Izuu's Turn

I have talked about this dog on FB and I remember saying that he can work for the CIA but his area of expertise is food detection! I can't vouch for his ability to be able to differentiate contaminated food from edible ones, though. I had just concluded making a sumptuous egusi soup, complete with hold-ups of substantial chunks of iced fish (Horse) that I discovered at a weekly market known as La Batte. And has helped myself to a generous mound of fluffy eba in my usual yellowy flat plate, on the one hand, and loaded the thick soup on an unusually deep plate, on the other hand, and was making my way out of the kitchen when I discovered the dog has all the while been lying patiently by my exit!  Shuo ! See this dog and brain!   Tempo I of Liège His name is Tempo. He is a very friendly black dog. I developed allergies a few weeks after my arrival, and DT and I have cast suspicious eyes on the dog. Yet I still feel so soft for his unquenchable appetite that I find it diffic...

by  Zainab Sandah  on Saturday, 23 April 2011 at 13:49 Courtesy Yahoo! News A child wakes up from sleep on a folding mat in the morning, and just like that - unwashed, teeth un-brushed and with mucus running down his nose, grabs a dented tin bowl and walks out of the muddy shack he calls home. The parents of this child have not laid eyes on him since the afternoon of the day before, and thus have not (never) impressed upon him the value of saying a prayer in the morning or observing basic hygiene, instead he heads out (age 6) to make a livelihood through begging. At the crack of dawn he sets out and catches up with a group of other bowl-carrying and raggedy boys, in search of food. The journey often carries them from motor-parks, to highways, mosques, posh streets, markets, petrol stations, brothels and so on. They usually just end up with a few morsels to eat, rotten fruits they pick from near a fruit vendor’s cart, and crumbled Naira notes. Occasionally, a big-sh...

I had a movie date with some beautiful members of staff from the university here in Belgium. At the time, I wasn't familiar with "timing" for buses and the duration for arriving at destinations. So I miscalculated the time and got to our meeting point five minutes late. Back home, even if I had come fifteen minutes late I could have still met the people I was to go to the movies with. But not here. By the time I got there, they were already seated at the movies and enjoying the show without me! In the west people are more time conscious and always take it seriously when one is a minute late to an appointment. But for Africans, it is permissible to be up to 30 minutes late. We are so accommodating that we can allow for such a "generosity!" Hence, African time. If we agree to meet at 8, it could mean anything from 8:30 to 9:30. Most often not exactly at 8, like you have in Europe. I thus set out to find out why this is so! Train Time Schedule in Gare...

Ego got married to Max not necessarily because she loved him but due to his wealth. She didn't know this bitter truth, or she couldn't admit to its veracity at the time owing to her desire not to "marry poor". There is nothing wrong with her marriage that she can put a finger on. It is for this purpose that the overbearing discontent she feels sometimes surprises her. Max respects her, treats her with respect and listens to her. He gives her great attention, yet she couldn't just shake off that feeling that given another chance, she will make a totally different choice. Behind these constant bouts of regret is the very man she dated for five years, Ekene. It was a tough call for her, but his inability to secure a job accompanied with the gnawing fear of his remaining poor, hardened her resolve at the time. As such, he was a financial misadventure for her, like she told him before dumping his miserable-looking plastic flowers and hand-made Valentine's Day card,...

Courtesy  http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/ Last Monday, it officially became law in France that any woman who wears full face veil has contravened the constitution and is liable to a fine and a mandatory instruction on French society secularist dictates. There are many sides to this law which the few lines I intend to dedicate to it will not do proper justice to. As such, I wish to restrict myself to the issue of tolerance and social justice. In order to get a proper perspective, let's look at two different scenarios: First, despite the fact that the French parliament has passed the bill into law, ample time was given before its implementation. Yet, some women went out of their way to flout that law, claiming that they are French citizens and that the French government should respect their views.   Second, the government of Pakistan goes ahead to enact blasphemy laws in spite of the fact that there are Christians who are citizens of the country. The governme...

