₦airaland Forum

@Hamid, If MEND can't talk constructively 2 President Goodluck who is also from d ND, who then will they talk to. True talk, reason tells me it can`t be mend it`s definitely the work of President Jonathan`s political rivals/enemies  who want to discredit his presidency and show him up as a weak  leader who is leading Nigeria to disaster and possible break up, which is what the Military boys fear the most. With this in mind the politicians might just decide to select IBB for the presidency to prevent a military coup in which they will all lose their jobs.  The evil man is at it again.

I think it`s the work of the usual suspects, the military boys, IBB, and the rest of them. They paid some mend members to do it.

@IIade, y are u insulting the poor girl? Have u not heard the saying, one man`s meat is another man`s poison. Besides the guy as a girlfriend in England. Google the name.

@finecat, u almost spoilt it, just as I was about to heap praise on Nairalnders 4 not turning the thread into another ethnic bashing like alot of us do, u came up with the Igbo liking money stereotype, but it`s a good thing u realised very quickly this was no place 4 ethnic bigotry. Most people on this thread have refrained from turning it into a Igbo bashing one, i hope we can show the same level of civility when next we are talking about problems in other parts of the country and it wouldn`t be turned into ethnic bashing of the natives.

The story doesn`t make sense, maybe it was an accident.

how much can i sell a merc c180 estate 1996 for? thanks

@Wallies, beating isn`t the same thing as discipline, the American kids u talking about come from abusive homes that is why they turn out the way they are. It was in America that I learnt u can bring kids up the right way without resulting to violence. Most educated middle class families don`t beat their children, they talk to them and reason with them, they teach them from a a very early age that there is a reward for obedience.

If u travel round western Europe u will find out parents don`t beat their kids or belittle them with abusive words but learn to reason with them hence the reason these places have the lowest crime rate and their children are better behaved and law abiding than the children of parents from developing countries where violence and abusive words is the norm in raising kids. We are a product of our upbringing and environment, kids that tell their parents to bleep off usually pick it up from the home and environment , teach them to reason and talk politely to people and that is what they will do as adults.

If beating kids made them better as adults Nigerians would be the most law abiding people in the World, we wouldn`t have a society dominated by dishonesty and corruption. All the abuse disguised as disciplining children is part of the reason the country is ripe with all forms of injustice, brutality and dishonesty. We learnt it all from our wretched upbringing, that culture of abuse called love by some who are still in denial.  We are bound to violence, everywhee in our upbringing there is that touch of violence.  I resent the violence inflicted on children in Nigeria by the so called love ones. As they say violence breeds violence. Y was it so difficult for Nigerian parents to talk and reason with their kids instead of using violence and abusive words, it`s no surprise even on Nairaland many of us find it impossible to discuss issues without resulting to abusive words.

I think u need to be in Nigeria to find out, I am also interested in setting up a recycling business in Nigeria, if u based in the UK we can meet up and see if we can work out something together. Let me know what u think.

@vedaxcruel,
I never said u threatened me with violence, but u obviously love to throw abuse at people who disagree with u. Can u reason without using abusive language? Judging by ur post I doubt it, because 2/3 of it consist of nothing but abuse, without dealing with the issues I raised. If u can that would show u are educated like u love to say. Part of education is the ability to discuss issues without resulting to abusive words.

Adults who convert to other religions are usually not brainwashed, but the people who are forced fed the dogma of religion from youth to adulthood and are not allowed to question the teachings are, killing their ability to reason outside the dogma they have been forced fed. Can u answer this simple question, how did u become a Muslim? how many Yoruba Christians do u know who converted to Islam as adults? I can give u examples of many Yoruba Muslims who converted to Christianity and some that just stopped believing in any form of organised religion. Y do u think the Oyibo man doesn`t believe in juju like we black Africans, it`s because he was not raised and thought to believe such things exist. I hope u get the point. Now is ur chance to prove if u are truely educated like u claim.

@nopuqeater, u are just reciting the same stuff as u were thought at the Koranic schools, it seems u are one of the many that will never leave the box due to the many years of indoctrination u went through at these schools. Do u realise that if ur parents had raised u as an Hindu or as a Christian and sent u to a school from age 5 to 16 where u are thought to believe nothing else but the dogma of these religions, u would be here today claiming they are they best religion for man kind. But today because of ur parents and their religion u are here defending what u were raised with. Y are u a Muslim is the Qs u should be asking urself, that is the first step in braeking free from the shackles of religion. But at the same time I understand u might never be free of the brainwashing that as become ur reality. I understand brov.

