09 October, 2008
07 October, 2008
BIGGER FISH TO FRY ON INDEPENDENCE
I think we should be trying to find ways to solve problems and not compound it. I am getting older and the older I get, the more I want real answers to some of the questions I have had since the 80s when I began to realize what was lacking in Nigerian towns.
I agree with the suggestion that we should talk about real issues facing our people. I think the biggest is lack of good medicine, the second is lack of infrastructure/technological advancement to compete in the global market place, and the third major one is the lack of love for other fellow Nigerians by those on top. If one really loves another as they love themselves, they will wish for that person to have what they have such as the good things in life. Jesus commanded us to do so. This is exclusive of tolerance for blatant sin or crime.
There are other problems but I will stay with the subject of medicine that I enjoy and because of my concern about health matters. I have heard of and seen several incidences that leave me wondering when a real solution is going to begin in medicine.
How do we begin to address the issues facing us and news we hear from home that are not always pleasant? Issues such as:
A relative died in a car crash. They said it was the work of witch craft. There was no ambulance to take her to the hospital. Why?
Another relative got involved in a car crash and broke his shoulder joint. They say it was the work of witch.
A relative died in a car crash. They said it was the work of witch craft. There was no ambulance to take her to the hospital. Why?
Another relative got involved in a car crash and broke his shoulder joint. They say it was the work of witch.
2 weeks ago, a nurse yanked off a new Born's arm from his shoulder during delivery, the mother thinks it is a broken scapula or shoulder blade, the husband is confused and thinks it could be both but they are both sure the arm is displaced from its socket. Up until now, 2 weeks later, in Lagos, the hospital has not called to checked on them. In the meanwhile, the child cries all day and night.
A cousin went to the hospital for stomach infection or something. The hospital refused him treatment because the mother could not come up with the money they were asking for at the time. He died.
4 of my male cousins were said to be sick of something at different times within the last 2-3 years. 3 from same parents and another from another, and they all died. The one that was in his teen years died earlier (a few years back), 2 were in their 20s and another in his 40s. The mother of the three boys sometimes wonders what really happened.
Another female cousin went to the hospital to deliver a baby and did not make it back. Similar situation was the case for my in law.
50% of the patients in the ward at Agbor, I hear, are amputees from Okada falls. They say bad luck followed them but I say it is from the bad roads and no means of transporting them quickly enough to the hospitals to salvage the limbs.
My uncle's wife tried to give birth to twins a few years ago and it was bye bye to her and the twins in the hopital.
One of my cousin went to fix a catarrach and came back with half past four eye. She was undoubtedly the most beautiful girl in my town until that happened. That led to low self esteem that led to other details I care not to give here.
There are several others like a woman with aids who gave birth t a child without AIDS but was allowed to breast feed her newborn until he got HIV and AIDS and died.
What can we do to provide better education for our doctors in Nigeria and medical technology with which they can work effectively?
People are afraid to visit Naija because most fo the people they know are dead. Can we change that for the junior ones coming up to make it possible to see their friends at age 70, 80, 90, and maybe 100?
Diseases are leaving a lot of our nieces and nephews orphans, fatherless or motherless. What does the future hold for these kids? Are they dying because we have more bacteria than other parts of the world, more careless health habits, witches, poverty, no love from the politicians at the top, untrained doctors, less medical tools to work with, bad roads, infected or damaged foods from no preservation methods, lack of it, or inadequacy of it? Do our people not deserve to see great great great grand children?
I am praying for us and I wish more can be done.
