The Road not taken

Hi all, 
Enjoy. Have a blessed week

Heroes
We are all fascinated with heroes and heroines. I fantasize about becoming superhuman and saving the world. I guess that is why the Marvel movies (Dark Knight, Iron man, Avengers, and now Superhuman) resonate with us. I find it interesting that people would believe in Spider-man types  than believe  that Jesus is the Saviour. We even call miracles- Providence! I watch these movies and see similarities in the characters and the faith i profess. The only difference is that Jesus would not destroy property to save 2 people. Some scenes and quotes in Superman have stuck with me so here we go. 

-  Jor el's ( Russel Crowe) speech on freedom of choice

- After Clark was bullied, his dad asked how he was doing and he says "Dad I wanted to hurt him, I wanted to hurt him bad and his dad replied then what and said  "You’re not just anyone.  One day, you’re going to have to make a choice.  You have to decide what kind of man you want to grow up to be.Whoever that man is, good character or bad, it’s going to change the world"

" Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith first, the trust part comes later"

"People are afraid of what they don't understand"

The road less travelled
There are two routes that link the highway home. I noticed that there is always traffic on the straight and smooth road home whilst the bumpy-three-potholes- route has no traffic. I have ruminated on why people wait in that traffic for the green light when the other route is faster. I have attributed drivers' behaviour to 2 things. First, the road is smoother and second is the i-am-already-here- let's-just- wait mentality and its sister what-if-the-other-side-is blocked. I believe people adopt the same attitude towards life. We fear changes, we are content in our comfort zone and would avoid the uncertainty of trying a new path. Like Robert Frost wrote in the Road not Taken, Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference. For me, the difference is that I get home in good time.

Answers anyone

Why do we start requests with "Sorry to bother you" "Apologies for disturbing you" and still go ahead with the request?
Why does the brazenness of "First Lady's" office  increase as a new first lady emerges? We thought there was no one like Mariam Abacha, there was respite with Fati Abubakar and since then, successive first ladies have surprised us with the powers they commandeer. 

See you next week.

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Answers Anyone?

Does lack or deprivation give you a sense of entitlement and the right to expect others do things for you? I ask because on my way home from work I see vagrants who “wash” windscreens expecting you to tip them or just gather around your window begging you for money. These vagrants “select” the people they approach. They would stand around your car window pray and wheedle you. If you do not give them money, they would curse you and leave; if you do, they would still retort something along the lines of you-know-you-will-give-us-money- and-you- made- us- wait-so-long. Likewise, support staff (read: drivers, security men, helps, cleaners, nannies) believe that they are allowed to cheat you, disregard you and not appreciate when you bend over backwards for them  for because you live a better life and it is their right.

Does their sense of deprivation (assumed or real) give them right to the i-am-entitled-to-something-from-you and “you owe me I am taking what is mine” mindset?  Or do the wealthy- the struggling,  the wannabes and truly wealthy owe them?

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Civility

  "We actually tried free will before. After taking you from hunting and gathering to the height of the Roman Empire, we stepped back to see how you'd do on your own. You gave us the dark ages for five centuries until finally we decided we should come back in. The Chairman thought that maybe we just needed to do a better job with teaching you how to ride a bike before taking the training wheels off again. So we gave you raised hopes, enlightment, scientific revolution. For six hundred years we taught you to control your impulses with reason. Then in nineteen ten, we stepped back. Within fifty years you'd brought us world war one, the depression, fascism, the holocaust and capped it off by bringing the entire planet to the brink of destruction in the Cuba missile crisis. At that point the decision was taken to step back in again before you did something that even we couldn't fix".(from the movie the Adjustment Bureau) 

Just an observation I thought to share. It either we are not a civil people and our bad manners was exposed and amplified by social media or that the anonymity of social media has made us lose our manners. Comments on Internet forums, sites and new media both Nigerian and non-Nigerian show disregard for others. The level of incivility displayed is appalling.  The going attitude is my-way-or-the-highway and I-am-always-right-so-therefore…. (fill in the gap). I wonder the consequences of these new values we appear to imbibe.

