case, his lawyers insist that the agreement between the two countries is not worth the paper it's been written on.

I kind of understand the sentiments behind the lawyers' arguments and the importance of upholding the rule of law and civil liberties, but even my best liberal instincts can't help but feel that someone, as the English so eloquently put it "is taking the piss"....

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