Philo
05 October, 2008
HOMOSEXUALS MUST DIE -- mUSLIM CLERIC
Homosexuals must die – Muslim cleric
By Paul Omo ObadanSunday, October 5, 2008
•Is-haq AkintolaPhoto by: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
Furious over what seems a bourgeoning community of homosexuals in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric, Professor Is-haq Akintola, has suggested capital punishment for the practice, with recourse to the Holy Qu’ran, which he says prescribes death penalty. “Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same. Homosexuals are to be condemned to death,” he told Sunday Sun in an interview in Lagos.But fresh from the Moslem holy ritual of Ramadan, Akintola, a Senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Lagos State University (LASU), however advocated flexibility - as a humanist – to give both the gays and lesbians another opportunity to change and lead normal sex lives.“I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them; to advise them what to do such that they would lead their normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So, instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism - rehabilitation center - that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.” As with several other religious leaders, Akintola’s unsparing remark is informed largely by the recent emergence of a church for homosexuals in Lagos. Only last month, House of Rainbow Metropolitan Church, a yet-to-be-registered church, publicly declared its exclusivity for professed homosexuals, as it organized the first ever conference for the practitioners. Ironically, the gathering, which observers described as debauchery, took place at the United Bible University, the same hall where the faithful of the Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM) conduct their services. On the heels of the gathering came a resounding condemnation from the public, following which security operatives reportedly launched a manhunt for the organizers. Nonetheless, the LASU don remained piqued last week that some Nigerians are copying the wrong values. His views on the issue are indeed no-holds-barred!Excerpts:
What is the stand of Islam on homosexuality?It is very unfortunate because Allah has created everything in the world and also made man and gave injunction that man should subject himself to the rules of Allah. Men continue to bend those rules because they claim to be wiser than Almighty God, and want to use their own wisdom. But Allah’s wisdom is both divine and immutable. Man can make mistakes but God doesn’t make mistakes. God’s wisdom is pervading and overwhelming.If we buy a car, the manufacturer will give you a manual. You look at the manual, you don’t want to do anything outside the manual; you don’t want to do anything the manufacturer says is wrong. This is the radiator, put water. You don’t want to put engine oil inside the radiator. This is the fuel tank, put petrol there; you don’t want to put water inside the fuel tank. So the way the manufacturer built the car and said you should use it, if you use it that way, you will enjoy the car.If you use it in any other way; if you break those rules and try to make your own, you will suffer for it. And that is what has caused all the sufferings in the world because we continue to break the laws of God and we think we are wiser; we think God cannot make laws for us whereas he made the world and he should make laws for them. Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same. Homosexuals are to be condemned to death. I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them, to advice them what to do such that they would lead normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism, rehabilitation center that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.People say it is rampant in the North?It is because the North is a kind of closed society. You don’t have other crimes that are as rampant. A man and a woman cannot just move about as they like, as we do here in Lagos. But when you find a man and a man moving together, nobody suspects. And so they believe they could do it without anybody suspecting. So when a man and his male partner go into an office or go inside a house, nobody suspects that they are going there for any dubious thing.
What should be the role of the family and church in curbing the trend?There should be education. Even within the home - from childhood - we should teach our children the right thing to do. We should let them know what is wrong and right. We should create a conducive atmosphere for them to separate right from wrong. In the Mosques, our clergymen, the Imams, should focus attention on sex education. You need to let teenagers know what is likely to be the result if they engage in amorous activities. You need to let those young boys know that it is heinous and condemned by the Qu’ran for them to engage in sexual activity with their male counterparts. Many of them don’t know, perhaps they think it’s a joke. I don’t agree that it is rampant only in the North; it is rampant all over the country.
Is the arrest of the man with 86 wives justifiable? It is justifiable under the law of Islam for him to be arrested. Chapter 4:3 of the Qu’ran says marry only two or three or four women. But if you feel that you will not be able to give justice to them, marry only one. God who said marry either two or three or four still says that you may not be able to give justice to them. So, how can he say you should marry 86?The man has transgressed and he is a heretic, a renegade and a rebel, and an enslaver of women, and an oppressor. It has exposed the hypocrisy of Western civilisation. It has also exposed many so-called freedom fighters, human right groups. They used to accuse us Muslims that we abuse the rights of women; that we enslave women; that we put them in puddah; that we marry more than one by marrying four, whereas this society in which we live - God himself created man as a polygamous person and many people who are ‘monogamous’ are privately and informally polygamous. We have seen public figures who are not Muslims, who have only one known wife, but whose other wives and children turned up immediately after their death.It is humanly and naturally impossible for him to physically and emotionally satisfy the 86 women. I find it funny that the Western Press should now be fronting for the right of this man, forgetting about the enslavement he has forced on the women. He has imprisoned them. It is denial of their fundamental human rights. Of course, when you marry, you marry for love, partnership, understanding and comfort. How many days in a week will he sleep with any of those wives? It is because the man is rich, you think the women are comfortable. Let them be his concubines or girlfriends. We know people who have more than 70 girlfriends and women will want to die on their neck because they know they can always get money from him. I expect our human rights groups in Nigeria to be fighting and condemning this man because he has enslaved 86 women.
Why is homosexuality spreading in Nigeria?It is spreading because our prison system is barbaric; it is archaic and belongs to the stone age. Our prisons here in Nigeria are not corrective. Our prisons are torture chambers. We have reports of how they are over-populated; how a room in the prison yard meant for five men is occupied by 35 and therein they cannot sleep but only stand and when they want to sleep, they have to sleep in turns and you have to be woken up every thirty minutes. Those who are crowded like that, make body contacts that stir up lust as their emotions, sentiments and sensibilities go hay-wire. So, many come out of the prison as homosexuals even though they did not know anything about homosexuality before being incarserated.
