₦airaland Forum

16 June 2011 Last updated at 15:21 GMT

Rioting Canadians exposed online

Images are being gathered to identify those involved in the Vancouver riot

Concerned Canadians have turned to social media to name and shame people behind the riots in Vancouver.

Violence flared in the city after the Vancouver Canucks hockey team lost to the Boston Bruins in the final game of the Stanley Cup.

Cars were set on fire and shops were looted by mobs of angry fans roaming the city centre.

Facebook groups and picture blogs have been set up to catalogue those inciting the worst of the violence.

A "riot criminal list" was created on the Tumblr photo blog site to gather images of those claimed to be involved. It gathered video of the ongoing trouble as well as pictures of individuals breaking shop windows, helping to flip cars and attacking riot police. Dozens of pictures were posted within hours of it being set up.

Similar pages on Facebook have attracted thousands of supporters.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and the police department issued calls to those in the city at the time of the riot to save their pictures.

Mayor Robertson said they would be used to identify and track down the "hooligans" involved. The police said they would set up a site where people can electronically upload images.

A Facebook event has also been created to help deal with the aftermath of the riot. The page asks for pledges to go into the city centre and help to clean up. More than 10,000 people have signed up to get involved.

An associated Twitter account called @vancouverclean aims to co-ordinate the volunteer effort when it gets underway.

The page advises people to bring gloves, garbage bags and smiles along.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13790528

After over two hours, this news item is yet to reach the websites of BBC and CNN.

NBC: 'Suspicious device' found in car near Pentagon

1 person held, up to 2 others sought; 'It looks like a bomb,' official says of device, which reportedly was rendered inoperable

ARLINGTON, Va. — Authorities took one person into custody and closed roads around the Pentagon Friday after a "suspicious device" was found in a car, NBC News reported. The device was later rendered inoperable, according to officials.

, One or two other suspects who "fled the scene" on foot were being hunted by police, reported NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski.

Department of Homeland Security officials later told reporters that the suspect was not cooperative. They added that they are not worried about any broader terror plot around the Washington, D.C., area.

Although it was not immediately clear what the device was, one official told NBC News that "it looks like a bomb."

Later, NBC reported, police took action to destroy the device but that there was "no sound of an explosion."

NBC cited "reports from the scene" that the person in custody is an Ethiopian national and that notebooks containing references to al-Qaida and the Taliban were also found in the vehicle.

Park, local and Pentagon police were still searching the entire area around Arlington National Cemetery and the Pentagon for any "possible devices," NBC said.

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.Water cannon
Local police had reportedly intended to fire a water cannon at the device to render it safe.

U.S. Parks Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Schlosser held a press briefing at about 8:30 a.m. ET, telling reporters that the investigation started when police in Arlington National Cemetery were investigating a suspicious person found in the cemetery after hours.

"In the course of interviewing," Schlosser said, "park police felt it was important to look for vehicle."

The man was reportedly "uncooperative" and in a search of his vehicle parked nearby, NBC News was told, they found a "suspicious device" believed to be "a bomb."

Traffic at standstill
The incident brought morning-commute traffic in the area to a standstill.

NBCWashington.com reported that the suspicious vehicle was discovered on Washington Boulevard.

Routes 27 and 110 around the Pentagon, all ramps to and from Interstate 395 near the Pentagon and eastbound Interstate 66 to Route 110 were all closed early Friday morning, according to The Associated Press.

NBC News' Jim Miklaszewski, The Associated Press and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43437875/ns/us_news-security/

16 June 2011 Last updated at 13:26 GMT

Vancouver: Riots after Canucks' Stanley Cup defeat

Riot police in Vancouver used tear gas to quell violence that broke out after the Vancouver Canucks lost the final game of the Stanley Cup.

Cars were set on fire and shops were looted following the ice hockey team's 4-0 defeat to the Boston Bruins.

Mobs of angry fans roamed central Vancouver after the game, as thick acrid smoke rose over the city centre.

Similar riots broke out in the Canadian city after the Canucks lost the Stanley Cup in 1994.

Record crowds of supporters gathered in the heart of the city on Wednesday in the hope of seeing their team - the favourites - secure the Stanley Cup and be crowned winners of the National Hockey League (NHL).

But hope quickly turned to gloom after the Boston Bruins scored first and then went on to secure an emphatic victory.

Firecrackers

As soon as the final buzzer sounded, a hail of beer bottles rained down on the giant outdoor television screens, the Associated Press reports.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
It's so sad to see this happen again. This is a real black eye on our city”
End Quote
Witness Larissa VanDam
People chanted obscenities, and witnesses said some people took out their anger on nearby cars, flipping two over and setting them alight.

