₦airaland Forum

If there's something this itchy-itchy dude from God-knows where in England knows better than anyone in NL is how to jump in, throw the first salvo, and derail a thread. Yea, I admit that perhaps using 'authority' in wording the thread heading was not the smartest thing. But at any rate, this thread is purely geared towards opening our eyes to the impossibility of what Nigerian leadership is asking of Nigerian engineers. I'm wondering how Nigerian engineers are expected to 'up their game' and out-compete their foreign counterparts (as stated by GEJ) when Nigerian schools are not anywhere near the list of 500 top schools, hence the reason for this thread.

But its all good though, at least we have a 'computer graphics' dude who, even though bitter from Cambridge rejection, is available to take up for ill-equipped Nigerian engineers.

tensazangetsu: actually it's a maritime college i wanna do my class 3 there after my undergraduate degree at regional maritime university ghana

Sounds like you're well informed on the subject. Since you're already familiar with maritime school in Ghana then be assured the one in Cali will be a big step up. Also you're likely to feel at home in California because it's whether is somewhat similar to Africa's and the demography is likely to your advantage. And almost all higher institutions in California is good so I doubt the maritime school you intend to attend is any different. So good luck.

tensazangetsu: what do you guys think of California maritime academy

Never heard of it. But don't let name fool you - whatever is it you intend to study should inform your choice of school.

MOBJECTIVE: Say you went to a university in the russell group, then did a masters in an ivy league school. Anyone know how much different this is, from say, doing both undergraduate and masters in an ivy league school?

It's not clear cut sometimes. I say so because it can depend on what you studied as much as where you studied it. Take for instance, Harvard is ranked higher than UIUC in overall, but UIUC is considered a top engineering school. In fact ECE dept in UIUC is one of the best in the world. Now if u do EE or CompE in Harvard, whether as first degree or masters, hmm... the industry knows ECE is somewhat more competitive in UIUC than in Harvard, so you it's your world against theirs. However, if you go for law or something similar in Harvard, you know - stuff that takes you to Wallstreet or Washington then you're made. Anyways, my take is - know where to study what - that's the key.

chulla12: The 4 year colleges and graduate programs in the CUNY system are very much underrated.

Some schools are better in some areas, I guess it boil down to facilities and instructors on ground. Therefore the use of words like 'top rank' or ivy league can be a bit ambiguous. However, when a school keeps churning out students that always hit the ground running it's hard for industry to not take cognizance of such development irrespective of top rank or lack thereof - this is why some schools get tons of companies in their job fairs. For all I know the school you referred to might have some fields that are rated higher than MIT or Stanford corresponding fields but it is the aggregate of all the fields, citations, etc that determine the overall rank of the school. At any rate, school is school.

Missy89: So as educated as you claim you are,
Superiority is the sole purpose for choosing between two different entity?
You are asking me a very dumb question really so i will keep toying with you till you see how silly your question is.

You jumped on a thread that has list of top ranked schools and you ended up 'picking' Caltech over MIT. When asked to give reasons for your 'pick' you resorted to intellectual sleight of hand. The point is simple, and I will reiterate it again, you did not know why you chose Caltech. When you said "I pick A over B" in a thread that lists top raked schools what were you thinking? Did you not understand you were either reinforcing or dismantling the list? I guess that's why you didn't understand my use of the word 'superior' above. At any rate, considering some factors I would say you've tried because, quite frankly, you're one notch higher than some of the loud mouths around here who enjoy getting in the mud. So, my dear have a nice day.

The fact is clear: you do not know why you chose Caltech. You were merely following the wind.

Missy89: where did i say Cal-tech was superior ?. quote me!
Symexx said he likes Caltech and i said i will pick it before MIT

are you sure i am the one who needs to comprehend?

You picked Caltech over MIT. In other words it can be inferred that you believe Caltech is superior to MIT - simple induction. Based on that premise I asked you for reasons why you think so, instead of telling us what informed your choice you keep jumping from pillar to post.

Missy89: Stop confusing yourself.

You believe MIT is might not be better than Caltech yet you are asking me why i think Caltech is better than MIT.

Haven't you answered you own question?

Wow! so much for comprehension. My post says I do not have a pick for now (basically, I'm not revealing my pick yet). It didn't say MIT is better than Caltech or vice versa. Simply put: tell us why you consider Caltech superior to MIT. Give us one or two reasons, that's all.

Missy89: Will pick Caltech before i even think of MIT.

Give me one reason Caltech is better than MIT. Please enlighten us. I'm waiting.

Mind you, I'm not saying MIT is better, I just want to know why you think Caltech is better than MIT.

Dude I studied Engineering ok. I hate to blow my cover in online forum but if you must know there's a difference between 'best schools' and best engineering schools. UIUC and Austin are ranked very high in electrical and computer engineering so go figure.

Missy89: So? stop living in the past.

MIT is garbage now and so is Harvard. a decent state college will give their top student and professors a run for their money.

Yea, a decent college can do that but to say MIT is garbage is laughable.

