₦airaland Forum

girl22:
THE HURRICANE DIDN'T HIT LOUISINA, NEW ORLEANS. DUMMY

Bytch, who are you calling Dummy?

You seem to have missed the whole point of my thread. The news stations regularly show negative images of Africa and that is the reason why some of you AAs have mouth to denigrate and insult Africans who are trying to make a way in the US.

Don't come in here trying to solicit sympathy because the truth of the matter is that the tables have finally turned. Now you the shoe is on the other foot, you can finally experience what we Africans have had to deal with for eons.

And by the way, I saw people with bare feet before Katrina, just like I saw some in Atlanta.

@Girl22

You are making a huge generalization because not all Africans held that view.

However I will speak for myself.

I often visit a lot of African American message boards, not to mention the fact that I have spent a considerable amount of time in the US.

Often I have had to listen to AAs make some very denigrating remarks about Africans, some even saying that the poorest AA is better off than the richest African.

Their views were generally based on the idea that even the poorest AA had shoes on their feet, three square meals a day, access to the best education resources and employment. Their assessment was that the richest African did not have that in their own countries and that was why many traveled out to the US in order to achieve their dreams and to progress.

Now, while I may agree slightly on the education part, specifically talking about Nigeria, their views were totally ludicrous and off-base, not to mention insulting. I once had sat in an AA studies class in The Gambia and the AA Professor openly said that all Black people want to be Black American! The ignorant mentality of the AAs that I came across knew no bounds. They even boasted that they were the richest Black nation on the planet, a claim that I highly dispute.

Anyway, back to your beef.

The images of Katrina really exposed your a$$es to the world.

There were people in bare feet, folks highly illiterate not too mention obese and unemployed.

How else would you explain people not been able to vacate the hurricane zone even when they were given several adequate warnings that this was going to be a category 5 bytch that nobody in their right mind would want to F**K with?

I heard many say on the many news broadcasts on TV say that the reason they didn't leave was because they didn't have enough money to and that that the 1st of the month (remember Bones, Thugs N Harmony?) was still a few days away.

This gave the World an impression of an extreme bunch lazy individuals, which didn't help the already tainted perception of AAs anyway, (hip-hop anyone?) People sitting on their fat a$$es waiting for a welfare check even though they knew that devil was coming to pay them a visit.

While I understand that the US Government failed the older, disabled and very young individuals miserably, there were still enough able bodied adults stuck in that mess and I feel that they could have done a lot more to get their families the hell out of dodge when they received the warning.

As it goes, the arrogance that some AAs often display when it comes to dealing with Africans invited a lot of the criticism. All this, "I am an American, You Africans need to f**k off back to Africa!" e.g. Stanley Crouch and Whoopi 'I'm part Chinese' Goldberg types etc. Upon all the BS, the US Government basically disowned all those AAs caught up in Katrina by referring to them as refugees!

As I always say, if you can dish it out then you should be able to take it!

My whole family dead and living (but there are more than 5!)

Menu would be:

Hot peppery (very red) jollof rice with stewed beef and fish
Yam Ukodo with palm oil
Egusi soup with fresh fish and Egu or Eba
Pasta Bolognaise with fresh veggies
New York cheesecake
Apple crumble with creamy custard
Freshly squeezed orange, apple, red grape and pineapple juice.
Room temperature water,

Location:

Looking out into the sunset on a secluded part of Barra Beach, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

Ajebota:
Err joshjosh have you ever seen anyone who was not going to Nigeria weighing their luggage in that room? Its only when i'm going to Lagos that i'm asked to go there. When the airport staff ask where I am going and its not Lagos they give me doggy looks like I MUST be going to Lagos because im Nigerian, scr*w that mehn,

@ the woman wanting you to carry her load. If im in Heathrow and i'm flying to Lagos I always do 'strongface.' Trust by the time anyone looks at my face they dare not ask such a stupid question, lol

It isn't only for Nigerians and to answer your question I have been in that room in terminal 4 and seen other nationalities go in there to weigh their luggage before checking in.