Shops were also reported to have had their windows smashed and then looted.

Some fans were seen trying to hold back more unruly members of the crowd, without much success.

A line of 10 riot police tried to hold back a crowd of several thousand in one part of central Vancouver, Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper reported.

Police spokesperson Jana McGuinness said there were unconfirmed reports of at least four stabbings, as well as other injuries.

Officers were pelted with bottles and firecrackers; streets were filled with rubbish, broken glass and streams of alcohol.

After numerous arrests and a series of confrontations, police cleared the streets of downtown Vancouver about four hours after the riots broke out.

"It's so sad to see this happen again," Larissa VanDam told the Globe and Mail. "This is a real black eye on our city. We saw this happen in 1994 and I was so, so hoping it wouldn't happen again."

Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson described the scenes as "embarrassing and shameful".

"The vast majority of people who were downtown were there to enjoy the game in a peaceful and respectful manner," he said.

"It is unfortunate that a small number of people intent on criminal activity have turned pockets of the downtown into areas involving destruction of property and confrontations with police."

The Canucks had the NHL's best regular-season record, but have never won the Stanley Cup since entering the league 40 years ago.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13788491

Porn publisher Larry Flynt offers job to embattled ex-congressman
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 17, 2011 -- Updated 0949 GMT (1749 HKT)


Flynt offers Anthony Weiner a 20% raise
Offer "not made in jest," Flynt writes
The job offer comes within hours of the congressman's resignation

(CNN) -- Larry Flynt, porn publisher and erstwhile snoop into the sex lives of politicians, has offered a job to disgraced former U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner.

Flynt, founder of Hustler Magazine, made the job offer in a letter that was published in The Huffington Post on Thursday.

"This offer is not made in jest," wrote Flynt.

"Just as we do not undertake insincere political crusades, we do not make insincere job offers."



Bye-bye Weiner

Dr. Drew on what's next for Weiner

Resigning under pressure

Weiner could not be immediately reached for comment.

Where does Weiner go from here?

Flynt's job offer came within hours of the congressman's resignation on Thursday over a sexting scandal.

In the letter, Flynt offered to give Weiner a 20% raise above the salary he earned in the U.S. House of Representatives, ensuring the former congressman's medical benefits would match what he had received in office.

Flynt also offered to pay Weiner's moving expenses to Beverly Hills, California.

"While this employment opportunity is being offered in large part due to your qualifications and clear passion for making a change," Flynt wrote, "I feel that your unfortunate resignation is a prime example of unfounded political pressure and the hypocrisy that has invaded democracy in Washington, D.C."

The job offer was the second made by Flynt to a politician within the past year.

Recent political sex scandals

In October, he offered to hire Republican Carl Paladino after the socially conservative gubernatorial candidate garnered headlines over pornographic images circulated to friends and colleagues.

The tone of Flynt's purported job offer to Paladino was markedly different than Weiner's.

"It's clear that 'values purporting' Carl Paladino has a keen instinct for kinky sex," Flynt said in a news release at the time. "He is a natural pornographer who has a skilled eye for unusual views and acrobatics , It's clear he's better suited to join our team than be the governor of the state of New York."

Paladino lost the election to Democrat Andrew Cuomo.

In 1998, during the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, Flynt offered $1 million to anyone with evidence of sexual misconduct against Republican lawmakers leading the effort against Clinton.

He published some of the evidence he obtained.


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/06/17/weiner.flynt/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Can you believe this ex-British MP?

He was a vegetarian, bothered about how animals are killed, but is "curiously" unconcerned about selling arms used to kill innocent people!

[flash=600,600]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSacwhpLMjM[/flash]

with C of O?

This is where we miss the likes of Gani.

He could have headed to the courts by now.

The scales will fall from the eyes of those who thought the debacle in the HOR was about zoning when committee chairmen are appointed and opposition members are "settled"with "juicy" committee positions which are meant to benefit such people personally.

I dey laff.

Akanbi_edu:
I don't like populist moves too but I figured he had to do that to win elections first. Rauf has another local problem between choosing Osun based politicians and the Lagos based politicians. i think he prefers people he worked with in Lagos and that in itself is creating tension in the state. Whatever the case mayb, I think it's too early to judge the governor in this particular case.

Priceworth:
The governor looks clueless to me.The man must have spent so much money to get that position and he has suddenly realised that the money at his disposal in osun state may not be enough to pay back those lagos big wigs that financedc him.