^^ Sorry bro, I attended UIUC and did my masters in Austin. Both schools are on the list but I respect UIUC far better than Austin. I don't get off on accomplishments even though I have quite a few. So move along. Perhaps folks don't get the reason I put the list of good schools up, it is to show how much we've fallen behind the world in science and engineering. We're begging for Ebola drug from people who have paid the price and mastered their fate. I read where GEJ is tasking Nigerian engineers to up their game and I was wondering what game is he talking about. So contrary to your conjecture schools matter. And one more thing, I'm not moved by foul mouth high-schoolers.

Missy89: They are just highly rated garbage universities filled with narcissistic professors.

MIT, Harvard, Stanford.... are all garbage schools? lol!

In case you didn't know, Cambridge, Copenhagen, Oxford, UIC, and few other schools shaped classical science and engineering while MIT, UIC, UIUC, and Stanford shaped modern Engineering. By modern engineering I mean engineering in the era of quantum physics.

To be accepted in goods schools one has to make the grade. And not only must one make the grade he or she has to sustain it to graduate or risk probation. Failure to escape probation you're axed. So schools matter in the US. Perhaps it doesn't matter in mushroom schools because, after all, they all are glorified high-schools.

Meanwhile our president has this to say:

President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday challenged indigenous engineers in Nigeria to up their game so as to effectively match the professional standards offered by their counterparts in foreign lands.

This, he said, would enable Nigerian engineers to reverse the trend of foreigners dominating the construction industry.

Jonathan gave the charge in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 23rd Engineering Assembly organised by the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria.

The 23rd Assembly’s theme was ‘Commercialising Engineering, An Imperative for National Development.’

The President, who......

http://www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-charges-nigerian-engineers-to-match-foreign-counterparts/

American universities have again outranked more than 1,250 other higher education institutions around the world in the annual Shanghai Jiao Tong listing of the global top 500 universities. And for the 12th year running, Harvard was placed number one. The global Academic Ranking of World Universities <http://www.shanghairanking.com/>, or ARWU, was released on Friday with the usual long list of United States universities taking 16 places in the top 20, 52 in the top 100 and 146 in the top 500.

Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, Princeton, Caltech, Columbia and Chicago – in that order – were in the top 10 while American institutions also occupied the top five places in four of the five broad subject fields where Shanghai ranks the top 200 universities. Britain came second with three of its universities in the top 20 – Cambridge at number five, Oxford at number nine and University College London at 20.

The UK also had eight universities in the top 100 and 20 in the top 200 with a total of 38 at the 500 point. That was one behind Germany, which had 39 universities in total in the top 500 but none in the top 20. France and Italy each had 21 universities in the top 500, as did Canada, and they were followed by Australia and Japan with 19 each. Switzerland’s science and engineering university, ETH Zurich, joined the elite top 20 group for the first time, in the 19th spot, placing the university first among European institutions.

ETH was followed by France’s Pierre and Marie Curie University at number 35, while the University of Copenhagen, in 39th position, overtook Paris-Sud as the third top university in Europe.

The Swiss-based École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne or EPFL made its first appearance in the top 100, increasing Switzerland’s representation to five – the third highest of all countries in the ranking but with seven in total. China, with 44 universities ranked in the top 500, continues to make rapid advances up the table even though its institutions only managed to get as far as having nine in the top 200. Even with 44, though, China still had 102 fewer of its institutions placed in the rankings than the US. Elsewhere in Asia, the University of Tokyo at 21 and Kyoto University at 26 topped all others in Asia while the University of Melbourne in 44th position became the highest ranked university in Australasia in the history of the ARWU.

Overall, 16 countries had at least one university in the top 100 while 42 nations were represented in the top 500, with nine managing to have one listed and six having two. This year, 25 universities broke into the top 500, including Deakin University in Melbourne plus another nine that also made their first appearance. South Africa and Egypt were the only countries on the African continent to be represented in the top 500: South Africa with the universities of Cape Town, the Witwatersrand, KwaZulu-Natal and Stellenbosch, and Egypt with the University of Cairo.

The ranking The Center for World-Class Universities at Shanghai Jiao Tong first launched the precursor of the now too-numerous university ranking systems in 2003. It has been criticised in the past for its heavy reliance on science-oriented sources, using indicators such as the number of alumni and staff winning Nobel prizes and Fields Medals, and the number of articles published in Nature and Science.

The ranking also uses the Science Citation Index and the Social Sciences Citation Index, as well as each university’s ‘per capita performance’ in determining a university’s place in the rankings.

The latter is calculated by the weighted scores of the other five indicators divided by the number of full-time equivalent academic staff. The centre says that if staff numbers are not available, only the weighted scores of the five indicators are used.

The centre is certainly correct, however, when it refers to its “transparent methodology and reliable data” – unlike some other rankings – and its listings are still regarded as the most reliable, if not most prestigious, of all the global university ranking systems.

Performance by field It also publishes other results of the vast amount of data the ranking collects, such as the classification of the top 200 universities in five broad fields as well as in five selected subject fields.

The following lists the fields and the top five universities in each, which again shows America’s domination: Natural Sciences and Mathematics: Berkeley, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford and Caltech.

