mmoa_writes

 Some interesting articles:

'Why Democracy is always unfair' - New Scientist is on a roll it seems.

'First past the post is a rubbish electoral system'  -  I generally like Tom Harris; it's always weird to read the political opinions of a politician who actually believes them, but it's a good weird. This sermon certainly provides plenty of food for thought.

*

Father is still stuck in Nigeria as the seven days mourning has commenced and pretty much everything is shut up. However, there seems to be no sign of the insane and bloody rioting taking place as the BBC promised. Oh you. Don't ever change *grumbles*...

 Nigeria and the politics of massacre

EDIT: Now I have my issues with JKR, but I really loved this article.

God-fucking-damn. God-fucking-DAMN.

WTF is wrong with these people?
( No really. What. The. Fuck.  )

 Whatever happened to Jim Gaffigan? Did he get to Hollywood in the end? He used to be one of my favourites. I've also completely forgotten John Lenaham, who did this bizarre sketch levitating a spliff with Rick Wakeman doing the music. Genius.

• This is one of those 'what a coincidence' sort of posts considering Clinton's Nigerian 'tour' was all over the newspapers (mostly concerning the current situation in the oil producing Delta State). I was surprised to see a US politician talking to leaders of a third world nation without any mention of aid in lieu of foreign policy and I'm hoping this is a continuing trend for the Obama administration.
• Another writer whose books I have to order. Between hers and Milton Davis' recs, I suspect I now have a new library in the making.
• Yet another uncannily relevant post from an awesome blog. Not really much else to say really!

We travelled so much over the course of the holiday. I loved it, but my siblings didn't appreciate the heat (one afternoon in Onitsha market was actually insane. Everyone - including my aunt - was just excreting gallons of the stuff. It looked like we'd been caught in the rain which for Onitsha, is actually just as likely).

Starting from the furthest (erm... to Lagos), ( Read more... )

...Nigeria. 

I have to admit this was the first trip that I felt genuinely sad to be returning to England. It helped that for the first time in living memory, a lack of family feuding meant we got to meet with a lot more of the family - particularly those of our own age - and that I actually got to do the sort of things that count as a 'good time' for me (museums, theatres and the like). Admittedly, considering we were there for a month and a bit, I didn't do nearly enough to make up for missing this Summer's Art festival in Manchester, but it was a start. Now that the main problems have been smoothed over, the next time we go, I'll be seeing a lot more, hopefully. And learning a lot more as well.

( Impressions )

One for the lols: http://www.newsbiscuit.com/

Thursday evening saw me at a 'Representing You Better' event hosted by Sadiq Khan at the House of Commons. He's our local Labour MP who also happens to be the first Muslim to be elected onto the Cabinet. It was quite short but in an hour and half, they packed in four amazing speakers starting off with Dawn Butler the Labour representative for Brent, then Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham, Simon Woolley from Operation Black Vote and finally the ever delectable Oona King.

( A few observations... )

At one point they mentioned Diane Abbott would be paying a visit, which would have been awesomeness incarnate. Unfortunately I never caught sight of her, though in retrospect, that's probably a good thing. I would have just embarrassed myself with my unhealthy knowledge of the 'This Week' programme.

EDIT: Doing my daily blog roll and I came upon this wonderful post on Gilroy's opinions concerning the state of black Britain. Funny how these things happen.

Also found this excellent article from the Left Luggage blog. Although it is focusing on class interests, I think it's relevant to all groups within the spectrum of the left, be they class based, racial, religious or other.

I ought to stop editing now because there are a couple of other posts I've been meaning to write but reading about the recent movements of the Nigerian Humanist Society made me want to stand up and dance. Once upon a time, this was the sort of thing that the churches would have also dug their teeth into but with the likes of Akinola running the show those days are long gone. I wonder if any of the traditional religious groups are also taking a stand as for too long, they either haven't spoken out or have been ignored when they do about the malpractices within various new cults. The myth of the 'satanic' cult simply fuels the crazy-eyed evangelicals and attracts the desperate to the congregations of these despicable 'witch-hunting' pastors and the like.

Tai Solarin.