That aside,the man should be commended for employing those unemployed youths,though the mechanism for that employment scheme itself is questionable,debatable and may not be sustainable in the longrun.

Aregbesola sure needs prayers[b],i feel the man now knows the difference between rabble rousing and governing a state,especially when the state in question is a landlocked and economically non-viable state like osun state,whose main source of revenue is the monthly federation account disbursement.The man presently does not have an answer to the socio-economic problems confronting that state.[/b]A case at hand is the epileptic water situation in osogbo.My dad's house in the kola balogun area of the state capital has had the two days weekly supply of pipe borne water reduced to once every two months supply.

The guy needs to buckle up and start performing,let Fashola and Tinubu handle lagos state.The idea of running Osun state while residing in lagos is unacceptable and the people of the state can only be fooled for a while,if he keeps moving at this pace the people of the state will surely abandon his government and his party.

salaksmana:
I'm not Pro-PDP neither Anti-ACN, but to be sincere I've not seen anything really spectacular that this man has done since he was sworn in (apart from his OYES). The man said Osun is so damaged that they have to really sit down and think on how to "repair" it, maybe they are still thinking, or maybe somebody can help call my attention to something special he has done, it might be that I'm not that current with happenings in the state am residing in.

mikeansy:
I think the PDP in Osun should make more caricature of Rauf Aregbesola's Government and light a huge Candle signifying their vigil prayers for him and only blow it off when he finally appoints a cabinet.

Isn't his the governor who signed an agreement with a local government in the UK?

The last I heard, he was in India.

He sure needs prayers.

We don’t have parties, but personality cults ––Wunmi Bewaji, ex-AD House leader
By DAYO THOMAS

Sunday, 2 Sep 2007
Wunmi Bewaji, ex-AD House lead

Diverse reactions have continued to trail Electoral Review Panel set up by President Umaru Yar’Adua. What is your view on the panel?

The fact is that we don‘t even have any laid down electoral process. We do not have an electoral system in Nigeria. What we have is a kind of conglomeration of some haphazardly done legislation since the Abdulsalam Abubakar‘s transition. You have different legislations setting up the Independent National Electoral Commission we have a Decree No 36 of 1998. We also have a provision of the 1999 Constitution regarding INEC; its powers and functions. Thereafter, we have the 2001 Electoral Act, which sought to consolidate the INEC establishment decrees and the Basic Transition Electoral Decrees; that is decree 35, 36 and the provision of the constitution. But what you can deduce from these legislation is that there is no attempt made to recognise the decay in the polity. Whereupon, we now discover that the legislations have no relevance whatsoever in the electoral process. And that is why the electoral act that we have today cannot guarantee free and fair elections. It is based on that that I commend the recent effort being made by the president to evolve an electoral system.



But some still believe that the current attempts amount to putting the cart before the horse, that …,



That is a foolish argument. Which one is the cart and which one is the horse? We are saying that we do not have an electoral process and some people are saying that they should conclude the cases at the tribunal. It is funny. Whatever comes out of it cannot be credible. The whole thing is a rot. If you must have free and fair election, what you have now, both in the electoral act and the constitution cannot guarantee free and fair election. I have participated in constitution amendment before for eight years at the National Assembly. What we are saying now is, let us start afresh. Let us evolve a credible system. And this is very important. And I think something Yar‘Adua must be commended for is that he tends to be sincere.



What do you mean?



In the case of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, we had the 2001 Electoral Act, which was passed in 2002, but up till the time we were having the 2003 elections, the validity of the 2002 electoral act was still being challenged while elections were going on. So, one would have thought that as early as June or July of 2003, Obasanjo would have forwarded to the National Assembly a bill to review the act. But, he didn‘t do so until the last minute. He thought the thing that would affect the lives of millions of Nigerians would be rushed within three months. Now, we have four years to the next elections, and thank God that Yar‘Adua has brought out an idea that the process should start now. So, those who have suggestions and those who want to criticise should forward them to that panel so that in the next 12 months, we can have something on the table that we can start debating. So that we won‘t wait till 2010 or three months to the elections before we begin to deliberate on electoral reform. If you say we should wait till tribunals finish their cases, when do we know they will round off? I think we should not politicise this electoral system. Everybody knows that what we have now cannot guarantee free and fair election. The time to do it is now. And as far as I am concerned, the mandate of the electoral review panel does not in anyway interfere with the jobs of the judicial panel. So, what is their problem?



The mandate of the electoral panel seems not to have said much.