Everyone is the final authority on everything and is right. The accessibility of the Internet and the ability to do things at the click of a button should come with a sense of responsibility and not recklessness. We can agree to disagree but we should remember to respect one another the same way we would if we are strangers meeting one another for the first time. I wonder why people behave the way they do and I think it is because of:

- The anonymity the Internet affords: I can open multiple accounts with different names and troll sites because most sites do not require identification. If one had to use real names, the case would be different. Recently, a troll in the US was outed. This user was very disrespectful to other users. However, when he was outed, he claimed to be the opposite of his virtual life

- Frustration: A lot of us are idle and frustrated and related to above we easily pick on others. Again related to the above, the Internet affords people an outlet to vent and transfer aggression on others. For instance, someone tweets that my opinion is A, rather than ignore you insult the person.

- Morbidity:  Bad behavior exists on the Internet exists because people are just so morbid that they get thrills from hurting others.

- The herd mentality (follow- follow) also promotes bad behavior on the Internet. Nigerian Internet forums especially Twitter is a case in point. Lola that is my twitter overlord disagrees with Seyi on some issue. Therefore, as a voltron of Lola it is my duty to attack Seyi. Unfortunately for Seyi, Lola has 100,000 followers. Just imagine the censure/ bashing that is sent Seyi’s way.

Anyways, that quote is up there because unlike Thompson and the chairman tried to do, humans are not robots, we have freewill BUT it is up to us to determine what we do with that freewill. Do we want to live and let live whilst still being our brothers keeper? Or do we continue to put down one another?

 Wars have been started, lives have been lost and relationships destroyed because of the wrong word. Incivility is an ill wind that bears no good.

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Writing out loud

This post is a short one on questions I wonder about.

I wonder if our culture and values are predicated on Africa’s poor economic situation. I wonder what our values would be like when Africa becomes economically prosperous. Would women be regarded as people or would they still be seen as properties? Would we be as religious as we are now when we have good roads, water etc.? Would parents still instill the values of honesty, respect and integrity in their children? Would children still respect and honour their parents. Would parents have to depend on their savings or whatever form of social security we come up with?

I ask these questions because a review of the West shows that at a point in the history of Western countries, we shared the same values.  Issues such as corruption, underdevelopment marital and domestic abuse, religiosity - the whole phase we are currently - was the Western Experience.  The West industrialized  and things changed. Western countries became better developed such that even though issues such as corruption and domestic abuse still exists, there are remedies available to address it. This is unlike the African situation where we are sitting ducks

Lets also take a look at China (minus her unique democratic ideal and system of government). The nature of china’s economic development is  different yet similar to that of the West.  The country has been able to retain her  values whilst rapidly growing and improving the life of her citizens. At some point we should achieve economic growth that would translate into higher standards of living. However, I wonder if we would retain our current values like China or follow the West and become “modernized”

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Boko Haram: Is the Nigerian Government this helpless?

After about three weeks of respite, Boko Haram (BH) struck again. Nigerian security agencies anticipated these  attacks and stated that adequate security would be provided and they were ready to quell BH attacks. Yet, BH struck successfully. The Easter sunday attacks in Kaduna left between thirty to fifty people dead.
Two things are known about BH. First is they are not spirits, they are known. President Jonathan has said so himself. Second is that  BH menace is political. For instance, how do we explain why BH, an organization against western education, is suddenly concerned with the pay of legislators and has issued threats to the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC)? or that they attack christians and defenseless people and not the pillagers of their communities?
There is nothing to say or write about BH that has not been said or written. I wonder if the government is truly helpless in containing this group or if the government is unwilling addressing this problem. There are many conspiracy theories I can think of on why the government has failed to effectively deal with BH. Methinks that the government does not truly care.  It would be saddening if all these lives are lost and the government begins an amnesty program to "reform" BH members. It would be truly sad. 

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