₦airaland Forum

blacksta:
Children of nowadays - They dont have respect for their elders anyway

wo ni eni ti wan ba ko ni ile wan ko ni ta.

Who are your "children" and what kind of Yo'oba is that? pfftt!

naijababe:
You know what they say about repressing your anger? Well, NL is my outlet  

More power to ya.  Boys like Blacksta need some proper discipline - the kind that can only effectively be done with a cane.  

Katsumoto:
lol

Trying to embed a video for all the beautiful ladies you my sweetie but not getting it.  

It's counterintuitive to be honest.  I did it a couple of times before but I had to learn it all over again today.  And that "flash" button ikon above the message box doesn't really do it.

You can use this formula below.  Just be sure to remove the "watch?" or other extraneous coding.  Also, if you want a large image, use "400,400" instead of "200,200."  For example:

This is the link to the Stevie song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYQfWJNWe3I
This is how the final embed link looks: [flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com//v/GYQfWJNWe3I[/flash]

Katz, If it doesn't show, click on my message to reply and you'll see it.  Copy it from "[flash]" to "[/flash]" and use that formula.

naijababe:
Bad belle pesin, waka jo

hahaha. That's the real naijababe. Can't FAKE NICE! You know I took some artistic license with my earlier post, about me driving with road rage. But I can imagine YOU actually driving like that. Remember that scene in "Speed" the movie, where Sandra Bullock is driving that gigantic bus and she's yelling at no one in particular, "get out my way. . .out of my waaaaaayyyyy!!!" That's you.

@ Isale gangan, check this out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47ZUUOfDmLk&playnext=1&list=PL24790286BAD15DE1

Was my wedding song aeons ago, i still get teary anytime i play it.

Awww. Having internet connection issues right now, but I will listen to it as soon as I can.

Katsumoto:
.

lol. What are you doing, Katz?  hahaha. WTH?  Don't make me worry.  I have a very active vividly imaginative mind.

I am already put out by NL spambot banning my posts for some inexplicable reason, especially when you have all kinds of vulgar and obscene stuff (not in this thread) all over the place.  Absurd!  

Also, I replied Physics.OD/OPP, but spambot didn't like it - twice.  And I didn't even call him a wuss (the 2nd time).  hahahaha.  Nay, I like Physics. . . the subject, not the poster.  He probably thinks that smilie is provocative.  Wuss!

This was sent to me. Very nice:
[flash=400,400]http://www.youtube.com//v/sWayBgnIEec[/flash]

It's got me in the mood for more music music music.  Down memory lane. . .

So, a few years ago I'm in the car, doing my usual road rage driving.  (BTW, I am only ever like this when driving. lol.)  Out of nowhere, I get distracted from yelling at a slow driver in front of me by a really lovely song sang by a familiar voice.  Okay, one of my all-time favorite artistes is Stevie Wonder.  Anyone that knows me knows this - and they'll now know who this poster is, if I'm not careful. lol.  I have a thing for singer-songwriters.  And Stevie W is the ultimate of the genre. 

Okay, so I mellow out a little cos the song goes on for an inordinate length of time.  Later, I spend an inordinate length of time searching for a Stevie Wonder song I called "Always," with no luck.  The refrain in the song was "Always. . .Always. . .Always" but there is no such song title.  I end up typing a few words that I remember, and eventually came up with the right song.  I felt shame; I had been a collector of his music for some time and been told numerous times that no collection is complete without his seminal work, "Songs in the Key of Life." 

The song "As" is from that album.  Enjoy.  Don't say you learned nothing from this here thread. 

[flash=200,200]http://www.youtube.com//v/GYQfWJNWe3I[/flash]

fstranger3:
At the expense of breaking your mood, when he he wrote that he speaks better English, what he meant was that he writes it better or why would he think of slowing down [b]for us [/b]having never met any of us physically.

I didn't say he makes sense.

fstranger3:


ROFLMFAO

At the expense of breaking the mood, he wrote that he speaks better English, not that the writes it better.  Becomrich previously acknowledged his inadequate typing/writing and computer skills. 

P.S. I'm not saying I beieve it. But that is what he wrote. I previously requested an audio sample of his voice for evidence, when he made the same claim of his superior English-speaking abilities compared to Ribadu. Since he makes this claim often, it is the least he can do, to be honest.

