Thought For Today

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Today's social media is the equivalent of the theatres, village squares, etc of years past, where poets, singers, dancers, etc, go to showcase their talents.

In this era, one does not in my opinion, necessarily have to publish books.

One can publish on applications(apps)(social media)and/or on websites and blogs.

Bob Dylan who won a Nobel Prize in Literature recently is reported to have published only one book of songs at the time of his Nobel win, but he is great, a legend. He published numerous hit songs via other platforms.

We should not be surprised if one day, the Nobel Prize Committee selects a Literature Prize winner based solely on his/her social media, websites and blogs creative writings postings.

Thank you all for your time.

-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)

--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet and Founder/Publisher of; PublicInformationProjects (www.publicinformationprojects.org)

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Well said, brother.

I have had to fully accept my orientation towards social media when I observed that trying to be creative in the traditional way would not work. 

Once I gave up my aspirations to fit into the traditional model of scholarship and publication after years of uncertainty, things began to fall into place, from inside and outside.

thanks

toyin

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

My brother, you have spoken my mind-

''We should not be surprised if one day, the Nobel Prize Committee selects a Literature Prize winner based solely on his/her social media, websites and blogs creative writings postings.''

This is a hope I quietly nurture  for myself.

Can you imagine-years of working in the darkness of little reward- one's efforts illuminated by a sudden flash of lightning.

I fantasise about those I will invite to the Nobel Prize giving ceremony and dinner, if such a dinner there is.

Central to this will be my mum and sisters who made sure their brother and son got the opportunity to do whatever he liked with himself, in terms of scholarship and writing, after ensuring he gained an expansion to his education through exposure in world class contexts.

On that day, the world will stand still.

I salute you, brother.

May your fortunes be maximised. 

May the rain of blessings fall on us.

Great thanks

toyin

[Harrow, Kenneth]

one day one day. i don't want to obsess about the nobel prize. one day we'd want a global south to be making its awards, not obsessed with those of the global north.

fespaco is not the greatest in the world, but it started off as the greatest. it has been replaced, for quality, with the durban and zanzibar film festivals. but those are real african, and global south, festivals, in great distinction from the oscars or cannes.

berlin is better than the above two. edinburgh depends on year to year, depends on the curators.

and we have great african film festivaling in london, ny, la.

they should be the center of our thoughts, esp as fespaco is going on right now

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2021 1:46 PM
To: usaafricadialogue <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today

 

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[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Courts, when in session in civilized countries have restrictions.

One cannot, for example photograph and/or film court proceedings except with a special permission of the presiding Judge. That permission, a prerogative of the presiding Judge, is a privilege.

What accredited media persons usually do for example is to engage artists to draw whatever is of interest to them during a court session for use in their publications.

If an accused person is duly represented by a lawyer/lawyers of his/her choice and there is the presence of one or two members of his/her nuclear family and if he/she is a foreigner, a representative of his/her country, that is enough.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The recent information the Minister (of Justice) read to the news media was the report of a security committee.

Because the matter has resemblance to the one in court does not mean that "it is a matter in court".

Let us always get our contexts right.

This position does not in any way validate what the Minister alleged.

The referenced persons are still innocent until proven guilty in a court of competent jurisdiction.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

The owner of the identification card, a Police officer attached to an agency under Nigeria's Minister of Justice, allegedly led a team to invade Mary Odili's residence. Mary Odili is the second most senior Judge in the Supreme Court. The Minister of Justice had denied ordering the botched invasion.

There is however something known as "deny factor" in governments circles.

"Deny factor" is a subplot usually inserted into a plot that provides alibis for governments if the plot fail.

If the plot fail, governments officials hide under the "deny factor" to deny governments' involvement in the plot.

One of the "deny factors" in the Mary Odili residence invasion plot seem to be the deliberate mix up in the address and the name of the occupant of the residence to be invaded.

This identification card may have rendered any "deny factor" useless.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Chidi,

Strictly speaking, apart from his songs, there is Tarantula ( 1966) and the first part of his autobiography, Chronicles ( 2004) not to be confused with The Book of Chronicles that's to be found in the Hebrew Bible

The jury ( the Swedish Academy's motivation for awarding Dylan The 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature was “ for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

There's an excellent little book about Dylan, by Sara Danius ( I read it at the library whilst waiting to pick up my wife at the hairdresser's nearby)

For some of us fans, there's the Dylan Radio Hour

N.B. In 1997, The Nobel Prize in Literature 1997 was awarded to Dario Fo "who emulates the jesters of the Middle Ages in scourging authority and upholding the dignity of the downtrodden."

In my humble opinion Daniil Trifonov should also be awarded the Nobel Prize - for playing Beethoven, the way I heard him play this evening on Mezzo TV …. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 in G major, Opus 58...

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

Let us briefly ponder a certain mindset that drives anti government sentiment in Nigeria, which makes persons with such mindset easy targets for anti government activities recruitments.

In Nigeria, government and by extension its officials are not seen as partners of the people, government and its agents are rather seen as conquerors and oppressors of the people.

This notion of government as conquerors and oppressors of the people is not baseless. In Nigeria, government conducts its activities in ways that can be considered anti people.

