A little Saturday musing ( an idle mind is the devil's workshop, so keep the mind occupied.
cornelius...@gmail.com
A little Saturday musing ( an idle mind is the devil's workshop, so keep the mind occupied.
“IDF is retreating from GAZA, they are afraid, urban warfare with Hamas is suicidal”
It’s a people’s planet but as I told a racist who once asked me,” Where do you come from?”, I told him.” Planet of the Apes” and he got the message. During the bad old days of Apartheid, depending on the mood I was in, when a racist asked me,” Where do you come from?”/ “Where the hell do you come from?”/ “ Where on earth do you come from?”, invariably I would say ” South Africa'', and he or she would also get the no-nonsense message, immediately, that apart from the Mason-Dixon line, even if you have lost your mental bearings and your morals compass and are completely bananas there are other lines, certain red lines that shouldn’t be crossed, and crossing which they get their butts kicked, and should only have themselves to blame.
These days you must have noticed that there are certain vociferous, self-righteous, holier-than-thou people who pride themselves on being Israeli, “special breed”, “God’s Only Chosen People”,” God’s Special People”, “ The Chosen Nation” etc who feel uncomfortable, some of them defensive whenever there’s any talk about Ethnic Cleansing or Apartheid, or whenever the topic of “Apartheid in Israel” crops up or when there’s any mention of Genocide in Gaza (they want to run for cover) and it’s the same people always prepared to discuss forever, O how the Jewish people suffered, during the Holocaust…
“But there's the joker in the street
Loving one brother and killing the other
When the time comes and we are really free
There'll be no brothers left, you see” (Curtis Mayfield)
The meditation is wholly prompted by
( a) This sad item that was forwarded to me by my radical Pan-African Brother from Ghana, and instead of sending me King Sunny Ade at his best, doing Easy Motion Tourist, here he was like another cry-baby, Radical Black Star man from Ghana complaining again about Nigerians: “Without the intervention of a crowd of young Igbo young men who saved me from the hands of the Nigeria Police attached to the FESTAC Mile Two station, I would be a dead man today”
(b) My visit to Shola Adenekan’s Facebook page where this item appeared: Afro-Brazilian Heritage Day in Lagos, Nigeria. (c) Yorubaness.
In passing, let me add that on this people’s planet where God made man in His own image and likeness, Shola Adenekan is very special to me, mainly for two reasons:
(1) His surname is the same as the first name of my cousin Adeneka Robbin-Coker ( in his time a diamond miner who flew over to Rio de Janeiro every year to participate in the annual carnival there.) Please take note, I said first name, not Christian name, although I once met a Rev. Mohammed here in Stockholm, a Hausa guy, a student of Professor Björn Beckman and at the time I thought that his self- introduction was oxymoronic since Rev + Mohammed is surely a contradiction in terms. I had thought that he was being sarcastic/ satirical/ ironic, trying to pull my leg, but in sweet time, I have continued to realise that on this people’s planet, there’s nothing new under the sun and that
“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
(2) Shola Adenekan is the editor & proprietor of The New Black Magazine, the best of the best in that genre
The Afro-Brazilian heritage day in Lagos somehow awakened fond memories of time spent at my favourite haunt in Port Harcourt, Romeo Hotel, a Brazilian joint where Prince David Bull & His Professional Seagulls were the house band. All this leads directly to these questions:
( 1) What is Nigeria doing and what are Nigerians doing to promote tourism which is a big deal - a mighty foreign exchange earner in Egypt, Kenya, and little Gambia; to that end, I seemed to remember that Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth had addressed some interminable epistle or other to the relevant Nigerian authority with regards to developing tourism - so I checked the archive: tourism
/2) What are Nigerians doing to improve the Nigeria and Nigeria-diaspora relations on this people's planet? Although I don’t know the current state of affairs, whatever the current state of affairs may be, I imagine that there’s still considerable room for improvement in all spheres and there ought to be even greater cultural exchanges/liaisons, business relations, and here I’m thinking of the great common denominator, namely the Yoruba connection and bearing in mind that Brazil, after all, is a world power, just as especially, culturally speaking, Nigeria is a very dynamic world power.
On the Sunny Side Of The Street
cornelius...@gmail.com
Cheers!
Here’s another brilliant Okediji
LIVE From MARCH For Free Palestine in NYC
# What we mean when we say that Zionism is rooted in racism and colonialism ( Omid Safi
# Hank Hanegraaff: A Gospel Response to Christian Zionism
# Noam Chomsky refutes Israel's claims
# Debunking Israel's "mass rapes" atrocity propaganda
# Battle for the West Bank: Israeli settlers step up attacks on Palestinians • FRANCE 24
# John Mearsheimer: Israel is choosing 'apartheid' or 'ethnic cleansing' | The Bottom Line
The current nation of Israel would like to present herself as ”the Suffering servant” of Isaiah Chapter 53 verses 1-9 - but according to Christianity that suffering servant is none other than JESUS CHRIST, the crucified one. Who would be interested in knowing what the Talmud says or about Jesus in the Talmud?