Engineering -Technology and Computer Sciences: MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Texas at Austin. Life and Agriculture Sciences: Harvard, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT and University of California, San Francisco. Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy: Harvard, UC San Francisco, Washington (Seattle), Johns Hopkins and Stanford.

Social Sciences: Harvard, Chicago, MIT, Berkeley and Columbia. And in the subject fields: Mathematics: Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, Pierre and Marie Curie and Stanford.


http://www.punchng.com/education/us-tops-shanghai-university-rankings-china-on-rise/

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Objectively, I believe Urbana-Champaign deserves a higher spot in Engineering than Berkeley. The school will make your stay hellish with workload and short exams that'll test your limit.

pheliciti: Christians Discriminated Against by Israel.

Dear Sir, you truly belief the excerpt above? It would shock to know that there are laws in Israel against evangelizing. People can organize conventions or go on pilgrimage in Israel. Let them organise a Nigerian style crusade and see what comes out of it. Please read the following report

‘Christians in the Holy Land’

By Donald Neff
Former Israel Bureau Chief for Time Magazine
Excerpted from Fifty Years of Israel

On Dec. 29, 1977, Christians in Israel and the occupied territories protested a new law passed by the Israeli parliament making it illegal for missionaries to proselytize Jews. Protestant churches charged that the law had been “hastily pushed through parliament during the Christmas period when Christians were busily engaged in preparing for and celebrating their major festival.” The law made missionaries liable to five years’ imprisonment for attempting to persuade people to change their religion, and three years’ imprisonment for any Jew who converted. The United Christian Council complained that the law could be “misused in restricting religious freedom in Israel.”

Donald Neff has been a journalist for forty years. He spent 16 years in service for Time Magazine and is a regular contributor to Middle East International and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. He is the author of five excellent books on the Middle East.
Nonetheless, it came into force on April 1, 1978, prohibiting the offering of “material inducement” for a person to change his religion. A material inducement could be something as minor as the giving of a Bible. Although the Likud government of Menachem Begin assured the Christian community that the law applied equally to all religions and did not specifically mention Christians, the United Christian Council of Israel charged that it was biased and aimed specifically at Christians since only Christians openly proselytized. Council representatives also cited anti-Christian speeches made in the parliament during debate on the law. Parliament member Binyamin Halevy had called missionaries “a cancer in the body of the nation.”

The next year Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, considered a political moderate, issued a religious ruling that copies of the New Testament should be torn out of any edition of a Bible owned by a Jew. Israeli scholar Yehoshafat Harkabi wrote that he was disturbed by “these manifestations of hostility-the designation of Christians as idolaters, the demand to invoke the ‘resident alien’ ordinances, and the burning of the New Testament.” Observed Harkabi: “Outside of the Land of Israel Jews never dared behave in this fashion. Has independence made the Jews take leave of their senses?”

Desecration of Christian property and churches—arson, window breaking, burning of the New Testament—had long marred relations between the two communities. A small but fanatical group of Jews wanted no Christians, whom they considered fallen Jews, in Israel. This virulent strain of prejudice had been present since before the Jewish state was founded.

For instance, after the capture by Jewish forces of Jaffa on May 13, 1948, two days before Israel’s birth, there was desecration of Christian churches. Father Deleque, a Catholic priest, reported: “Jewish soldiers broke down the doors of my church and robbed many precious and sacred objects. Then they threw the statues of Christ down into a nearby garden.” He added that Jewish leaders had reassured that religious buildings would be respected, “but their deeds do not correspond to their words.”

On May 31, 1948, a group of Christian leaders comprising the Christian Union of Palestine publicly complained that Jewish forces had used 10 Christian churches and humanitarian institutions in Jerusalem as military bases and otherwise desecrated them. They added that a total of 14 churches had suffered shell damage, which killed three priests and made casualties of more than 100 women and children.

The group’s statement said Arab forces had abided by their promise to respect Christian institutions, but that the Jews had forcefully occupied Christian structures and been indiscriminate in shelling churches. It said, among other charges, that “many children were killed or wounded” by Jewish shells on the Convent of Orthodox Copts on May 19, 23 and 24; that eight refugees were killed and about 120 wounded at the Orthodox Armenian Convent at some unstated date; and that Father Pierre Somi, secretary to the Bishop, had been killed and two wounded at the Orthodox Syrian Church of St. Mark on May 16.

Churches were again desecrated during the 1967 war when Israel captured East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, completing the occupation of all of Palestine. On July 21, 1967, the Reverend James L. Kelso, a former moderator of the United Presbyterian Church and long-time resident in Palestine, complained of extensive damage to churches adding: “So significant was this third Jewish war against the Arabs that one of the finest missionaries of the Near East called it ‘perhaps the most serious setback that Christendom has had since the fall of Constantinople in 1453.’”

Kelso continued: “How did Israel respect church property in the fighting...? They shot up the Episcopal Cathedral [in Jerusalem], just as they had done in 1948. They smashed down the Episcopal school for boys...The Israelis wrecked and looted the YMCA...They wrecked the big Lutheran hospital...The Lutheran center for cripples also suffered...”

