₦airaland Forum

auwal87:
Ignorant

Nah, I think he is mostly correct. The Gwaris for example around Abuja don't like Hausas at all. Jos would not join. Even Southern Kaduna might not necessarily join, since they have so many Christians. Kwara probably would not join. Kogi state, probably not.

fstranger:
Nigerians, especially young Nigerians, are fond of the really irritatingly redundant prepositional phrase “off of” to stand for “from” or to merely intensify the preposition “off.” And it is catching on very fast among even the educated elite. It’s usual to hear people say something like, “He got it off of the Internet,” or “She made a lot of profit off of that business,” or “She jumped off of the train” (why not simply “she jumped off the train”?), etc. It makes me want to slap someone on the mouth! That sort of murderous violence against the English language should be punishable by flogging

Technically you are correct, it is bad grammar:
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/probPrep.asp

However, it appears to be part of the American dialect of English:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/707088
www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm">http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:YcyUJ_Slu4sJ:www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm%3Fqid%3D1447359+%22off+of%22+american+english+grammar&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us (Original link dead, so using Google's cache)

Especially in the South (I grew up in the South, or places heavily influenced by the South.)

Living languages evolve. So even if is grammatically incorrect, once you have a large enough mass of people using that incorrect grammar, then it becomes correct

But I can see how it would annoy you.

Ethnicity isn't quite relevant here, since it doesn't seem to be the motivation for the crimes. However, since I do want the Fulani herders out of Yorubaland, I'm not displeased with the way the article was written.

Anyway, if I ever do move back to Nigeria longterm, i'll make sure I'll have guns handy in my house. I'll have something like this in my home: http://cdn5.thefirearmsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/picture-1.png

As well as training to use them. Seriously, I've never been into gun culture before, but have put this on my todo list.

I liked this part of the article:

However, luck ran out on him when he was arrested by members of the vigilante group in the state capital.

Without OPC, dude would likely have escaped the mumu Nigerian police. . .

I've no clue how oil is the issue. In any case, we have oil off of our coast, and very likely additional blocks can be found.

Plus, it isn't as if you can really build an economy off of oil. You build an economy out of people, not oil.

Katsumoto:
I get your point but the causes are not mutually exclusive. Cuba can solve both problems by loosening its grip and embracing state capitalism like Deng Xiaoping did in 1978. From the article, you can tell that Raul has started to move Cuba in that direction.

Agreed. Raul sounds pretty legit.

fstranger:
You are either extremely smart or a lot older than 99% of NLers. Either way, Gbam! Gbam!! Gbam!!! for you.

Recently turned 25. . . getting kinda old now, lol.

But on a serious note, I've felt this way since I was a little kid.

Why not name the damn country after the tribalist, arrogant, thieving, "genius". The true story will eventually be told that he, for a long time prevented the Yoruba from participating in mainstream national politics.Why? Simply because he was not to lead such national effort. By the way, does anyone know another Awolowo even from his village of Ikenne. I am a Yoruba person, if anyone was wondering.

An interesting perspective. Not knowledgeable enough to comment on his motivations one way or another, but I'd like to think them honorable.

Arysexy:
Nonsense! y not name Awolowo in Edo, Delta etc after all they were part of the old west. He can only be named in yoriba states. Ask me why? Because he is the commander in chief of tribalism in Nigeria.  Some in.sane peeps r asking for awolowo to b named after Akanu Ibiam airport Enugu, not only that, also Onitsha main market should be called Awolowo main market onitsha.

U can name every thing, even danfo bus, amala joints, motor parks after your god. Who cares! but i bet u Awolowo cannot be named after any edifice outside Yoruba land, the reason is obvious. Get that or get lost!

But you say this as an insult, when it is truly not. By the time my life ends, I personally will be more proud to have something named after me in Yorubaland than elsewhere in Nigeria, or even elsewhere in the world. There is something very special about being loved in the land of your ancestors. I dunno man, that is just the way I think. Give me honor in my homeland over honor elsewhere in the world.

Katsumoto:
I read a piece today about Cuba that I want to share with you; see below. You can click on the link to read the whole article.

'In all this Mr Castro is bowing to reality. He has been withering in his criticism of the featherbedding that has bankrupted the state. He has also refused to blame the American economic embargo for problems which he rightly says are self-inflicted. His pragmatism has finally won out against his brother’s doctrinaire Utopianism.'

http://www.economist.com/node/17463463?story_id=17463463&fsrc=rss

Thanks for the article, I liked it. So you seem to be of the opinion that the lion's share of the blame for Cuba's economic problems go to the economic system they run, not necessarily the blockade, yes? But I hope you see how that doesn't conflict with my own position regarding what impact lifting the embargo would have on the Cuban economy (or at least, I don't see the contradiction, point it out if you see one.)

