₦airaland Forum

The most valid criticism of the Pope and the Church's hierarchy is that it was more interested in protecting the church's image than actually dealing fairly with the abuse victims. This is obviously a general problem with religion as religious institutions see their legitimacy as inextricably linked to their public image. In this respect, the church failed woefully.

Questions have been raised about the role of celibacy. This is for me a very daft question. There is little evidence linking paedophilia with celibacy. To the contrary, paedophilia is a pathological condition as common in non-celibate men, if not more so, than celibate men. S-ex abuse is as rife in secular institutions as they are in religious institutions.

In respect of criminal prosecutions against the Pope, this is more a case of clutching at straws as beyond the hyperbole, there is precious little evidence of criminal conduct on the part of the Pope.

bluespice:
how can you love someone in one month?

You haven't heard of love at first sight? Close minded woman.

1, Kindly introduce yourself (Provide as much info as you want to, and if you don't mind, your real name, age etc)

Name is Tochukwu. 28 years old. One of New Labour's public service pen-pushers and day trader(shocked our IT Dept have yet to notice!).

2, How did you join NL?

Think I googled something about Naija and stumbled upon the site. . . . No, I wasn't googling ''Naija po-rn''.

3, Do you agree with our list of NL legends or you have suggestions or something to chip in? Or to you, who is the greatest Nairalander of all time?

Becommrich is a legend of the mind-bending variety. Should be on the list.

4, Who is/are your favourite Nairalander(s)?

The big b-oobs gang: Lady T, Morenike, TOH and Tope2000.(In no particular order).

Osisi for her wit. Mukina for being a shameless Gunners suporter. The hermaphrodite(Kobojunkie) for no particular reason.

Those who bring some intellectual weight to the politics forum: RichyBlack, DavidDylan, Biina, Sagamite, Debosky, Ibime,e.t.c

The sports people: Sauron, Cristalz, that Kraut bas-tard(Dayokanu),e.t.c.

5, What is your assessment of NL as the forum clocks 5?

For me, the key attraction is the foreign affairs section which has gone off the boil. Hopefully, Obama can drop some bombs on Iran so we can party!

Nice place but it wears off after a while. Needs more moderators to keep pace with the users.

Seun's primary interest is the number of clicks on the site so it's about maximising quantity of users and in that respect, it's a successful site. If you want quality debates, you have to go somewhere else.

6, What do you enjoy about NL and how addicted are you to NL?

Discussing politics(when I'm not busy insulting people), the shameless and infantile flirting. I'm not addicted to NL at all.

7, How do you juggle between NL and your real life activities? Do you quote NL in your real lief activities? Do people around you knwo you are a a member of NL?

I don't use NL as often as before so there isn't much juggling involved.

Do I quote NL in real lifet? Perhaps, I might find some sapient NL quote that I might use in court but I sincerely doubt that. Could use of one of Doyin's shitty pick up lines in the real world.

People around me don't know I'm a member either.

8, What is the most useful info or knowledge you've gotten from Nairaland? Or better still is there any special thread that has impacted in your life?

I've met wonderful people from here, Coco29 in particular. Other folks as well like TOH who apparently is training to be a boxer, at least, judging for the blows she rained on me. Lady T, lovely woman with her incredibly sexy hiccups and burps.

9, Which section do you like most?

Foreign affairs/politics and any section discussing or comparing b-oobs.

10, If you are an old Nairalander, i.e 2005-2007 sets, what period on Nairaland do you enjoy most? Or better stillm, comapre NL of today with NL of 3, 4 years

I enjoyed it when I first came on because I had time on my hands and due to the novelty. It's not necessarily better or worse. It's natural that you can't maintain the same level of interest as you and other people move on with your lives.

PapaBrowne:
I think I disagree with Okonjo first on the budget analysis and then on the point where she notes that several steps have been taken by the CBN limit moral hazard

On the budget analysis, the question is Where are the pointers to the assumption that we would be seeing a dip in oil prices any time soon?. All the pointers indicate that oil prices would keep rising or at least stay on a high hovering between the $70-$80 range.
As it is now, demand keeps growing and as we enter the summer months, gasoline consumption would naturally drive demand even higher. There is no likelihood of a price dip in the nearest future. The last dip in oil price was as a result of the economic catastrophe. That is not likely to happen anytime soon again.
If at all prices dip, I don't see it is as so much of as problem in itself as we can always use the current excess we are having to mitigate against any potential fall.
I think though that the benchmark of $67 is a bit ambitious, however it does not in anyway signal the potential for failure in budget implementation.