I agree with you. Even when I went through the terms of reference, I just thought to myself that an amateur must have drawn it. The mandate of the committee, if I were to draft it, must be to draw up a system that will guarantee free, fair and peaceful election in Nigeria. That is all. The committee should not be given any terms of reference that is less than evolving a system that will guarantee free, fair and peaceful elections. And how do you do that? Look at the provisions of the Constitution because that is the grand norm, especially those relating to elections and then you marry the two together and evolve a durable and workable system that will address all the anomalies that all Nigerians have been complaining about.



What are these specific areas?



[b]An example is the electoral body itself. I do not want to call it INEC because next time, they may decide to change the name. We have to review its establishment, structure, its powers, funding and functions. We have to look into tenure, appointments and even the election proper. We must look at how elections are held. In looking into these areas, we must locate the roles of voters or electors. We need a wholesome review and even go a little further, to review the constitution, if it will necessitate constitutional amendment. A very critical issue we must urgently address is the issue of funding. The issue is one of the most fundamental matters, even in most developed democracies. It has the capability to make or mar any election. It is an issue in America, Europe, everywhere. And in doing that, we must look at the activities of voters who collect money, slippers, bread and others to vote. The value system has been perverted. We must ask some fundamental questions. How much should be allowed? And how much of it will corrupt the system? Like in America, an individual is not allowed to donate more than a certain amount to a political party. Even corporate organisations have limit to the amount they can contribute. As a candidate, you can‘t spend beyond a certain amount of your own campaign fund. These are areas the panel must look into. Money played a crucial role in determining the results of the last elections, especially through the activities of some former governors who had looted the treasury of their states and wanted to turn to godfathers.



Agencies in charge of financial crimes must also be empowered to function effectively to ensure that illicit funding is not allowed. We must create a system that will check the excesses of voters and politicians. It is easier for voters to tell you that they collect money during election because of poverty. But that is nonsense. We have very poor people in Pakistan, Bangladesh, even in Kenya, but they have free and fair elections. People said it was bastardised during the military. If we must reform it, it must be now. We need to change immediately so that an average politician will not begin to believe that all he needs to win election in this country is just plenty of money.[/b]



What is the prospect of some of our political parties?



[b]These are some of the things I have been discussing. We can safely say that as things are now, we don‘t have any organisation that qualifies to be described as a party. What we have in Nigeria today are not political parties but personality cults all over the place. Look at the Action Congress, look at the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Nigeria Peoples Party. You can remove one or two individuals from these parties and the parties will fizzle out. I can mention three names in ANPP, AC and the PDP and if you remove them from the parties, the parties will die. Can they then be referred to as political parties? What we have now in Nigeria are mere personality cults; political organisations that are built around certain individuals. What is sustaining the PDP today is because the party is in power. The best indicator of the viability or prospect of a party is how it conducts itself when it is not in power. Let us know how many people will still want to stay in that party. What does an average party in Nigeria have to offer the electorate? In the 2005 elections in Britain, which I witnessed as an observer, the Liberal Democrats came out strongly to offer something new to the people, which was revolution. And that is why the Labour Party lost so many seats to Liberal Democrats. Liberal Democrats is coming up strong. So, until you have a party that can compel the loyalty of members either in or out of government, you don‘t have a party. [/b]


Some believe that the embattled Speaker, Patricia Etteh is not the best material from the Southwest in the House of Representatives.



Who is a best material? Or what is the best material? The functions of a speaker are well laid down in the constitution and the rules of the house. The question then to ask is, is Etteh qualified to be a speaker? And I will say eminently so. This is the first time in the history of this country, that Yoruba will produce the speaker of House of Representatives. And it is also to our credit that we have even produced a woman from the South-West as the speaker, a manifestation of our gender sensitivity. Etteh and myself are not friends, but I have said that I will support her from her first to the last day as speaker. I have told my colleagues who are there now, that what Etteh needs to succeed is their support and they must give it to her.



Despite the allegation of fraud against her?



The allegation of fraud is being orchestrated by criminal clique in the House.


