ktravula – a travelogue!

On the Election

Like the last time Obama won in 2008, I am in Nigeria when his victory was confirmed after winning Ohio. It was about 5.12am, Lagos time.

About a week after the election, the news seems to have faded, at least in this part of the world. For many people, this time around didn’t have the same fierceness as the last one anyway. Many who seemed passionate about it either didn’t know why they should care this time around since “Obama hasn’t done anything significant for Africa since the last four years”, or have strong opinions on the president’s stance on gay marriage and abortions. Somehow, it seems that the GOP’s message of social conservatism has found its way out of America which has now rejected into every other part of the world open to imported beliefs.

I have had a number of short but bewildering conversations with Nigerians about the election. One of the most bizarre went somewhat like this:

“Obama is the anti-Christ.”

“What?”

“It has been signed. By 2013, everyone will now have the mark of the beast. It’s Obama’s law.

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“You didn’t hear? This program that he signed… this… Medicare. It’s the end of the world we’ve been warned about.”

“Oh my!”

I gave up a few minutes later when it became virtually impossible to get past a perception that the president’s healthcare law was anything but that. A few months ago, under the bridge at Oshodi, I had come across some “calendars” and posters sold by local artists in which the president was portrayed with the numbers 666 on his head. Many of the other inscriptions on the poster said that the president signed a bill into law in 2009 that will mandate people to henceforth take a mark before they can be attended to… This was new to me, and till date, I still haven’t figured out how this piece of crap became news, and has now grained currency even among supposed educated folks.

I blame the cost of internet access.

In any case, back to reality, I suspect that the same reason many smart Americans elected Barack Obama is the same reason some smart Nigerians now dislike him: oil exports to the US from Nigeria has declined every year since 2009. As seen in this newspaper headline, the US economy is now on its way to some form of energy independence. If not for anything else, this piece of news should at least convince anyone who has any doubts that the president puts his country first. And that makes him a right choice for the country.

On the Election was published on November 10th, 2012, with the tags , , , , , , under the News, Observations category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.

Political Theatre Sucks

By the end of this year, one new phrase would have been added to the English dictionary – or at least the urban dictionary. That is “the debt ceiling”. To the layman, it means nothing other than the ball that both Democrats and Republicans in the US legislative houses have been kicking around for the past few months. If anything in the news is to be believed, in a week’s time, the credit rating of the country will be permanently damaged from the country’s default on its financial obligations except this “ceiling” is raised.

Horrible as that prospect seems, it has become nothing but a means of political posturing and hostage-taking by elected representatives. On the one hand a party that wants nothing cut out of its special interest programs, on the other another party (and its activist arm) which is hell-bent on opposing any compromise that involves as much as a tiny concession on revenue increase. From afar, all this just seems mad. This is not what you’d expect from “adults in the room”. I listened to the president’s speech yesterday where he did his best to again articulate his ideas of the best solutions to the problem. I also saw the almost immediate rebuttal and posturing by the Speaker of the House. And in that little space of time, the country was back again to a countdown to (as The Daily Show calls it, Armadebtdon: the end of the world as we owe it.)

Unfortunately, there is nothing else exciting on television these days so we will watch with bated breath. What works for me especially while watching an important football match is to imagine the worst, and just enjoy the roller-coaster ride of crazy emotions. I’ll do that now, since politicians have chosen this option over good old common sense. In any case, we still will always have Netflix. Thank goodness for that.

Political Theatre Sucks was published on July 26th, 2011, with the tags , , , , , under the Soliloquy category. There are currently 2 comments on this article so far.

Halloween is Coming!

Who's the Pharaoh?Where I come from, there is no Halloween. We have masquerades. My last memorable trip to my grandfather’s village in Ogun state Nigeria was when I was barely a teenager. It was a festive period, and it always came with a carnival of masques, mostly manned by youths of around and a little above my age. Many of the masquerades there always went with whips and canes sometimes to scare, and sometimes as a ritual part of the carnival experience.

There is one particular carnival outing of masquerades that involves whipping. Young men with long vine whips lashing at themselves in the spirit of the festival. It was always something fun to see, and to participate it, unless of course you’re being whipped, and that can be guaranteed by a mere possession of a whip. The masks are colourful and deep vessels of Yoruba spirituality and fun. A Nigerian musician Lagbaja must have had the cultural import of the mask in mind when he adopted the masquerade as his stage persona.

Now here in America where the word masquerade doesn’t mean much beyond fanciful images in children’s toy stories, there is Halloween – a playful celebration with almost similarly religious overtone. It takes place on the last day of October, featuring the scariest and (for women) sluttiest constumes, I’ve been told. It’s activities also includes “ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o’-lanterns, pranking people, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies.” (Wikipedia). This could as well be one of the most fun events of my journey. But who knows? Like most kids growing up, I’ve always fancied a time of unmoderated delinquency in festivals and open outdoor activities. Maybe this is it. It will be something trying to figure out the right pranks to play on all my flatmates when the time comes. That will be fun. I’ve also never totally figured out the idea behind that scary looking pumpkin with a face carved out of it, glowing in the dark, so there is plenty for me to learn here, definitely.

The second dilemma is finding out the right costumes. But before you suggest it, please note that I will not be making up as President Obama. Besides the problem of finding the right ear size, I am taller than him, and I’ve been told that many people might end up wearing the same costume, so there goes my brilliant ideas. It would definitely not be fun to be one of many people having the same face in a Halloween party, would it? On the other hand, I could dress as Nigeria’s president. The problem with that is one, that nobody would know who I’m dressed as, and two, that even if they do, they might not find it funny or innovative. I won’t be dressing as the great Pharaoh either because that mask on my face in the picture above is now far, far away from my present location. As soon as the the picture was taken, back in Providence many moons ago, I promptly handed it back to the Egyptian woman who brought it, and went my way.

So what/who is it going to be? Perhaps time will tell.

Halloween is Coming! was published on October 8th, 2009, with the tags , , , , under the adventures, Art category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.