Friday, August 22, 2003
Its been a long day today and I had a sudden "demand" made on me for some code. I've never known my boss to panic so much, but anyway I got some code working so he can go on holiday next weekend with some peace of mind.
I will need to get alot done in the next few days to ensure I don't have to panic before I head off to Nigeria next month. Its been 4393 days since I last put foot on Nigerian soil and despite the large hole it has made in my pocket I find myself smiling without control at the thought of going home. Although I have to say I have a bit of an unresolved crisis when asked where I'd consider home.
This is because I've come to realise the "patriotism", of those still with crusader like mentalities who believe God or destiny appointed them to "civilise" the "uncivilised" do not tolerate criticising shameful aspects of their countries past and that doesn't appeal to me, neither does the racism that hides behind the pretentious pragmatism of "taking care of your own" against foreign entities bearly able to feed themselves.
If home is where the heart is, my heart tends to roam, but if asked where I'd like to finish off I'd have to say Nigeria.
My brother says home is wherever we happen to find ourselves. I tend to agree.
I am emotionally reserved (cool I like to think :P) though I don't know how I'll react when I see old faces and smell the warm humid air in Lagos. I guess it will be cool to see my room preserved in the time warp of an 11 year old's world. I hope to come back more appreciative of things I take for granted although I have seen no evidence of such humble mantra from friends who have visited Nigeria recently.
I have been to Nigeria twice now. I was too young to remember my first encounter with Nigeria, I was 2 yrs and all I'm told of it was that I got ill and almost died. I wasn't surprised to hear that Nigerian doctors made things worse by trying to feed me water through my head. My dad suspects they were trying to prolong my stay in hospital and thus increase the hospital bill.
Nigerian "healthcare" is terrible to say the least. My younger brother just shared a story with me and told me how a Nigerian doctor broke his finger. Private hospitals are an alternative but considering most Nigerian can't afford the cost of state hospitals, this is the preserve of the well-off.
To paint you a picture of Nigeria's health crisis, if you needed a drip to keep you alive in a Nigerian state hospital, you'd first be marched to the pharmacy in a semi-conscious state to first purchase the drip.
I have to also mention Nigeria boasts the worst roads you'll find, constant petrol shortages and frequent power cuts.
All this is hard to accept considering Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and the world's 9th largest and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports. Despite this, it has to import oil to meet domestic need whilst it sells its own to the powers that be.
The recent strikes in Nigeria suggest this is even harder to accept by Nigerians who consider affordable petrol their birthright from a state that does little else for them.
Nigeria has a history of military dictators who have stolen billions of petro-dollars and hidden them in Swiss bank accounts whilst borrowing from the world bank to the tune of $30 billion. This has been the ongoing story since the 60's and as oil has kept flowing criticisms have been few from western governments who have continually sold arms to successive ruling military juntas.
At one point there were rumour that Nigeria's new "democratic" government might stand up to the IMF and demand to know why it lent money to non-existent projects and would demand to see evidence of these project before making repayments.
However these proved untrue after Obasanjo himself went cap in hand to the IMF requesting more loans to "safeguard its return to democracy".
Obansanjo can be pretty confident he'll get it since IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus promised IMF aid if "Nigeria demonstrated that it is fully committed to reform" which Nigeria has already begun by selling off state companies such as the power and telecommunications utilities and oil refineries.
I think its only a matter of time until the IMF dictates Nigeria's state hospitals consider extracting and selling patients healthy body parts to western clients in some sort of exhange program whilst in hospital to pay for drug treatment.
Somehow the idea seems very free-marketish.
I am sure its the sort initiative they would applaud and might even guarantee Obasanjo further IMF loans.
Furthermore imagine in true capitalist tradition (like the terrordaq index the pentagon proposed), the prices of organs were floated on some organ stock market, so despite only seeking treatment for a yeast infection, if kidney prices had plummeted you'd have to sacrifice a kidney, 12 pints of blood, part of your liver and some marrow.
George Monbiot (www.monbiot.com) makes an interesting point, he says "Poor nations possess an invincible weapon. If you owe the bank $100 you are in trouble. If you owe them $100,000 the bank is in trouble. What if you owe the bank $2.5 trillion. If you defaulted on your debts at once you could bring down the entire global financial system. The point of possessing a terrifying weapon is that you don't necessarily have to use it. The fear alone can be sufficient to get results. Nowhere does fear do its work more effectively than in the great concrete towers of the financial markets. We should seek then not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it and to use it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution."