Becomrichn:
Beaf you are the same person logging in under different name because you work for jonathan. that why you are saying I speak batu english. Like I told you, I honest speak better english than even your president or fashola or all your people. That is if you people can understand my english. I may need to slow myself down for you people to  understand me.

fstranger3:
Ever lived there?

The people I went to school with always lament to me anytime I talk to them over the phone. I am just being honest.

I have to concur.  I don't hear good things about Port Harcourt.  And those doing the complaining are not one ethnic group either.  The only person (I know) close to being happy there actually lives in a residential enclave created for the exclusive use of the employees of a european company doing business in Nigeria. An area off-limits to most natives.  Can you imagine?  In our fatherland! 

PhysicsMHD:
I don't understand this thread.

Wow!  And you're supposed to be a reeeeaaally smart person!  Tell me, all those "quality" posts of yours --- cut n paste, right?   

It's okay.  You can tell me; it's just the two of us here. 

I've been trying to post a really important article about anti-immigrant laws in the USA, but keep getting 2-hr bans or some such. pfft! Can't even post the link in my message.

[quote author=Kilode?! link=topic=590933.msg7769691#msg7769691 date=1298253576]Conclusion=  Dude is a master(a lil confused) manipulator, I approve his message. [/quote]Nicely done.

blacksta:
www.bbc.co.uk/add-122334mu-gu-html

TROUBLEMAKER!

I've been trying to post this article re: "Immigrants in USA" since the weekend, but spambot's got its wires crossed.

He're a link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18license.html?_r=1&ref=us

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, ILEKE!

Just saw the thread like 2 mins ago. Was it on Sunday, or is it today?

Cheesecake. 

[quote author=Kilode?! link=topic=590933.msg7769511#msg7769511 date=1298248364]Isale so you like poetry too?[/quote]What you need to do is to read the poem and put forth your own review.  Come on now, Oga Kilode.  We have posters with contrasting opinions here, so you have to break the tie.  No one more worthy, heh? 

Oga Katsumoto is lucky o.

Why're you trying to marry me off?  This is the 3rd  or 4th candidate in less than 2 months you've championed. Or don't you remember?!  Are you getting a finders fee?

BTW this thread is now a full blog within NL, all you need now is google adsense revenue. . .

So, when I carry my business go elsewhere, you'll come with?  I can count on you to give me ample feedback, yay!   Shame I have no plans for such at the moment.

OAM4J:
I tot i made you Balogun for a reason, why you dey ask for my aburo again?

Katsumoto:
Why do you like conflict so much?

"Like conflict"?  He lives for it!  It's his sustenance.  Ask him what he did to upset a certain poster so much she erased her posts from this thread.  I guess I, and my thread, are guilty by association. 

I tried to post this earlier but ran afoul of spambot.  Below is an abbreviated vertsion of the same message; the entire post should appear at some point when it is released by spambot/NL mod:


Caught Unawares by an Anti-Immigrant Mood (USA: Virgina)
FALLS CHURCH, Va. — When Mohamed Mejri, a Tunisian immigrant with a limousine business here, first learned that the State Department of Motor Vehicles had refused to issue him a new driver’s license, he thought it was a mistake. After all, he had been a licensed driver in Virginia for years.

But last fall, the department stopped accepting his federally issued work permit, a document that was his main proof that he was in the country legally, because he does not have a green card.

Virginia changed its policy in September after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was charged with hitting and killing a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County.

Her death hardened what was already a strong anti-immigrant mood in the state. Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, announced that work permits would no longer be accepted as proof of legal residence because they could be held by people who, like the Bolivian immigrant, are in deportation proceedings. The governor said other documents would still be accepted.

The permit, called the employment authorization document, allows foreign nationals to work in the United States. Asylum seekers, refugees and students are among those who have one.

For Mr. Mejri, who is 54, the permit is all he has. He fled Tunisia in 1992, and after living in Canada, where he had been granted political asylum, he came to the United States in 2000. American immigration authorities rejected his application for asylum, over an unpaid fine in Canada. By the time it was paid and processed, several years had passed, and he received notice that it was too late to reapply. He then received an administrative order to leave the country, but a federal judge ruled in his favor that he not be deported. Now he is in limbo, in the country legally but without any path to citizenship. . .  
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18license.html?_r=1&ref=us

cap28:
Gadaffi is doing the right thing, the west is trying to topple him by way of a fake "revolution", Libya unlike Egypt is not  a client state of the US and therefore Gadaffi is well within his rights to fight off any attempt to topple him.