I think you're right that the benchmark price is not reckless but the benchmark production figures, 2.35m barrels p/d, is a bit optimistic don't you think?

The other points she made about the budget are valid. I'm astonished by the huge deficits being run and the rapid depletion of the currency reserves. I think the FG's domestic debt is now about 30bn Naira and rising. Though mainly owed to domestic creditors, the danger is that continually issuing bonds locally crowds out private investment and the money raised is effectively wasted as little of it is capital expenditure.

The rumoured bid of former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) to contest the presidency in 2011 was yesterday confirmed in Awka, Anambra State capital as politicians commenced mobilisation of support for him.

Former state chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye who confirmed this shortly after a meeting of “The New Face Organization,” stated that IBB would in the nearest future be officially declared for the race.

Obi-Okoye who is the state coordinator of the organisation, told newsmen that members of the organisation across the country were only awaiting the principal’s formal declaration.

He said: “The presidential ambition of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida is one agenda we carry with a lot of passion. For a decade now, this country has not produced inspirational and charismatic leaders in the mould of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa and the likes of them.”

The former PDP boss also confirmed that preparations for IBB’s declaration had reached an advanced stage, just as coordinators and members of the campaign organizations were presently fine-tuning all other arrangements for the declaration which, according to him, would come up before the presidential primaries.

Speaking further on why they were mobilising support for the former leader, Obi-Okoye said, “In IBB we see a lot of hope for our generation and this country. His good-will cuts across ethnic barriers, class, religion, age and pedigree. His benevolence and charm is unprecedented.

So mind-numbingly irritating you can only laugh.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/apr/08/national-08-04-2010-009.htm

Inspired by the comment below in the thread linked here: https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-416598.64.html

only on a nigerian forum would you get daft threads like these.

why show off your  so-called 'qualifications' to faceless people on the net who care 0% what qualifications you have or don't have.

Next thing,we will have a thread asking us to declare our net-worth and bank balance.

I fear for una oooo

A bit of copy and paste but I thought it was an interesting article:

For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of.

Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisors and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman who spoke to the Prime Minister said today.

“It was awful,” the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting “a hazing in stages”, poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received “the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea”.

Left to talk among themselves, Mr Netanyahu and his aides retreated to the Roosevelt Room. He later spent a further half-hour with Mr Obama and extended his stay for a day of emergency talks aimed at restarting peace negotiations, but left last night with no official statement from either side. He returns to Israel dangerously isolated after what Israeli media have called a White House ambush for which he is largely to blame.

Sources said that Mr Netanyahu failed to impress Mr Obama with a flow chart purporting to show that he was not be responsible for the timing of announcements of new settlement projects in east Jerusalem. Mr Obama was said to be livid when such an announcement derailed Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel this month, and his anger towards Israel does not appear to have cooled.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, cast doubt on minor details in Israeli accounts of the meeting but did not deny claims that it amounted to a dressing down for the Prime Minister, whose refusal to freeze settlements is seen in Washington as the main barrier to resuming peace talks.

The Likud leader now has to try to square the demands of the Obama Administration with his nationalist, ultra-Orthodox coalition partners, who want him to stand up to Washington, even though Israel desperately needs US backing in confronting the looming threat of a nuclear Iran.

“The Prime Minister leaves America disgraced, isolated and altogether weaker than when he came,” the Israeli daily Ha'aretz said.

In their meeting Mr Obama set out a number of expectations that Israel was to satisfy if it wanted to end the crisis, Israeli sources said. These included an extension of the freeze on Jewish settlement growth beyond the 10-month deadline next September, an end to Israeli building projects in east Jerusalem, and even a withdrawal of Israeli forces to positions that they held before the Second Intifada in September 2000, after which they re-occupied most of the West Bank.

