₦airaland Forum

Another option is to eliminate the more expensive courses of study and only offer the ones that pay for themselves.

So perhaps engineering and the school of medicine should be shut down, if it turns out that they are the biggest financial burden.

Your call, Lagosians.

But if there is a gap between how much it costs to provide the education and how much is being charged (and it looks like this is the case), the difference has to come from somewhere.

Two options.

Either you keep the current price and Lagos State subsidizes the rest. Which means more taxation, etc on the populace.

Or you increase it and shift the burden from those who don't directly benefit (the general Lagos taxpayer) to those who do (the students.)

For all we know, even this price increase still doesn't reflect the true costs of providing the education.

700% is too much in a year though, I think. But either way, good things don't come cheaply in life. Somebody will pay for it, one way or another.

What a shame

Wow

There are too many beautiful women on this planet for it to make sense to put up with some girl's unreasonable demands.

Makes no sense to me

[quote author=Blood_Shed link=topic=787454.msg9397375#msg9397375 date=1319309892]4) A real man always takes care of his woman's children, even when he's not the father.[/quote]Lmao @ me raising somebody else's kids

Hell has a better chance of freezing over.

I no be mugu

lol.

homie is a bit delusional, or at least not being honest with himself

https://iseeahappyface.com/upload/husband-is-not-an-atm-machine172.jpg

Black women should date other races imo.

Would give them more options.

Ruby is basically the power of Perl, minus the ugliness, lack of maintainability and readability.

Read this free online book (which will also tell you how to download/install Ruby). Spend a few hours on it. Tell me what you think when done.

I think you'll like it better than some of the alternatives.

Hopefully by 32 or so I'll be married.

Haven't really felt pressure to start thinking more seriously until recently

Sounds. . . ominous.

Things fall apart, I guess.

Interesting to me how Germany is calling the shots despite losing two wars. Definitely an amazing country and people.

By MARCUS WALKER and CHARLES FORELLE


Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy remain far apart on key issues, say people familiar with the talks.

BERLIN—The world's hopes that Europe will resolve its debt crisis in a bold stroke are running into a stubborn reality: Solutions that work on paper are often unattainable in a euro zone of 17 sovereign countries.

Euro-zone finance ministers met in Brussels Friday, ahead of a European Union summit on Sunday, to grapple with the disagreements that are holding up the promised "comprehensive package" to tame the crisis. Those include rifts between the most important players—Germany, France and the European Central Bank—over how to beef up the euro zone's bailout fund and how deeply to restructure Greece's crushing debts.

Even if leaders do enough to avoid a financial meltdown, resolving the deeper causes of the debt crisis—which include economic disparities that Europe hasn't figured out how to redress within the euro framework—is likely to take years, analysts and officials warn.

"Europe is staring at a lost decade," says Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Center for European Reform, a London think tank. Years of economic stagnation with persistent fears of sovereign and banking-sector defaults "will have a considerable impact on the broader international economy," he says.

Behind current policy divisions lie profound political and institutional constraints that limit what Europe can do to stop a collapse of confidence in its single-currency zone that is threatening to undermine fragile economic growth worldwide.

Markets and policy makers agree that a grand plan is needed. But a number of factors are restricting the euro zone to small steps: the limits of solidarity between the 17 nation-states that make up the euro zone, the cautious culture of the bloc's central bank, the reluctance of national governments to overhaul their economies except under duress, and a lack of financial elbow room even in Europe's core economies such as France.


Despite high expectations that a solution will result from Sunday's summit, European leaders are already dampening hopes and saying that a second summit on Wednesday will be required, WSJ Brussel bureau chief Steven Fidler reports on Markets Hub. Photo: Reuters.

"We are not really showing a properly functioning leadership," Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said on arriving in Brussels for Friday's negotiations. Europe's divisions over its crisis response are sending out "disastrous" signals to markets, he said.

Renewed hopes that euro-zone leaders would make progress this weekend lifted financial markets on Friday. On Thursday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy spooked markets by admitting they won't be able to agree on anti-crisis measures by Sunday and will need a second summit, planned for next Wednesday.

People familiar with the negotiations said Germany and France remain so far apart on key issues that Ms. Merkel couldn't get a green light to sign a deal from her increasingly assertive parliamentarians.