The US govts fingerprints are all over this so called "uprising", Gadaffi should resort to any means to crush this fake rebellion because it is not legitimate.

You couldn't be more on point, Cap!  Same thing they are attempting to do in Iran.  I expect Gaddafi to outsmart them once again.  They've been after his arse for at least 25 years now.  Year in year out, the same policy by the Americans; only the U.S. president/mouthpiece changes.

Katsumoto:
You are the only one; by George, I swear it. 

Good save. 

OAM4J is not 'our' dear; don't use such language, he may think there is an opening for him. 

You also resemble what remark? Naive and trusting?

Something like that.  Don't want OAM4J to feel alone. 

Katsumoto:
I am going to agree with my girl (Isale) on this. I love that poem and I can relate to the words. The man 'may' love his mistress but he wants some coochie and he wants it now.

Are you my soulmate?  If so, why did you even feel the need to add "Isale" in the bolded? We all know you have not the reputation of chasing tail all over Nairaland!  Who else is there?  Spill it!!!

I am glad you love the poem.  It is really awesome and has survived the test of time.  Artistic and literary talent is a special thing.  I count myself lucky when I get the opportunity to enjoy the works of my fellow man.   

Also, I shall not be too hard on our dear OAM4J.  He is a real gent, and oh so naive and trusting.  BTW, I too resemble that remark. 

Just want to make people aware of potential developments in immigration issues that could very well affect Nigerians in the USA.

Caught Unawares by an Anti-Immigrant Mood

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — When Mohamed Mejri, a Tunisian immigrant with a limousine business here, first learned that the State Department of Motor Vehicles had refused to issue him a new driver’s license, he thought it was a mistake. After all, he had been a licensed driver in Virginia for years.

But last fall, the department stopped accepting his federally issued work permit, a document that was his main proof that he was in the country legally, because he does not have a green card.

Now, five months later, his business is collapsing, and bill collectors are calling.

Virginia changed its policy in September after an illegal immigrant from Bolivia was charged with hitting and killing a nun while driving drunk in Prince William County.

Her death hardened what was already a strong anti-immigrant mood in the state. Virginia’s governor, Bob McDonnell, announced that work permits would no longer be accepted as proof of legal residence because they could be held by people who, like the Bolivian immigrant, are in deportation proceedings. The governor said other documents would still be accepted.

The permit, called the employment authorization document, allows foreign nationals to work in the United States. Asylum seekers, refugees and students are among those who have one.

For Mr. Mejri, who is 54, the permit is all he has. He fled Tunisia in 1992, and after living in Canada, where he had been granted political asylum, he came to the United States in 2000. American immigration authorities rejected his application for asylum, over an unpaid fine in Canada. By the time it was paid and processed, several years had passed, and he received notice that it was too late to reapply. He then received an administrative order to leave the country, but a federal judge ruled in his favor that he not be deported. Now he is in limbo, in the country legally but without any path to citizenship.

The precise number of people affected by the change is unknown. Jorge Figueredo of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia said he was personally handling 38 cases, and estimated that the total number of stranded immigrants could be in the hundreds.

. . .After Mr. Mejri was first refused a new license, he went to five other Department of Motor Vehicles offices, hoping his documents would be accepted.

At one, a clerk requested the original court order granting his petition against deportation. It took eight weeks, but he produced it. A copy was faxed to Richmond, but it had no effect. He was never rejected outright, he said, and was asked repeatedly for additional proof of legal residence.

“This should not be happening,” Mr. Figueredo said. “This man is legally present. He has a decision by a federal judge. Why isn’t that good enough?”

Mr. Mejri soon fell behind on his bills, and his insurance company canceled his liability coverage. That triggered the cancellation of his business license. Meanwhile, credit card companies continued to charge him for use of their services for his cars, souring his credit rating.

He felt particularly helpless when he discovered that he could not even buy the syringes he needed to treat his diabetes without presenting a valid driver’s license and had to work through a social worker to get them.

. . .Ms. Stokes said there was a special center in Richmond to review su.ch claims that could contact federal immigration authorities directly to ascertain an applicant’s status.