Newspaper reports recounted how Mr Netanyahu looked “excessively concerned and upset” as he pulled out a flow chart to show Mr Obama how Jerusalem planning permission worked and how he could not have known of the announcement that hundreds more homes were to be built just as Mr Biden arrived in Jerusalem.

Mr Obama then suggested that Mr Netanyahu and his staff stay on at the White House to consider his proposals, so that if he changed his mind he could inform the President right away. “I’m still around,” the Yediot Ahronot daily quoted Mr Obama saying. “Let me know if there is anything new.”

With the atmosphere so soured by the end of the evening, the Israelis decided that they could not trust the phone line they had been lent. Mr Netanyahu retired with his defence minister, Ehud Barak, to the Israeli Embassy to ensure the Americans were not listening in.

The meeting came barely a day after Mr Obama’s landmark health reform victory. Israel had calculated that he would be too tied up with domestic issues ahead of the mid-term elections to focus seriously on the Middle East.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076431.ece

To be fair, I don't think Obama was ever particularly enamoured by Israel so the faux pax by Bibi is being used as an opportunity to express long held reservations about Israel.

Why the exclamation mark? This budget goes to illustrate how poor Nigeria is. This is a $30bn budget for a nation of 150m+. On Wednesday, the UK, a country of 60m announced a budget of $1 trillion.

[quote author=na_so link=topic=419085.msg5766375#msg5766375 date=1269534093]^^^^^^^^^^
Dont be carried away by this Aganga's CV O. Nigerians are known for cooking up impressive resumes and when they get on the job, their performance fall  far short of the expectattions. Remember the impressive CV of TOM Isegohi of Transcorp and his awful performance?[/quote]What in that short profile of Segun Aganga is ''cooked up''?

Bros, you no dey tire of discussing this our barbaric country? You people have strong constitution.

I don't know whether the official sent packing is an ambassador but I think Israel's clumsy assassination plot was a slap in the face for the UK in so far as they endanger innocent UK citizens by cloning their passports to be used in clandestine operations. This present Israeli Govt seems particularly skilled in the art of alienating allies.

Messi is a rubbish player. Mame Diouf is a far better player.

Obama supporters call critics of Obama racist so it's a bit rich hearing any of them complain when the same tactic is used against Obama.

The St. James Conference, called the London Round Table and convened by Neville Chamberlain(!), attracted all the leading Zionists and the best-known non-Zionist Jews. Saudi King Ibn Saud’s son, Emir Faisal, was in attendance, as were Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Said (who was butchered on the streets of Baghdad 20 years later) and Jamal Al Husayni, a relative of the notorious grand mufti of Jerusalem. We have a description of what happened in London from the eminent historian Walter Laqueur:

The Arabs refused to sit at one table with the Jews and arrangements were made for them to reach the conference hall in St. James’s Palace by a different entrance. There were, in fact, two separate conferences. Only on two occasions did informal meetings take place between Jewish leaders and the representatives of Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The Palestinian Arabs refused any contact with the Jews.

Eight years later, another conference assembled in London, this time summoned by the British foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, who--how can one say this?--simply did not like Jews. The conference, writes Laqueur, “was a repeat performance for those who had been to St. James’s Palace eight years before. There were no new proposals to be discussed, nor, as in 1939, were there any direct meetings before Arabs and Jews.”

The Arabs put their fate in the gods of war, expressing “the view both privately and on occasion in public that historical conflicts are always settled by force of arms and that one might as well have the struggle right away and get it over.” The General Assembly convened in November 1947 and sanctioned the creation of a Jewish state (yes, specifically Jewish state) and an Arab state (not, as it happens, a Palestinian state, since even the concept of a “Palestinian” did not have real life at the time--the “Palestinians” were the Jews). Thus, the Arabs went to war ,  and were handily defeated. At the various armistice talks, no Arab would sit at a table with an Israeli.

[url]http://www.tnr.com/article/world/housing-bust?page=0,1[/url]

The holy man then said he needed to conduct a ritual that could only be done at night, outdoors, and after he had slept with a woman, drunk alcohol and rubbed himself in ash

Lagosboy:
If this news is true this is the peak of selfishnes. A breakup will involve chaos humanitarian disaster , displaced people, desease outbreak and all this idiot called obama and his pentagon could think of is a military intervention to protect flow of oil rather than peacekeeping to save lives and restore order.

