simply oroque's view

you know, its amazing how things change overnight. i have often wondered why people who are famous never seem to get the rule right when faced with a scandal or public condemntation. i was one of those who thought at every stage of ndi okereke's obama dinner saga - when she made a point of responding to every single article written on the matter in almost every newspaper - that she should have kept silent long before she did. now i realize its easier said than done. twas this same me, who went on a tirade of sorts when the results of the nigerian blog awards were announced. i didn't let them hear the last of it. i made one (okay a few) tweets on twitter trying to play the part of the 'sore loser', just to create some memorable drama to an otherwise successful award show. although the process of the awards needed some tweaking, i am better able to coordinate my expressions than to come out unintentionally, as a sore loser. and so, i half expected that anyone reading th...

this phrase has been written about for many years, and from my little knowledge appears to be a rhyme i must have learnt many years ago. for me, it simply reflects the irony of nature that sometimes we can have excess of a natural resource but none good enough for any useful purpose. well, the phrase is apt for the pictures i have been inundated with since the rains of sunday 9th july in lagos. and then you wonder why many children hate going to school and drop out at the slightest opportunity. if i had to go through this just to sit through hours of (what used to be) boring noisy and crap mathematics class, i probably would have dropped out ages ago too. sad. picture 2 just kills me. i don't want to think of ringworm infestation cos i'm about to go and have lunch but imagine if these children get home to non-challant parents who dont get back home till night time anyways. its just a matter of time. and imagine if one of those kids falls into, and gulps some of that wat...

i'm hard pressed not to write about the nigerin blog awards but (i) it wont be fair to all my readers and people who took the time to vote for this blog (ii) i still don't understand my mental state when i decided to participate in it and (iii) i'm as bitter as a older wives meeting a new wife for the first time. to cut a morbid story short: i did not win a damn acknowledgement (much less an award). after all my toiling, having to degrade myself to the point of begging for votes from people who i really never wanted to know about my blog or read the contents thereof, after making people i hold in extreme high regard leave their daily activities and set out to vote for something so trivial, and aafter i waited ages for the darn result to be announced, i still didn't win a matchstick. i know there is something called graciously accepting the results of a competition when it doesn't go your way, but please. i'll probably never have a reason to spew out the diat...

i am writing this blog post for the records and to peg the date for future reference. for the fifth time since i moved into my flat in february 2010, i had less than 2 hours of sleep on a weeknight. as always, i have come to work very grudgy and sleep deprived and it is one of the days when i have to be alert. i am caught between a rock and a hard place and hope that writing it out will aid me in finding a solution. so last night, i went to bed early. i was very exhausted after a day that didn't appear to end. i had back to back meetings and had to send off quite a few terse emails and letters. i remember praying throughout the day that God should not let anything go wrong with any of the assignments i have been given, and in the car i asked martin to turn up the airconditioner as my head seemed to be hot. so, it was all i could do yesterday to sleep off as soon as my head hit the pillow at 8.30pm. suddenly i woke up. my eyes flew wide open and all sleep instantly left. it was ...

i need to get an iPhone. not because they have improved from their first version many years ago, or because they have any groundbreaking technology (as a matter of fact i am very irritated by their planned obsolescence and think they should be penalized) but because i miss the moments when i could take close up pictures silently without any flash giving me away. like the many things i witnessed at the immigration passport office yesterday. Some things are better seen to be believed. first off, as soon as i was ushered in, i immediately got the sense that i had been tricked into a group of alcoholics anonymous. it was a sea of fake hair, bleached skin, faker accents and gypsy dressing. you would not believe. right after i took my seat a lady was ushered into the room in the shortest shorts and tightest top you can imagine. to be fair, she had the body to pull it off and i had to control the need to stare after her when she passed me but my awe died as soon as s...