Nancy Nolan, wife of a physician at the American University Hospital in Beirut, who was in Jerusalem during and after the fighting, charged that “while the Israeli authorities proclaim to the world that all religions will be respected and protected, and post notices identifying the Holy Places, Israeli soldiers and youths are throwing stink bombs in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

“The Church of St. Anne, who crypt marks the birthplace of the Virgin Mary, has been severely damaged and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem also was damaged. The wanton killing of the Warden of the Garden Tomb followed by the shooting into the tomb itself, in an attempt to kill the warden’s wife, was another instance that we knew first-hand which illustrated the utter disregard shown by the occupation forces toward the Holy Places and the religious sensibilities of the people in Jordan and in the rest of the world.”

“The desecration of churches...includes smoking in the churches, littering the churches, taking dogs inside and entering in inappropriate manner of dress. Behavior such as this cannot be construed other than as a direct insult to the whole Christian world.”

Desecration has occurred not only in times of war. As recently as 1995, an Israeli soldier, Daniel Koren, 22, entered St. Anthony Catholic Church in Jaffa and went on a shooting rampage, firing more than 100 bullets in the altar and the cross above it but causing no injuries. Koren said his Judaic convictions forced him to destroy all physical images of God, and admitted that he had staged a prior attack in Jerusalem’s Gethsemane Church.

Perhaps the worst outbreak of organized desecration of Christian institutions came on Sept. 10, 1963, when hundreds of ultra-orthodox Jews simultaneously attacked Christian missions in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem. (One has to say “perhaps because reporting on this sensitive subject in the U.S. media has been so poor over the decades.) At any rate, the attacks were a concerted effort to intimidate Christians in Israel by a religious vigilante group called Hever Peelei Hamahane Hatorati, the Society of Activists of the Torah Camp. In an attack on the Church of Scotland school in Jaffa, Christian children were beaten and considerable damage was caused to the school by at least 200 rampaging Jews.

Other attacks occurred at two nearby church schools, the Greek Catholic missionary school of St. Joseph and a Christian Brothers school. In Jerusalem, attacks occurred at the St. Joseph convent and the Finnish Lutheran mission school. In Haifa, the American-European Beth El Messianic Mission Children’s Hostel and School was attacked. No serious damage occurred in any of the attacks except at the Scotland school. More than 100 Jews were convicted in the attacks, none of them receiving more than small fines and suspended sentences.

The first half of the 1980s, with Likud governments in control, was a particularly active period for Jewish bigots. On Oct. 8, 1982, the Baptist Church in Jerusalem was burned down. Kerosene had been sprinkled on the church’s wooden chapel, constructed in 1933. Although no one was ever charged in the arson, the Baptist Center’s bookstore had been vandalized a dozen times in previous years, and Jews were suspected. When the Baptists sought to rebuild the church, Jews demonstrated against the project and the Jewish district planning commission refused to grant a building permit. In 1985, the Israeli Supreme Court advised the Baptists to leave the all-Jewish area.

On Christmas Day in 1983, a hotel in Tiberias where Christians held meetings was set afire, the latest in a series of attacks on a small group of about 50 Christians. Two Jews were arrested in the arson incident. Other attacks included stones thrown through windows at the hotel while the group was meeting and break-ins at the homes of members of the group. The anti-missionary group Yad Le’Achim complained that Christian missionaries were offering money, clothes, jewelry and tennis shoes to listen to Christian lectures.

Just over a fortnight later, on Jan. 11, 1984, suspected Jewish extremists stacked hymnals on a piano in a Christian prayer room in Jerusalem and set them afire. Also in the same week angry Jews protesting Christian proselytizing caused Beth Shalom, a Christian evangelical group, to withdraw its plans to build a multimillion-dollar hotel in Jerusalem. Beth Shalom took its action after about 150 Jews showed up at a city council meeting with placards reading “You can’t buy me” and “I didn’t immigrate to live next door to missionaries.” A leader of the protest, Rabbi Moshe Berlinger, compared Christian missionaries to Trojan horses.

Jewish infringements on Christian rights became so bad by 1990 that on Dec. 20 the leaders of Christian churches in Jerusalem took the extraordinary decision to restrict Christmas celebrations to protest “the continuing sad state of affairs in our land,” including encroachment by Israel on traditional Christian institutions. Among concerns expressed by the patriarchs and heads of churches were attempts by Jewish settlers to move into the Old City and an “erosion of the traditional rights and centuries-old privileges of the churches,” including imposition by Israel of municipal and state taxes on the churches.

The statement added: “We express our deep concern over new problems confronting the local church. They interfere with the proper functioning of our religious institutions, and we call upon the civil authorities in the country to safeguard our historic rights and status honored by all governments.”

Anti-Christian prejudice helps account for the fact that the number of Christian Palestinians in all of former Palestine had dwindled to only 50,000 in 1995. They no longer were a major presence in either Jerusalem or Ramallah, and they were fast losing their majority status in Bethlehem.