The US is disproportionately the largest aid contributor in humanitarian disasters, so shut your trap. If Nigeria was to descend into chaos, the US, not your Arab heroes will be one of the first to send in food aid.

I wonder whether insurance companies are selling kidnap insurance policies. It's a good thing to look into.

It's amazing how far self-promotion can get you. Not saying he's not an accomplished scientist, particularly by Nigerian standards, the problem is that he has embellished his CV to absurd levels.

. . . . . going going gone.

amarilo:
what is awure pls.?

I think Awure describes how Aloy and Bialegend were conceived.

I suppose Nas' father, Olu Dara, is a Nigerian because he has a Nigerian name. This hermaphrodite called AloyEmeka takes idiocy to new heights.

@Aloy - The man is not a Nigerian, you silly Arrow.

Dan Plesch seems to be one of these leftist rabble rousers, so I won't take his comments seriously.

I think these stories are just ways of putting pressure on Iran but you never know. Saw this today:

“They are gearing up totally for the destruction of Iran,” said Dan Plesch, director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at the University of London, co-author of a recent study on US preparations for an attack on Iran. “US bombers are ready today to destroy 10,000 targets in Iran in a few hours,” he added.

The preparations were being made by the US military, but it would be up to President Obama to make the final decision. He may decide that it would be better for the US to act instead of Israel, Plesch argued.

“The US is not publicising the scale of these preparations to deter Iran, tending to make confrontation more likely,” he added. “The US ,  is using its forces as part of an overall strategy of shaping Iran’s actions.”

According to Ian Davis, director of the new independent thinktank, Nato Watch, the shipment to Diego Garcia is a major concern. “We would urge the US to clarify its intentions for these weapons, and the Foreign Office to clarify its attitude to the use of Diego Garcia for an attack on Iran,” he said.

For Alan Mackinnon, chair of Scottish CND, the revelation was “extremely worrying”. He stated: “It is clear that the US government continues to beat the drums of war over Iran, most recently in the statements of Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.

“It is depressingly similar to the rhetoric we heard prior to the war in Iraq in 2003.”

The British Ministry of Defence has said in the past that the US government would need permission to use Diego Garcia for offensive action. It has already been used for strikes against Iraq during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars.

About 50 British military staff are stationed on the island, with more than 3,200 US personnel. Part of the Chagos Archipelago, it lies about 1,000 miles from the southern coasts of India and Sri Lanka, well placed for missions to Iran.

The US Department of Defence did not respond to a request for a comment.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/final-destination-iran-1.1013151

''the stock prices of many banks have witnessed an exponential growth without a concomitant rise in the underlining financials of the affected institutions, ” “If the current trend is left unchecked, it may lead to a possible bubble burst that may imperil banks’ exposures in that regard, and in turn jeopardise the safety and soundness of the financial system.''

How would the CBN regulate equity bubbles?

A key question is whether Jang contacted an army commander as he claims. At no point did the military spokesman address this key point. The spokesman's rebuttal addresses Jang's attribution of a conspiratorial motive to the army's inaction but fails to address this key question.

It suggests that the army does not dispute that Jang made such contact, what the army disputes is the perception of its reaction to the crisis. Either that or the spokesman doesn't know his job.

@pres-elect

How can Bush be at fault for deficits Obama is projected to accumulate?

If the President’s proposals were enacted, the federal government would record deficits of $1.5 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. Those deficits would amount to 10.3 percent and 8.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. By comparison, the deficit in 2009 totaled 9.9 percent of GDP.

Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President’s proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter. Compared with CBO’s baseline projections, deficits under the proposals would be about 2 percentage points of GDP higher in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, 1.3 percentage points greater in 2013, and above baseline levels by growing amounts thereafter. By 2020, the deficit would reach 5.6 percent of GDP, compared with 3.0 percent under CBO’s baseline projections.

Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020. As a result, net interest would more than quadruple between 2010 and 2020 in nominal dollars (without an adjustment for inflation); it would expand from 1.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.1 percent in 2020

It's not so much the existence of the deficits now that is the issue but the plan to keep piling up debt way into the future. This part caught my eye:

Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President’s proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter

You forgot to add racist whites, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber among those at fault.

