This is a post that has been ruminating in my head over the last two months or so. Every so often I want to write it, but I think I start feeling that I cannot do it justice. So I have decided not to try and do it justice, but just to free associate it and see what happens.

This post is about the wonderfully complicated world of the ex significant other... of a close friend. You know the drill if you are not a complete social cripple, or the person is a complete ****, you tend to end up becoming decent to pretty good friends with the significant other of one of your close friends.

This is normal and expected, the complication arises when the relationship ends and you are all friendly with this person. The standard solution is that you leave with who you came with. Which is that if you were the guy's friend you are no longer friends with the girl and vice-versa.

However it is not always so simple, because you may have truly become friends with the person and you don't want to throw away a friendship on a technicality as good friendships are hard to find. On the other hand you do not want to aggravate your friend's issues because after all they were your friend first.

I was looking for a pithy "solution" to wrap around this little quandary but none decided to present itself. So I have decided to throw it open to my last few remaining users to find out what you think.

Now I know that it depends on the situation and all that, so what I want from you is what your normal inclination is before you allow the situation to have an effect? Don't all talk at once now :D

Oh and this is sorta like my three year anniversary so say something nice

So to the joy/sorrow of university students everywhere ASUU has decided to agree a pact with the federal government. ASUU had a laundry list of things they were striking about. However with the new pact agreed the only details that have been released is that the salaries have been increased 52%. Now I'm not saying that their personal pocket is all they care about but...

The second thing is that the lecturers were hoping to compel the government to allow them to pay 5% tax. While I doubt they would succeed in making this stick, the all out ballsiness of the request deserves a commendation.

The government flatly turned down the request for a set 26% of the federal budget to be dedicated to education in perpetuity. This makes sense from the FG point of view, but I wish ASUU could have at least convinced them to commit to a minimum figure of say 10% of budget. But you can't have everything.

I hope someone can explain to me how ASUU can want the government to pay them a particular salary on the one hand and want autonomy for the university on the other hand. I think they are just being ballsy again, but I may be missing something.

I have definitely been awol for a while, and I apologize to the three people that kept up with this blog since the last time i was awol. I will endeavor to make it up to you and hope that in time you wish that I were still gone. Anyhow my 3year blogging anniversary is coming up in the next week or so, so you can't be mad at me. See you tomorrow

Laters

Snazzy

There is this funny old quote about Europeans and heaven.

Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.

Hell is where the cooks are British, the mechanics French, the lovers Swiss, the police German and it is all organized by the Italians

I decided to try and fit this to the Nigerian tribes

Heaven is where the police are Hausa, the cooks are Ijaw, the mechanics are from Igbo, the lovers are from Calabar, and it is all organized by the Yorubas

Hell is where the cooks are Hausa, the mechanics are Calabar, the police are Ijaw, the lovers are Yoruba and it is all organized by the Igbos

So what do you think? Is it accurate? Can you do better?

For the record I should state that I like District 9. So feel free to dismiss my opinions as biased :D

The portrayal of Nigerians in this movie has gotten a lot of negative ink in the blogville. See here, here and here. The three commenters write compelling pieces on why District 9 is the worst piece of racist trash since Birth of a Nation.

Now it is entirely possible that they are right, but it is a tenable position only if you ignore the rest of the portrayals in the movie. Every portrayal is an over the top stereotype. From the evil evil white guys, to the helpful black South Africans, to the random ignorant people on the street. If you recognize those portrayals as caricatures why can't the Nigerian one be.

Now it is entirely possible that the caricature can be so over the top that it drops into racism despite the fact it is meant to highlight racism. I don't think this is a tenable argument, but that may just be me. Think of it this way, it is like arguing that Bruno is homophobic.

My issue with the racist argument is that the movie doesn't back it up. The only thing Nigerian about the Nigerians is the name. They speak English with South African accents, they look South African, and they speak gibberish as their language. It is clearly taken for granted that everybody in the movie thinks it normal that all Nigerians are criminal, even the bleeding heart liberal characters. Now you could argue that this is ridiculous laziness on the part of the writers, but is this really a tenable argument when all the other satire in the movie is very heavy handed?

All this reminds me of one of those things that they used to say about Hollywood in the 90s; that the only people one can portray as villains are the White men who have to be Western European or American; that way nobody will complain that they are being unfairly represented.