World

Wanted: A New Definition For Breaking News

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I think it is time humans define or redefine the true meaning of breaking news.

For example, I don’t see how a bomb blast in some Middles East countries in 2012 or 2013 qualifies as breaking news. I have heard about that for several years.

I don’t see how the crises in the Middle East qualifies for breaking news alert on my windows mobile. I get so annoyed and irritated that I felt like erasing the alert.

How can bomb blast in Northern Nigeria be a breaking news?

How does school shooting in America qualifies for a breaking news when it is going to happen again?

In my opinion, some news and incidents are so stale and human-induced that they should be re-classified under REGULAR NEWS.

Breaking news should be left entirely to new or revolutionary concepts or information. Indeed one may be quick to add that there is nothing new under the sun. Still I feel that some news are received with calm, indifference and insensitivity that they should never make the breaking news headline anymore.

I can’t remember the last time I felt anything about bomb blasts in the Middle East or a gun massacre in America.

Seriosuly, we need to redefine what is breaking about a news material!

Connecticut school shooting: Between the constitution and common sense

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Americans continue to pay with the blood of the innocent and ordinary people. The saddest part is when children are murdered.

It is unimaginable how the constitution remains supreme in the face of reality that can be dictated by common sense.

It is not working when the second amendment or the constitution says that people have the right to carry arms for their protection.

There will be no need for that if nobody is allowed to carried gun and no one is being protected from mad people with guns.

You can’t start telling teachers and children 4-10 years to start carrying guns to defend themselves. Your constitution says that but common sense states otherwise.

Leave the guns in the hands of law enforcers who have been trained for that.

Take the guns away from everybody with very few exceptions. There are people living in the bush who are hunters.

There was an insane man who shot people at the Batman premier and now children have been killed by another crazy person because that is what the constitution states.

Common! When are you going to be tired of listening to emotional speeches from your presidents? Is that the reprieve your desire?

I think a society free from guns is the long lasting solution to these regular shootings in America.

Of course crimes will be committed with guns but the road to a more secure society and a safer country for Americans will definitely be to do away with the sentimental attachments to the constitution.

It is time to do some things with common sense

Many Days Gone By: Corruption is Global

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Adeola Aderounmu

I am finding it more difficult to update my blog not because of lack of motivation or information but probably because of the tasks of dragging together all the pieces and bits that makes whole news.

When you write about a country like Nigeria you are never short of news-good or bad.

When you live in a country somewhere in Europe then you gradually face the task of balancing the news from Africa with the imperfectness of every country.

Recently I began to gain more insight into the high level of corruption in the European society and in fact the world as a stage for social injustice. When people say you cannot save the world, they make an unmistakable conclusion, still not pointing out those ills will make the world a more reckless place to live.

In Sweden for example the politicians are very corrupt as well. Sometimes the corruption is open and acceptable. For example when ex-politicians continue to receive huge payments for several years after their service in the parliament it is nothing but corruption. But it is open and stupidly acceptable to be that way. It is very similar to Nigerian lawmakers appropriating excessive sums to themselves for almost doing nothing but sitting and talking bullshit.

It is shocking that the level of corruption in Sweden is that high. There have been several reports in the large newspapers about how parties are held using tax payers money. How money is inflated for private use and luxurious semesters and travels. Sometimes some politicians are forced to vacate their positions after some big expositions. Sometimes the heat fizzle and the looting continues, especially the issue of pension for inactive (lazy) Swedish lawmakers.

It is morally unjust and wicked for someone who owns or runs a private company to be earning pension at the same time.

Corruption is corruption but the dimension and impacts varies. One major difference between corruption in Nigeria and in Sweden is that it is widespread in Nigeria and the impact in Nigeria has led to widespread poverty and aggravated underdevelopment. In Sweden almost everyone has access to the basic stuffs of life and the welfare system takes care of a lot of things no matter how imperfect it is.

Corruption is a global trademark but its impacts will continue to vary from one place to another. The punishment for established corruption also differs. Nigerians live with it and they don’t really bother because they have come to agree that everybody is corrupt including their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and other people that they know in government and private institutions. Without corruption, millions of Nigerians will not make it and with it more than 70% of the population suffer bitterly.