Are you saying that all the allegations against Etteh are…



[b](cuts in) It is frivolous. I was the leader of AD for four years; I was a principal officer for four years: 2003 to 2007. I sat in the Tenders Board meetings and I challenged any Nigerian that brought a voucher in the name of Wunmi Bewaji, a single voucher in my eight years in the National Assembly. I don‘t do business, but the truth must be told. Those who are behind Etteh‘s travails are well known to us. There is a criminal cabal in the National Assembly that has been in place since 1999. Etteh is trying to dismantle that cabal and that is why you have the hues and cries. Look at the individuals behind the move against Etteh, the Halims Agoda of this world; what is their record? This is the same man who from 1999 to 2003 was the arrowhead of anti-probe group in the House. They were the anti-probe group that supported Umar Ghali Na‘ Abba. They said nobody could probe Na‘Abba because the legislature was an independent arm of government. The quantum of money that was involved in our quest to probe Na‘Abba that time is a far cry from what they are talking now. Yet, Na‘Abba can never be probed. Why are they attacking Etteh now? Because he himself, Agoda had wanted to be the Leader of the House. He lost to Akogun and wanted to be the Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission committee and the chairman of the NDCC today is from Ondo State. So, for God‘s sake, is Ondo state not part of the NDCC again? Ondo State by law is part and parcel of the NDCC. If she gives the chairmanship of the NDCC to somebody from Ondo State, is that a crime? All these other people that are now trying to hold the House of Representatives to ransom, where were they from 1999 to 2003?[/b]




http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art200709025304017

2mch:
hmmm,  .

This is the beauty of democracy, Tinubu welcome to democracy. Why are people getting hot? They claimed the HOR Speakership imposition was a democracy. Well well, long live democratic party of ACN.

And the main beneficiaries of their HOR debacle went back to beg PDP!

I dey laff o!

Why Kano CPC was defeated in April poll –Abacha

CHUKWUEMEKA CHUKWUKA 14/06/2011 02:48:00

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) governorship candidate in Kano State, Alhaji Muhammed Abacha, has blamed the party’s poor performance in the April 26 election on lack of unity and internal wrangling among members. He also alleged that the various injustices meted out to members, without the CPC leadership addressing them, compelled many loyalists to lose confidence in the party.

Speaking yesterday in Kano at the party’s first meeting after the April general election, Abacha said that despite the injustices meted out to him, he is still a loyal party member. Noting that the “CPC’s house is not in order,” he said that it is illogical for the party to criticise other parties because, according to him, it is wrong to do so. Abacha added that if the party can first put its house in order, then it can logically accuse another party over non-performance.

“We cannot be described as an opposition party as long as our house is not in order. There are still myriad of injustices been meted out to party members, which needs to be addressed for the party to be transformed to an opposition,” he said.

http://nationalmirroronline.net/news/14206.html

Compare a president and a presidente (don't mean to derail the thread, just to add some fun!)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic1b9Fu-ulY&NR=1[/flash]

Roland17:
the former Governor of Imo state Ohakim(alias anya 4:30) once played a memorial match at the Dan Ayam Stadium and got Red carded for a bad tackle, now am not suprised he was voted out, Fashola all the way,

Evo Morales, Bolivian President also kicked a player during an exhibition match.

[flash=600,600]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXFVk_YkbMo[/flash]


That's him wearing jersey no 10:


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XkbNUIx5Bo[/flash]

Nduka Ugbade - Captain of the first Nigerian team to win a world cup

Chioma Ajunwa - first Nigerian to win an Olympic gold medal.

I line with my suggestion, I am reposting with the pictures.
-------------------------------------------

Alhaji Shehu Shagari - Nigeria's first executive president.

Rashidi Yekini - Nigeria's first African footballer of the yeat and senior world cup goal scorer.

Guys, it would be good to add pictures to those names.

Please.

Ileke-IdI:
Imo will soon deflect to ACN, like Abia.

Deflect?
Do you mean defect?


Abia?
Do you mean SW?

I was very happy that that it did not rain during the match.

God bless you, Kanu!

enyojo:
Ofoz, Have removed my picture from NL because of you.
You are too young for wt dreams.

So you have decided to heed the advice at last!

SMH

[flash=600,600]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47d6fyaOjRM[/flash]

senbonzakura_kageyoshi:
sure?

The tragic life of a street vendor

Al Jazeera travels to the birthplace of Tunisia's uprising and speaks to Mohamed Bouazizi's family.
Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 20 Jan 2011 15:00

A town not previously recognised outside of Tunisia is now known as the place where a revolution began [Al Jazeera]

In a country where officials have little concern for the rights of citizens, there was nothing extraordinary about humiliating a young man trying to sell fruit and vegetables to support his family.

Yet when Mohamed Bouazizi poured inflammable liquid over his body and set himself alight outside the local municipal office, his act of protest cemented a revolt that would ultimately end President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year-rule.

Local police officers had been picking on Bouazizi for years, ever since he was a child. For his family, there is some comfort that their personal loss has had such stunning political consequences.