@Vedaxcruel, I am not surprised by ur reasoning, when a child is forced fed Islamic dogma until adulthood, u take away that persons ability to reason outside the box. Take any child from the age of 5yrs old and put him in a school where he his thought to believe without question the same things his parents believe in throughout that child's formative years, that child will grow up believing whatever he was thought, no matter how ridiculous the believe system might be, hence the reason we have Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Animist, Budhist and so on all believing strongly in their form of worship.
The essence of debating /discussing is to share ideas and hopefully influence a positive change in society, Ur insults and tantrums doesn`t fit into this. Anger and the ability to control it is the height of civility.

"I only wonder whether you ever entered the four corners of any school, coz this kind of reasoning + dishonest behavior shames you and your family"

Y belittle me and my family just because i don`t share the same opinion as u, but to be honest if I never went to school and can still read and write, I think most people would say I have done well.

Can u show the ability to reason without abuse and threat of violence? Funny that the Arab Muslim brothers that frequent speakers corner in London always result to insults and abuse whenever they hit a brick wall in their reasoning process.

@nopuqeater, so u agree Mohammed had people killed for reciting poems he did`nt like? Murder can never be justified, thank heavens I don`t live in a society where i can be killed for such things. Freedom is speech. Punishment 4 Verbal abuse shouldn`t be death, that`s cruel and unjust punishment.

U can slam Christianity all u want or any other religion for all i care, the two of u are very similar except that the christians are atleast trying to reform their religion unlike the muslims who still believe all the actrocities commited in the name of Islam are all justified 4 the glory of Allah. Any religion that justifies violence can`t be a religion of peace.

@Vedexcool, more coming of the violent acts commited 4 mohammed


BUKHARI, VOLUME 5, #369

Narrated Jabir Abdullah:
Allah's messenger said "Who is willing to kill Ka`b bin al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His apostle?" Thereupon Maslama got up saying, "O Allah's messenger! Would you like that I kill him?" The prophet said, "Yes". Maslama said, "Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Ka`b). The prophet said, "You may say it."

u can read the whole story by going to the hadith

@Alloy-Emeka can u please prove to us without a shadow of a doubt that "Awolowo was a shameless tribalist who betrayed Igbos" Please show the documents or link to prove it.

Awolowo to me was not any different from the Nigerian politicians of his time, except maybe that he did achieve a lot more than the rest of them in making the life of the people he ruled better. Hence the reason Yoruba race will always pay homage to him, he had faults and was at times vindictive but his overall contributions to the development of the Yoruba race stands head and shoulder above anyone dead or living.

"Reviewing the history of Islam, Ram Swarup notes that the prophet Muhammed also condoned assassination in his own lifetime. Poets in particular were often condemned; one tradition tells us that the Prophet exclaimed that "filling the belly of a person with pus is better than stuffing his head with poetry." (Greece's sage Plato, we might recall, also condemned the poets in the Republic.) If the Prophet came to detest someone, he would merely ask "who will rid me of this scoundrel" and he would soon be stabbed to death. This is important because it establishes a longstanding tradition of official assassinations, especially of dissident literary figures, going back to the origins of the religion"

Not surprise some of u guys condone violence towards women, it`s a very common thing in developing countries where religion dominates.
I remember it was the law in America to treat blacks like slave, was it right? should blacks have accepted it because it was the law of the land. I don`t understand y we let religion blind us from reason. If a law is unjust it must be condemned. Stoning Women to death 4 adultery is wrong and evil. Culture or religion can never justify barbaric acts.

Al-Ma'arri was skeptic in his beliefs and denounced superstition and dogmatism in religion. Thus, he has been described as a pessimistic freethinker[3]
Al-Ma'arri taught that religion was a “fable invented by the ancients,”[4] worthless except for those who exploit the credulous masses.[4] In al Ma'arri's lifetime, many Caliphates had appeared in Egypt, Baghdad, and Aleppo, which had all used religion as a tool to justify their power.[5] He rejected the claims of Islam as well as other religions stating:
Do not suppose the statements of the prophets to be true; they are all fabrications. Men lived comfortably till they came and spoiled life. The sacred books are only such a set of idle tales as any age could have and indeed did actually produce.[6]
Al-Ma'arri criticized many of the dogmas of Islam, such as the Hajj, which he called, “a heathen’s journey.”[7]
One of his poems expresses his views:
They all err - Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Magians:
Two make Humanity's universal sect:
One man intelligent without religion,
And, one religious without intellect.[8][9]
He rejected claims of any divine revelation.[10] His creed was that of a philosopher and ascetic, for whom reason provides a moral guide, and virtue is its own reward.[11]
[edit]Works