What does literacy have to do with farming

Lagos is probably more populated and wealthier than those countries. So not sure the comparison is so meaningful, to be honest.

But it certainly makes me feel good

I've actually found the opposite to be true, lol. Skinny girls are always bringing their fat friends to the club with them, for example.

Approaching women would be a lot easier if your hypothesis is true.

This was quite an interesting read, glad you bumped this.

Cuba is FAR closer to the US than most of those carribean countries. 228 miles from Miami to Havana, and I think as little as 90ish miles at the two closest points.

Also, those tourism dollars would not be small. Their per capita GDP is already $10k/per person. Hard for me to estimate how much access to American tourism would add to their economy, but it would be a large fraction of their current GDP.

I mean, I don't see how this is really controversial. Unless somehow you think that free trade between the two countries would have minimal impact on the GDP of Havana.

Not to mention the benefit of being able to directly export things like cigars, etc to the US.

Hrm. I've always wondered about textbooks in Nigeria. What is the current process like? Where are they sourced from? For example, take a high school calculus book. Is there a standard (or a few standard) books used in Nigeria? How expensive would such a book be (a rough estimate would be fine)?

Katsumoto:
Are you suggesting that Cuba is a wonderful place to conduct business? Are you suggesting that Cuba has the right business climate?

Can the same argument not be made about Mexico? Certainly isn't a great place to do business, from what I've heard. Yet the positive economic impact of being right next to the biggest economy in the world is tremendous.

At some point, being next to such a large economy is an overwhelming advantage, an advantage too large to be messed up even if one tries to do so on purpose.

Many non-US companies might do business with Cuba. But that doesn't accurately measure the negative impact. You look at the loss of companies and opportunities that would be available were the ban not in place, minus those that are present. Pointing to a few companies here and there that do trade doesn't suggest that this negative impact is not significant.

And not being able to fully trade with the largest economy in the world, which happens to be only 90 miles away is going to be very harmful for an economy.

Katsumoto:
You are kidding; the people in Washington are not influenced by local politics. Politics in Florida might be influenced to a lesser degree by Cuban exiles but make no mistake about it, Florida belongs to elderly white people.

That is not how it works. If you lose the Cuban vote, you have no chance of winning Florida. Florida is a 50/50 proposition as is; neither side can afford to not fall in line on this issue.

Kobojunkie:
That very link explains to you that the embargo was from the US and not from the whole world. I am not sure what you do not understand in that.

Yes, we all understand that. But if the US penalizes companies that trade with Cuba, then those companies won't take the risk. Here are some of the relevant provisions:

[list]
[*] International Sanctions against the Cuban Government. Economic embargo, any non-US company that deals economically with Cuba can be subjected to legal action and that company's leadership can be barred from entry into the United States. Sanctions may be applied to non-U.S. companies trading with Cuba. This means that internationally operating companies have to choose between Cuba and the US, which is a much larger market.
[*] United States opposition against Cuban membership in International Financial Institutions.
[*] Exclusion of certain aliens from the United States, primarily senior officials or major stock holders, and their families, of companies that do business in Cuba on property expropriated from American citizens. To date, executives from Italy, Mexico, Canada, Israel, and the United Kingdom have been barred.
[*] Prohibits the completion of the Juragua Nuclear Power Plant.
[/list]

Sammy J. I'll order Akintoye for next weekend's reading

I like Fayemi. I hope he does well and doesn't disappoint us.

Katsumoto:
And you think the US has the policy it does for Cuba because of a few exiles? You got to be kidding.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/nov/03/cuba-embargo-slips-as-south-floridas-top-priority/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban-American_lobby

Piss of the Cuban Americans and you have no chance at competing in Florida, a pretty important swing state. If their resistance goes away, then so will the embargo.

Kobojunkie:
That is absolute nonsense. The embargo was from US and not from the 100 and so remaining countries of the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helms-Burton_Act

^-- vid is pretty hot. I like KimK better right now, but I think Nicky Minaj might be better in the long term. I've noticed white women have issues looking good in their 30s. They can fall off very, very quickly. Otoh, a black woman who takes care of herself can be phenomenal even into her 40s. Skin color is part of the issue.