. . .Some immigrants have had success presenting a document called an I-797, essentially a receipt for a visa application, but others have not. To address that problem, a bill was presented in Virginia’s House in January that would have required the department to spell out its procedure, Mr. Figueredo said, but it did not pass.

A month ago, Mr. Mejri rented a room in Rockville, Md., and got a driver’s license in that state. But his monthly insurance payments have tripled, and for now, he has put his business aside. He lives off money he has borrowed from his friend Aziz Balaid, an American citizen, who is finding it more difficult to be optimistic about his friend’s prospects.

“When he says, ‘What am I going to do?’ I have no answer for him,” Mr. Balaid said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18license.html?_r=1&ref=us

OAM4J:
I dont fully agree with your conclusion (anyway, that is the beauty of poetry)

to me that sound more like the desire of a determined lover, who will pursue and not give up on love till death, if need be, but desire to cherish/enjoy every moment while there is opportunity.

Very well then.  I respect your opinion.  I never want to be described as a cynical sort - a skeptic, maybe, but never a cynic. 

Maybe I read it with a jaundiced eye.  We'll let others have their say.  Meanwhile, I shall read it again.  And give our poor Mr. Marvell another chance at love.

OAM4J:
Love in the air? Should have dedicated this to someone on d 14th, anyway not too late.

hahahaha. You're usually so observant. That poem is not a love poem. Is it to you? Did you actually read it? I guess, from the point of view of a man, it could be. When i first read it, I thought it was lovely. Then I read deeper - it is just some Hot guy. That's all it is. If you read my conclusion, you would have at least realized my interpretation of it.

Another of my favourite things:


[b]To His Coy Mistres[/b]s by Andrew Marvell

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, Lady, were no crime
We would sit down and think which way
To walk and pass our long love's day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find: I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood,
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow;
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each bosom,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, Lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song: then worms shall try
That long preserved virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust:
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none, I think, do there embrace.

Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapt power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
               - - - end - - -

I found this poem years ago.  I had seen an excerpt (the bolded) somewhere and was trying to track down the entire poem and the name of the author.  It's been a favourite since then, not only for what it says, but what it doesn't.

I've always loved literature.  Prose, Poetry, all of it.  I found poems harder to grasp so I tend to read it multiple times to truly enjoy it. 

Somewhere between the 3rd and 4th reading of " To His Coy Mistress," it occurred to me that there is not much difference between this talented erudite 17th century philosopher-poet and any other man on the street.  What he is saying is the same thing an enamoured 21st century construction worker yells to a woman that catches his fancy -  although not in so many words or as fancy a language.  Our poet is something else though; he uses all the tricks in the book: full of praise for the object of his affection, tries to sell himself, reminds her that beauty fades and, eventually, his frustration at his apex, he gets downright mischievous, to put it mildly, and tries to put the fear of death in her by reminding her how fleeting life is. 

I could go on, but I don't want to ruin it for you, by projecting my own interpretation on it.  It has become one of my most referred poems.  I hope you like it.

P.S. I will post my favourite works by African authors as well.  I just have to search for my  secondary school poetry book.

More Immigrants in USA news:

Taking a Hard Line: Immigrants and Crime

After months of internal wrangling and confusion over an ambitious nationwide program allowing state and local police agencies to identify immigrants with criminal records, Obama administration immigration officials have decided to take a hard line against communities that try to delay or cancel their participation in the program, according to documents made public late Wednesday.

The program, Secure Communities, was initiated in late 2008 and is a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s strategy for enforcing immigration laws. The documents include e-mails and other materials showing deliberations among officials of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the program.

The documents show that well into the second year of the program, as officials were moving forcefully to extend it to hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the country, the officials remained deeply confused over whether state and local governments could decline to join it. The internal discussions intensified as cities and states — including Arlington County, Va., San Francisco, Santa Clara County, Calif., Washington, and the states of Colorado, New York, Oregon and Washington — were considering whether to opt out.

But late last year, the documents show, officials from ICE, as the federal agency is known, reaffirmed its policy that every local jurisdiction in the country would be required to join the program by 2013. The officials developed a plan to isolate and pressure communities that did not want to participate.

One document, dated Jan. 2, 2011, suggests a “tactical approach to sensitive jurisdictions” for local immigration officers working to expand the program. It recommends that they bring nearby communities into the program, to create a “ring” around the “resistant site.”