http://www.sdsmt.edu/student-orgs/tfs/reading/freethought/islam.html

At the time of the Persian Gulf crisis four years ago, I undertook a "crash course" in Middle-Eastern history and politics, reported in my other newsletter, People's Culture. I realized that I knew nothing about that region. Pounded by "western propoganda," we have tended to remain iignorant of the complexities of the Isalmic world and its remarkable past. I reviewed recent books about the world and its remarkable past. I reviewed recent books about the history of Islam, the Crusades, the Arab world, and so forth. I can't say that I became an instant expert, but at least I repaired some defects in my knowledge. A few copies of that issue of PC are still in stock, and are available for $2.00 postpaid.
What emerged from my survey was taht just like Christianity, Islam has had its fanatical elements, as well as those which are liberal and civilized. The exclusivist tendencies of Judaism are replicated in Islam. The same monotheistic tirades against unbelievers and heathen are found in both Islam, and in Christianity. But as time went on, Islam produced rather high-quality civilizations in some places, such as Baghdad in the time of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid ("the just". There are many remarkable and well-documented accounts of the advanced state of medicine, especially surgery, in Islamic societies, during the Middle Ages when by comparison Europe was scarcely more than barbarous; see the excerpt from the noted freethought scholar Joseph McCabe.

We must thank Islamic scholars for preserving the original texts of Aristotle and other Greek classics, when they had been entirely lost in Europe itself. When they were finally translated into Latin in the earrly 13th centtury, the effect on Europe was extraordinary. Episode two of James Burke's television series, "The Day the Universe Changed" relates that dramatic story; see the book of the same title, also by Burke.

There were currents of Freethought in Islam, represented for instance by the blind poet Abul'-Ala' al-Ma'arri, who wrote before the first Crusade: "The inhabitants of the earth are of two sorts: those with brains, but no religion, and those with religion, but no brains." As with Christianity, such writers often faced repression, prison, execution, and the rest of it, but they did exist.

Four years ago, many astute observers of the Islamic and Arabic world predictedc that the Gulf War would be seen as a new Crusade. While the war itself was short, the consequences continue to this day, notably in the revival of fundamentalist tendencies, which also have an "anti-Western" quality. Unfortunately, many "civilized" people in the Middle East are linked to "pro-Western" elements, which are often quite corrupt. For instance, in Egypt, Sayed al-Toukhi, of the country's Organization of Humna Rights, reports that "the government is slowly pushing three million farmers off their land and selling the land to 100,000 wealthy landowners." In such conditions, bitter hostility and outright resistance must be expected. Unfortunately, in the center of all this confict, quite a few progressive and creative intellectuals have come in for a very hard time of it indeed. It is their story I would like to relate here, drawing on a range of sources.

Undoubtedly the most famous "case" of censorship in the contemporary Islamic world is that of Salman Rushdie. Responding to Rushdie's book The Satanic Verses, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeni sentenced its author to death for the crime of blasphemy against Islam. This fatwa, or edict, was to be carried out by any of the faithful. Immediately after the publication of this sentence in 1989, a storm of mingled fear, defiance and indignation swept the republic of letters all around the world. The repressive horrors of the mullahs in Iran had long been known, but this seemed monstrous, medieval in its fanaticism. As we shall see, this is not the story of just one wayward rebel, but of whole cultures under attack. And the roots of this attack run very deep indeed.

The Satanic Verses is a complicated, intricate book; for proper appreciation, the reader should understand that it probes various "sensitive" aspects of the Islamic heritage. The title derives from some verses of the Koran, presumably inspired by the angel Gabriel, and proclaimed by the Prophet; later, these were changed because, it seems, they originated not from Gabriel, but from Satan. I don't have space here to explore all the details of the actual verses, but the central problem the book wants to examine is, perhaps, central to all religious controversies: How do we know where the claims, visions, inspirations, and so on come from? Do they truly originate from God, or His (Her?) angels? Or devils? Or just from ourselves? In my own experience, probing that question was probably the beginning of atheism, for my conclusion was that all religions are just projections of our own fears, desires, authority structures, etc.