When Israel was established in 1948, the Palestinian Christian community had numbered 200,000, compared to roughly 600,000 Jews in Palestine at the time. Now the Christians are not even one percent of the population of Israel/Palestine. Of today’s estimated total 400,000 Christian Palestinians, most now are living in their own diaspora"

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/rel-christians.html

It seems you're missing the point which is: All religions are intolerant, but some are more intolerant than others. Therefore, I do not see why Jews or Judaism should be receiving undue attention from extremists whose faiths are deeply immersed in ignoble gore and whose adherents are un-apologetically fatalistic. This is akin to kettle calling pot black.

Today, there're about 15 to 18 million Jews as opposed to 1.5 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians in the world. Do the math and tell me who's endangered... Israel is protecting itself - plain and simple. What it's doing is no different than, in fact even better than, what you'ld do if you were in their shoes. Some time ago I read how the Etsu Nupe 'secured' an Igbo 'convert' from her father who happens to be a pastor. We all saw how tempers flared and Christian folks were enraged. Is that any different?

My point is still the same and its this: All religions, especially foreign religions, are mutually intolerant. Even within the religions the same intolerance is sometimes worse. Tell us what comes to mind when you think of Shia and Sunni..., British protestants and Irish Catholics.... Do you pretend not to know why Lebanon engulfed itself in mutual religious vendetta for over 15 years swallowing innocent men, women, and children as Beirut imploded? What was that? Religious love and harmony? Did you not read how Iranian govt burnt a non-Muslim's lips with hot cigarette during Ramadan for not observing fast? These same people and their bed-fellows (Arab wannabes and gutless neo-liberals) would rather feign amnesia on the sacrilegious intolerance committed by terrorists and adherents of 'religion of peace' but as soon as Jews are mentioned, like a weak bull with a shot in the arm, they jump back to life.

Now tell me why Iran and Pakistan refer to their nations as 'Islamic republics' whereas not all their citizens are Muslims? Is that not exclusive and discriminatory? But let Israel call her nation a Jewish state..... in a flash you see every 'ball-less' liberal and hypocritical Islamist up in arms and questioning why a democracy should include or support a particular religion. What a joke!

Few weeks ago a band of misguided Dutch Muslims went on a protest against Israel with placards that show open support for ISIL terrorists in Iraq. They had posters that openly displayed severed heads of 'infidels' in a land that accorded them freedom yet they desecrate it with hate and intolerance. But folks would rather have us turn a blind eye on that and have Jews impaled because some bad Jews spat on Greek and Armenian Christians, or that Israel enacted laws that outlawed open 'proselytization.'

In the end the truth is that Judaism or Jews cannot be considered the most intolerant religion or people. That title belongs elsewhere and you know it. The reason people overlook the belligerent title holder boils down to my earlier assertion: hypocrisy!

pheliciti: Muslims are intolerant right? And the Jews are better? Please dig up answers to the following?

Why is it that no Christian can openly proselytize in Israel
Why are there more Jewish Muslims than Christains in Israel
Why don't our popular Penticostal churches set up in Israel; after all, that was the starting place of the Christian faith
Why do Jews treat christians with derision especially as they have a link in Jesus and Moses (note that the fight with the Arabs is over land)
Do you know the Talmud lays no blame on a Jew killing a non- Jew?
Closer home, since you justify your point with Nigerian examples, why do you have more churches in the North than you have mosques in the South (SW exempted)?
Do you really believe that killings in the North is Muslim vs Christian, especially if most of the casualties are Moslems too

I do not wish that any other race would go through what the Jews went through during the holocaust of about 5 years. Neither would any race want to be victims of a slave trade that pillaged the best of the black race for upwards 500 hundred years. It is thus wrong to say that the 15 million Jews have contributed more to the world than to 1.2 billion blacks. For one thing, i came to the world through the black race and it is up to me to make the best of it; likewise each self deprecating black man. Finally, it is certainly wrong to call 1billion Muslims intolerant because of contemporary media blitz. The killings the Middle East are wrong, but dig deeper for the causes and see if they are merely religious. Do read up on how the supposedly intolerant Muslims allowed the Israelis to settle in the Palestine territories only to be made landless, read the historical Muslim conduct during the crusades (although prosecuted by Europe) and then take a point of view of who is indeed intolerant.

Visit Pakistan, Saudi, and the rest of muslim majority countries and then visit Israel - tell me what you see, that's if you make it alive from some Muslim countries. Israel is nation of laws where freedom of worship and association is constitutionally guaranteed. Are they perfect? You bet. But can you compared them with any Islamic majority nation - your guess is as good as mine. In Israel there are gangs, extremists, and skin-heads that're willing to trample on your right as a foreigner or non-Jew, but when caught, as they occasionally do get caught, Israeli law unleashes its full wrath irrespective of who the offender is. Even the previous Prime minister, Olmert, was not spared - he's doing time in prison as I write. So, people, show me how Israel is not far better than all these banana republics that're being daily smoked, and doubly for that matter, by half-baked leaders and extremists political sheiks.

Of course I do not agree in totality Israeli position on Palestine. But when surrounded by implacable Arab enemies you tell me the 'smooth' survival route.

