While searching Youtube for a few new ways to complicate my students’ lives ahead of their final exam project (which is to find a long Yoruba song and sing it as a group and as individuals to an audience of their classmates on a stipulated date), I found this video. It is a surprise that it has been online for this long and I hadn’t come across it. It’s been up for – wait a minute – exactly a year today, garnering over a million views. Enjoy it.
What do you think?
Was not so boring, because I presented a talk to a group of senior citizens (read grown folks over sixty) along with Reham in an event called Dialogue With Seniors. It was titled “Life in two of Africa’s biggest cities: Ibadan and Cairo.”
I enjoyed it because, contrary to my early apprehensions, they were quite amiable and relaxed. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience of speaking about everything from food to dressing to greeting to customs to religion and to malaria and HIV/AIDS. I showed them a picture of real Nigerian yams, as well as cocoa, both of which they were seeing for the very first time. They had seen Hershey’s, M&Ms and Snickers before, but this was the first time of seeing what cocoa really looked like. They asked questions and I responded. When Reham spoke, I learnt a few new things about Egypt and Arabic as well. It’s funny how much of what we had to say bounced off each other, as well as off the Americans. Cairo is Africa’s largest city while Ibadan is the second largest – by geography. The Nile in Egypt is the longest river in Africa while the Mississippi just close by is the second longest river in the world. (This fact about the Nile has amazed me since I grew up to realize that – contrary to the song we were taught in primary school – the Mississippi was NOT the longest river in the world. I wonder who came up with the song then.)
Yesterday, I participated in a similar seminar, this time for a class of students of English language teaching. Along with visiting scholars from Iran and Azerbaijan, we sat and answered questions about the difference in the University and learning environments in our countries and the United States, where they diverged, and where they were similar, and what we thought each could learn from each other. That was fun too. There were no “high tables”, just chairs. One thing I learnt from that event was that in Iran, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979, boys and girls were separated into same-sex high schools and don’t have any form of social interactions until they gain admissions into the University. According to the Iranian speakers, this causes a lot of frustrations when they eventually get into the University and have to engage in social interactions, it becomes awkward. I could almost say the same for Nigeria of a few generations back as well, but not as a result of a government decision or anything. Most parental restrictions on their children (derived from a claimed divine injunction to “train the child in the way he should go”) often result in poorly sociable human beings unleashed on the society.
In all, it has been a wonderful week so far, except for the ugly news of the loss of my files and all my student’s data and academic scores in my now unrecoverable hard drive. Well, the week is just half gone. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Dear Blog,
What shall I write about today?
Western Union’s polite letter to me that they offer aid only to places in the world affected by natural disasters, or
The final crashing of my laptop computer’s hard drive last night so that I have not been able get it on to work from my apartment nor retrieve any one of my yet-to-be-backed-up documents and files still trapped in it? 🙁
Will you give me an answer before I lose my mind, dear blog?
Dear Kola,
I hope this finds you well. Thank you for all your twitter direct messages and posts to our Facebook page. I am the person that manages both accounts on behalf of the organization.
While we as a company are very troubled by the current situation in Nigeria, both Western Union and the Western Union Foundation, by policy, focus relief activity by providing support and aid to communities effected by natural disasters only. For more information how we have helped the people of both Haiti and Chili (sic), I invite you to read the following press releases:
Chile: http://ir.westernunion.com/press/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=448621
Haiti: http://ir.westernunion.com/press/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=439225
I have enjoyed reading your blog and noticed you are collecting money to send for a donation via Western Union. As a dissatisfied consumer, please let me extend the offer of a promotional code worth 50% off your next transaction. Please let me know if this is of interest and I will retrieve the code for you.
Western Union and the Western Union Foundation, through the Our World Gives program, continue to support programs and initiatives that provide communities access to better education and economic opportunity. One example of this support is the African Diaspora Marketplace project, which awarded 14 grants of $50,000 -$100,000 to 14 start-ups in Sub-Saharan Africa. More information can be found at the following: http://ir.westernunion.com/press/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=437594.
Thank you again for reaching out to us.
Sincerely,
Brian
The Western Union Company
I have derived a certain pleasure over the past few days shooting the geese on campus. But, unlike what you might be immediately led to believe, I wasn’t shooting to kill, but to save. The weapon was nothing other than my Canon Powershot camera that has always gone with me everywhere I went.
But with these set of geese, there is the story: it is said that in Spring, or as soon as the weather warms up, the birds on campus take a break from their playground of the lake and build nests in cosy places where they can lay their eggs and successfully incubate them for the required period of time. Good so far? Yes. Except that in the case of a couple of these larger than life geese with long strong necks, they had chosen the apartment right in front of mine to build their nest.
Now, the goose family system is very different from humans, or from chickens, for instance. Cocks – like many specimen of humans – will ignore the hen as soon as mating is done and fertilization is over with. But ss soon as the females build their nests and start laying, the gander takes up the unenviable task of defending the region from any intrusion of any kind and size, and they do this with all their energy not caring if they died. The first time I came up a notice on campus that read that I should be careful when walking through the grass areas because geese could be nesting and could attack me, I thought it was a joke. But after two near vicious attacks at my own apartment, I have had a re-think. The male goose (called the gander) doesn’t even give the pedestrian the benefit of a doubt. As long as it gets the impression that you could be walking close to its bride’s nest, it would attack you viciously with its wings and beak. Go figure. What if you didn’t know? Who cares. When you seen a large mass of feathers flying towards you with a menacing sound, you will want to run for it as fast as possible. They have been known to fly at cars and cyclers as well.
So throughout this week – having been lucky to have the nest right across my window – I have been taking pictures of people getting attacked by the birds, and the reactions were usually the same: shock and horror. The students would stand still for a second, waving their hands at the bird in order to send fear into them, and would discover that rather than turn back, the gander was advancing menacingly. They would run, or walk slowly away leaving the bird triumphant. And some times, for good measure, the birds flew right after them. In some way, you could say that it served many of the students right for being silly enough to ignore the notice passed round all apartments in Cougar Village that:
“the wildlife on campus is protected by the Federal Laws… and will be nesting during this season. They can be aggressive, so it’s best to keep off where they might have nests. If a goose attacks you unprovoked, contact University Housing Staff or the University Police.”
On the other hand, like my friend in Dolton insists, I am human and I have a right to walk by anywhere I want without fear of attack by animals. This is why I pay tuition. It shouldn’t be for the University to offer protection to animals and not for humans. Yes indeed, right? Imagine this 911 call: “Hello, is that the police? I have just been attacked by a vicious gander on my way into my apartment. Please come with an ambulance.” Yet you can’t deny that the animals indeed have a right to nest without interference by humans. After all, they have lived in this area all their lives before humans came to erect University and apartment buildings. When does it begin to be ludicrous?
Today in the evening, Ben informed me that he heard that some folks had gone to remove the the geese’s eggs from the nest while the birds were away. I don’t know if this is true, or if it was done by the University in order to move them to a new location. I have however noticed that the two birds have returned to that same position again, perhaps to lay new eggs. But – perhaps to lend credence to Ben’s news – I’ve also noticed that the gander now paces around its usual spot with a dejected gait. Gone clearly are the wild strutting it was known for whenever people walked by. Now it just looks at everyone, sullen, without the slightest interest, or spirit. And I feel pity for him.