•Is-haq AkintolaPhoto by: Sun News Publishing
More Stories on This Section
Furious over what seems a bourgeoning community of homosexuals in Nigeria, a Muslim cleric, Professor Is-haq Akintola, has suggested capital punishment for the practice, with recourse to the Holy Qu’ran, which he says prescribes death penalty. “Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same. Homosexuals are to be condemned to death,” he told Sunday Sun in an interview in Lagos.But fresh from the Moslem holy ritual of Ramadan, Akintola, a Senior lecturer in Islamic Studies at the Lagos State University (LASU), however advocated flexibility - as a humanist – to give both the gays and lesbians another opportunity to change and lead normal sex lives.“I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them; to advise them what to do such that they would lead their normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So, instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism - rehabilitation center - that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.” As with several other religious leaders, Akintola’s unsparing remark is informed largely by the recent emergence of a church for homosexuals in Lagos. Only last month, House of Rainbow Metropolitan Church, a yet-to-be-registered church, publicly declared its exclusivity for professed homosexuals, as it organized the first ever conference for the practitioners. Ironically, the gathering, which observers described as debauchery, took place at the United Bible University, the same hall where the faithful of the Christian Pentecostal Mission (CPM) conduct their services. On the heels of the gathering came a resounding condemnation from the public, following which security operatives reportedly launched a manhunt for the organizers. Nonetheless, the LASU don remained piqued last week that some Nigerians are copying the wrong values. His views on the issue are indeed no-holds-barred!Excerpts:
What is the stand of Islam on homosexuality?It is very unfortunate because Allah has created everything in the world and also made man and gave injunction that man should subject himself to the rules of Allah. Men continue to bend those rules because they claim to be wiser than Almighty God, and want to use their own wisdom. But Allah’s wisdom is both divine and immutable. Man can make mistakes but God doesn’t make mistakes. God’s wisdom is pervading and overwhelming.If we buy a car, the manufacturer will give you a manual. You look at the manual, you don’t want to do anything outside the manual; you don’t want to do anything the manufacturer says is wrong. This is the radiator, put water. You don’t want to put engine oil inside the radiator. This is the fuel tank, put petrol there; you don’t want to put water inside the fuel tank. So the way the manufacturer built the car and said you should use it, if you use it that way, you will enjoy the car.If you use it in any other way; if you break those rules and try to make your own, you will suffer for it. And that is what has caused all the sufferings in the world because we continue to break the laws of God and we think we are wiser; we think God cannot make laws for us whereas he made the world and he should make laws for them. Homosexuality is a great sin in Islam. It is as grievous as adultery, and the punishment is the same. Homosexuals are to be condemned to death. I want to pity the homosexuals because I am a humanist, and I have enough sexual education to know that there are men who do not feel attracted to women. But when their same sex touches them, they feel the sensation. That is quite abnormal. We should get psychologists to talk to them, to advice them what to do such that they would lead normal lives again, particularly if they are willing not to break the laws of God. So instead of killing them or putting them in jail, I think the government could put in place a kind of mechanism, rehabilitation center that such people could go where the government will have its own psychologists, medical doctors and whatever they might need to put them in proper shape so that they might lead normal lives again.People say it is rampant in the North?It is because the North is a kind of closed society. You don’t have other crimes that are as rampant. A man and a woman cannot just move about as they like, as we do here in Lagos. But when you find a man and a man moving together, nobody suspects. And so they believe they could do it without anybody suspecting. So when a man and his male partner go into an office or go inside a house, nobody suspects that they are going there for any dubious thing.
What should be the role of the family and church in curbing the trend?There should be education. Even within the home - from childhood - we should teach our children the right thing to do. We should let them know what is wrong and right. We should create a conducive atmosphere for them to separate right from wrong. In the Mosques, our clergymen, the Imams, should focus attention on sex education. You need to let teenagers know what is likely to be the result if they engage in amorous activities. You need to let those young boys know that it is heinous and condemned by the Qu’ran for them to engage in sexual activity with their male counterparts. Many of them don’t know, perhaps they think it’s a joke. I don’t agree that it is rampant only in the North; it is rampant all over the country.