I will need to get alot done in the next few days to ensure I don't have to panic before I head off to Nigeria next month. Its been 4393 days since I last put foot on Nigerian soil and despite the large hole it has made in my pocket I find myself smiling without control at the thought of going home. Although I have to say I have a bit of an unresolved crisis when asked where I'd consider home.
This is because I've come to realise the "patriotism", of those still with crusader like mentalities who believe God or destiny appointed them to "civilise" the "uncivilised" do not tolerate criticising shameful aspects of their countries past and that doesn't appeal to me, neither does the racism that hides behind the pretentious pragmatism of "taking care of your own" against foreign entities bearly able to feed themselves.
If home is where the heart is, my heart tends to roam, but if asked where I'd like to finish off I'd have to say Nigeria.
My brother says home is wherever we happen to find ourselves. I tend to agree.
I am emotionally reserved (cool I like to think :P) though I don't know how I'll react when I see old faces and smell the warm humid air in Lagos. I guess it will be cool to see my room preserved in the time warp of an 11 year old's world. I hope to come back more appreciative of things I take for granted although I have seen no evidence of such humble mantra from friends who have visited Nigeria recently.
I have been to Nigeria twice now. I was too young to remember my first encounter with Nigeria, I was 2 yrs and all I'm told of it was that I got ill and almost died. I wasn't surprised to hear that Nigerian doctors made things worse by trying to feed me water through my head. My dad suspects they were trying to prolong my stay in hospital and thus increase the hospital bill.
Nigerian "healthcare" is terrible to say the least. My younger brother just shared a story with me and told me how a Nigerian doctor broke his finger. Private hospitals are an alternative but considering most Nigerian can't afford the cost of state hospitals, this is the preserve of the well-off.
To paint you a picture of Nigeria's health crisis, if you needed a drip to keep you alive in a Nigerian state hospital, you'd first be marched to the pharmacy in a semi-conscious state to first purchase the drip.
I have to also mention Nigeria boasts the worst roads you'll find, constant petrol shortages and frequent power cuts.
All this is hard to accept considering Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and the world's 9th largest and the fifth-biggest source of US oil imports. Despite this, it has to import oil to meet domestic need whilst it sells its own to the powers that be.
The recent strikes in Nigeria suggest this is even harder to accept by Nigerians who consider affordable petrol their birthright from a state that does little else for them.
Nigeria has a history of military dictators who have stolen billions of petro-dollars and hidden them in Swiss bank accounts whilst borrowing from the world bank to the tune of $30 billion. This has been the ongoing story since the 60's and as oil has kept flowing criticisms have been few from western governments who have continually sold arms to successive ruling military juntas.
At one point there were rumour that Nigeria's new "democratic" government might stand up to the IMF and demand to know why it lent money to non-existent projects and would demand to see evidence of these project before making repayments.
However these proved untrue after Obasanjo himself went cap in hand to the IMF requesting more loans to "safeguard its return to democracy".
Obansanjo can be pretty confident he'll get it since IMF Managing Director Michel Camdessus promised IMF aid if "Nigeria demonstrated that it is fully committed to reform" which Nigeria has already begun by selling off state companies such as the power and telecommunications utilities and oil refineries.
I think its only a matter of time until the IMF dictates Nigeria's state hospitals consider extracting and selling patients healthy body parts to western clients in some sort of exhange program whilst in hospital to pay for drug treatment.
Somehow the idea seems very free-marketish.
I am sure its the sort initiative they would applaud and might even guarantee Obasanjo further IMF loans.
Furthermore imagine in true capitalist tradition (like the terrordaq index the pentagon proposed), the prices of organs were floated on some organ stock market, so despite only seeking treatment for a yeast infection, if kidney prices had plummeted you'd have to sacrifice a kidney, 12 pints of blood, part of your liver and some marrow.
George Monbiot (www.monbiot.com) makes an interesting point, he says "Poor nations possess an invincible weapon. If you owe the bank $100 you are in trouble. If you owe them $100,000 the bank is in trouble. What if you owe the bank $2.5 trillion. If you defaulted on your debts at once you could bring down the entire global financial system. The point of possessing a terrifying weapon is that you don't necessarily have to use it. The fear alone can be sufficient to get results. Nowhere does fear do its work more effectively than in the great concrete towers of the financial markets. We should seek then not to overthrow globalisation, but to capture it and to use it as a vehicle for humanity's first global democratic revolution."
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