The Secure Communities program connects the state and local police to Department of Homeland Security databases, allowing them to use fingerprints to check the immigration history, as well as the criminal record, of anyone booked after arrest. If a fingerprint match shows that the suspect is subject to deportation, both the immigration agency and the police are notified. As of this week, the program had been activated in 1,049 local law enforcement agencies in 39 states.

Agency officials said the program has led to the deportation of about 58,300 immigrants with criminal convictions since it was started in 2008.

Immigrant advocacy groups strongly oppose the program, saying it has led to deportations of thousands of illegal immigrants who had no criminal records, separating established families. Immigrants’ groups have held protests to dissuade local governments from signing on.

About 15,000 pages of agency documents were released through a Freedom of Information Act request by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Center for Constitutional Rights and immigration lawyers at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. The Associated Press obtained the documents separately and reported on them on Wednesday.

Several dozen documents were culled for release by the groups, which oppose the Secure Communities program.

Sarahi Uribe of the laborers’ group accused the agency of misleading communities by sending mixed signals about whether they could opt out of the program. “The amount of dishonesty revealed in this process would make anyone question whether ICE recognizes it’s operating in a democracy,” Ms. Uribe said.

Immigration officials said they could not respond directly because a court case over the release of the documents remained open. But Brian Hale, an agency spokesman, said in a statement that “deliberative, internal correspondence should not be confused for final policy.”

He said that while communities could not opt out of the program, the police could choose not to receive the results of immigration checks performed when suspects are booked.

A Homeland Security official added that a state could legally refuse to participate in the program, but he said immigration officials were confident that no state would give up its access to national criminal databases.

The documents show that as inquiries arrived from states, immigration officials scrambled in mid-2010 to determine whether the program was voluntary. From May to July, Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, who was then chairman of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, peppered agency officials with queries on that issue.

“I’m totally confused now,” one official wrote in a June 23 e-mail. “It seems like we have different language for different purposes and it’s confusing,” wrote the official, whose name was redacted.

In a flurry of e-mails, officials clarified that their plan was to extend the program nationwide by 2013, with no exceptions. By September, they were weighing ways to penalize states or police departments that did not participate, like cutting off their access to all criminal fingerprint databases.

Ms. Lofgren said Thursday that it remained unclear to many communities whether they had to participate. “I don’t see how the government has the authority to do this,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/18/us/18immigration.html?ref=immigrationandemigration

Immigrants in USA news.

Ethnic Differences Emerge in Plastic Surgery

At a plastic surgery clinic in Upper Manhattan that caters to Dominicans, one of the most popular procedures is an operation to lift women’s buttocks, because — as the doctor explains — “they all like the curve.”

In Flushing, Queens, surgeons have their attention trained a few feet higher, on upturned noses that their Chinese patients want flipped down. Russian women in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, are having their breasts enlarged, while Koreans in Chinatown are having jaw lines slimmed.

As the demand for surgical enhancement explodes around the world, New York has developed a host of niche markets that allow the city’s many immigrants to get tucks and tweaks that are carefully tailored to their cultural preferences and ideals of beauty. Just as they can find Lebanese grape leaves or bowls of Vietnamese pho that taste of home, immigrants can locate surgeons able to recreate the cleavage of Thalía, the Mexican singer, or the bright eyes of Lee Hyori, the Korean pop star.

They can also find a growing number of doctors offering layaway plans to help them afford operations. If the price is still too high, illegal surgery by unlicensed practitioners is available in many neighborhoods.

As these specialized clinics reshape Asian eyelids and Latina silhouettes, they provide a pore-level perspective on the aspirations and insecurities of immigrants in 21st-century New York — a mosaic portrait buffed with Botox.

“When a patient comes in from a certain ethnic background and of a certain age, we know what they’re going to be looking for,” said Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh, the president of Long Island Plastic Surgical Group, which has three clinics in the city. “We are sort of amateur sociologists.”

Dr. Alizadeh, himself an immigrant from Iran, admits that the results can seem less like science than like stereotyping. Still, he and other doctors who work in ethnic communities say they can scan their appointment books and spot unmistakable trends: Many Egyptians are getting face lifts. Many Italians are reshaping their knees. Dr. Alizadeh says his fellow Iranians favor nose jobs.

