₦airaland Forum

Consult a dictionary or ask people to help explain the content to you.

From my inbox, interesting piece.

I hope accurate, factual and truthful information is made available all the time to all so that people cannot just claim they were misinformed when they take actions that may cost lives like Bush is doing even though in his own case he is lying well well sha.

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Editor's Note:

Every now and then a new organization springs up and
about 4 years ago, this one did. Far away from the media
spotlight, they have become an impressive voice for
Justice. I hope you check them out.
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If Americans Knew - Mission Statement

In a democracy, the ultimate responsibility for a
nation's actions rests with its citizens. The top
rung of government – the entity with the ultimate
power of governance – is the asserted will of the
people. Therefore, in any democracy, it is essential
that its citizens be fully and accurately informed.

In the United States, currently the most powerful
nation on earth, it is even more essential that its
citizens receive complete and undistorted information
on topics of importance, so that they may wield their
extraordinary power with wisdom and intelligence.

Unfortunately, such information is not always forthcoming.

The mission of If Americans Knew is to inform and educate
the American public on issues of major significance that
are unreported, underreported, or misreported in the
American media.

It is our belief that when Americans know the facts on a
subject, they will, in the final analysis, act in
accordance with morality, justice, and the best interests
of their nation, and of the world. With insufficient
information, or distorted information, they may do the
precise opposite.

It is the mission of If Americans Knew to ensure that
this does not happen – that the information on which
Americans base their actions is complete, accurate, and
undistorted by conscious or unconscious bias, by lies of
either commission or omission, or by pressures exerted
by powerful special interest groups. It is our goal to
supply the information essential to those responsible
for the actions of the strongest nation on earth – the
American people.


Action Focus #1

Israel is the largest recipient of US. aid in the entire
world. It receives more aid than that given to all the
countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean, put together.

Israel receives over $10 million dollars per day from the
United States, and there is evidence that the total figure
is closer to $15 million a day. Yet this information is
almost never printed in American newspapers. Coverage of
the Middle East in general, and of Israel in particular,
virtually never reports this enormous American connection
with this region.

Empowered by American money, Israel is occupying land that
does not belong to it, is breaking numerous international
laws and conventions of which it is a signatory, and is
promulgating policies of brutality that have been condemned
by the United Nations, the European Union, the National
Council of Churches, Amnesty International, the
International Red Cross, and numerous other international
bodies. This truth is also rarely reported.

Through the money and weaponry provided by the United
States, Israel is imposing an ethnically discriminatory
nation on land that was previously multicultural. There
is ethnic and religious discrimination inherent in its
national identity, and a doctrine of the supremacy of
one group over all others permeates its political,
financial, and military policies. This also is virtually
never reported.

There are a variety of organizations and individuals in
Israel who are protesting their government's policies,
and who are working strenuously and courageously on behalf
of human rights and justice. It is their intent to create
a just and fair nation with equal rights for all its
citizens. They are refusing to serve in the military
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and are actively
trying to prevent Palestinian homes from being bulldozed.
These actions are also not covered in the American media.

American support of the Israeli government is against our
national interest on every level: It places us at war
with populations whose desperate plight we are helping to
create, and who, quite correctly, place the responsibility
for their sufferings on us. It makes us an accomplice to
war crimes and an accessory to oppression. This also is
not reported.

In analyzing the American media, we are increasingly
discovering a cover-up of appalling proportions. Israel
is being protected, the news about Palestinians in
particular and Arabs in general is being distorted, and
the American public is being manipulated.

We believe strongly that if Americans knew the truth about
Israel and Palestine -- about the massive amount of our
tax money that is being given away to Israel, and about
the human costs of Israel's American-financed militarism
-- they would demand an immediate re-thinking of our
policies in this region.

It is the goal of If Americans Knew to inform the American
public accurately about this area. Most of all, it is to
inform Americans about our enormous, and too often
invisible, personal connection to it.

Americans, through our blank check to Israel, are
empowering the worst elements of Israeli society, and
undermining those working for a just, peaceful, and
nondiscriminatory nation.