Ram Swarup, a scholar of Islamic history in India, wrote a fine long essay discussing the points of the religion's heritage and doctrine which Rushdie's novel explores.3 However, I believe that the real reason the novel and its author were condemned by Iran is because the book contains a biting satire of a character who can be none other than the Ayatollah Khomeni. This is a long section fo the novel, but a short passage will indicate the flafor: "The Imam is a massive stillness, an immobility. He is living stone. His great gnarled hands, granite-grey, rest heavily on the wings of his high-backed chair. His head, looking too large for the body beneath, lolls ponderously on the suprisingly scrawny neck that can be glimpsed through the grey-black wisps of beard." There are scores of sycophantic protectors who surround the Imam, carrying out his orders. I think it is important to note that it is exactly Iran where the death edict orriginated, though all the faithful around the world have been urged to execute the heretical novelist.

Reviewing the history of Islam, Ram Swarup notes that the prophet Muhammed also condoned assassination in his own lifetime. Poets in particular were often condemned; one tradition tells us that the Prophet exclaimed that "filling the belly of a person with pus is better than stuffing his head with poetry." (Greece's sage Plato, we might recall, also condemned the poets in the Republic.) If the Prophet came to detest someone, he would merely ask "who will rid me of this scoundrel" and he would soon be stabbed to death. This is important because it establishes a longstanding tradition of official assassinations, especially of dissident literary figures, going back to the origins of the religion.

Following on the uproar around Rushdie's novel, there was a mixture of fear and defiance in the literary community; after the sentence of death, various libraries here and elsewhere started to remove or hide his novel. But soon there emerged a form of resistance, with authors publicly declaring their solidarity. In France, in 1993, a volume of essays by Arab and Muslim writers in defense of free speech appeared. The next year, an English translation, For Rushdie, was published by George Braziller (60 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10010). Rushdie himself responded: "It is a great delight to find in this volume, the most gifted, the most learned, the most important voices of the Muslim and Arab world, gathered together to subject my work and the furor surrounding it to so brilliant, so many sided, so judicious an examination."

The writers come from a great number of countries: Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, etc., even Iran. Perspectives range from appeals to universal human rights to certain concepts of legality and liberality in Islamic tradition. Most of the contributions are prose essays, but there are poems, and even a musical composition. Some of the essays notably emphasize the repressive aspects of the religion's history: "At Seville the works of the theologian Ibn Hazam were burned. The mystical poet Al-Hallaj was crucified. The writer Ibn Muquaffa was killed; the licentious poet Bashshar Ibn Burd was condemned for heresy. The philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the historian Ibn Khaldun, and the poets Ibn Sharaf and Al- Husri all had to go into exile" (Tahar Bekri, of Tunisia). Similarly, there is a very moving essay by Algeria's Latifa Ben Mansour in tribute to the poet Al-Hallaj, which includes the verses he recited before being led to the scaffold. These essays revealed to me an entire tradition of martyrdom on behalf of art and freedom.

Aziz Nesin of Turkey, a noted author in that country who defines himself as an atheist, relates how he repeatedly proposed the publication of Rushdie's novel to the Turkish Writers Union, only to meet silence. Therefore, he arranged for the publication of sections of the text in a newspaper, which in turn led to a fundamentalist attack on a hotel where Nesin was staying, with thirty-five deaths. Nesin claims that Rushdie's novel belongs to the world, no matter what the "risk." In summary, For Rushdie is a dramatic, inspiring and informative book, not only for Rushdie and his novel, but for insights on philosophical currents in the Islamic world today.

In a statement at the beginning of the book, George Braziller notes that "newspapers have been filled with stories about other Muslim and Arab writers who have lived and died under similar circumstances. One of Egypt's foremost intellectuals, Farag Fouda, to whom homage is paid several times in this volume, was murdered by fundamentalists in June 1992. In December, Algerian poet and teacher Youssef Sebti was found with his throat cut in his room at the National Institute for Agronomy. Saudi Arabian poet Sadiq Melallah was decapitated."