Anyway, if there are any white people reading this, don't get offended, I don't mean it to be bigoted. Just wrinkles show up more easily in white skin

Katsumoto:
Cuba has all three; yet it isn't an economic powerhouse.

Embargos from the US are the only reason Cuba isn't a phenomenal country. And the embargos are primarily due to Cuban exiles who dominate Florida politics. If they toned it down, we wouldn't have these policies towards Cuba 

I'd really like to travel there, to be honest.

Was fuzzy on the the definition of PPP, this article (succinctly) explains it pretty well: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-purchasing-power-parity.htm

If I remember correctly, solar panels aren't quite a panacea. Not clear it is cost effective w/o gov't subsidies. This McKinsey survey paper discusses the issue in further detail:

http://www.mckinsey.com/clientservice/ccsi/pdf/economics_of_solar.pdf

Is there any way the books can be published, or audited by some 3rd party? This really shouldn't be a he said, she said sort of thing. . .

Book arrived from Amazon.com yesterday morning, hopefully will get to read it over the weekend. Questions may ensue; hopefully some of the more knowledgeable Yoruba here can answer any that arise.

Katsumoto:
You shouldn't be compelled to 'rubbish' someone else's heroes just because they rubbish yours. What if the person rubbishing your ethnic heroes happens to belong to the same tribe as you? By all means, if you have facts to support your argument, use them to dispel any lies, fallacies, and untruths but it is wrong to do the same thing as the others.

Indeed, I am in complete agreement. There isn't much value in responding to slander with slander; I think I've been successful in avoiding that.

rhymz:
. . .Dapo
Let us face fact, both the Igbo and the Yoruba tribalists are into those kind of accusations.  The Igbos talk trash about Awo while the Yorubas talk trash about Ojukwu. The same emotions that drives you to want to defend your own is the emotions that drives those Igbo tribalists you accuse. No one tribe is innocent of that, with time you will come to understand that, and there in lies the folly of joining issues with them. Me I no go lie, initially when I see tribalistic posts, I don't bother myself defending anything, I just curse the living daylight out of the person without even making any reference to his tribal slurs or maligning his own tribe. That way I dont get embroiled in rubbish. Just relax and observe both parties and you will see you are fighting for nothing. The reason I had to call out BBK is because I feel that, first he is not a Nigerian and takes his tribalism and bigotry too serious for comfort, he obviously doesn't know it but he is setting himself up for hate-crimes, the whole thing is getting creeping into his personality. 99.9% of his post are steeped with hate epithets, hateful tribalistic jingoism and dumb assumptions even though 100% of what he talks are hear-says and rumours. I mean can you honestly contend that every Yoruba and Igbo displays this kind of hate for eachother or accuse one another like he takes himself seriously with the whole Voltron Defender of Yoruba tribe thingy? Kid obviously is getting some very wrong impression and ppl here are urging him on and calling it fun. Thesame thing is happening to a lot of ppl that just registered only to be Ambushed by the Likes of BBK and Ezeuche and then they start spewing their own guts and somebody here wants to argue that they can't take this nonsense a lil further away from the cyberspace and possibly cause has harm to sb? We just need to be careful, there is a thin line btw fun and obsession and a lot of ppl here are crossing it in the name of having fun.

Imo, let's just relax and then not discuss these issues. Nobody started rubbishing Ojukwu recently until the slanderous thread about Awo by EzeUche0 popped up (you can verify this yourself if you like by looking through recent threads.) And who knows why EzeUche0 felt justified in making that thread. Personally, I'm willing to let the past be the past if someone else doesn't bring it up unnecessarily; let sleeping dogs lie, I think.

I cannot speak for everyone here, but as for me, I won't rubbish your ethnic heros if you do not rubbish mine.

Kobojunkie:
No they are not! You laugh when you want to . . . If you feel you need to control yourself there, be my guest but we do not all think as you do, and anyone who knows me on here knows I ROFLMAO A LOT! ROFLMAO!!!

Maybe it would be best for you to save these opinions of yours until you actually learn the different individuals on here a bit better. . .  that way you don't keep coming off as another naive chatter/J.J.C each time you post . . . ROFLMAO!

What is a J.J.C?

You really weaken the power of statements like "roflmao" if you use it all the time  These words are like salt; they add a little flavor to food, but if overused they ruin the meal.

Of course, it is a free country/universe, do what you like, but just an observation.