We are driving the violence in this region.
We can stop it.
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Abduct Ahmed ke? Israel wey no fit defeat Hezbollah want to abduct the president of Iran?

Abeg, wey that Tom & Jerry make I watch better thing joo

Moving websites to mobile phones

The web by its very nature tends to make information available globally and accessible from any location as long as there is a form of data carrier to move information from the servers to the clients/computers.

The web has been very useful and in fact has single handedly changed the way governments, corporations and media houses push information to the general public.

The web has turned the masses who used to be mere consumers of information to owners, part owners and publishers of information. The web has indeed handed over much power to the masses and has fundamentally changed the dynamics of information creation and dissemination.

Websites are set up to serve very many purposes ranging from news, sports, games to ecommerce and e-learning where students and teachers now engage themselves in ways that were never thought possible a couple of years back.

Majority of people access websites using desktop pcs and laptops, some use PDAs and smart phones while others still benefit from one form of interaction or the other using basic mobile phones even if for just SMS.

Globally, it is estimated that for every pc in use you have more than 15 mobile phones. This means that we actually have more mobile phones than pcs (whether desktops or laptops).

In Nigeria, due to the unreliable telephone infrastructure that has led to massive explosion of mobile handsets even in the remotest parts of Nigeria (that's a bit far fetched anyway unless the GSM operators are now deploying masts every where).

With more than 40 million mobile phones (and counting) in use in Nigeria it would not be out of place to believe that the ratio of pcs to mobile phones may be something like 1 pc : 1000 mobile phones.

Due to the power problems many cannot use their desktop pcs as they would want to and there is a limit to how long laptop users can work running on batteries.

But aren't mobile phones small computers on their own? You have a chip even though with less powerful processors, operating system, some form of storage system, mobile browsers, call capability etc.

It is much easier to charge a mobile phone than it is to provide power to desktop pcs or laptops where power is unreliable as one can quickly ask his/her neighbor to allow for charging of mobile phones whereas you cannot carry your desktop pcs from one place to the other just to use them.

What this means is that a great majority of Nigerians already have the ultimate tool that information can be pushed to or tool they can use to access information that is on the web anytime, any day.

So, can we really push websites to the mobile phones? Yes, we can.

In spite of the limitations of the mobile phones as regards browsing the web there exist in this particular terrain opportunities that may never be rivaled in human history as the mobile phone is not only personal, convenient to carry about but also a means of accessing or receiving information anytime, any where apart from the regular voice capabilities.

All that is required to develop and deploy truly mobile applications is a clear understanding of the underlying principles, best practices and very clear understanding of the limitations of the mobile phones and ways to ameliorate these limitations as the limitations themselves have very workable workarounds.

Everybody wins with the truly mobile web

Mobile phone owner - Instant access to information any time, any where without any need for a regular desktop pc, laptop or even internet subscription. All that is required is a gprs capable phone and this feature is pretty common these days especially when phone makers are already integrating 3G and EDGE. It is also extremely very cheap. You can browse a complete website for less than N3.00

Content providers - Opportunity to showcase products or services to an audience that can really access the information even when there are no regular pcs or internet access for example in the villages where you may not find cyber cafes.

Network providers - Additional income from gprs based connections as more and more people would now have to access relevant information using their mobile phones and with the very low cost when compared to other alternatives people will use mobile phones as a first port of call when looking for information online and this really translates into increased revenue.

What next?

Website owners, web developers, business men and women, professionals, government agencies etc should begin to imagine ways the mobile web can help in their respective areas.

The opportunities are many. Consider the following

People being able to stay in the villages and armed with a mobile phone and scratch cards they are able to check their JAMB results without even leaving their homes and spending less than N3.00 or N4.00 to do so. Compare this to the usual practice of traveling to the city where they can have access to cyber cafes just to check results that could actually be checked on their mobile phones. This reduces the risks involved in traveling such as accidents and robbery attacks.

Road Safety Officials or Policemen being able to get information from a driver simply by using the drivers' licence number to query a database and within a few seconds or minutes all relevant information is retrieved and traffic offences and fines can be added to the driver's record by officials with the relevant access rights.