Women have been among the most ferociously oppressed. Fortunately, we now have some excellent anthologies of their literature, including one entitled Opening the Gates from Indiana University Press.4 This collects a wide range of material, starting around a hundred years ago, with protests against doctrines for seclusion of women which, it was pointed out, are not to be found in the Koran itself. Soon women began to publicly stop wearing veils, and so forth. It's interesting to see how most of the early writings appeal to human decency and justice, while retaining religious beliefs. In our own day, there is some tendency for women to become overtly anti-religious.

This transition may be seen in the work of Egypt's Nawal al-Saadawi, who was born in 1931, and today is one of the best-known women writers of the whole Islamic world. She received her medical degree from Cairo University in 1955, and has specialized in psychiatry. In this anthology, her story "Eyes" is about a young woman who slowly goes insane because of extreme sexual repression: "After she eats, she goes to sleep with God's book under her pillow. She wakes to the sound of her father's voice calling her to fix his food. After he eats, he prays and asks God to protect his daughter from the devil." In a future issue of this newsletter, I hope to do a long review article about al-Saadawi's work, which is remarkable for its fusion of sharp realism with passionate dream imagery. It is clear from just this one story, Dr. al-Saadawi's medical training and practice have provided her with a special perspective on the relationship between religion and psychological repression.

In Egypt, al-Saadawi became director of health education for the whole country, edited a popular magazine on health information, and achieved a reputation as a leader in this field. However, in 1972, she was dismissed from her position; in 1982, she actually went to prison where she had previously been a consulting physician. At the present time, she lives mostly in France, making only brief visits to her native country.

More recently, another woman physician, Taslima Nasrin, has gone into exile from Bangladesh, for similar reasons. After her novel Shame was published, fundamentalists sentenced her to death for blasphemy. So far as I know, this novel has not been published in the U.S. The plot deals with the suffering of a Hindu family in Bangladesh, facing retaliation for the destruction of a mosque in India in 1992. In August of 1994, fleeing murderous mobs, and after two months in hiding, Dr. Nasrin escaped and made her way to Sweden, which offered her a refuge.

According to reports, Nasrin "has said women should have the right to marry four times in Islamic societies, just as men do. She has also said that she was for 'freedom of the womb' and that women must control whether they bear children or not." From exile, Nasrin told the French newspaper Le Monde that "they don't like what I write, because I try to show the extent to which people are oppressed by religion. In my view religious laws should be scrapped, and the hold religion has on society should be brought to an end. In response to the question, "Are you opposed to all dogma?" she said: "It seems to me that all religions contain the seeds of discrimination. If I'd been born in another country, I'd probably have criticised the dominant religion too. I'm not sure I'm any more convinced by what I read in the Bible, for example. To me, religion was necessary in the past, but perhaps isn't any more today. We can get along perfectly well just with our conscience." At this writing, Taslima Nasrin says that she would return to Bangladesh for face blasphemy charges, "if the government would guarantee her safety."7 That might be a long wait indeed.

The best international newspapers are full of stories about appalling wars of fundamentalists vs. secularists now underway in several countries of the Islamic world. In Egypt and Algeria, these are full- scale civil conflicts, with tens of thousands of deaths. As secularists in the "West," I believe we should inform ourselves as to the deeper historical perspective that such conflicts have gone on for a long, long time; that there is a remarkable heritage of freedom-loving art and culture in these countries; and that we need to express our solidarity with that heritage. Practical suggestions from our colleagues as to how to do that would be most welcome. A traditional method of protest is to write the Embassies of various countries, to try to save the lives of those imprisoned. Perhaps a committee could be formed (or already exists?) to share information about violations of standards of international law and intellectual freedom. There ought to be ways to arrange for tours of the U.S. by these writers and activists. We ought to have television documentaries about the actual situations in these countries. Readers, give us your ideas for action!

The man was just joking when he mentioned being stopped by Immigration officials.
Obansanjo travels on a VIP diplomatic visa meaning he doesn`t go through immigration like the rest of us. straight from plane to VIP rm, one of his staff will take his diplomatic passport to officials that deal with VIP`s who will check it and hand it back to the staff, he will then be picked up by a driver and driven out of the airport. All of this usually takes only about 15/20 mins. I know this from my experience of catching the same flight with him and ending up in the VIP section of gatwick airport. I was with a Nigerian Monarch.

Please move away from that old primitive word called tribe. The modern and progressive term used to describe people of a different culture is ethnicity. Tribe was used in the past to potray us as backward and pre-illiterate. Calling urself tribe is like calling urself primitive.