Every once in a while I feel impelled to respond to or comment on almost each of town-crier Adepöoju’s slew of postings on the genocidal Israeli war on little Gaza, but that would be a round-the-clock job that should prove to be too mentally and emotionally taxing; what’s clear so far is that the day of reckoning is fast approaching and getting ever nearer, the day when, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu & some of his Crew will be brought to justice and have to face the music at the International Criminal Court, for War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity, reminiscent of these lines from Quran: Surah Al-'Alaq : 14 -19
“Is he then unaware that Allah seeth ? Nay, but if he cease not We will seize him by the forelock - The lying, sinful forelock -Then let him call upon his henchmen! We will call the guards of hell.” ( Pickthall translation)
I have listened to a couple of rabbis, mainly David Bar-Hayim and Yosef Mizrachi weighing in on the ongoing history of the Biblical Promised Land, and for balance, we should turn our attention to informed Islamic opinions and I trust that Islmophbies are not going to get too upset when cogent Muslim opinions are also presented, to purify the air; but for now and to get some clarity on what could be a tempered Christian perspective on the tragedy that’s playing out on the Gaza and West Bank corners of the world stage right before our eyes, I’ve been listening to the Berean Bible Church people and the last couple of days have been enraptured by what their pastor ( not a sycophant prone to sniffing some zealot and other Zionist peoples behinds) and that’s why I have been listening to what he has to say in the following sermons:
Israel and the Promised Land (Acts 4:34)
Israel and the Last Days (Hebrews 1:2)
All Israel Will Be Saved (Romans 11:26)
Last word :
Nina Simone: I wish I knew how it would feel to be free
gbemisoye tijani
I LL like to forward this to Prince Tunde Odunlade CEO of Tunde Odunlade Arts Gallery New Bodija Ibadan capital of Oyo State South West Nigeria .He LL like to talk more on State of Tourism in Nigeria MST 191223
cornelius...@gmail.com
No, it cannot continue to be mostly one-way traffic forever, cultural and sightseeing tourism to our Afrobeat destinations has to be developed, especially because e.g. Nigeria has so much more to offer apart from the Benin Bronzes. Tourism will enhance international relations and diminish the prejudice that arises from ignorance; tourism ought to increase understanding, tolerance, and appreciation of beauty, respect for other people, other cultures, and overall, the desired ethos of mutuality otherwise celebrated as Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and hopefully, tourism in Nigeria will promote an increase in the always much-needed foreign exchange - all kinds of currencies, DOLLAR Akbar! Dollars galore! Euros! £Sterling! Japanese Yens! Swiss Francs! Chinese Renminbi - Literary Tourism to Abeokuta the birthplace of Wole Soyinka, and Ogidi the birthplace of Chinua Achebe.
If state police are in the pipeline, then why not state tourist boards to showcase their cultural treasures as tourist attractions?
A few days ago here were some of the ogas dancing with their sweeties, in the Congo…
BTW the only time that I felt like a tourist was on my first visit to where King Jaja was kidnapped and taken to: Bonny Island - my first visit with Ernest and George ( Selaga Green). There are special fruits in Bonny, which look like bell peppers, taste like a cross between pink apples from Sierra Leone and damzene mangoes, not to be found anywhere else. Damzene mangoes? Yes. On this people’s planet, Efa ( Samuel Archer-Davies) would know what I'm talking about. India is reputed to have 108 mango varieties, but that could be a mythological number, corresponding to the number of beads on a Rudraksha mala. I mention Efa - of Igbo extraction - and can’t help wondering how many African Americans of Igbo ancestry, mostly concentrated in the Chicago area, wouldn't like to take the trip to Eastern Nigeria in search of their roots…
Inevitably, the Nigerian and probably the Brazilian and Diaspora Music music lovers too, and yours truly thought the same thing at the same time (it’s called synchronicity) about Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (THE JAGABAN) meeting with Brazil’s President Lula who at least I’m sure also fondly associates Nigeria's President with his namesake the late great Brazilian jazz guitarist Bola Sete - and how come? As we all know, the impact of Yoruba culture in Brazil - and Cuba, cannot be exaggerated - which means that in both Brazil and Cuba, Nigeria’s President would be given an overwhelmingly warm welcome although for monetary and ideological reasons Uncle Sam / the tottering psychopath Genocide Joe would not like such state visits - to Brazil especially - because of BRICS - and to Cuba of course because the tottering Old Joe is still smarting from The Bay of Pigs.
Re - Matters arising from that December musing - One Love - and the devil has still not surrendered or gone away even after we commanded him begone! On the contrary, although his days are numbered he thinks that he is getting stronger and standing tall on his “genocidal rights”. If we are not careful with our poetry / our poetic licence, our rights to freedom of thinking, free speech, poetic or unpoetic use of the colonial mother tongue, along with antisemitism and Zionism, the use of adjectives and nouns such as - in the English lingo, the devil, Satan, etc to refer to whomever the cap fits will soon be banned by the likes of Paul Joseph Goebbels, Benjamin Netanyahu & his crew
Let’s keep it topical: Just about right now, the dispute between Brazil and Israel is peaking with Brazil recalling their Ambassador to the purported “Holy” blood-stained land where “The blood-dimmed tide is loosed”, I would like to point to some more background to the issue at stake: the whole of this chapter starting with Murder and Genocide