If you ask me I think the room is quite handy. It saves one standing in line to check in only to get there and be told that things have to be taken out because you have exceeded your luggage allowance.

@Deji1010

I don't believe that there are such laws in Nigeria in regards to social courtesy and decency. However if you can find any details please post some links.

This is a country where one can at times come across a dead body laying in the road with everyone walking around it, minding their own business.

Also, do you remember the case of the Nigerian female Senator who was slapped by one of her mail colleagues in Congress? This colleague was only suspended for two weeks apparently and this was only after a huge uproar by some of the more enlightened women in Nigeria. The fact that this man even felt that he could do that openly speaks volumes about the society itself.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3759632.stm

@Londoner

The police can be brutal in any country but the audacity and barefacedness of the Nigerian police is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Nigeria is a lawless society.

Blackcat:
Which year was that? Believe me no Policeman can dear beat a Nigerian in broad daylight mercilessly and get away with it except that Nigerian was caught stealing which in such cases the public joins in

You are kidding right?

The incident I mentioned happened in the late 80s.

There is even a thread on nairaland somewhere about a man who travelled to Nigeria from the US for the first time in 15 years. This poor soul was mistaken for a theif and beaten beaten mercilessly by the police before they established his true identity.

How many innocent people have been in the market and have been unceremoniously burnt to death because somebody yelled thief?

Where is the justice?

Do a google search on 'Nigerian Police beatings' and tell me what you come back with.

@Londoner
I agree with your point re: ‘practical application’ but the fact that such rules are in place to discourage this type of behaviour speaks for itself.

You may have seen teachers racially abuse children but again, the point I was trying to make was that it was an offence that would warrant the sack! I did not say that it was unheard of.

Yes, people ought to behave in a dignified and respectful manner at all times without the law requiring them to do so. However, as you may agree, human nature can sometimes be unpredictable and so it is good that deterrents like the law and fines are in place.

The fact that social laws are not in place in Nigeria is the real the issue here. People can run riot and do what the hell they want, practically getting away with murder because of the lack of such laws.

During my first time in Nigeria I saw a Policeman beating the living $hit out of a man in full view of all and sundry before gradually walking into the sunset without anyone doing nowt!

Of course a police beating can take place in the UK but how many Police are blatant enough to do this in full view of the public?

And also are you trying to tell me that a parent who openly abuses their child in a public place will not be frowned upon or even have Social Services called on them with the child placed on the ‘At risk’ register?

The original poster gave an example of a passenger abusing the conductor over a fare on a public bus and when you responded you said that you had seen much worst on London Buses. My point is that someone who behaved this way on the bus could possibly be served with an ASBO.

I think industries like power supply should be privatised as it is glaringly obvious, in this day and age, that the Nigerian government are highly incapable.

The the 'Good thing' about Nigeria that one wants to know is what is newsworthy and can be reported all over the world so that it overshadows such things like innocent children been maimed and killed because they have been labelled as witches by dubious 419 pastors.

@Londoner

I understand what you are saying but I think you are overstating the level of the abuse that goes on in the UK and totally missing the point made by the original poster.

Yes people can be abusive in the UK but then there are also certain standards that must be adhered to in public places. For instance, a teacher can not openly be abusive to their pupils but I have seen such cases like that in Nigeria where a teacher will think that it is ok to refer to a child as ‘Stupid’ or having ‘no brain’ in front of their peers. That is an offence that would warrant the sack in the UK and abusive students would be expelled indefinitely!

Some Nigerians also think that it is quite normal for a mother or parent to abuse their child. The last time I was in Nigeria, the family that I stayed with regularly referred to the youngest child as a 'goat' or called her 'stupid' whenever she innocently made a mistake as a child often does.

When I asked why they did that and stated that such abuse rained on one from their own family could have detrimental effects on the child later on in life, I was promptly told: "Nigerian children are not like Oyinbo children o!"