France is pressing for euro-zone governments to turn their joint bailout fund into a bank that can borrow money from the ECB, greatly amplifying its firepower, a step that the ECB and Germany reject.

Germany is insisting that Greece's private-sector bondholders take a big hit to reduce Greece's debt to a more sustainable level, a proposal that France and the ECB are resisting for fear that it could accelerate bond investors' flight from Southern Europe.

On Friday, a report by international inspectors said Greece's funding needs can only be met if bondholders accept writedowns of 60%, or if euro-zone governments lend Athens billions of euros more than planned. The report could strengthen Germany's hand in the dispute with France.

Lawmakers from Ms. Merkel's center-right coalition are insisting she consult them in detail before agreeing to any EU compromise that could cost German taxpayers yet more money. "The governments in Europe are going to have to get used to this," Volker Kauder, conservative leader in Germany's parliament, told Der Spiegel, a German weekly.

After warnings from Mr. Kauder and other lawmakers, Ms. Merkel was forced to rearrange Europe's timetable for its next decisions, in a series of emergency phone calls on Thursday.

Lawmakers who answer to national electorates in Germany, Finland, Slovakia and other countries are putting the brakes on euro-zone leaders' bailout plans.

The logic of deeper economic integration in a currency union is clashing with ingrained national identities that continue to be the foundation of Europe's democracies.

Since Greece's first bailout in the spring of 2010, ordinary Germans and their elected representatives have grumbled that Germans, after years of cutting welfare entitlements, are having to rescue Greeks who had long lived beyond their means.

Pan-European solidarity is an especially hard sell in parts of the euro zone that are less wealthy than Germany.

"It's not fair that a poorer country like Slovakia should have to pay for a richer one, like Greece," says Nikola Brucknerova, a Slovak student who works as a clerk in corner grocery store in Bratislava.

"It was a mistake for us to join the euro zone," Ms. Brucknerova says, expressing envy for the neighboring Czechs, who joined the EU but kept their national currency.

On most of the Continent, belief in the overall benefits of European integration remains strong, opinion polls show. The European project has coincided with decades of relative peace and prosperity after a war-torn history.

So far, national parliaments have signed off on all of the requested bailouts of cash-strapped euro-zone members—for fear of a bigger financial crash and far-graver political fissures in Europe.

But parliaments are increasingly setting limits to the checks leaders such as Ms. Merkel can write, as popular doubts grow over whether the cost of propping up Greece and other stragglers is worth it.

The bloc's bailout fund is thus stuck with a limited lending capacity of €440 billion, much of which is already committed.

The U.S., which is watching the euro crisis unfold with growing anxiety, has been pushing Europe to amplify the fund by letting it borrow from the ECB, an idea that France and some other euro members support.

The ECB, as controller of the currency, has unlimited financial firepower, which many economists say it should use, playing the role of lender of last resort to euro-zone governments and banks.

But lending to governments—either directly or via the bailout fund—is unpalatable for the ECB, which inherited a cautious approach to central banking from the German Bundesbank.

Intervening more actively in government debt markets, like other major central banks do, would jeopardize the ECB's political acceptance in Germany, where voters and politicians fear that bond-buying leads quickly to money-printing and high inflation.

"Central banks should not be called upon to finance states," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said in Brussels on Friday, underlying the orthodoxy which France would like Germany to relax.

With the ECB tethered, the euro zone is confronting growing problems with limited financial resources.

The inter-governmental bailout fund created last year, the European Financial Stability Facility, is being called upon to finance governments that can't tap bond markets, prop up the bond prices of further countries, offer some nations precautionary loans, and help recapitalize banks—all with only €440 billion at its disposal.

But making the fund bigger risks undermining its credibility. Its ability to raise funds cheaply rests on guarantees from the euro zone's triple-A-rated states, mainly Germany and France.But French politicians fear the country could lose its credit rating if it increases its contribution to the bailout fund.

Rating agency Moody's Investors Service warned early this week that France's credit rating could come under pressure, thanks in part to "the possible need to provide additional support to other European sovereigns or to its own banking system."

"Europe has to lay out a vision of how it will put itself back on track and move towards greater political and fiscal union," says Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff. "Only that will give investors the confidence that the euro zone will stay together and that they don't have to pull their money out," he says.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204485304576645420716533688.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection#printMode

Innovative thinking.

BTW, isn't a green card.

