ktravula – a travelogue!

Browsing the archives for the Opinion category.

A World Without Borders

Well, for a start, let us all agree that this fabled world doesn’t exist anywhere except perhaps on the internet. A Nigerian on a three-hour stopover at Heathrow will not be allowed into London for fear, perhaps, that he will suddenly ditch his American visa and decide to live in the fruitful fields of England forever, eating clover, beans and mangel-wurzels. A Turkish citizen hoping to visit any European capital will usually need a shengen visa or should just not make an effort. It all makes sense, doesn’t it? A few years ago, all anyone needed to visit Kenya from any part of Africa was a passport. Then after 1998 embassy bombings by a few radical thugs, everyone needed a visa, including neighbouring Ugandans.

The concept of national borders is fascinating, and mostly annoying. Take for example the problem of driving from Lagos to Dakar, a stretch that will be similar to one from Minneapolis to St. Louis just as soon as we can ignore the useless police checkpoints along the borders of the “countries” along the way. Once upon a time, West Africa was just west Africa, with contiguous autonomous kingdoms and no fake borders manned by corrupt men in khaki uniforms. Now, the Yorubas are not just Yorubas. They are Nigerians, Beninoise and Togolese, and this doesn’t prevent them from the harassment of faux obstacles placed on a road leading from one part of the continent to the other.

The last time we had the Ambassador of Kenya to the United States on campus, I asked him why it is taking African politicians so long to realize that artificial obstacles at national borders created more problem than it solved, he gave a platitude. And then I switched on the news and heard that even the United States is now considering building a wall – yes you heard right – a wall between itself and Mexico, this time to prevent the problem of illegal migration. Yet, all migrations are legal, as we all know, as the basis of human civilization, and change. Is there a point to my rant on this post? I doubt it, but I’ve spent some time pondering the idea of human migration for a while now. I think my most recent motivation is the discovery of an interesting fact that humans – no matter where they find themselves – would always prefer migration at some point in their life, than staying in the same spot. Yes, that applies to Americans too.

A World Without Borders was published on September 2nd, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Observations, Opinion category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

On Dangerous Revolutionaries

There is a curious pattern of dangerous behaviour  now coming out of the Libyan revolt against the government of Moamar Gaddafi. In this frightening CNN report, rebel soldiers looking to exact revenge on the dying regime have found a perfect victim demographic: black sub-saharan African (in this case Nigerians) who are in the country en route to Spain or Italy for a better life.

There is enough to debate about the presence of Nigerian citizens residing legally or illegally in a war-torn country (and the Nigerian government has a duty to protect them as well, to the best of its ability), but a so-called revolution aimed at liberating a country from tyranny should not turn itself into one – at least not so soon – at the expense of foreigners. The fact that they are targeted for their skin colours – as the report states – makes it even more alarming, and worrisome.

In post-Apatheid South Africa a few years ago, a similar thing happened where foreigners (also mostly Nigerians) became a target of xenophobic behaviour by citizens looking for scapegoats in a poor economy. It didn’t matter that just years before then, most of those other African countries had provided asylum for the freedom fighters running away from the oppressive Apatheid government. A similarly disgusting thing happened right after the Egyptian revolution succeeded, when Gael Ghonim – the acclaimed IT mastermind of the whole movement tweeted this. (At least he didn’t have a gun to someone’s head.)

A pattern has emerged here that should be roundly condemned.

On Dangerous Revolutionaries was published on September 1st, 2011, with the tags , , , , , , under the News, Observations, Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Bombing UN HQs

You know you are a despicable scum when the target of your assault is a building filled with innocent humanitarian workers of an organization known for the pursuit of peace and global justice.

That said, maybe it will be time to ask for more CCTV units in Nigeria’s big cities, especially now in the North where the new extremists – like little children seeing a toy for the first time – are playing checkers with car bombs and innocent lives. At times like this, one wonders what other solution can be prescribed without losing one more civil liberty just like the sadists hope.

Hearts go out to the victims.

Bombing UN HQs was published on August 26th, 2011, with the tags , , , , under the Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Back to School

It’s all familiar, the rush of legs around the quad – the first day of school. Students of various shapes and sizes, moulds and designs, styles and gait, traipsing all over what a few weeks ago was just a quiet neighbourhood of a few teachers and construction workers. Now, the peace is over and the devil of rote is back. The pandora’s box has been open and won’t be restrained anymore until sometime in the dead of winter. Yes, here we go again.

For me, my last Fall semester in this haunted place as a student, it will soon get pretty busy and, eventually, quiet. Unfortunately, as I have experienced very many times over, approaching the end doesn’t always bring as much of a thrill as exaggerated expectations usually hopes it would. Maybe the thrill is more in the process than in the end itself.

Back to School was published on August 23rd, 2011, with the tags , , , under the Observations, Opinion, Soliloquy category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

NYT #Fail

If the headline in the same article facetiously associating the erection of a new monument in Washington DC to the realization of Martin Luther King’s famous dream doesn’t irk you as being silly enough, the first paragraph in today’s NY Times article on the opening of the Memorial makes sure of it. It reads:

WASHINGTON — Now we know: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it leads to a picturesque glade beside the Tidal Basin, with the Washington Monument providing sentry.

Maybe isn’t it enough anymore to simply describe.

NYT #Fail was published on August 23rd, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Observations, Opinion category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.