Who cares how the man died? I sure don`t care. The fact of the matter is a coup was staged in which many leaders from the north and western part of Nigeria were killed, but that doesn`t justify the killings of thousands of innocent Igbo men, women and children that took place in the North after.
Nigeria owes Ndigbo an apology for failing them in their hours of need and the North should ask for forgiveness for this barbaric and in humane act. I do not like the ethnic bigotry of some Ndiigb people on nairaland but i do understand the anger and bitterness. I am not sure I would behave any different from them, if thousands of Yoruba`s were slaughtered just because few Yoruba guys staged a coup and killed few corrupt Igbo and Hausa politicians.

in the land of the blind one eye man is king. BY African standard he his very good, by European standard his just average.

@Sagamite, I do agree with u that these men of god are fake, but I believe u don`t have to be abusive to make your point and to be honest I think u are talking to a brick wall because these people are beyond reason. I have always wondered why we are so religious in Africa beyond reason, my believe is that it`s got to do with our level of development. The average African still believes in the power of some invincible spirit to solve all his problems just like his ancestors. We have a long way to go before we can replace the World of spirits with one of enlightenment but I believe in time we will get there.

It would have been money better spent if these so called men of god took it upon themselves to building low cost housing for their congregation instead of buying themselves private jets costing  $36 million pounds which could have built over 3000  2/3 bed houses and sold to church members at cost plus a little profit,  these can then be reinvested to build more houses and the circle of development can continue until every member as a home. This will not only create jobs but will also create a better life for members. But with everything Nigerian only the top top people must enjoy and the bottom people must suffer.

Heard of Habitat for Humanity or the Fuller centre? The founder is a true example of what a true Christ like person should be like, SETTING UP A CHURCH TO PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HOUSING FOR THE POOR.

Read more about this great man:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millard_Fuller

Check this out, 70% of Saudi youths want Muslims who leave Islam to be killed.

http://www.desivideonetwork.com/view/37an7y382/leaving-islam-apostates/

Ibb isn`t talking about fixing electricity, water, road, schools, hospitals and corruption, but his promising to hand over power to an Igbo man, what a smart move playing that same old divide and rule game that politicians so often use to distract us masses from scrutinizing their short falling as leaders.

We don`t need Babangida to tell us Nigeria needs an Igbo presidency to help heal the wounds of Biafra, any child of history knows it. Nigeria also needs to make up for it`s day light robbery of the Niger Deltan people and the environmental destruction of their land. Jonathan ruling until 2015 will go a long way in doing this and it will also make southern minorities feel like equals amongst equals.

The next president should be and must be an Igbo man, the north have ruled for over 35yrs the west for 11yrs and east only six months. The East have been schemed out of the presidency for too long and the North have monopolized it for far too long, in the name of fairness it`s only logical that the next president after Jonathan in 2015 should be of NdIgbo heritage.

lets make our struggle a collective one, lets stop the divide and rule thing. Nigerians of shame not Igbos of shame. Northern leaders and Yoruba leaders have been selling their own people just like the Igbo leaders. The truth is we have selfish leaders in all corners of Nigeria it`s not just an Igbo thing but a Nigerian thing.

@chongaiman the believer, check this out.

How the Bible was used to justify slavery:

"The Christian church's main justification of the concept of slavery is based on Genesis 9:25-27. According to the Bible, the worldwide flood had concluded and there were only 8 humans alive on earth: Noah, his wife, their six sons and daughters in law. Noah's son Ham had seen "the unclothedness of his father." So, Noah laid a curse -- not on Ham, who was guilty of some type of indiscretion. The sin was transferred to Noah's grandson Canaan. Such transference of sin from a guilty to an innocent person or persons is unusual in the world's religious and secular moral codes. It is normally considered highly unethical. However, it appears in many biblical passages. The curse extended to all of Canaan's descendants:

Genesis 9:25-27: "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers. He also said, 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japeth live in the tents of Shem and may Canaan be his slave'. "
Christians traditionally believed that Canaan had settled in Africa. The dark skin of Africans became associated with this "curse of Ham." Thus slavery of Africans became religiously justifiable"


By today's secular and religious standards:

slavery is immoral.
cursing all of an individual's descendents into perpetual slavery because of an inappropriate act by an ancestor is immoral.
laying a curse on the son of the person who committed the act is immoral.