Foreigners' Sweetener: Buy House, Get a Visa

The reeling housing market has come to this: To shore it up, two Senators are preparing to introduce a bipartisan bill Thursday that would give residence visas to foreigners who spend at least $500,000 to buy houses in the U.S.

The provision is part of a larger package of immigration measures, co-authored by Sens. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), designed to spur more foreign investment in the U.S.


Foreigners have accounted for a growing share of home purchases in South Florida, Southern California, Arizona and other hard-hit markets. Chinese and Canadian buyers, among others, are taking advantage not only of big declines in U.S. home prices and reduced competition from Americans but also of favorable foreign exchange rates.


WSJ's Nick Timiraos details a proposed plan in which foreigners who spend $500,000 in cash on U.S. real estate would be given visas. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images


To fuel this demand, the proposed measure would offer visas to any foreigner making a cash investment of at least $500,000 on residential real-estate—a single-family house, condo or townhouse. Applicants can spend the entire amount on one house or spend as little as $250,000 on a residence and invest the rest in other residential real estate, which can be rented out.

Journal Community


The measure would complement existing visa programs that allow foreigners to enter the U.S. if they invest in new businesses that create jobs. Backers believe the initiative would help soak up an excess supply of inventory when many would-be American home buyers are holding back because they're concerned about their jobs or because they would have to take a big loss to sell their current house.

"This is a way to create more demand without costing the federal government a nickel," Sen. Schumer said in an interview.

International buyers accounted for around $82 billion in U.S. residential real-estate sales for the year ending in March, up from $66 billion during the previous year period, according to data from the National Association of Realtors. Foreign buyers accounted for at least 5.5% of all home sales in Miami and 4.3% of Phoenix home sales during the month of July, according to MDA DataQuick.

Foreigners immigrating to the U.S. with the new visa wouldn't be able to work here unless they obtained a regular work visa through the normal process. They'd be allowed to bring a spouse and any children under the age of 18 but they wouldn't be able to stay in the country legally on the new visa once they sold their properties.

The provision would create visas that are separate from current programs so as to not displace anyone waiting for other visas. There would be no cap on the home-buyer visa program.

Over the past year, Canadians accounted for one quarter of foreign home buyers, and buyers from China, Mexico, Great Britain, and India accounted for another quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors. For buyers from some countries, restrictive immigration rules are "a deterrent to purchase here, for sure," says Sally Daley, a real-estate agent in Vero Beach, Fla. She estimates that around one-third of her sales this year have gone to foreigners, an all-time high.

"Without them, we would be stagnant," says Ms. Daley. "They're hiring contractors, buying furniture, and they're also helping the market correct by getting inventory whittled down."

In March, Harry Morrison, a Canadian from Lakefield, Ontario, bought a four-bedroom vacation home in a gated community in Vero Beach. "House prices were going down, and the exchange rate was quite favorable," said Mr. Morrison, who first bought a home there from Ms. Daley four years ago.

While a special visa would allow Canadian buyers like Mr. Morrison to spend more time in the U.S., he said he isn't sure "what other benefit a visa would give me."

The idea has some high-profile supporters, including Warren Buffett, who this summer floated the idea of encouraging more "rich immigrants" to buy homes. "If you wanted to change your immigration policy so that you let 500,000 families in but they have to have a significant net worth and everything, you'd solve things very quickly," Mr. Buffett said in an August interview with PBS's Charlie Rose.

The measure could also help turn around buyer psychology, said mortgage-bond pioneer Lewis Ranieri. He said the program represented "triage" for a housing market that needs more fixes, even modest ones.

But other industry executives greeted the proposal with skepticism. Foreign buyers "don't need an incentive" to buy homes, said Richard Smith, chief executive of Realogy Corp., which owns the Coldwell Banker and Century 21 real-estate brands. "We have a lot of Americans who are willing to buy. We just have to fix the economy."

The measure may have a more targeted effect in exclusive markets like San Marino, Calif., that have become popular with foreigners. Easier immigration rules could be "tremendous" because of the difficulty many Chinese buyers have in obtaining visas, says Maggie Navarro, a local real-estate agent.

Ms. Navarro recently sold a home for $1.67 million, around 8% above the asking price, to a Chinese national who works in the mining industry. She says nearly every listing she's put on the market in San Marino "has had at least one full price cash offer from a buyer from mainland China."