In summary, regarding the subject, that is - the new Nigeria's 'Jew' obsession, I see hypocrisy of quantifiable magnitude. It's insanely hypocritical because the monikers that are on the front-line of this new ignoble frontier are the same monikers that are unashamedly tribalists and religious extremists. Israel is a majority jewish nation so I'm confused when American-claiming but closet Islamist fellas say Saudi Arabia is a strict Muslim nation and therefore non-muslims in Saudi Kingdom should forget their freedom, really? The same fellas who want you and I to forget our freedom in Saudi because its Islamic want us to fight for it in a Jewish nation - don't you cringe on this level of hypocrisy?

My point is simple and its this: All nations, religious or not, have some kind of intolerance, hence the disproportionate focus on the Jews is pathetic and unreservedly unwarranted. And for those who have issue with my statement that Jews, in modern times, have contributed to humanity far more than Africans I wait for your substantiated rebuttal. Note: I engage in only civil discourse with folks who've made it past high school.

careytommy: lol... what will any sane Christian be doing in Israel. those people are extremely racist.

@samikenna, your comments are quite disturbing.

Show me what is disturbing.

This is laughable. It's seems all Nigerian eyes are on the Jews these days. But I have a question for these eyes: How many of you would choose Saudi over Israel if the two nations were the only options left in the universe to live in?

Let's bring it home a bit. How many would choose Borno state Nigeria, over Israel? The answer is none. One thing is common with ardent Israel bashers - they're all hypocrites. I urge all of you to purge yourselves of the existing hate you endlessly breed for your fellow Nigerians, your fellow Africans, and people of other faiths first before raising a finger at Jews.

World's 15 million jewelry have given the world what 1.2 billion Africans have failed to give humanity. They have tasted a kind of hell no other nation big or small has ever come close to and yet they bounced back. If a million Jews are intolerant, as bad as it is, is it worse than over 1 billion intolerant Muslims? Is it worse than the extremist Muslims killing Nigerians especially the middle belters since 1945? You bet the answer.

How many of you hypocrites have looked up, helped, or consoled any of the victims of terrorism in Nigeria? You see; you can't even help your neighbor but you want to pretend you love the Greek or Armenian that was spat on in Israel. What a joke! My advice to you all is to face Nigeria and endeavor to make it better. Quit your 'Jew' obsession and help Nigeria export knowledge to the rest of the world instead of the current endless breed and export of boko haram, shekau, ogwuche, underwear bomber, and 2 Nigerian-British broad-day light butchers/terrorists.

The Jew that spits is far better than a fellow country man that hates, supports terror, and decapitates at will.

Hmm! Humanity! Please someone tell me how did Ibo or Igbo become Islam/Iraq? A mind is a dangerous thing to waste.

If you think extremist Islamists and liberals are interested in engaging in this convo then I'm sorry you're badly in the wrong place. They would rather bash people who're standing their grounds or who're returning terror for terror. In the end I feel sorry for the willfully blind liberals. They're the ones that are firm believers in alternative lifestyles so when we're all gone or wiped out by ISIS and other Boko Haram look-alikes, I suspect they would return to their real genders in a jiffy. Failure to do so the muhajidins would surgically revert the liberal transsexuals, quatrisexuals, or pentasexuals or whatever the heck they call themselves to their god-given gender. Today, everyone wants to overlook the resurgence of religious barbarism especially in Islam just to appear 'good' to those who despise everything, good or bad, that's not hinged on their extremist religious injunctions. What a shame!

ProfCorruption: A monumental waste of time and resources. A national conference without a new constitution is nothing but a constitution amendment jamboree which the legislators are better placed to achieve. As it is, all the so called recommendations will be debated on the floor of National Assembly and will be soundly and easily defeated. Nothing tangible will come out of this charade.

Nigeria, in my opinion, still needs an authentic national conference where a durable political restructuring can be negotiated to the satisfaction of majority of Nigerians. Anything short of that is tantamount to perpetual disharmony where both the worst and paradoxically the best will never happen. We ll just be dancing on the brink.

How do you get 'the authentic national conference' and when do you think its feasible?

Obiagelli: after all your grammer, next step is the national assembly right? Or are we holding a referendum? Abeg go siddon.

I couldn't resist the urge to ask you this: What do you want and tell us how to get there. Its not enough to condemn someone's effort, tell us what strategy you have up your sleeve as regards getting Nigeria's political structure right. And please don't tell us its 2015 election, PDP, APC, or APGA. Those are results of a horribly failed structure. Oblige us with practical and practicable solutions capable of correcting the nations structural defect with minimal ethnic abrasion or possibly war. Do that please.

gbadexy: Actually the point I was trying to make was that the biafrans likely had excess of 2 million fighting force as against the 300,000 of the nigerian side.
old men too fought and young teen of arms bearing age too were conscripted into the army.

Lol! Brother it would've been great if we had 2 million fighting men. I don't think so. Biafra's population was 13 to 15 million people (subtract the Ijaws and few other Rivers' men the number dwindles even further). Where in the world would they find 2 million able young men fighting in the front-line without jeopardizing the war effort itself? Remember they had to build too many things in a very short time with little or no help from outside - also consider these were black men in the 60s with minimal technological know-how (Yet they marveled the world with ingenuity).