Little wonder that whenever government officials are killed and/or government property destroyed, the people rather than mourn, celebrate.

All over the country, there are sorry stories of persons at the lower rung of the citizenry suffering mistreatments in the hands of government agencies and officials. The worst part is that these persons have no where to turn to for remedy.

They suffer in silence and bottle up the resultant anti government sentiments, waiting for the slightest opportunity to take their revenge.

The opportunity for revenge usually comes in the way of recruitment into anti government activities. Most times, the only ideology that drives these persons' participation in anti government activities are the mistreatments they suffered in the hands of government agencies and officials.

A realization on the part of state actors that government ought to be for the people and the channeling of governmental activities to this end would help in reversing the aforementioned anti government sentiments. 

When the people start feeling that government is theirs, they would hesitate to participate in anti government activities and will go out of their ways to protect government property and officials.

[Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM]

What do we see as "tough situations"?

Is "though situations" poverty and the struggle to survive? Is it abundant wealth and the struggle to manage it? Is it having famous and influential parents and the struggle to carve a nitche for oneself? Or is it not having a family name and the struggle to make the name?

Oftentimes, we see "tough situations" from the prism of Poverty, which is not always the case.

Persons from rich and famous families also face "tough situations" and if they overcome, they should also be commended.

Thank all for your time.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Chidi,

You have spoken for all generations.

O so true, what you have written, so true and not only about some of the evil, corrupt, drunken, murderous, Satanic, trigger-happy powers that be, including some of their special constabulary & foot soldiers in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, the horn of Africa and other wild places in this vale of tears.

They claim to be children of the Bible and the Holy Quran, but just see what they are doing to their fellow human beings created in God's image and likeness, whilst claiming to be God's vice-regents on earth.

“This world is hell - as men show it

its creatures are all made of steel

to win is of superior wit

to fail is thus to feel “ ( Leon Thomas: “Shape your mind to die”

As Jesus put it, and verily, he was not mincing his words when he said about such arrogant, earthly powers-that-be,

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

What you and by extension, all of us are crying about is a far cry from the ideals of Government of the people, for the people, by the people...

Here we have Franklin Boukaka crying the same cry - at first, colonialism stood accused and now the so-called liberated, black & proud, black and beautiful post-colonial fellow Africans have become more oppressive than the so-called “white man”. Hence the title of Ayi Kwei Armah's novel. “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born”

Fratricide: Just look at the ongoing madness in Ethiopia where instead of suing for a ceasefire and peace the inexperienced, recently decorated Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Abiy Ahmed is threatening, from the Africa Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, not the I-talians but his fellow countrymen, “We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones” - “ our blood and bones” he says as in the name of patriotism, just like the other Masters of War he sends the young, the untrained and the inexperienced to the war front as cannon-fodder. Next thing you know, before the siege of Addis has even begun he will be hopping into the nearest helicopter fleeing to Dar es Salaam or maybe by Ethiopia Airlines to Oslo, for asylum.

Listen up : Put down your weapon.

¤ Seek peace, pursue it.

Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

What I have noticed the past fifty years, everywhere, is that on the whole African Governments don't want to spend money on their people , they ( the sadists) love oppressing their own people ( preferably of a different ethnicity) - the lootocrats prefer to spend the people's wealth/ money on themselves at the expense of their people who they don't mind seeing shackled in poverty

Thank God, that China is contributing to African development in a big way. China is at least building the hitherto neglected but necessary, critical infrastructure, mostly in exchange for raw materials.

Back in post-shuffering & shmiling Nigeria, there was this ultimatum about releasing IPOB's Mazi Nnamdi Kanu unconditionally - or else! Or else what? Or else fire and lightning?

Or else the serious kind of serious ultimatum issuing from Jimmy “Barbecue” Cherizier that if the PM of Haiti does not resign he will be “ removed”?

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[Harrow, Kenneth]

chidi

you left out mental illness. a tragedy. we know of 4 families where a child is afflicted, and the parents often suffer greatly

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 5, 2021 5:42 AM
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today

 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Franklin Boukaka :Le Bucheron ( lyrics in English

[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

“Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Abiy Ahmed is threatening, from the Africa Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, not the I-talians but his fellow countrymen, “We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones” - “ our blood and bones” he says as in the name of patriotism  ......”CH

This reminds me of the violent militaristic

invocations of the Old  Testament.

 Abiy Ahmed’s dastardly policy of rounding  

up Tigrayans in Addis is counterproductive.

 Not all Tigray people supported the TPLF, 

and some were neutral. One of  Abby’s original 

missteps was to declare the TPLF a terrorist organization. Now his government 

implies that all Tigray people fall into that 

category. Ethnic cleansing is just around

the corner.

The West  probably fell out with 

Abiy Ahmed, because of his Millennium 

Dam policy, and their determination to support

 the heir to Mubarak, Egypt’s despot

El -Sisi. They probably found his privatization 

policy too slow for their liking but

 Abiy is now giving them 

ammunition for his destruction, with 

the policies and statements cited.

Abiy Ahmed, an evangelical Christian,

will pay the price for not seeking peace

talks at this point of the conflict.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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