Users in places where internet access is not common being able to spend say N10.00 per day to get access to all the relevant news from one or more sources using just their handsets.

Real estate agents, lawyers, doctors, sales people or engineers that may be outside the main office being able to retrieve relevant data using their mobile phones which ultimately will increase productivity and reduce cost of transportation and communications that would have been incurred if they had to go back to their offices or make calls before they can get access to the same information.

Banks being able to provide all relevant information about what they do on their mobile web and allowing people to access the information at their own convenience rather than depending on marketers that are always under pressure to meet targets to promote their services or offerings.

Restaurants, boutiques, bookshops, computer stores being able to provide information to any gprs capable phone around.

Just in case you think this is all theory I have successfully created mobile versions of all my major websites and you can visit all the pages of any of the websites including reading full text articles on your mobile phone without spending up to N6.00 (if you are reading full text articles) or N2.00 (if you are not reading any articles).

So, it is not just a case of "It can be done", rather it is a case of "It is already being used".

See you on the truly mobile side of life, are you coming along?

flashdrive:
I understand so many small businesses in the country are in desperate need of UK numbers.

You understand? How did you come about this understanding?

Bassie:
@kpac
A web presence might help you showcase your applications, don't you think so?

It's like a web developer telling a potential client about the many benefits of developing websites when he/she does not have one.

You get to see web developers drop phone numbers and email addresses some of them yahoo email addresses that anyone in any where in the world can pick up for free.

Seems it's only in Nigeria that you see companies that develop software that don't even have websites.

HP 530 is cheap and reasonably ok too. I have a couple of friends using HP 530.

Talking about limitations, the sound output is low, in fact anytime my friend's neighbor puts on his generating set she looks for the ear piece one time because you will barely hear anything.

Good RAM, good hard disk space, new and often comes with HP warranty, a good buy for anyone that does not demand very powerful features.

blezzing:
what afam said might not be true becuase the kind of inverter we sell is not the one you can see everywhere, infact those that had bought it has not complained so far.

so get your own today while offrer last.

What kind of inverter do you sell that one cannot see or comment on?

Inverter technology is really mature technology so there is no rocket science there. However when it comes to charging the batteries design assumptions are made and majority of these assumptions do not hold water in Nigeria as many of the countries that have inverter manufacturers do not have the type of embarrassing power problem that we have and apart from the charging algorithm you also have the issue of the type of transistors that are used that usually get too hot when the backup time is longer that designed for or presumed.

These issues are easy to verify, forget about claims, we have a growing number of Nigerians that get ripped off on inverter installations and in almost all of the time they never get their funds back so spare me with "people are not complaining" statement because I get to hear of these things every other day.

You can read an article on how Nigerians can protect themselves from bad service providers at http://www.justalternativepower.com/article_view.php?aid=11

The many opportunities that exist in the area of web development in Nigeria are not being taken by Nigerians especially where these opportunities require programming knowledge as more and more businesses or corporations are now demanding websites that are not just static websites.

Many website owners believe they want something more than 3 - 10 pages of static website with some animations. They want to achieve tasks online, they want their clients to be able to achieve certain tasks right on their websites.

Agreed, it takes time to learn programming and it takes practice, logical reasoning and experience to become a good programmer but that is where he money is.

You can do a project that takes you just 3 days and pocket N400,000.00 just like that.

A situation whereby a very great majority of web developers are either web designers or graphic designers is certainly not in the best interest of Nigerians as the likes of google, yahoo, youtube etc did not become successful by being static websites.

Anyone that wants to make real money should consider learning programming, not the usual claims that we see people make even when they don't have anything to backup those claims.

As a typical example of what you can achieve as a programmer I spent less than 3 days developing (from conception to completion) a database driven website for States to use in Nigeria.

Comes with an admin interface where every single thing can be changed or updated without any need to contact the developer.

So, if it takes less than 3 days to setup this website you can imagine what web applications Nigerians could come up with if we have a lot of programmers who will come to the table with many wonderful ideas that could generate money in a matter of days, weeks or months without having to do anything illegal.