So if they deployed two million men in the front who would build communication systems, tanks, IEDs, bridges, Airports, guns, etc. Remember that their airports were under constant bombardment (by Arab Egyptians who considered Christian East infidels) and they kept bringing it back to life. What about food distribution, hospitals for the wounded, plus making of new babies, lol! Who would be replenishing new babies? Old men? I don't think so. We didn't have 2 million men ok. Biafra at the beginning had about 15 thousand men ready for battle but as the war dragged on, between 120,000 to 180,000 engaged in physical battle against Nigeria and 30,000 lost their lives while about 2 million civilians, with children making about 95% of the casualties, gave up the ghost.

East in 1968 was a beehive of activities that kept changing fast as Nigeria gained and lost territories during the war stalemate. So, life needed to continue in some way for Biafrans irrespective of the constant barage, hence able-body men were needed to farm, dig trenches, build bunkers, refine fuel for the citizens, and other things that a fledgling nation in the 60s needed.

I respect my folks a lot after finding out how and what they did to survive the onslaught. Nigeria is one hell of ungrateful country. I think they should be eternally grateful to the Soviets and British. I guess if Nigeria forgot the men who sacrificed their lives to keep this unholy union wobbling why would they do otherwise to 'bloody' Soviets and 'colonialist' Britain. Arewa had to be fed full first and her numerous emirs and sheiks propped up and oiled, multiple LGAs and States spoon fed, their generals 'mystified' and 'godified,' Quota system and educationally disadvantaged drain-pipe perpetually retained, internalized, and eternalized while keeping the almajiri death-bound soldiers ever ready for terrorizing the whole south (unbeknownst to the entire south they're now considered a fully conquered territory), and Danjumas, Bugajes, and alhajis given juicy oil blocks. All the above needed to be done first before they listen to your 'stupid' whining about how equal and democratic your 'one Nigeria' ought to be.

Hmm ok. But I do not think there's any new info in the intel leak. Umunna, War is war. We lost, they won, so let the victors enjoy. This is their time, ours will come someday and maybe in my lifetime. Who knows, perhaps our time is unfolding as we speak. Umunne m, were eze guo ire onu.

nduchucks: Jokers

Shocking to know you thought delegates were jokers. Do you mind bringing to our notice the recommendations you consider anti-people? At the very least I believe there has to be something that made you consider conference participants jokers. Let's hear it.

Hypocrisy seems to be alive and well in Islamic communities. Unfortunately, in Nigerian Muslim communities this regrettable hypocrisy seems to be in overdrive.

Nigerian Muslims seem to be implacably and passionately up in arms whenever Palestine or Arab/America/Israel issue comes up, yet they've not for once been up in arms with equal passion and zeal when it comes to the endless murder and mayhem going on in the middle belt, or the cyclical killing of southerners and non-Muslim in the core north by their foot-soldiers that later morphed into Boko Haram.

They criticize Israel yet they're blind to the death they've spread in Nigeria, especially the Middle Belt, since 1945. I have no doubt that Israelis "crime" against "unarmed" Palestinians pales in comparison to the hell non-Muslim/MB Nigerians have been catching. Unless humanity agrees that one should worry more about foreign rather than local event then I'm at lost as to why Israel, America, or Europe should give me headache while there's a local unbearable migraine fixing to dry-swallow me. The Muslim world/Muslim North criticize Israel and all Western countries for Judeo/Christian conspiracy against Palestine, and by extension Islamic faith. But on the other hand they freely welcome Chad, Mali, and Niger republic nationals into their 'vanguard' of anti-christian force that decimates Nigerians from Taraba all the way to Calabar with unconscionable impunity.

I ask - where is Nigerian Muslims outrage on the everyday plight of Nigerian non-Muslims resident in the North. Don't they deserve the same air-time and protest time Nigerian Muslims devote to issues 4000 miles away from Nigerian shores? Well, if by way of Houdini you argue that Nigerian Muslims only engage in foreign events then what about Iraqi and Syrian Christians that're being impaled in broad-daylight by Muslim fanatics? Where is Muslim outrage? And in case you use American involvement in Syria and Iraq as excuse for the radicalization of ISIS men then I wonder what excuse you intend to use for Egypt considering the upsurge in persecution and violence against Egyptian Coptic Christians. What about the recent agony of Meriam Ibrahim in the hands of Islamic Sudan? The list goes on and on. When will the Muslim world, especially Nigerian Muslims, raise their voices in defense of non-Muslim rights and freedom?

This is why I neither join nor take seriously any Islamic driven hate-fest against Israel or the West. Its even worse when I see Muslim north devote unprecedented time and energy on foreign issues - time and energy they refuse to employ in the home-front against the unending killings of Nigerian non-Muslims and peoples of MB.

240 is comparatively more efficient than 110/120 but more slightly harzardous. Basically, 110 offers higher loss of power but with 240/220 we get more of the power that's generated at source. Ask yourself why voltage has to be stepped high before transmission only to be stepped down again for distribution. The math is simple, compute it and you'll have the answer to your question.

nduchucks: Obsession with the boogie woman. "Northernesses".

no be Northerners dey pursue una again, na teenage girls. ah ah.