You have obviously not been in the UK long if you think that one can not be fined or banned from certain public areas for being verbally abusive. Have you ever heard of an ASBO?


Title: A Guide to Anti-social Behaviour Orders and Acceptable Behaviour contracts
Number of pages: 86
Date published: November 2002
Anti-social behaviour has a wide legal definition – to paraphrase the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, it is behaviour which causes or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more people who are not in the same household as the perpetrator. Among the forms it can take are:
• graffiti – which can on its own make even the tidiest urban spaces look squalid
• abusive and intimidating language, too often directed at minorities[color=#990000][/color]• excessive noise, particularly late at night
• fouling the street with litter
• drunken behaviour in the streets, and the mess it creates
• dealing drugs, with all the problems to which it gives rise.

Also try being verbally abusive to the driver or passengers on London Buses or any of the Staff on the Underground and see if you are not issued with a ASBO.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23384768-details/16-year-old+is+banned+from+top+deck+of+every+bus/article.do

I prefer the UK.

The only thing spoiling the UK (Especially London) is the amount of ghetto Nigerians who think that they can behave the same way in Lagos over here.

However there parts of the Capital where such types can be avoided.

Love America. I have been all over the US, in fact I just got back from NY a month ago and I am also scheduled to stop in LA for a few days in September as part of a world trip that I am really excited about.

To live in America? I am not sure I could handle it although I am steadily getting sick and tired of living in London and I am looking to relocate to the countryside or to maybe one of the villages inside London, like Dulwich or Chiswick etc.

The American arrogance does not bother me too much but what does irk me is the need for some of them to denigrate and abuse other countries in order to lift themselves up.

Most notably though, I only seem to get this stank attitude from Nigerian Americans and not others. The real Americans are quite pleasant to deal with.

londoner:
My comment was quite simple really, many people here go on about how bad both Nigerians and Nigeria are, I am baffled as to why they still chose to belong to a Nigerian site, any suggestions?

My two cents, one good thing about Nigeria is the vast array of cultural heritage/expression . In fact that is one positive that Africa has.

I suppose it is the same mentality as those Nigerians who risk arm and leg to get a visa to the UK but at the same time still open their mouths to slag the country off!



As for me, I have a love/hate relationship with Nigeria.  

Jairzinho:
Your 'Sir' definitely pales into insignificance when measured with the other aspects of your posts below in red

There is nothing uncivil about the words you have highlighted in red.

Forthright probably, but not uncivil.

Again, if you can't take the heat,

I have addressed you as 'Sir' and you still telling me to keep the language civil. What do you suggest I address you as? Baba?

It would appear that your idea of 'good things' is totally different from mine.

While I commend you and many others in Nigeria who have managed to make a good living for themselves and families despite all the minuses it is hardly newsworthy, considering that such entitlements are the bare minimum in other countries.

Jairzinho:
I honestly thought I was communicating with an enlightened person.
You'll agree with me your current post adds more 'heat' than 'light' to the current discourse.

FORGET the issue of airconditioned office & move on please !
You're sounding like a broken record.

You can’t tell me to forget it and move on…

I may sound like a broken record Sir but I am only repeating the egotistical and silly BS you felt was necessary and relevant to contribute to this topic.

If you can’t handle the heat then try connecting your brain to your finger tips before typing out such crap again in future.

Jairzinho:
Noone's bragging my dear,our dear friend from Dublin had absolutely nothing to good to say about Nigeria & I offered some,tthe whole air-conditioned story generally points at A Job

The investments on the NSE talks about capital appreciation etc.

I feel you as per all the MDGs & all,but we must start from somewhere.

Poverty is endemic & definitely exists. But we cannot continue with stereotypes,So, the message is DON'T linger on the 'hot chocolate & air-conditioned office' but think of anything good within your area & lets move from there .

Cheers,

You aren't making any sense!