Corruption, lack of control over state resources, lack of true federalism, the condemnable lack of patriotism and lack of sense of belonging has robbed the Nigeria of greatness and there is no end in sight. It pains. It hurts a free mind.

I hope to return to normal blogging as the days come by. Many things are happening that are shaping the hopelessness in Nigeria and it will be disservice to posterity to let them be.

The Days Gone By….Muamba, Barcelona FC et al

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By Adeola Aderounmu
It’s been almost one month since I wrote my last blog/article. Time flies, things happen, every second for that matter.

I have tabs on several news/event and I even have newspaper cuttings that I’d saved. But now I decided not to look at the newspapers or to even think about the events of the last one month as it were.

I will just write what comes to my mind.

PATRICE MUAMBA

I remember Fabrice Muamba, his miraculous recovery from a failed heart during Bolton’s game versus Tottenham. Fabrice has made tremendous recovery and he will surely be out of the hospital soon.

The survival of Fabrice says a lot about the standard of hospitals in England. This incident brought out the best in the English health scheme and training.

My friends and I remember how Sam Oparaji died at the National Stadium in Lagos in 1989 while playing a tensed game against Angola.

One Nigerian player also died recently in Sudan. These sad occurrences may have been prevented if the health system in Nigeria and Sudan are in top form. But we will never know..! This is just the way some things are, inconclusive.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Yesterday I switch off then I changed the channel to Movie channel after the referee gave Barcelona its’ second penalty against AC Milan.

I cannot imagine watching such a useless game to the end. I don’t think the referee is normal. He needs a medical check up. But many people think that Barcelona is UEFA team.

It is possible. I remembered I didn’t watch the champions league for a whole season after Barcelona were favoured against Chelsea in one game where a Barcelona player had handled the ball and a penalty was not given.

Maybe it’s time to take another break from stupid games where the referees and possible UEFA are cheats. It’s hard to tell, really. And considering also the bettings and gambles behind the scene, then impossible is nothing!

THE TROUBLE WITH NIGERIA

It’s hard for me to not write about Nigeria. What is also hard is to live with the mentality of an average Nigerian that complaining about Nigeria isn’t worth it. Just try to make it and live with it. It’s a mixed feeling not having to live in Nigeria and then trying hard still to “see” if what I write can help change some situations.

Indeed sometimes what I write about gets through and some positive outcomes do take place from time to time.
Still it is even harder to hide from the reality that corruption and stupidity is the order of the day when it comes to Nigerian politics. The people I write about don’t read my blog and the people who read my blog thinks that it is just another ranting Nigerian.

It always seems that ranting Nigerians are looking for entrances to main stream “looting” Nigerian. And when they do, their lives change like Reuben Abati and Segun Adeniyi.

Sadly, and true 99% of the times-Nigerian public office holders are the same (looters and thieves).
But when the president is a crook-accepting bribe for everything and spending Nigeria’s money as if it is his father’s inheritance, what moral compass are we going to use to gauge the performance of the people and country.

When the senate president is a well-known junta and looter, any expectation of the eradication of poverty is like building a house on sand.

When all those who have stolen are our brothers and sisters and they are free to oppress us with the monies they stole, what legacy are we leaving to the generation after us?

Nigeria is rotten, inside out, from the top to the bottom. It remains an aggregation of familiar enemies fighting for the common resources and looting the proceeds without fear or hindrance.

Nigeria is lost! Boko Haram is an offspring of a lost course. Many more bastard associations will be revealed in the months ahead.

It’s not easy to face anyone in Naija and ask for a change. Almost everyone and everybody in infected with the corruption virus and the cut corner approaches.

School children have failed in national exams in what appears to be the last phase of the collapse of public schools. Nigeria jaga-jaga was an under-statement.

Yet, we remain proud..! It is good to remain nationalistic. But it is almost criminal to pretend that all is well, or that all is going to be well when all the indicators are otherwise.

In federal and state governments, sanity is lost and accountability is akin to shooting yourself in the foot if you ask for it.

I have been constantly reminded that those in governance have only one head. Therefore the time will come for others to be part of government and do their own looting.