And there is no questioning the surge in demand in immigrant neighborhoods, where Mandarin and Arabic are spoken in the operating room and patients range in age “from 18 to 80,” as one doctor put it.

About 750,000 Asians in the United States underwent cosmetic procedures, from surgery to less invasive work like Botox injections, in 2009 — roughly 5 percent of the Asian population, and more than double the number in 2000, according to projections by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Among Latinos, the number was about 1.4 million, nearly 3 percent of that population and a threefold increase from nine years earlier. In 2009, about 4 percent of whites had cosmetic work done.

. . . The extreme makeover is, in many ways, a tradition among the city’s immigrants. A century ago, in the early days of cosmetic surgery, European Jews underwent nose jobs and Irish immigrants had their ears pinned back in attempts to look “more American,” said Victoria Pitts-Taylor, a professor of sociology at Queens College who has written about popular attitudes toward plastic surgery.

“The bulk of those operations were targeted at assimilation issues,” Ms. Pitts-Taylor said.

Today, the motivations appear as varied and complex as the procedures. Rather than striving to fit in to their new country, many immigrants reshape themselves to their home culture’s trends and tastes.

“My patients are proud of looking Hispanic,” said Dr. Jeffrey S. Yager, who speaks Spanish and has tripled the size of his office since opening it in 1997 in Washington Heights, a largely Dominican neighborhood in Manhattan. “I don’t get the patients who want to obscure their ethnicity.”

. . . Dr. Holly J. Berns, an anesthesiologist, feels as if she is on a seesaw when she travels from Dr. Yager’s office to suburban clinics. On Long Island, she said, “they’re doing everything they can to get the fat taken out of their buttocks.” In Washington Heights, “it’s the opposite — they just want their rear ends enlarged and rounded.”

Italia Vigniero, 27, a Dominican patient of Dr. Yager’s, received breast implants in 2008 and is considering a buttocks lift to attain, as she called it, “the silhouette of a woman.”

“We Latinas define ourselves with our bodies,” she said. “We always have curves.”
                                     
. . . . Perhaps the most sought-after procedure among Asians is “double-eyelid surgery,” which creates a crease in the eyelid that can make the eye look rounder. Some people criticize the operation, which is hugely popular in many Asian countries, as a throwback to medical procedures meant to obscure ethnic features.

“You want to be part of the acceptable culture and the acceptable ethnicity, so you want to look more Westernized,” said Margaret M. Chin, a professor of sociology at Hunter College who specializes in Asian immigrant culture. “I feel sad that they feel like they have to do this.”

During consultations before surgery, Dr. Lee shows patients a slide show of a white woman with a natural crease in her eyelids and Asian women without it. He discusses the techniques — a stitch here, a cut there — that can bridge the anatomical differences. But he, like several other Asian plastic surgeons, said the procedure had little to do with assimilation.

“One of the traits of beauty is to have large eyes,” Dr. Lee said, “and to get that effect you have to have the double eyelids.”

For all the cultural differences, New York plastic surgeons acknowledge that ethnic neighborhoods are not islands. American pop culture, they say, has strongly influenced how immigrants and their children believe they should look, and reality television shows like “Bridalplasty” have encouraged surgical solutions.

In Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Dr. Elena Ocher, a Russian immigrant, attributes the wave of young Russian women requesting breast implants — by far her clinic’s most popular procedure among that group — to American culture, not Russian. “The new generations of Russians are very American, and there’s something in America about large breasts,” she said. “What is this fixation?”

. . . Dr. Ocher said that about 90 percent of her Russian patients seek operations on the body. But among her Arab clients, the vast majority want surgery on the face. “Arab people never completely expose any body parts,” she explained.

Iranian and Italian women sign up for an array of procedures, from the face to the feet, Dr. Ocher said. She has noticed that Italians tend to care more about their knees.

“The knees should look young,” she said. “Italian girls wear a lot of miniskirts.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/19/nyregion/19plastic.html?_r=1&ref=immigrationandemigration

blacksta:
More fluff - isale gan - abeg no chop the nasty bait - lol

anyway wats up - anything for the boys

I have this irresistible urge to pay you arsefans a visit today. I'll check to see who you're playing - a thorough walloping, I foresee desire.

Another of my favourite things.

