ktravula – a travelogue!

The Mayans Have It

I’ve been trying to find the right words to sum up this year. When I look back, there is an enormous bank of memories (some of them very personal) that I carry. There is that very first day of the year spent in the good merry company of my a friend, a Fulbright colleague, and my friend and fellow blogger Clarissa (and her husband). We had the most delicious cake, a great food, and a merry time into the night. Then there is that delightful trip to Chicago in July which changed my life in a remarkably delightful way.

It was this year when we protested against Mubarak using social media. I wrote this poem for him in January a few days before he was actually kicked out. Fun times. Little did I know that other tyrants would fall after him: Gaddafi, Osama, Laurent Gbagbo, and Kim Jong Il. Two of those dying tyrants were mentioned in the title of the poem. If I was a betting man, I could be rich by now. I also remember 2011 for The King’s Speech, one of my most favourite movies of all time.

This year, I met Ken Burns and Niel deGrasse Tyson – two brilliant writers opinion makers. I also visited Joplin in what will remain one of my year’s most enduring memory. I’ll also remember the year for losing my last surviving grandmother in January, then an aunt in March. Not very happy feelings about that. In 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series, a surprise. I did not write as many posts this year as I did in previous years, deliberately. Academics have taken much of my attention, inevitably. Thank you for forgiving :). Now, if we listen to the Mayans, all the remaining negatives on the world’s plate point only to one conclusion: this will be our last New Year celebration. (I haven’t seen that movie 2012, but I’m very familiar with its apocalyptic premise).

So here we are: Iran on the way to nuclear armament, the US selling new arms to Saudi Arabia, a small but skilled group of homicidal religious maniacs are blowing people up in Nigeria with the hopes of setting up an islamic government, Syria is on a murderous rampage on its protesting citizens, Egypt is unstable, and the Isreali-Palestinian conflict is not any nearer to resolution than it was fifty years ago. If the Mayans are to be believed, whatever needs to happen will begin to happen when the new president of the United States takes office in November 2012. Ron Paul? That’s a scary thought. But by then, I will be as far away from this place as possible, most likely in the arms of someone I love. Is there a shuttle service out of this planet?

So, there it is, a sum of my thought for the dying year. My favourite posts in the year was The News Paradox (and perhaps Advances in Indigenous Language Technology). Cool visits: Lewis and Clark.

May the coming year bring a smile to your face.

What were your favourite memories, posts, news?

A Nigerian Tragedy

There comes a time when talking about the same kind of tragedy, or idiocy, over and over again becomes a futile act. Once is an aberration, twice is a trend. When it happens a third time, it has definitely settled into a most horrific pattern. I speak, of course, of the terrorist acts in Nigeria committed by a small radical Islamist group*, as well as the inability of the government to respond in a satisfactory way. It has almost become an annual Christmas idiocy.

In 2009, just around Christmas, the idiot from Katsina Abdul Mutallab got on a plane from London headed for Detroit, and almost took all the lives on an airplane. He put the country’s name on the world map for terrorism, and the outrage from citizens was unprecedented. “He doesn’t represent us”, we shouted, as the United States placed the country on a terror watch list. In December 2010, a bomb blast in Jos killed about 32 people and wounded dozens more (along with another one in October sponsored by the Movement of the Emancipation of Niger Delta, to mark the October independent celebrations). This year, bombs placed strategically in churches where faithfuls were celebrating the Christmas holiday has now claimed another number of innocent people.

However, beyond the deserved rage against the deranged people to whom violence is an acceptable way of making a point, and the gross ineptitude of a government unable to provide adequate security for the citizenry when they need it the most, I have realized that what should be most deplored is also the lack of fast and competent emergency response. A common sentence to all the news about the recent attacks is a variation of this: “Nigeria’s Emergency services acknowledged they didn’t have enough ambulances immediately on hand to cope with the wounded.” If the government entrusted with the security of the country could not provide that security, it should at least provide emergency help whenever crises happens. This one did not, and thus the tragedy. I am outraged.