How does one person out of 150+ million, sitting in an air-conditioned office and drinking hot chocolate equate to a 'good thing' in Nigeria?

Why would you even bring that up?

This is the reason why Nigeria is so behind with the rest of the World.

While other countries are boasting about been able to provide free healthcare, free education and low unemployment levels or about technological advances in their mass transit systems, we have someone in Nigeria talking about how he has a job in a office, which is air-conditioned and about how he can drink hot chocolate while gloating over his shares on the stock market, please!

Jairzinho:
Some good things= I'm typing this from the comfort of my air-conditioned office with a mug of hot chocolate & from my wireless AMD processing laptop.

I can view from here my 2006 mob.

My investments on the NSE have grown 5 fold in 2 years overall & Abuja is every bit as cool as any city I've been around the globe/

All isn't necessary the way we hear it & bad news generally travels faster than good news.

Cheers,

This isn't news and why are you drinking hot cocoa in the hot African sun, ? Never mind, lol

Some good things I would like to hear about Nigeria:

Constant electricity for all
The reduction of pot holed roads and the construction of new ones
An advanced mass transit system in all major cities around the country
Low unemployment levels
Free nationalized health care
Free world class compulsory education for every Nigerian child aged between 4 and 16.
Free world class university education for every Nigerian citizen aged 17 to 30 who opts to further their education.

The list goes on and on.

I don't wish or need to hear about specific Nigerians bragging because they have managed to sit in an air-conditioned office drinking hot choc while the majority plods along in abject poverty and ignorance.

CityBoy:
I have read with great interest the threads on this topic. I would not normally drop a line but this is one topic too good to miss.

To the die-hard Lagos patriots, I say good luck to you but I seriously worry that with this type of views, Lagos will not be very much different in 236 years. Every successful society in the world today has succeeded through criticism,harsh or gentle. A society that can't criticise itself will never succeed. You don't need specsavers to see that there are serious environmental and social issues that needs to be immediately addressed if the population of Lagos is to survive. Our young people rather than blindly defending the status quo, should be ready for a radical psychological and social change of attitudes. The world is moving too fast and we can't afford to continue thinking in this "Zombie" ways. Calcutta,Bronx,suburbs of Paris, Peckham and co may be the eyesore of some developing/developed countries but with the exception of India(too many people), these cities are located in Countries that have the resources and mentality to deal with these problems ( A careful observation of these places will also reveal that they are populated by a high number of unskilled locals and immigrants which in itself has its problems, but why we should even think of comparing Ikoyi, Festac and co to these places beat me. These are areas populated by the middle class hence no excuse for the squalor which is the case).

And to those saying the critics are those Lagosians who have not succeeded in diaspora, I think you should get a reality check. I think it takes guts for people to say NO to a life of filth,oppression and insecurity and try their luck somewhere else. When I see the middle class Nigerian looking lady at Waterloo station sweeping coaches, I look at her with respect as I know what she is feeling. Betrayal by her people and her nation!

We all need to wake up and realise that the world is moving at an incredible pace and take advantage of the availability of information and ideas to make our society cleaner, healthier and a better place to make a living (and I'm not talking about yahoo boys or working in a dumb bank).










CityBoy is a Nigerian born and bred blogger who works in the City of London

Bravo!

stillwater:
The people don't sound literate, thorough education has to be initiated in such areas. I don't know why foreigners are the ones who bring these issues to the forefront of our minds. What do our tv stations do anyway?

They moan about negative images of Nigeria been shown around the world and say why can't the 'better places' and 'good things' be shown instead.

Zebedee:
I listened to a documentary lately and discovered the high rate of mobile phone theft in London. There is a high probability of your phone being snatched from your ear and your laptop dragged off your shoulder when you are talking and walking on the street of London. They do this because there is a ready market in Africa. A phone with a chip installed in it was recently traced to Ghana after it was snatched from an ear of a street-walking-talker in London. How come all these do not make the news, even if they do its only for a short while but he little that happens in Nigeria gets the media spotlight? A friend of mine recently visited and after two-weeks in Lagos had to confess that what she heard before her visit, she didn't know she was going to be able to walk the streets of Lagos with her laptop and return home safely.