Jagajaga, I repeat is an understatement. Everybody is doing anyhow and anything. Government is so far away that hope is like a death sentence.

In addition to the dead educational system, health, and other social infrastructure are like luxuries. Power supply is a forgone issue, it will never happen in Nigeria. Power generation is rubbish..!

Generators will be in Nigeria for several years to come.

All these things are sad and they remind us that even though we claim we are intelligence, the results are telling the opposite.

Intelligent people and intelligent countries have power supply all year round and transient interruptions are due to unpreventable or unexpected circumstances.

GLOBAL MADNESS

THE DAYS GONE by are the same globally. Nothing has changed. Social injustice is everywhere and political groups have created more problems that they have solved. World powers are silly, they fight stupid wars. On one side they fight terrorism, on the other side they install terrorist to lead. Sometimes I just conclude that man is a crazy animal that does not know what he wants.

The Christmas Day Bomb Blasts: The Killing of Mr. Innocent and his five children

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Some broken hearts will never mend.

On Christmas day of 2011 Islamic militants attacked a sanctuary in Abuja. There were reports that at least 4 other churches were attacked.

When the bombs exploded at St. Theresa Catholic Church at least 40 people died immediately while several others were injured. A safe haven became a crime scene.

Among the dead were Mr. Innocent, his 3 sons and 2 daughters.

Innocent was from Umukabia in Mbano Local Government Area of Imo State. His wife did not die in the blast. She left the church earlier.

According to Okechukwu Okafor, a cousin of Innocent who spoke to me from his base in Germany, Innocent’s wife left the church earlier so she could prepare the food that the entire family will eat later that day.

They never did.

There would be no more family meals for Innocent and his household.

In his village, lips remained sealed as no one has told his mother about the tragic deaths in the family.

Who is going to let the cat out of the bag?

This man will be buried in his village. What are they going to tell his mum? What does she know about Boko Haram?

Who will be there to console Innocent’s mum? She has lost her dependable son.

Who is going to console Innocent’s wife? Her husband and five children are dead.

This is the greatest tragedy that can befall a woman, to lose her husband and her children in one swoop.

She will never understand why her loved ones were taken away from her forever. They paid the ultimate price. It’s a sad situation.

Before the dusts finally settle it will be a great service to country and humanity if the government of the day shows some compassion by visiting the families of the victims killed and the survivors of the senseless bomb blasts.

Maybe the Imo State Governor or the Local Government Chairman in Mbano should step forward to console the bereaved?

Families of victims and survivors have homes and they should be offered the best of psychological and moral supports by the church and the government.

It is hypocritical for Mr. Jonathan to shed tears at the crime scene 7 days after. What was he doing 5 minutes after the blast took place?

It is worrying that no one has been arrested or prosecuted for all the acts of murders that have been perpetrated in the name of terrorism in Nigeria.

It is sad that simple techniques like Google maps and 3G technologies are not available to the Nigerian Security Operatives. That is probably one of the several reasons why terrorists in Nigeria can make phone calls to journalists and the police and still keep hold of their residential areas.

It’s an additional scandal on this lukewarm presidency.

It appears that Mr. Jonathan’s biggest task before the fuel subsidy scandal was how to keep Nigeria one. He lost the plot and presents a classical example of a scalar quantity.

Each day that passes under Mr. Jonathan gives strength to the argument to restructure Nigeria as a true federation. The recent threat from Boko Haram that all southerners should quit the northern region calls for an outright division of the country.

These two options cannot be ignored forever. Nigeria is now too fragile to sustain the present form of governance.

Further negligence of the wave of terrorism and general government lawlessness sustained by systemic corruption and impunity will result to anarchy and the consequences can be Nigeria’s second civil war.

Inscriptions were made on the blood stained walls of St. Theresa Church. One of them was REVOLUTION NOW and the other was NO MORE PEACE IN THE COUNTRY.

These inscriptions are perfect descriptions of the current situation in Nigeria. Who knows where we go from where?

Some tears will never dry.

May the souls of Innocent, his children and all those who paid the supreme price for Nigeria find peace.

May their families find the strength to move on.