The link to the website is - www.jwspreview.com/stategov

The website may not be flashy or beautiful but it has more useful functionalities when compared to a lot of government websites that are just static websites that are hardly updated.

Currently I am having a tough time deciding what to do with the website as I intended it to be given away to all the State Governments for free but 100% of the people I have discussed this free offer with believe that I should not do it.

The next couple of hours or days may decide the direction the 3 days project will go.

Very unrealistic. At least not with the present crop of leaders or even their colleagues.

We need a radical generational change coupled with revolution that will make it clear that enough is enough.

Just heard today that NNPC was paying militants $6M every month just to prevent them from blowing up NNPC's pipelines.

And we are serious about tackling the issues in the Niger Delta? Electricity is getting worse, diesel is sky rocketing.

What I see in 2020 is a Nigeria that may be free from all the present crop of very corrupt politicians.

A country where the average intelligence of our law makers will be more than that required to eat N114,000.00 worth of lunch or the need to present useless bills about nudity at the UN.

Inflation is going up by the day. I hope we don't go the way of Zimbabwe.

Maybe, just maybe one day people would prefer to have an OBJ as president as against what we have today where after 15 months nothing concrete has been done rather things are getting worse from rising cost of diesel to rising cost of food and the impending removal of petroleum subsidy that will really usher in real hardship.

He may be right that we need to take our problems to God when all the structures are being dismantled by the present government and even former governors that were closer to jail are now free with the new EFCC focusing attention on other issues.

May God help us.

@lucabrasi,

I find it supremely difficult to understand how you would support a proposal that will be like this

Mr John wakes up in the morning dressed in a shirt that was last ironed before the ban and goes off with a GSM phone with dead battery (because he cannot use generator at home).

I forgot, he actually slept last night in a very hot room because he cannot use his fan, couldn't listen to news or even watch TV because there is no way he can use his generator.

Then he gets to the office and asks his boss to allow him charge his GSM handset and to take sometime off to catch up with the news he missed last night.

Meanwhile, Mr John is condemned to drinking cold water or mineral only when he is outside his home because he cannot use his fridge or freezer because people like you support the ban of generators at home.

In 3 months only God knows what the prayers of people like Mr John must have done to people like you for supporting such evil proposal that brings with it nothing but pain and misery to Nigerians you claim to be fighting for.

If friends na this type then e better make we begin search for enemies one time.

What do you expect from some that just visited UK?

A source who spoke to THISDAY under the condition of anonymity explained that the new leadership at EFCC has resolved to disappoint cynics who never believed in the competence of its chairman to successfully lead the “brand new EFCC”, adding that “the only way she can do this is to pursue those high profile cases that the former administration refused to prosecute”.

How convenient, they have chosen to abandon cases involving those that nominated them like Ibori and instead have decided to focus on other high profile cases.

Nigeria is in serious problem.

Just wait until NFA comes out with the list of Nigeria Delegation to the Olympics.

It seems we now wait for foreign nations and bodies to properly embarrass these clueless politicians that keep ridiculing themselves whenever they try the nonsense they do here outside Nigeria.

lucabrasi:
what dyu mean by where did i get the information from?
there are diffrent droup of internet browsers/web users whaeva
1)people that have it at home-there are a lot but not as much as
2)the people who use the numerous cyber cafes, that is why i said "not all"in bracket,unless you are saying that more people have internet in their private homes than use the cyber cafe,then i will conclude that internet acess is same as the united states,united kingdom,europe etc??

since when has living outside nigeria being a crime or a yardstaick for measuring who can or cannot talk about the benefits??
what has the people living inside nigerian done for the less priviledged?
are the corrupt politicians,and other rich people who do not give poor people the time of the day not living in nigeria?
or are you saying that as long as you live in nigeria,then you are eminently qualified to know what is best for the people,even if you have not raised your hand to help a less priviledged adult or child,
i follow reasoning, state your case and stop going round in circles using insults to force your reasoning on me,go back and see my reasons for thinking its a good idea,i didnt just post a comment and accuse people i don't know of posting crazywhaeva

You don't have anything to back up your wild claim about the number of Nigerians that use cyber cafes so stop wasting people's time on this.