Corrections & Amplifications
Harry Morrison bought a four-bedroom vacation home in Vero Beach in March. He first bought a home there four years ago from Sally Daley, a local real-estate agent. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Ms. Daley sold the four-bedroom home to Mr. Morrison in March.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203752604576641421449460968.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read

lmao

igbo2011:
True, they produce about 1 million barrels of oil a day with a population of 6 million.  But Libyans also have more MW of electricity than Nigeria does with it's small population (6000 to 4000).

The oil industry had already begun to recover in recent months, especially in parts of the country where fighting had long since stopped. Libya is producing about a quarter of the 1.6 million barrels per day of oil it pumped out before the war.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i6vpwvDVyXpfnwJhs8eWcgbwND2w?docId=afccd89d01694d72abacadee6881d274

Similar reserves to Nigeria's. Actually, larger.

Anybody could make such a country decent. It is nearly impossible to mess that up

The D’Banj in this very delightful interview with Saturday Vanguard opens up first time on his relationship with Genevieve Nnaji and the controversial interview with President Jonathan. He also talked about his ideal woman and why he cant find a wife and more…

Enjoy

The Kanye West Deal…

First of all there are two different kinds of contracts here. This deal is more like a Mo Hit’s Records contract and under Mo Hits, there are two deals.

The first, is a two- year production deal with Don Jazzy. He’ll be working directly with Kanye West. The second one is more like a partnership. It’s flexible because it’s a partnership. It’s not a regular deal because we’re funding some part of the deal. And it also puts us in the position of power. The deal isn’t just for the Mo’hits crew. Other artists will also have access to it and the money will come in. We now have the connection and the bridge has finally been built and as we’re doing that we’re still holding our base back home. So it’s flexible and good too.


See the rest here: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/its-so-difficult-to-find-a-wife-says-dbanj/

Pretty long article.

I really hate articles like this. Sounds so sketchy. What kind of investment will Germans be doing in a place with no electricity?

Bleh

Need something more tangible than this

on OCTOBER 21, 2011 · in BUSINESS
Tweet
By OLA AJAYI
As part of efforts towards attracting foreign investments to Oyo State, Governor Abiola Ajimobi has wooed German Intervention Development Partners to the state.

While receiving a delegation of German investors led by the Country Representative, Mr. Carl Bruining, in his office, Gov. Ajimobi said that partnering with the German would contribute immensely to the socio-economic development of the state.

The governor noted that the decision of his administration to invite the German investors was part of his commitment to enhance the development of the state, in line with his transformational agenda.

“This is in continuation of our efforts at soliciting support from development partners for intervention funds and for assistance and cooperation with the government and people of Oyo State.

“Gladly for us, we have a very important organization which is the German arm of intervention development partners and we are very appreciative of their coming to Oyo State,” he said.

The governor described Oyo State as the intellectual capital of Nigeria and political stronghold of the South West region which, he said, was fertile for investment.

Thereafter, Gov. Ajimobi and the team went for a closed door meeting aimed at fashioning out areas of cooperation on pressing developmental needs of the state.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2011/10/german-firm-eyes-investment-in-oyo-state/

How hard is it to have nice infrastructure in a tiny country (population-wise) with massive oil and gas revenue?

Any monkey could achieve what he did.

Isn't like he was trying to extract blood from a stone

It isn't my business what you do, indeed. To my knowledge you aren't on the payroll of evildoers in my state.

However, those from that state you are on the payroll of? Well, it is their business.

And when they catch you, they will deal with you

Keep enjoying Lagos. I wouldn't suggest that you leave it, or return to Delta.

But if for some reason you do, make sure that you only do so in the middle of the night and unannounced

Don't let the youths know that you are coming. Or they will rend you limb from limb.

Let us recall the fate of Judas Iscariot, who sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

He didn't get to enjoy his money, did he?

And neither will any who have sold out their own people, their own state and are spending their ill-gotten gains in Lagos.

Not a curse. Just a prediction.

How much are you being paid a month to defend evil?

I wonder if Beaf can even go to his native Delta w/o being beaten within an inch of his life.

Maybe that is why he resides in Lagos

Sad that you have sold your soul to the devil so cheaply

"Omo Igbo", indeed.