Eye watering deficits and debt projected right into 2020:

If the President’s proposals were enacted, the federal government would record deficits of $1.5 trillion in 2010 and $1.3 trillion in 2011. Those deficits would amount to 10.3 percent and 8.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), respectively. By comparison, the deficit in 2009 totaled 9.9 percent of GDP.

Measured relative to the size of the economy, the deficit under the President’s proposals would fall to about 4 percent of GDP by 2014 but would rise steadily thereafter. Compared with CBO’s baseline projections, deficits under the proposals would be about 2 percentage points of GDP higher in fiscal years 2011 and 2012, 1.3 percentage points greater in 2013, and above baseline levels by growing amounts thereafter. By 2020, the deficit would reach 5.6 percent of GDP, compared with 3.0 percent under CBO’s baseline projections.

Under the President’s budget, debt held by the public would grow from $7.5 trillion (53 percent of GDP) at the end of 2009 to $20.3 trillion (90 percent of GDP) at the end of 2020. As a result, net interest would more than quadruple
between 2010 and 2020 in nominal dollars (without an adjustment for inflation); it would expand from 1.4 percent of GDP in 2010 to 4.1 percent in 2020

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/112xx/doc11231/03-05-apb.pdf

PapaBrowne:
Why is it a crime in your books for a Nigerian to own an oil block??
Shell, Chevron, and all sorts of oil companies have numerous oil blocks.
They drill the oil and send 40% per cent of the proceeds to their own countries which is then used to build their infrastructures, pay dividends to their investors, give loans to their citizens etc.

Most of Nigeria's oil revenues stay in Nigeria. This is a rather pathetic attempt to defend looting by Nigerian leaders.

Tiger's ex comes to his defence:

Tiger Woods was my boyfriend for a year and a half while we were both undergraduates at Stanford. I've never spoken to the press about him; I'm not coming forward now for money or to advance any pathetic showbiz aspirations, but merely to stick up for a friend. I haven't seen Tiger since the late ’90s, but I know who he is at his core because we were together during some of his most formative years. He was so human and cared so much about other people and the world around him. This may surprise some people, but Tiger was a great boyfriend.

I have so many fond memories of our time together. At that age Tiger had an amazing metabolism so we spent a lot of time eating. Our favorite restaurant was a Chinese joint in Mountain View; the guys there must have been golf fans because they always gave us free desserts, which was a big deal to us.

I walked many golf courses watching Tiger play, sometimes with his mother, Tida. I grew up on an Indian reservation in Minnesota, and I think Tida accepted me so readily because Tiger and I shared many of the same values. Earl and I talked a lot about politics and national affairs, and Earl often made me laugh so hard, my stomach muscles cramped. He loved to tease Tiger and me about our puppy love.

During our Southern California road trips Tiger and I spent a lot of time at the beach. We would steal a bottle of whiskey from Earl or I’d use my fake ID to buy a jug of wine, and we’d hang out and dream about the future. Tiger was very driven to be a great golfer, but he also talked a lot about wanting to make a larger contribution to society. Settling down was not a priority; Earl had drilled into Tiger that he should wait until his 30s to get married.

Our relationship ended when Tiger turned pro after his sophomore year. Becoming the first person in my family to earn a college degree was so important to me that I wasn’t willing to give up my studies to follow him. Like everyone else, I was shocked by the revelations about his infidelities. The Tiger I knew was loyal, devoted and self- controlled. I’m not naive, but I can say with certainty that he was faithful during the time we dated. The speculation that he's being treated for intimacy addiction is surprising because we enjoyed a normal sexual relationship.

I don’t have any insight into how he led such a double life. I will say that Tiger had an ability to shut things out and compartmentalize his emotions. Even back then he felt enormous pressure to be Tiger Woods. Maybe this was his form of escape.

Obviously Tiger has made some big mistakes, but he’s apologized and seems to be trying to heal himself and his family. I hope the public will forgive him because he deserves a second chance. He’s a good person with a caring heart.

[url]http://www.golf.com/golf/tours_news/article/0,28136,1968826,00.html?order=DESC&page=3#ixzz0h3tZorXJ[/url]

The US is clearly a thieving nation! Not only do they steal people's resources, they are now stealing days. What a wicked and criminal nation.