Selections from RUBAIYAT OF OMAR KHAYYAM

XIII
Some for the Glories of This World; and some
Sigh for the Prophet's Paradise to come;
Ah, take the Cash, and let the Credit go,
Nor heed the rumble of a distant Drum!

                                 - - - - -
XXXII
There was the Door to which I found no Key:
There was the Veil through which I might not see:
Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE
There was--and then no more of THEE and ME.

                                 - - - - -
LXXI
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

                                - - - - -
VIII
Whether at Naishapur or Babylon,
Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run,
The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop,
The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one.

                                - - - - -
XVI
The Worldly Hope men set their Hearts upon
Turns Ashes--or it prospers; and anon,
Like Snow upon the Desert's dusty Face,
Lighting a little hour or two--is gone.

                                - - - - -
XXV
Alike for those who for To-day prepare,
And those that after some To-morrow stare,
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! your Reward is neither Here nor There."

XXVI
Why, all the Saints and Sages who discuss'd
Of the Two Worlds so wisely--they are thrust
Like foolish Prophets forth; their Words to Scorn
Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

XXVII
Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same door where in I went.

XXVIII
With them the seed of Wisdom did I sow,
And with mine own hand wrought to make it grow;
And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

XXIX
Into this Universe, and Why not knowing
Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing;
And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,
I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.

                                - - - - -
LX
The mighty Mahmud, Allah-breathing Lord
That all the misbelieving and black Horde
Of Fears and Sorrows that infest the Soul
Scatters before him with his whirlwind Sword.

LXI
Why, be this Juice the growth of God, who dare
Blaspheme the twisted tendril as a Snare?
A Blessing, we should use it, should we not?
And if a Curse--why, then, Who set it there?

LXII
I must abjure the Balm of Life, I must,
Scared by some After-reckoning ta'en on trust,
Or lured with Hope of some Diviner Drink,
To fill the Cup--when crumbled into Dust!

LXIII
Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain--This Life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.

LXIV
Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.

LXV
The Revelations of Devout and Learn'd
Who rose before us, and as Prophets burn'd,
Are all but Stories, which, awoke from Sleep,
They told their comrades, and to Sleep return'd.

LXVI
I sent my Soul through the Invisible,
Some letter of that After-life to spell:
And by and by my Soul return'd to me,
And answer'd "I Myself am Heav'n and Hell:"

LXVII
Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire,
And Hell the Shadow from a Soul on fire,
Cast on the Darkness into which Ourselves,
So late emerged from, shall so soon expire.
                                - - - - -

http://classics.mit.edu/Khayyam/rubaiyat.html

alj harem:
so have you asked your awori mom

Alj, brother,

I went out for too long this afternoon, and didn't get to talk to her today.  6hrs time difference.  I could have asked my dad but I'm afraid that, unlike my mom, he would laugh AT me and not WITH me. Either way, it's gonna end in laughter. 

[quote author=Kilode?! link=topic=607521.msg7758859#msg7758859 date=1298081337]Ask my people in Cuba, Brazil, Jamaica and even in Lousiana and the Americas  

I will respect you guys back when you start worshipping Arochukwu-Long-Juju or Amadioha back in Oyinboland and in the east.

We have Oyinbos bowing to Yemoja, Esu, Obatala, Osun and Sango as we type.

Don't try the children of Oduduwa o!

The next catholic pope will probably come from South America, that will be the end. He will definitely be a private worshipper of Obatala at the least. [/quote]Kilode?! = Legend.   

Katsumoto:
You want to collect the Don King fight promotion title from Isale Gangan?  

Whaaaat?! I sure hope you're talking about the location on Lagos Island and not this girl.  Naijababe and DK are the ones spoiling for a fight right now.  Me, I can do without it.

Anyway, I am sure FStranger has enough sparring partners.  He loves to fight.  Katz, save yourself; you're a scholar, not a fighter.

::Slowly backing away from this thread::

dayokanu:
Its a bloody lie. I know ekubear OMI-konga from Oyo, Aigbofa OMI-gutter from Oyo, [size=4pt]Oluwatoyin OMI-obo, Katsumoto OMI-oyan[/size],

OMI is not exclusive to Osun alone

Years from now, when the people are gathered to tell the folklore of Nairaland, I can raise my hand and say, "I was there the night Dayokanu jumped the shark."  

You have lost your damn mind!