Maybe as the youths descend on you to separate your life from your body, screaming "omo Igbo" will save you from the judgement of those you have betrayed

Q: "How do we solve unemployment?"

A: "Omo Igbo!"

Q: "The roads are bad, how do we fix them?"

A: "Omo Igbo!"

Q: "My son's belly is empty, he needs food. What should he eat?"

A: "Omo Igbo!"

With such intellectually bankrupt cretins, is there any wonder why things are the way they are?

May Jesus save us from fools, incompetents, hacks and thieves who give lazy answers to difficult questions.

I cannot catch a gorilla for you. But if you hold still for a second, I will catch a "omo Igbo" yammering baboon

I hope you all see how he is derailing the thread.

His people are asking for answers. Rather than providing solutions, he can only give them "omo Igbo."

Is "omo Igbo" bread for them to eat?

Is omo Igbo going to provide jobs for people? Money in their pockets? Hope for the future?

Na wa o

No wonder African countries are in such a bad spot.

Delta youths: "There are no jobs, no hope"
Delta comissioner: "There are no jobs, no hope. What is the answer, how do we fix this mess?"
Beaf: "Omo Igbo!"

Yammering silly stories about being called omo Igbo in Lagos.

Who gives a damn?

How is that relevant?

Is that what caused the special assistant to resign?

Na wa o

Wetin concern this thread with ACN or Yorubaland.

Face the topic, Beaf. And the topic alone.

Candyness is not bad, but her vanity is a bit too much. Tone it down a bit  ma'am

LAGOS, Nigeria-- A village in Nigeria's oil-rich southern delta where observers found a drinking-water well polluted with benzene 900 times the international limit has sued Royal Dutch Shell PLC for $1 billion in a U.S. federal court.
The lawsuit alleges that Shell, long the dominant oil company over Nigeria's more than 50 years of production, acted willfully negligent in pursuing profits over protecting the nation's Niger Delta.
The lawsuit filed by lawyers in Detroit uses a recent United Nations report over widespread pollution in the delta's Ogoniland area for much of its evidence. However, that report implied Nigeria's state-run oil company, rather than Shell, was responsible for recent damage in village of Ogale in Nigeria's Rivers state.
"It is not isolated or accidental, but part of a culture and ongoing pattern of conduct that consistently and repeatedly ignored risks to others in favor of financial advantage," the lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Michigan reads.
Some environmentalists say as much as 550 million gallons of oil have poured into the Niger Delta during 50 years of production -- at a rate roughly comparable to one Exxon Valdez disaster per year. Even today, oil laps up in brackish delta creeks in Ogoniland, creating a black ring around the coastlines.
Ogale was one of the first operational oil fields discovered in Nigeria, where the nation's first shipment of 22,000 barrels of crude oil exported to Europe came from, the lawsuit said. In the time since, the village suffered from the pollution of oil exploration, putting villagers at risk, the suit said.
A U.N. report released in August highlighted the plight of the village, describing how investigators found about 3 inches of refined oil floating on the surface of groundwater that serves the community's wells. It also described finding high levels of benzene, a known carcinogen, in the water.
Though Shell abandoned production in Ogoniland in 1993 following civil unrest, miles of aging pipelines and flow stations sit in the area. However, the U.N. report said that a pipeline abandoned in 2008 by the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. lies near Ogale and showed signs that a large amount of oil spilled from it.
Benjamin Whitfield Jr., a Detroit lawyer representing the village elders, did not return a call for comment Friday.
A spokeswoman for Shell in Nigeria declined to comment, saying the company does not discuss ongoing lawsuits.
Lawyers filed the U.S. lawsuit on behalf of the villagers in Nigeria using the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute, a law increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will use a separate lawsuit between Nigerian villagers and Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas under the law.
Shell has been sued in the past in the U.S. over its Nigerian operations. In June 2009, it agreed to a $15.5 million settlement to end a lawsuit alleging that the oil giant was complicit in the executions of activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and other civilians by Nigeria's former military regime.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/10/21/nigeria-village-files-1b-suit-against-shell-in-us/print#ixzz1bSDjZt3G

@lawyer: Look forward to it!

@lagcity: Relax. Chy101 was thoroughly shamed by my link, and will no doubt suffer from more shame in a little bit when others post pictures.

I am even glad he made this thread, so people can see how s1lly he is.