What are you doing to curb this epidemic? Weekly fiery rhetoric in the mosques across the nation isn't going to provide solution. You need to roll up your sleeves and get to work because you know women are the mothers of the nation. We need to know what you're doing to complement the selfless sacrifice my brothers are making on your behalf up north.

The policemen who were stationed at the Eid prayer ground near North-West University in Kofar-Nasarawa in the ancient city of Kano were astonished when a teenage girl, clad in a brown hijab, walked confidently and hurriedly towards them where they were stationed in order to monitor the activities in the environment.
Apparently unsuspecting that danger was approaching them, the policemen handled her presence with levity. When she got too close for comfort, the policemen queried her. But rather than stop, she kept moving towards them. Speaking to Sunday Trust on their encounter with the young lady, who later became a suicide bomber, one of the policemen said when the girl refused to stop, they activated their guns.
“At first, we thought she wanted to come and give us a report about a security breach around the place, but when she moved quickly towards us, we all activated our guns. Yet, she didn’t stop,” the policeman said. “When we asked her to stop, she refused. She rather told us in Hausa that if we wanted to kill her we should.”
The policeman said it was while the conversation was going on that a loud bang tore through the air, such that they all had to dive to take cover.
“We took cover, but we all sustained injuries. We went down flat because we were afraid that her colleagues may be nearby,” he said.
Contrary to an earlier report that the female suicide bombers activated bombs from their armpit, the policeman told our reporter that the teenager’s two hands were by her sides when the explosion occurred.
The policeman described the girl as slim, tall and fair in complexion and that her spoken Hausa was good.
“The way she spoke to us in Hausa, that we should kill her if we wanted, showed that she had a good grasp of the language,” he said.
The encounter between policemen and a teenage female suicide bomber was the first to hit the already traumatised city of Kano. The trend had started in Gombe when on June 8, 2014 the first female suicide bomber occurred. However in that case, it was a middle-aged woman who detonated an explosive wrapped round her body at the 301 Battalion of the Nigerian Army Base in Gombe. The explosion killed her and one soldier. The woman was walking towards the Quarter Guard of the 301 Artillery Regiment barracks, located along the busiest Gombe- Biu Road after alighting from a motorbike when two soldiers stopped her for a search. She suddenly hugged one soldier and the bomb went off, killing her and the soldier. The other soldiers with them sustained injuries, witnesses said.
Since last Sunday, no fewer than five explosions have been recorded in Kano in six days. All of them were carried out by female teenagers, believed to be between the ages of 14 and 16 years. In all, 25 persons were killed and 60 others were injured, with civilians being the highest casualty. One soldier and a policeman were killed. The female bomber was believed to be 16 years old, according to analysis done on her remains by security.
As the police were struggling with their injured personnel, another explosion rocked the St. Charles Catholic Family Parish in Sabon Gari area of the state. It occurred at a when worshippers were coming out from the place of worship after the day’s service.
Five persons died on the spot, among them a soldier who was on duty at the church. Two others were injured.
While security said the explosive was tossed from a nearby primary school, the church’s officials said it was carried out by a female suicide bomber who pretended to be a worshipper.
While hosting officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), an assistant priest in the church, Father Val Fadegnon said, “A woman was seen attempting to enter the church while worshippers were coming out. She was holding a book like the Bible. The soldier at the gate was interrogating her when the bomb exploded, killing the soldier and four others on the spot,” he said.
The priest added that though a bomb was also tossed from the primary school opposite the church, it did not detonate as claimed by security officials. According to him, while worshippers were scampering for safety from the suicide bomber explosion, another bomb was tossed from a primary school opposite the church.
“We were lucky that the bomb did not detonate. It could have caused more harm than the first one. The bomber went to the school in a wheelchair, pretending to be a cripple and that was why he was allowed in by the securitymen at the gate. He went with one other person who was pushing the wheelchair,” he said.
The police confirmed that two female heads were picked at the scene of the blast. In all subsequent suicide bombings, the head of the perpetrators were seen at the scene of the explosion.
Last Monday, two other teen female suicide bombers struck in the state. The first one blew herself up at the NNPC mega station in Hotoro area of the state, around 10.00am, killing three others, including an attendant.
A security guard at the filling station said the female suicide bomber disguised as if she wanted to buy kerosene and that after joining the queue she detonated the explosive.
“She was carrying a gallon, like all other women at the filling station, as she was approaching the kerosene pump. She detonated the bomb from her dress. Nobody noticed her because almost all those on the queue were women,” he said.
Speaking on her hospital bed one of the victims, Hadiza Dauda, 45, said she was on queue approaching the pump when the bomb exploded.
“I wouldn’t know whether the bomber was the one in my front or at my back, because I was thrown to the other side of the filling station when the bomb was detonated. I just saw myself topless and I was shouting for help, but nobody came as they were all scampering for safety. Almost all parts of my body were affected because I was close to the pump,” the widow said.
Around 1.15pm, another female suicide bomber blew up herself up at ......contd.

link here:
http://www.dailytrust.com.ng/sunday/index.php/top-stories/17714-stark-encounters-with-teen-female-suicide-bombers