@ixxlaw/chongman
By your reasoning Apartheid in South Africa and The American slave trade should be praised because these systems while treating blacks as slaves ensured that their fellow white citizens were well looked after. Nigeria should emulate Dubai? U mean practice injustice to your fellow human brother so u can live a better life, that is already Nigeria, with People like u who care less about people around them as long as u and your family are fine.  Where is the empathy, the human compassion and the love for your fellow human being, regardless of where they are from.

The problem of Nigeria is the people and the way they think.

Reading the article made me sad but the response from fellow Nigerians attacking the writer makes me even more sad. Where is the humanity in us, have we lost the ability to reason? Someone writes a report on man`s injustice to man and all some of us can think of is the writers ethnicity.

Social critics bring about change by writing about the ills and evils of society. The issue here isn`t about white or black but about getting to our conscience, if some of us still have any left, to make this World a better place.

"Literature written about the Atlantic trade in African slaves by white British and American authors and by former captives contributed to the debate about slavery and eventual abolition of the institution.
the first British work of imaginative literature written specifically about slavery and the slave trade was Aphra Behn's Oroonoko; Or The Royall Slave (1688)Oroonoko has been seen by many critics as a pioneering antislavery work"

"After Oronooko, depictions of or comments on slavery and the slave trade appeared at least incidentally in the works of many major British writers of the eighteenth century, including Samuel Johnson, William Cowper, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, all of whom denounced slavery. Less well-known British opponents of slavery include the poets James Thomson, William Roscoe, and Richard Savage, they pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in the practice of enslaving human beings conducted by citizens of a nation that prided itself on its high civilization and devotion to the principles of liberty—and antislavery works laid the foundation for the abolitionist movement by opening up public debate about the morality of slavery. , the intellectual and social climate created by British antislavery writers in the 1700s did a great deal to make possible the abolition of slavery in Britiain in the early nineteenth century"

It`s obvious white society have a long history of writing about injustice where ever they see it, even if it`s by their own people, as in the case of the slave trade, something we Nigerians need to learn from. Anyone without bias or prejudice nows they not only write about the ills of other society they also write about theirs too. But the sad bit is we find it difficult to take honest potrayal of our society that is negative but true. How do we expect change when we are always in denial. It`s no wonder the country as been regressing ever since independence. Only the truth will set us free.

Getting back to the topic, I have heard from so many victims here in London of how Arabs especially from the Gulf maltreat domestic workers from the poorer Nations of the World. I just wish more people will speak up for these voiceless people, like the writer of this article.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jq8_Y4fP6pI

This man by his deeds showed himself to be a true Christian unlike the Nigerian so called men of God who are only interested in buying fancy cloths, expensive cars and private planes while the majority of their congregation live in extreme poverty.

The late Millard Fuller gave up a very successful Business to set up a Foundation that provides low cost houses for the poor all over the World

"The Fuller centre

was founded in April 2005 by philanthropist, Millard Fuller, who

passed away in the state of Georgia, USA, last year. He was also the

Founder of Habitat for Humanity, a worldwide Christian housing ministry

that has built more than 200,000 homes around the world.

Renovating houses

The Fuller Centre is currently building and renovating homes in 17

countries around the world and in 57 communities in the United States;

“Here in Nigeria, a pilot project has begun near Abuja where The Fuller

Centre, Nigeria, 80 units of one room apartment will be built.

“The homes are

being sold for as little as N480,000 and home owners are required to

deposit N80,000 only and to repay the remaining N400,000 in five years,

paying at least N8000 a month,” he stated"


What stops churches like Redeem, mountain of fire and all the other big churches from doing the same thing as this great man, instead of buying private planes, building big churches and expensive universities that must of their congregation cannot afford. Nigerian churches are a disgrace to humanity. These so called men of God should cover their faces in shame.

@aasog, by giving unprofessional advice u also show urself to be unprofessional. I hope u get it.

@okija juju, thanks for the sarcasm, I got the point unlike alot of nairaland readers. I have noticed Nigerians just don`t seem to get it when a poster is being sarcastic. I am not surprised alot thought u were in support of these Pastors of furtune, accumulating wealth at the expense of their congregation. Poverty pimps pretending to be men of god. When we go open eye.

@Bluetooth, sad to see the same old and tired ethnic bashing on Nairaland. i Just got back from Nigeria, I can tell u the issue at hand isn`t about ethnicity, no one group as a monopoly on crime, the whole country is infested with it from south to north and east to west.