"I don't want Mohamed's death to be wasted," Menobia Bouazizi, his mother, said. "Mohamed was the key to this revolt."

Simple, troubled life

Mohamed Bouazizi was 10 years old when he became the main provider for his family, selling fresh produce in the local market. He stayed in high school long enough to sit his baccalaureate exam, but did not graduate. (He never attended university, contrary to what many news organisations have reported).

Bouazizi's father died when he was three years old. His elder brother lives away from the family, in Sfax. Though his mother remarried, her second husband suffers from poor health and is unable to find regular work.

IN VIDEO

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin profiles the man whose suicide launched a revolution


"He didn't expect to study, because we didn't have the money," his mother said.

At age of 19, Mohamed halted his studies in order to work fulltime, to help offer his five younger siblings the chance to stay in school.

"My sister was the one in university and he would pay for her," Samya Bouazizi, one of his sisters, said. "And I am still a student and he would spend money on me."

He applied to join the army, but was refused, as were other successive job applications. With his family dependant on him, there were few options other than to continue going to market.

By all accounts, Bouazizi, just 26 when he died earlier this month, was honest and hardworking. Every day, he would take his wooden cart to the supermarket and load it would fruit and vegetables. Then he would walk it more than two kilometres to the local souk.

Police abuse

And nearly everyday, he was bullied by local police officers.

"Since he was a child, they were mistreating him. He was used to it," Hajlaoui Jaafer, a close friend of Bouazizi, said. "I saw him humiliated."

The body of the man who started a revolution now lies in a simple grave, surrounded by olive trees, cactuses and blossoming almond trees.


The abuse took many forms. Mostly, it was the type of petty bureaucratic tyranny that many in the region know all too well. Police would confiscate his scales and his produce, or fine him for running a stall without a permit.

Six months before his attempted suicide, police sent a fine for 400 dinars ($280) to his house – the equivalent of two months of earnings.

The harassment finally became too much for the young man on December 17.

That morning, it became physical. A policewoman confronted him on the way to market. She returned to take his scales from him, but Bouazizi refused to hand them over. They swore at each other, the policewoman slapped him and, with the help of her colleagues, forced him to the ground.

The officers took away his produce and his scale.

Publically humiliated, Bouazizi tried to seek recourse. He went to the local municipality building and demanded to a meeting with an official.

He was told it would not be possible and that the official was in a meeting.

"It's the type of lie we're used to hearing," said his friend.

Protest of last resort

With no official wiling to hear his grievances, the young man brought paint fuel, returned to the street outside the building, and set himself on fire.

For Mohamed's mother, her son's suicide was motivated not by poverty but because he had been humiliated.

"It got to him deep inside, it hurt his pride," she said, referring to the police's harassment of her son.

The uprising that followed came quick and fast. From Sidi Bouzid it spread to Kasserine, Thala, Menzel Bouzaiene. Tunisians of every age, class and profession joined the revolution.

In the beginning, however, the outrage was intensely personal.

"What really gave fire to the revolution was that Mohamed was a very well-known and popular man. He would give free fruit and vegetables to very poor families," Jaafer said.


Tunisian president paid a visit to Bouazizi in hospital [AFP]

It took Ben Ali nearly two weeks to visit Mohamed Bouazizi's bedside at the hospital in Ben Arous. For many observers, the official photo of the president looking down on the bandaged young man had a different symbolism from what Ben Ali had probably intended.

Menobia Bouazizi said the former president was wrong not to meet with her son sooner, and that when Ben Ali finally did reach out to her family, it was too late - both to save her son, and to save his presidency.

He received members of the Bouazizi family in his offices, but for Menobia Bouazizi, the meeting rang hollow.

"The invite to the presidential palace came very late," she said. "We are sure that the president only made the invitation to try to derail the revolution."

"I went there as a mother and a citizen to ask for justice for my son."

"The president promised he would do everything he could to save our son, even to have him sent to France for treatment."

The president never delivered on his promises to her family, Menobia Bouazizi said.

Contagious uprising

But by the time Menobia Bouazizi's son died of his burns on January 4, the uprising had already spread across Tunisia.

Fedya Hamdi, the last police officer to antagonise the street vendor, has since fled the town. She was reportedly dismissed, but her exact whereabouts are unknown.

Meanwhile, the body of the man who started a revolution now lies in a simple grave outside Sidi Bouzid, surrounded by olive trees, cactuses and blossoming almond trees.