Hello dear,‏ 4/10/11 Reply  ▼   maureenvelon@hotmail.com  Add to contactsAttachments, pictures and links in this message have been blocked for your safety.Show content | Always show content from cumbavelon@att.net           Hello dear,I guess you will not surprise to receive my mail? i saw your profile and it sound well.I will like us to exchange good relationship.I am Maureen by name,No kid and never marriage.I will like to hear from your opinion, you can contact me back so that i can send you my pictures and more introduction about myself. Have a good day and waiting to hear from you soonest For readers who do not understand Nigerian Pidgin English, The title literally means: "So, it is me you want to dupe?" What you are seeing above is an unsolicited mail received in my private mail box a few days ago. It reminds me of sometime in the past, around 2006 when I was desperately looking for job after my second degree. One of my unc...

As usual, I am talking from a position of ignorance. Which means, "I don't know and will love to be educated!" Courtesy Google Within one week, at two different incidents, The first at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, The second at Alphen Ann Den Rijn, The Netherlands Gun men opened fire indiscriminately and unprovokedly On innocent individuals and killing more than a dozen!

Effort has been made to disguise this good friend of mine. It's nothing personal, my good friend, ok! Hope you don't unfriend me! Facebook! Facebook!! Facebook!!! How many times did I call you Facebook? The fact that most of our parents do not understand you and therefore are not among your nearly a billion subscriber population, has given you the impetus to turn us loose. Someone said that everything that exists performs.  And that performance is much more evident in 21st century living. Gone are the days we queue up at a photographer's shop, One that will make us look foolishly "teethified" by asking us to say "cheeeese!" Everyone now has a camera, both still and video, rolled into one. We don't need to go to music studios anymore or even listen to anyone's music but ours. Karaoke-enabled players now turn every croaky voice into a Celine  Dion or Onyeka Onwenu. So because we all have cameras, every imaginable shot is acceptable. Fr...

In Nigeria, they say that a particular ethnic group loves money more than the others. Up till now, I am yet to understand why that assumption persists because the most kleptomaniac of past and present leaders of the country are not from this ethnic group. Also, I am yet to see any Nigerian who is generous enough to give these people his/her money since they are the ones that love money more than others. So when I talk about the British and money, I am not implying that they like money more than others. I am simply asking an indirect question. I have noticed, successive British government calculates everything in terms of its financial implication. Every country does same, but it is the British that will state it explicitly. One proverb says that all dogs eat from the filth, but only the one that refuses to clean its mouth that is seen as dirty. From the era of colonialism, British interests have always been about economy. In Palestine, historians tell of the Jewish blockade in favou...

http://www.reception-wedding.com/wedding_rings.htm I have been refusing to blog on this for a long time for fear of being misunderstood. But the barrage of complaints for a number of affected friends has not abated. Let me use this story to buttress my point. Please note that the names have been changed not to point at any individual living or dead. Adaku has always been a reserved girl. Right through Secondary School and her early university days, she kept away from associating with certain kind of friends especially girls who do not think like she does and guys. Her upbringing has been under the strict and conservative instructions of her parents. But in the university she meets Haruna, a handsome, intelligent and promising young man who was a year ahead of her in the University. One thing leads to another and before long, they were dating steadily. Their relationship continued from her 3rd year in the university till seven years afterwards. Now, Adaku isn't very sure ...

I had to swallow a good number of things before summoning the creative courage to write this. What was it that I swallowed, you may ask? Well, my pride! I had to swallow several doses of my pride before I could muster the impetus to say that I may have judged Jega too hastily. As you read this, I want you to please note the date stamp on it. So that if Jega becomes a success tomorrow, in his latest venture,  you wouldn't classify me in the specie of bats. The cancellation of the NASS elections in Nigeria yesterday (Saturday, 2nd April 2011), irked me so much that I poured my venom, like folks of my generation, on Facebook and Twitter. At times, I wonder why it is called Facebook, when it is permanently asking: "What's on your mind?" It should rather be called Mindbook. Or better still, Complaintbook, for the numerous unsolicited complaints its commodious memory galaxy has been inundated with. Most recently, it has suddently become Prayerbook. Ask me why. ...

Behind the "silence" barricade of a quiet person Lurks legion of thoughts that one cannot fathom. Fish Rolls: From Dinner with Prof