I have not raised my hand to help a less privileged adult or child? No wahala but I believe that your support for a very lousy proposal will cause more harm to less privileged adults or children.

I wonder if people still think with their brains or with their left legs these days.

davidif:
why is it that a graduate cannot get a lucrative job in a bank or anywhere in the corporate world simply becaue he is above 28? This is called discrimination and if that happened here in yanki, the company would get sued back to the stone age. Naija people what do you think about it?

Forward looking companies that are serious about making profits and the growth of the companies will certainly take into consideration the age bracket that they must consider for jobs.

No serious company will look forward to hiring people with average age of say 42yrs when there are 25yrs applicants because these companies will train and invest money in developing them.

So, as a business man or woman would you hire a much older person who may be slower or nearing retirement age and leave out the much younger but highly trainable ones?

While we expect others to hire us regardless of our ages if we reversed the situation will we be ready to hire older hands when younger men/women are readily available.

For government establishment it may make sense to scream discrimination (assuming it makes sense anyway) but for any private business or company what matters is the future of the business or the company and not the personal likes or dislikes of job seekers.

lucabrasi:
most nigerians in nigeria(not all)use thecybercafe anyway,and from what the man said the ban will not extend to small businesses so the only change will be rich people using the cyber cafes,wouldnt that be nice

Where did you get the information in bold from?

Personally, considering the fact that you live outside Nigeria you really do not qualify to educate anyone on the benefits of banning the use of generators in Nigeria as you cannot shut down the life of people and keep them in perpetual darkness simply because the government has failed to provide power and people like you who do not suffer the power problem sit behind their computers to suggest crazy proposals on how to solve our power problem.

We are our own worst enemies.

Even Mandela, a terrorist? The US is sick.

lucabrasi:
@debosky

i totally disagree with you,contrary to your opinion i actually think its an excellent statement,all the man is saying like i have repeatedly said from what i understant of the statement is that to appreciate the seriousness of the situation and for the rich and priviledged to feel what the average nigerian goes through right now and everyday.
now you r asking what that will achieve right?
what it will achieve is that someone like ahamdu alli will start crying to yar adua that he needs to do something fast.
people like the pdp leadership will start making calls and telling yar adua how important it is to make the power sector a priority
yar adua and the ministers friends and aquintances will start to put pressure on them to do something fast

The content in bold refers, ordinary Nigerians need not suffer due to what those in power have done. If they are serious all government offices should ban the use of generators first for at least 2 years so that we will know they are serious.

These guys have no business being in politics at all.

The proposal is wrong and unreasonable.

Will the government ban the importation of candles too?

Unfortunately, the electrical, mechanical, chemical engineers in this country have very little to offer as I cannot see why Nigerians cannot produce solar panels, power inverters, wind generators, fuel or diesel generators in large quantities. Must we have to import everything?

It is a shame that the FG is considering depriving innocent Nigerians of basic alternatives created by ineffective running of the power sector by the government.

Blaming generator dealers for the sorry state of the power sector is pure nonsense just as they are looking for anything to blame as to why we cannot refine crude oil in Nigeria, instead we prefer to sell crude oil to countries that are as small as some states in Nigeria and then turn around to import refined fuel from these same countries.

We should simply introduce the death penalty for corruption and when 3 or 4 people are shot then others will know that we are serious about making Nigeria work.

Until we take the China route we will be singing the same old song.

My brother was killed by MASSOB militants in Onisha his body was never found, simple reason he was thrown into the river. My hobby a promising young Police officer was essentially dragged out from his duty post by the same MOSSOB conscripted and brutally killed.

MC USMAN is a woman going by the post above.

What I find difficult to understand is why the average Nigerian would rather go to war than apologize for his/her mistake.

Considering the fact that many people sell cars and yet we don't have a workable online product display website that is both easy, cheap and functional we came up with a simple product display website for the automobile industry.

Why ask people to call or to visit your shop before they can see what you have to offer when you can actually display everything on your own website in a matter of minutes, saves time, is more professional and reduces stress too.

See www.justautodealer.com to test drive the website. We built this from scratch and can deploy them in a matter of minutes or hours based on any custom requirements you may have.