NEMA should either be made efficient, or be disbanded and its funding money given to non-governmental organisations that will provide real emergency response whenever citizens need help. It is anyone’s guess how many lives would have been saved if there was prompt emergency response by capable people on the ground rather than finger-pointing and vain tough-talking rhetoric by an incompetent government. When I’m in an accident and dying on the street, I do not want my government on television saying “(this is) a dastardly act that must attract the rebuke of all peace-loving Nigerians… These acts of violence against innocent citizens are an unwarranted affront on our collective safety and freedom” as Mr. Jonathan did last week. I want a president that directs all emergency vans to my help as soon as possible. I don’t know about you, but I would appreciate that a whole lot more.

* The crises in the country are not caused only by radical Islamists. Other radical minorities like the said Movement of the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) have also been credited with many acts of violence on innocent public structures, and killed countless innocent people. Then there are vehicular accidents, maternal mortality, and armed robbery. An undeniable fact is the decline of that country into chaos. A more heartbreaking one is the ineptitude of government response either in prevention, and in crises management.

PS: There is a new KTravula poll on the right sidebar. Please tell me what you think. —->>

We Got Snow!

Two days late still, but, yes! Winter is here.

Greetings.

For your readership from the beginning of the year, for comments, word of mouth compliments, blog/twitter/facebook following, and support, here is wishing you a very happy holiday season, Merry Christmas, and a happy new year in advance.

The card was made from a picture of the first two carvings I brought with me to the United States in August 2009.

The One Percent Project

Out of a need to save lives in Nigeria today comes this new idea called the One Percent Project. Nigeria, a country of over 160 million people, still gets by with a crippling healthcare system and a large portion of its population without access to adequate emergency care. 25% of maternal mortality today is due to unavailability of blood. The current blood donation and distribution system is poorly regulated and coordinated. Hospital based blood collection leads to a highly inefficient and fragmented system.

The recent UN bomb blast in Abuja is a case in point. Within minutes of the attack, the National Hospital in Abuja ran out of blood and many patients lay there, waiting to die. A bleeding trauma patient is said to need more than 100 units of blood. Blood usage today is growing at 3 times the national population growth and there is no other known substitute for human blood. The Nigerian Ministry of Health estimates that 10% of HIV/AIDS infections in the country were caused by the use of unsafe blood. That is: 1 in 10 HIV positive people in Nigeria were infected because of unsafe blood transfusion.

The One Percent Project seeks to bridge this gap between blood donors and recipients. It is estimated that if one percent of all Nigerians (1.6 million people) will be willing to give blood when needed, much of the problem will be solved and over 13,500 lives of pregnant women and thousand others in need will be saved. With a need of about 1.5 million to 2 million pints of blood annually, the project hopes to recruit young voluntary non-remunerated blood donors. These donors will only have to sign up with One Percent, and share their location in the country. This information is then shared – as need be – with the National Blood Transfusion Service in Nigeria, and other hospitals, at their moment of need. With a database of 1.6 million people, there hopes to be at least one person near every emergency around the country who will show up when called upon to fulfil his/her pledge to donate blood when needed.

I’m involved in this project (along with a few other dedicated health professionals) and very passionate about its success. You should be too. If one percent of Nigerians to donate blood (3 times a year for women and 4 times a year for men), the problem is virtually solved. If you are reading this and you are a young Nigerian between the age of 17 and 65, or you have lived in the country for more than five years, please take a moment to complete this survey right now. It will take about five minutes. Then check out the website foronepercent.org. Follow the organization’s twitter account to get updates on the project and hear about blood drives coming near you. The organization also needs an army of volunteers to get the project working from the ground up in Nigeria. If we all will sign up to be called upon whenever a hospital near us needs blood to save lives, and we will heed that call, we can make a difference, one volunteer at a time.

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