Why do people always like to complain about other countries highlighting the injustices in Nigeria by telling them to look at the trouble in their own?

This mobile phone jacking issue is not a new phenomenon and it has already been highly publicized in the press to make people more aware of the crackheads and other lowlifes of society who will do anything to get money for their next fix.

The thing with Nigerians is that they like to hide their own injustices in their country, preferring to highlight the 'Good' and the 'better places' totally ignoring the wrongs thinking that they will somehow solve themselves.

It is not like that in the West.

If you go to the BBC and other UK websites there are loads of articles on of crime and statistics in the Uk. Nigeria should do the same instead of trying to brush it all under the carpet and having a bytch when another country exposes their a$$es for them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/crimewatch/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6906554.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/08/africa_nigerian_campus_life_/html/1.stm

The campus

Nigerian universities used to rate among the best in Africa.
In the 1960s students would regularly go on exchange programmes to top British universities. A degree from a Nigerian university was highly regarded.

“All this has changed,” said one professor at the University of Abuja.

“The students are bright, but the system lets them down,” said the veteran scientist, who did not want to be named.


Please click on the link above to view the pics.[color=#990000][/color]

Baba Nee:
@ Poster
Thanks for this. It 's quite sensible and educating.

However its quite funny, we are all sentencing the guy in the newspaper without cautioning one of us Nairalanders who flouted the rule and even flaunted it here by posting the picture!

Obedience is such a simple word that too many people pass up without an eye blink!

To you Mr Nairalander who uses his phone in the aircraft for whatever reason, i say to you, you want to be noticed, Fine, you can come down from the sycamore tree! We've noticed you in the Virgin Nigeria aircraft! You did not impress me one bit! When next u are in the plane, whether a Tampico, Beechcratf or Boeing, please, simply switch off your Nokia Palasa!

Why are you assuming that the picture poster actually used his mobile phone camera to snap that pic. It could have been a normal camera and cameras are allowed to be used on planes.

I like the odd glass of red wine occassionally. I am not much of a drinker to say the truth.

I am sure he had money to pay. Nigeria may have the world class health facilities but these facilities are not available to the common man on the street because he has no money to pay for them. That is the problem.

@ Jassie

wich kine vex you dey vex be that? no vex o!

Na only bush people no go understand why person no de fight for plane but I no blame you sha, na your background.

Dantecmu:
Pounds Sterling aka Mama charlie. The only currency with a surname. Thats why people come to da uk not cus uk itself is a big deal.

Please, they can go to Cyprus, Kuwait or Bahrain. These countries have currencies valued higher than the uk sterling. Typical Nigerian! Denigrate the place but still find your way there.

jassie:
I don't think there's something wrong with 2 passengers fighting on the plane

Of course you wouldn't,

Omo Bush

darfur:
which man u talking about here?

abi o?

EKENEA:
@ Elosele

Please don't say so. we as Nigerians are not , but its those at the top , if you are found stealing goat you may go in for 2-5 years no bail straight to jail. but if its 800 million, you will get bail,if you are going to be jailed you spend your jail term in your house or Europe/USA,

And this is what makes the society lawless.

Those at the top should be examples of how to behave as people look up to them but unfortunately those examples are very poor. This is why when some Nigerians travel abroad they always end up in jail because they find it hard to drop their lawless behaviour when they leave home.

@Jermo

Why don't you try the US? The UK is not the only place on earth that Nigerians can go to. Try the US, a country in Asia or Canada and you may even find it more to your liking than the UK.

bjluv:
UK my ass---poster, I know you wont bother and listen but welcome onboard. You will see the real life when you finally arrive

Yes that is right. Sweety pie listen to your peers and stay away from the UK. Please explore other options such as the US or Asia.