Considering the fact that many people sell fashion related items and yet we don't have a workable online product display website that is both easy, cheap and functional we came up with a simple product display website for the fashion industry.

Why ask people to call or to visit your shop before they can see what you have to offer when you can actually display everything on your own website in a matter of minutes, saves time, is more professional and reduces stress too.

See www.jwspreview.com/boutique to test drive the website. We built this from scratch and can deploy them in a matter of minutes or hours based on any custom requirements you may have.

MC Usman:
@DRANOEL

That was just what i was kicking at, and those folks over there are about to nail me

Which is easier to do? To retract your highly insensitive comments or to continue to beat around the bush even when your wicked comments have been brought to the fore?

Why bother us with the killing of your brother when it is ok to drag and kill an Igbo man from a police station?

I doubt if Tsvangirai will ever become the president of Zimbabwe under any circumstance unless he is imposed by the West probably after invading Zimbabwe just like they did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mugabe has successfully ( and rightly so too) portrayed Tsvangirai as a candidate representing the interests of the West as against the people of Zimbabwe and there will always be Zimbabweans that will never allow a Western stooge to rule over them.

These guys should shorten the time it takes to sort out these cases in our courts. More than one year someone with 6 votes have been representing a people.

Maybe they should look for a way to make people like the Chidoka refund whatever he has enjoyed thus far to the government.

McKren:
This mentality is exactly what is breeding so much rebels across Africa

We are not interested in discouraging our leaders from pushing our people to the wall, we rather call people coward for not fighting back when our leaders refuse to do the right thing.

What is point liberating your people from one slavery and then lead them into another slavery?

My dear, the problem with our people is that we always want everything given to us on a platter of gold.

May I remind you that even in the UK, people were put to death by disemboweling them.

We always try to cite systems that we see today as working without trying to even understand how they got to where they are today. Too much copy copy no go lead us anywhere.

My dear, enjoy the week as it seems the main issues have been sorted out otherwise this thread will linger on and in the process bring in unlimited and even unrelated issues.

Enjoy!

You are getting closer the main thing. Ngige was slapped and kidnapped when the security that ought to protect him was compromised. What did he do after recovering? Run to Enugu or Bayelsa? No, he got his own security and the people of Anambra supported him all the way.

Mugabe fought for the liberation of present day Zimbabwe, he did not achieve independence from the colonial masters by running to Kenya or Nigeria.

Fact is - the opposition leader has no business wanting to rule a country he cannot die for, simple. Mugabe put his life on the line for the people of Zimbabwe and a lot of them have not forgotten that.

If you do not believe in anything you could die for then you are already dead. As some of you try to justify a presidential candidate running to a foreign embassy I hope you realize that if he really had supporters nothing would happen to him.

Any leader that has the support of the majority cannot be pushed around.

Ngige was stripped of his police protection and until he left office ordinary people of Anambra swore to protect him and protect him they did. This is what you get from a leader that has real supporters not the type of support the US, UK and Australia seem to be providing to the opposition leader.

@Mckren,

I am being honest, as always.

Ghaddafi has been in power since 1969 and Libya is not boiling so the issue of 28 years in power being the problem is based on a faulty foundation.

It is normal for any nation to go through what Zimbabwe is going through when the likes of US and UK do all they can to wreck the country.

The army in Zimbabwe may simply know why there is a conspiracy against Zimbabwe and have chosen to stick with the leader rather than allow someone being sponsored and supported by the West to become the president.

Anyone who runs to a foreign embassy in his own country does not deserve to lead his country simple. The opposition leader should simply kiss the presidency good bye for life.

McKren:
I personally don't understand how in the whole of Zimbabwean Army their is no faction tired of Mugabe and his antics.

This is one of those few times you feel good being Nigerian because am not sure anybody can hold Nigeria hostage for 28years.

Hostage ke? Na US abi na UK press dey feed the world this one?

It seems the West is already succeeding with demonizing Mugabe the way they did to Saddam.

Let us hope that it would not be too late before we realize that the US and UK are waging a selfish war yet again.