He is sorely missed by his family, whose modest house is now one of the busiest in Sidi Bouzid, with a steady flow of journalists who have only just discovered the town where it all began.

"He was very sincere," Basma Bouazizi, his shy 16-year-old sister, said. "We are like soulless bodies since he left."

"We consider him to be a martyr," Mahmoud Ghozlani, a local member of the Progressive Democratic Party (PDP), said in an interview metres away from the spot where the street vendor set himself on fire.

Proof itself of the progress made in four short weeks: such an interview with an opposition activist on the streets of Sidi Bouzid would not have been possible until the day Bouazizi inspired the revolt.




http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/201111684242518839.html

No, the young man who set himself alight was a Tunisian, not Egyptian.

Alhaji Shehu Shagari - Nigeria's first executive president.

Rashidi Yekini - Nigeria's first African footballer of the yeat and senior world cup goal scorer.

Nduka Ugbade - First captain of Nigerian team to win a world cup

Chiome Ajunwa - first Nigerian to win an Olympic gold medal.

Funmilayo or Funmi is actully a short form of Oluwafunmilayo meaning the Lord gave (has given) me joy.

Ayo meaning Joy and Funmi meaning give.

INEC will never register a political party that is tribalistic or sectional.

As a matter of fact, parties are expected to have presence (offices) in a wide geographic area of the country.

Actually, that's not in the Bible

By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) – NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.

“Scripture tells you that all things shall pass,” a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season. “This, too, shall pass.”

Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase “This, too, shall pass” doesn’t appear in the Bible. Ditka was quoting a phantom scripture that sounds like it belongs in the Bible, but look closer and it’s not there.

Ditka’s biblical blunder is as common as preachers delivering long-winded public prayers. The Bible may be the most revered book in America, but it’s also one of the most misquoted. Politicians, motivational speakers, coaches - all types of people - quote passages that actually have no place in the Bible, religious scholars say.

These phantom passages include:

“God helps those who help themselves.”

“Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

And there is this often-cited paraphrase: Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden.

None of those passages appear in the Bible, and one is actually anti-biblical, scholars say.

But people rarely challenge them because biblical ignorance is so pervasive that it even reaches groups of people who should know better, says Steve Bouma-Prediger, a religion professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

“In my college religion classes, I sometimes quote 2 Hesitations 4:3 (‘There are no internal combustion engines in heaven’),” Bouma-Prediger says. “I wait to see if anyone realizes that there is no such book in the Bible and therefore no such verse.

“Only a few catch on.”

Few catch on because they don’t want to - people prefer knowing biblical passages that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs, a Bible professor says.

“Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book,” says Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who once had to persuade a student in his Bible class at Middle Tennessee State University that the saying “this dog won’t hunt” doesn’t appear in the Book of Proverbs.

“They have memorized parts of texts that they can string together to prove the biblical basis for whatever it is they believe in,” he says, “but they ignore the vast majority of the text."

Phantom biblical passages work in mysterious ways

Ignorance isn’t the only cause for phantom Bible verses. Confusion is another.

Some of the most popular faux verses are pithy paraphrases of biblical concepts or bits of folk wisdom.

Consider these two:

“God works in mysterious ways.”

“Cleanliness is next to Godliness.”

Both sound as if they are taken from the Bible, but they’re not. The first is a paraphrase of a 19th century hymn by the English poet William Cowper (“God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform).

The “cleanliness” passage was coined by John Wesley, the 18th century evangelist who founded Methodism, says Thomas Kidd, a history professor at Baylor University in Texas.

“No matter if John Wesley or someone else came up with a wise saying - if it sounds proverbish, people figure it must come from the Bible,” Kidd says.

Our fondness for the short and tweet-worthy may also explain our fondness for phantom biblical phrases. The pseudo-verses function like theological tweets: They’re pithy summarizations of biblical concepts.

“Spare the rod, spoil the child” falls into that category. It’s a popular verse - and painful for many kids. Could some enterprising kid avoid the rod by pointing out to his mother that it's not in the Bible?

It’s doubtful. Her possible retort: The popular saying is a distillation of Proverbs 13:24: “The one who withholds [or spares] the rod is one who hates his son.”

Another saying that sounds Bible-worthy: “Pride goes before a fall.” But its approximation, Proverbs 16:18, is actually written: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

There are some phantom biblical verses for which no excuse can be offered. The speaker goofed.

That’s what Bruce Wells, a theology professor, thinks happened to Ditka, the former NFL coach, when he strayed from the gridiron to biblical commentary during his 1993 press conference in Chicago.

