simply oroque's view

Dear Reader, It appears blogger.com is on its way out. It will always be my first intro to blogging and holds a special place in my heart. However I cannot run two blog sites at once and have to move away from here permanently. My new site is: https://simplyoroquesview.blog/ This will stay up as long as possible but with no further blog posts or updates. See you at my new site! RQ

Look at this picture. That's one of the children being rescued from a collapsed school building in Lagos, Nigeria. You don't have a be a parent and I won't pander to your better instincts. Tell me this is acceptable or should be allowed to occur again. The President sent condolence messages and the Governor visited the site then said the state emergency services will do all they can cliched response. the end. and people moved on. The heartbreaking pictures of the children pulled out half dazed with cement dust all over their little noses (Exhibit A) did not let me sleep last night. I have gone to drop a comment on the governor's pages on all social media platforms that we need #MoreThanPlatitudes 🚫❌ We need to hear what policy changes are triggered by the death of these babies. The Commissioner of Education must address Lagosians and set up a project team with the Commissioner for Works or Town Planning etc to undertake an immediate structural integrity test...

With the global movement shifting women forward, making them outspoken and addressing negative patriarchal activities that have gone on for decades...it has been a great year for moving women forward. The concept of gender equality is now universally accepted and even religious leaders have come to openly embrace the concept as not being against godly teachings. The place of the woman is now everywhere, no more is her definition of success measured by the ability to be submissive to a man or to cook and iron and clean. And although feminism is still under attack in half the world where conservative traditional way of life still holds sway, there has been immense improvement in female child education, reduction of female genital mutilation, plus girl child marriage and trafficking is being fought head on. It is a great time to be a woman. This year, companies and corporate organizations around the world are making a conscious effort to balance the pay gap in the workplace. When H...

Verdict: ⭐⭐ (Two Stars) I guess the track that best sums up Timaya's new musical offering would be "I Can't Kill Myself"...a very apt reminder to the music-buying audience that he will only do the barest minimum to ensure he remains relevant even where there is potential to do more. In this 9 track album where the artist has such great songs as "Stoopid", "Balance" and "I can't kill myself", Timaya has stopped short of merely coughing into a studio mic, posing for a picture in the same studio and releasing it all as an album, under the pretext that the Nigerian music industry is at its most abysmal in terms of content. And he is not alone in this half arsed attempt at hoodwinking the music listening audience, with foot-tapping beats and mundane lyrics that are palatable in a night club after a few too many drinks. 2018 into early 2019 has not been a solid year for hits that we can be proud of from the entire gamut of Nigerian Art...

I got a new niece a month ago. Her name is Grace and she is absolutely wonderful. for those who know a bit about my extended life, I have 4 strapping nephews who will use up a quarter of your life span if you spend one hour with them. So it was beyond delightful that a girl finally came along. Everyone had thought I would get my act together and be the one to have the first female grandchild in the family...yes, you can laugh now. so I was looking at her when I went for her naming ceremony after she was born. As I held her, all tiny and squiggly with her minute involuntary tics without a care in the world, I wondered at what point fear would creep in. I know it is a weird thing to ponder at an event like that but I often juxtapose the innocence of newborns with the intensity of adult life. As soon as I left the event and got in my car on the way to the office, my brain switched back to all the worries: would i make it back in time for that meeting i cannot afford to miss? am i re...

You know, i struggle with the concept of 'forgive and forget'... and yes my insomnia is in high gear as usual, so i shall blog the thoughts keeping me awake tonight. As you likely have already been told countless times from childhood when you are angry at someone, you are meant to exhibit a 'higher moral standard' than the person who has hurt you by forgiving and forgetting. The entire concept is supposedly premised on countless religions, complete with the balderdash that you are actually hurting yourself even more by not doing so. Don't get me wrong, i don't believe you need to carry mental baggage around with you for years while the person who has hurt you most likely forgot about it the moment after. The truth is that people who offend others usually either unintentionally do it and as such may not even be aware of the pain they have left behind...or they actually intended the offence and have received the satisfaction they desired the moment you got hur...

So today I am very busy but I'm in such a good mood and decided to branch here before my work really starts. Why am i in such a good mood, you might ask? I'd rather not tell you but since you insist...I had sex last night. 😳 oh no no, contrary to your stereotypical thinking, I am single and not in a relationship. And yes, I had unbridled coitus (as Sheldon on Big Bang Theory likes to call it). And wow, it shook everything loose and cleared cobwebs. I have been laughing at everything and discovering new music that has always been on my playlist. 😂😂 too much information? 😋 well, yes that's the entire intention. I find the African attitude to sex to be extremely hypocritical and detrimental to social advancement as a whole. As someone once joked, African parents spend your entire growing up telling you to avoid the opposite gender and how sex will kill you and how you will burn in hell and have your destiny stolen by being unequally yoked etc etc and then you turn 23 and...

So I got tired of making the same old new year resolutions that were focused on weight loss and other things largely outside my control. This year I decided to take my company a little more seriously. Yes. I incorporated a company last year largely in memory of my mum who passed in 2015. As I reflected on her life and the things that were important to her, I knew that a life of charity and benevolence was all she lived for. I took that from her. Anyone who knows me in reality knows I thrive on generosity. The more I have to give out to people who really need it, the happier I am. All I pray for is the life, health and prosperity to take this to the levels that my mum would, had she been here. And it starts with MILROQZEE. You see her name was Mildred and I call myself Roqzee so yeah...no deep anything behind that name. My mum was a Christian missionary in the real sense of the word. As a missionary pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God, we found ourselves in the out...

Today of all days I learnt that a lot of things are in your mind. And that the mind is a very powerful thing. It is responsible for what you think you see and perceive. It can make you demented. It can make you feel sick. It can make you hopeful and untouchable. So the shortest story you ever heard. Last week I had to get my wisdom teeth pulled. I had procrastinated for over 6 months at least, and just kept managing it until it kept me up all night twice in one week, forcing me to the dentists' office. First thing, as every child knows, the dentist is not a pleasant place. It is a place of metallic instruments clanking against enamel teeth. The sensation is barely tolerable (damn the stupid lollipop) and you grow up with this fear. (cthoman/Getty Images) And so the very thought of pulling my teeth was almost as painful as the ensuing toothache. And the pain of toothache is intense. At some point it feels like a nervous breakdown and everything from the side of your neck a...

Happy New Year people! 💯💥🔥 It's always common euphoria once a new year rolls around. We spend days anticipating and planning. Many of us who have specific ways of ushering in the turn of time do so with either a large dose of sober reflection, or the celebratory equivalent. Whichever way, many of us spend a lot of mental energy trying to figure out how we can be better, do better or improve on areas that did not seem to go as planned in the outgoing year.  So why is it that we wait till exactly the end of one period of time before we compel ourselves to change certain things? Why does the sunset of one normal day and the sunrise of the next suddenly inspire us to want better?  I've heard some people argue that it is the human nature as a thinking being, to self analyze and course correct towards the goal of self preservation for the longest possible time. Essentially there is nothing altruistic about this. The passage of time brings us more experience that ...