simply oroque's view

i haven't wrriten in a while...clearly, the country has fallen into even lower depths of disrepair that its difficult to pick any single subject to write on. plus, the rains have made it even worse...and all the wedding bells tolling around me can't have helped my mood either. so yesterday i was on my way home and running through the radio stations (really boring programming these days, i tell you), when i kept bumping into the "children's day" ads of varying degrees. each time i hear something about children's day, i'd stop to listen, in the vain hope that someone somewhere actually realizes that the day was set aside for adults to slow down and pay attention to kids around them...not a day to make parents feel guilty enough to be extorted all in the name of "making the children happy". it was grinding to listen to the pathetic presenters announing one new party or the other where kids stand to win great prizes if their parents buy them somethin...

no prologue. "about 500 mentally challenged patients of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos took to the streets as their nurses and health care workers went on strike" yesterday. there are some things about nigeria thats leaves me agape. how much money can the nurses be fighting for that would be worth the anguish that family members of these mentally challenged people will face when they cannot locate them? can the allowances, increases and surpluses ever assuage a child whose mad mother is probably on her way to ibadan now and will never be found again? do we think of the consequences of our actions BEFORE we carry them out? President of the resident doctors association says: "there is no need for the relatives of the patients to panic as the situation would return to normal soon.". Really? You just said that? wow. No epilogue

i really do not have much to say today. and untrue to type, there's nothing to moan about...its not because nigeria has suddenly got it all right, but because i stumbled on the interview by a man i admire - pascal dozie. because of the pedestal i place him, i am proud to have any inkling of similarity with his mindset, positions, beliefs or philosophy but i won't fake it. so you can imagine my joy when he was quoted as saying (in reference to his wife of 40 years): "we became such good friends, we took marriage as a natural. what was important to me was finding somebody i could have physical and spiritual attraction to, somebody i could stay with without the need for a third party...love comes after marriage. if love came before marriage, there will be no divorce. love is not an emotional thing, it is a will thing". - Guardian May 14 2009, pg 13. it may have occured to you that i can write an entire thesis in human psychology from these simple words. they are powerful...

considering how stoical men of the nigerian army are potrayed, i was really surprised to read on page 65 of the Guardian of Wednaesday May 13 2009, a response from a certain Lt.Col Adegbenro to the many public queries (ably led by defence counsel to the accused soldiers, femi falana) on the incredulous life sentence handed down on the 27 soldiers who had the audacity to ask that the right thing be done. in a country rife with unbridled corruption, none of the many excuses given by this questionably knowledgeable gentleman sufficed to quell the many question marks that have arisen as a result of the sentence handed down by the military tribunal. short of boring you with the excerpts of his monologue, it went from insulting the intelligence of any member of the public that was sane enough to query the basis of the sentence (by calling them "sympathisers...poorly educated on military norms") - to calling the respected femi falana a man that has "carried am image of himself ...

for some reason, it took this site ages to open today. maybe blogger.com is experiencing the same kind of inertia that i have been feeling since friday. but anyways, there's something to moan about so here i am. so today i was reading the dailies when i stumbled upon the headline - "Swine Flu: 'We're Ready', says FG". Now, everyone knows i'm a strong believer in the nigerian government and the fact that they do give us reason to hope. but i couldn't bear the question in my heart alone and so i read out the phrase to my colleagues in the office. surprisingly (not to me), they asked the very question on my lips...'ready for what?'. To be fair to the Federal Government, they know how not to be too specific in their bragging. this often gives them space to manoveur when it eventually becomes clear that it was yet again another empty assurance. it brings back memories of the bird flu. all i heard at the time was that a farm in osogbo had been culled...