Category: Uncategorized

By Nwachukwu Egbunike

 

“With the democratization of the media space, an ever increasing number of blogotivists command large constituencies of followers and now see themselves as powerful persons whose voices must not only be heard but also feared. Having drunk from the bowl of power, some have morphed into agenda setters, news framers, experts on all matters, and final social arbiters whose views, judgements and solutions must always prevail. And such solutions are not in short supply but are sadly either time bound, simplistic and/or betray an obsession with the here and now. Therein lays the danger of immediacy – that of thinking that the change we all hope for will come like a flash of lighting. Or even worse, with the same immediacy of the social media.”

 

The Nigeria blogosphere is increasingly becoming a political springboard for what I term blogotivisim (blogosphere-activism). With the democratization of the…

She uses so few words

To say so much

Her verbal dexterity

Is as precise as a gymnast

Defying gravity
 with a flourish

Creatively observing each object

And every action and inaction

Rhyme, reason and contradiction

With the insight of the ages

Sculpting verbal works of art

That should be cast in bronze

Or chiseled from Carraran quarries

By some modern Michaelangelo

But instead

Even better

Her words are winged electric

Appearing wherever they need to

Now

And now

And now

To you

 

 

David Trudel  © 2013

 

 

I might say once you sprinkled constellations
in my eyes and scales went crazy
because my smallness could not hold
all of what was blooming
if this were a love poem
which it isn’t
so I won’t

I could mention your name was my mantra
for desire, whispered and rolled
under my tongue like a secret
a sweet one
if this were a love poem
which it isn’t
so I won’t

I could tell how the magic
of our meeting belled and rang
in a promise unrealized
and faded to silence
if this were a love poem
which it isn’t
so I won’t

this can’t be a poem
about a feeling that almost was
but never became
and so it’s not

This dance that we dance
It goes in varied circles around the truth
Our present world so small
Yet largely outsized by hate and gloom

For all our advancement in science
Communication and supposed intelligence

Basic humanity, kindness, and love still eludes the best of us

Kicking off with an introduction from Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, the short documentary Fuelling Poverty amounts to a very brief Nigerian Fuel Subsidy 101 course. In thirty minutes, it covers the history of the issue and methodically explains how the government (encouraged by the IFIs, by the way) failed its people. By removing the subsidy as it did, the government shocked the informal economy and made life more miserable for a huge segment of the population. Subsequent investigations into the complex workings of the subsidy regime revealed a massive corruption cover-up to the tune of US $7 billion annually.