Is the arrest of the man with 86 wives justifiable? It is justifiable under the law of Islam for him to be arrested. Chapter 4:3 of the Qu’ran says marry only two or three or four women. But if you feel that you will not be able to give justice to them, marry only one. God who said marry either two or three or four still says that you may not be able to give justice to them. So, how can he say you should marry 86?The man has transgressed and he is a heretic, a renegade and a rebel, and an enslaver of women, and an oppressor. It has exposed the hypocrisy of Western civilisation. It has also exposed many so-called freedom fighters, human right groups. They used to accuse us Muslims that we abuse the rights of women; that we enslave women; that we put them in puddah; that we marry more than one by marrying four, whereas this society in which we live - God himself created man as a polygamous person and many people who are ‘monogamous’ are privately and informally polygamous. We have seen public figures who are not Muslims, who have only one known wife, but whose other wives and children turned up immediately after their death.It is humanly and naturally impossible for him to physically and emotionally satisfy the 86 women. I find it funny that the Western Press should now be fronting for the right of this man, forgetting about the enslavement he has forced on the women. He has imprisoned them. It is denial of their fundamental human rights. Of course, when you marry, you marry for love, partnership, understanding and comfort. How many days in a week will he sleep with any of those wives? It is because the man is rich, you think the women are comfortable. Let them be his concubines or girlfriends. We know people who have more than 70 girlfriends and women will want to die on their neck because they know they can always get money from him. I expect our human rights groups in Nigeria to be fighting and condemning this man because he has enslaved 86 women.
Why is homosexuality spreading in Nigeria?It is spreading because our prison system is barbaric; it is archaic and belongs to the stone age. Our prisons here in Nigeria are not corrective. Our prisons are torture chambers. We have reports of how they are over-populated; how a room in the prison yard meant for five men is occupied by 35 and therein they cannot sleep but only stand and when they want to sleep, they have to sleep in turns and you have to be woken up every thirty minutes. Those who are crowded like that, make body contacts that stir up lust as their emotions, sentiments and sensibilities go hay-wire. So, many come out of the prison as homosexuals even though they did not know anything about homosexuality before being incarserated.
01 October, 2008
30 September, 2008
29 September, 2008
23 September, 2008
EXCESS RADIOACTIVITY........
China rejects Nigerian mineral shipment over excess radioactivity |
www.chinaview.cn  2008-09-22 20:41:45 |   Print |
XIAMEN, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- More than 70 tonnes of imported zircon sand, a refractory mineral, was ordered on Monday to be returned to its country of origin -- Nigeria -- for exceeding radioactivity standards, authorities said. The Gamma-ray equivalent of the 74.25 tonnes of zircon sand loaded in four containers was found to be 100 times the normal standard, a Xiamen inspection and quarantine official said. The zircon sand had been destined for the coastal city of Quanzhou for ceramic production, he said. Such high level of radioactivity was rare. Importers should set limits on the radioactive standards of minerals, he said. |
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-09/22/content_10093603.htm
GENITAL MUTILATION & IMMIGRATION
AG: Don't deport genital mutilation victim
From Terry Frieden
CNN Justice Producer
CNN Justice Producer
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. attorney general is trying to prevent immigration authorities from sending a Muslim woman to her home country, where she was a victim of female genital mutilation.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey ordered an immigration court to reconsider an African woman's case.
In a stinging order overriding federal immigration courts, Mukasey blasted a decision that said a 28-year-old citizen and native of Mali should be expelled "because her genitalia already had been mutilated [so] she had no basis to fear future persecution if returned to her home country."
Calling the rationale "flawed," Mukasey sent the case back to the Board of Immigration Appeals with orders to reconsider.
The woman, a native of Mali, begged the court not to send her back to her Bambara tribe.
The 28-year-old said if she returned and had a daughter, the child also would be subject to mutilation. The woman also said she faced forced marriage if she had to go home.
Mukasey cited what he concluded were two significant factual errors in the court's rejection of her appeal.
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"Female genital mutilation is not necessarily a one-time event," Mukasey said. He noted that the board in a previous case had granted asylum in to one woman whose "vaginal opening was sewn shut approximately five times after being opened to allow for sexual intercourse and child birth."
He also concluded that the Board of Immigration Appeals was wrong to assume that the woman "must fear persecution in exactly the same form [namely, repeat female genital mutilation] to qualify for relief."
Mukasey had been urged to look into the matter by angered members of Congress in the wake of the January decision.
"This recent action taken by the Board of Immigration Appeals is a step backward for the rights of women worldwide," declared Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, in a January letter.
"Female genital mutilation is a gross violation of a woman's human rights and has traditionally been grounds for the granting of an asylum claim," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-California, said in the letter.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, issued a statement applauding Mukasey's action, and declaring female genital mutilation a "barbaric practice widely regarded as a human rights abuse."
The Justice Department acknowledged it is extraordinarily rare for an attorney general to jump into a relatively low-level immigration case. The immigration courts decide about 40,000 cases a year, and an attorney general has issued an opinion on a case only three times in the past three years.
Female genital mutilation is common in parts of Africa, Asia and in some Arab countries, according to the United Nations. The operation is viewed by some ethnic groups as a means to control a woman's sexuality and is sometimes a prerequisite for marriage or the right to inherit.
The procedure can cause tissue injury, severe infection and fever, among other complications. The U.N. has recorded cases in which hemorrhaging and infection lead to death.
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