Wells watched Ditka’s biblical blunder on local television when he lived in Chicago. After Ditka cited the mysterious passage, reporters scrambled unsuccessfully the next day to find the biblical source.

They should have consulted Wells, who is now director of the ancient studies program at Saint Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania. Wells says Ditka’s error probably came from a peculiar feature of the King James Bible.

“My hunch on the Ditka quote is that it comes from a quirk of the King James translation,” Wells says. “Ancient Hebrew had a particular way of saying things like, ‘and the next thing that happened was…’ The King James translators of the Old Testament consistently rendered this as ‘and it came to pass.’ ’’

When phantom Bible passages turn dangerous

People may get verses wrong, but they also mangle plenty of well-known biblical stories as well.

Two examples: The scripture never says a whale swallowed Jonah, the Old Testament prophet, nor did any New Testament passages say that three wise men visited baby Jesus, scholars say.

Those details may seem minor, but scholars say one popular phantom Bible story stands above the rest: The Genesis story about the fall of humanity.

Most people know the popular version - Satan in the guise of a serpent tempts Eve to pick the forbidden apple from the Tree of Life. It’s been downhill ever since.

But the story in the book of Genesis never places Satan in the Garden of Eden.

“Genesis mentions nothing but a serpent,” says Kevin Dunn, chair of the department of religion at Tufts University in Massachusetts.

“Not only does the text not mention Satan, the very idea of Satan as a devilish tempter postdates the composition of the Garden of Eden story by at least 500 years,” Dunn says.

Getting biblical scriptures and stories wrong may not seem significant, but it can become dangerous, one scholar says.

Most people have heard this one: “God helps those that help themselves.” It’s another phantom scripture that appears nowhere in the Bible, but many people think it does. It's actually attributed to Benjamin Franklin, one of the nation's founding fathers.

The passage is popular in part because it is a reflection of cherished American values: individual liberty and self-reliance, says Sidnie White Crawford, a religious studies scholar at the University of Nebraska.

Yet that passage contradicts the biblical definition of goodness: defining one’s worth by what one does for others, like the poor and the outcast, Crawford says.

Crawford cites a scripture from Leviticus that tells people that when they harvest the land, they should leave some “for the poor and the alien” (Leviticus 19:9-10), and another passage from Deuteronomy that declares that people should not be “tight-fisted toward your needy neighbor.”

“We often infect the Bible with our own values and morals, not asking what the Bible’s values and morals really are,” Crawford says.

Where do these phantom passages come from?

It’s easy to blame the spread of phantom biblical passages on pervasive biblical illiteracy. But the causes are varied and go back centuries.

Some of the guilty parties are anonymous, lost to history. They are artists and storytellers who over the years embellished biblical stories and passages with their own twists.

If, say, you were an anonymous artist painting the Garden of Eden during the Renaissance, why not portray the serpent as the devil to give some punch to your creation? And if you’re a preacher telling a story about Jonah, doesn’t it just sound better to say that Jonah was swallowed by a whale, not a “great fish”?

Others blame the spread of phantom Bible passages on King James, or more specifically the declining popularity of the King James translation of the Bible.

That translation, which marks 400 years of existence this year, had a near monopoly on the Bible market as recently as 50 years ago, says Douglas Jacobsen, a professor of church history and theology at Messiah College in Pennsylvania.

“If you quoted the Bible and got it wrong then, people were more likely to notice because there was only one text,” he says. “Today, so many different translations are used that almost no one can tell for sure if something supposedly from the Bible is being quoted accurately or not.”

Others blame the spread of phantom biblical verses on Martin Luther, the German monk who ignited the Protestant Reformation, the massive “protest” against the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church that led to the formation of Protestant church denominations.

“It is a great Protestant tradition for anyone - milkmaid, cobbler, or innkeeper - to be able to pick up the Bible and read for herself. No need for a highly trained scholar or cleric to walk a lay person through the text,” says Craig Hazen, director of the Christian Apologetics program at Biola University in Southern California.

But often the milkmaid, the cobbler - and the NFL coach - start creating biblical passages without the guidance of biblical experts, he says.

“You can see this manifest today in living room Bible studies across North America where lovely Christian people, with no training whatsoever, drink decaf, eat brownies and ask each other, ‘What does this text mean to you?’’’ Hazen says.

“Not only do they get the interpretation wrong, but very often end up quoting verses that really aren’t there.”

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/05/thats-not-in-the-bible/?iref=obnetwork

Is that a tired Obama?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8GHKSTxyzQ[/flash]

Source please