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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.

The poet Uche Nduka works hard at defying labels and definitions. His new work Ijele, published by Overpass Books, Brooklyn, N.Y. only deepens the enigma that is this seer. Who is Nduka? Well, if you group Nigeria’s post-colonial literature by generations, starting with Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka et al as the first generation, Niyi Osundare et al as the second, Nduka would belong in the third generation. From my perspective, this generation is probably the least studied, which is interesting because they have put together a robust body of work over the years.

Nduka’s generation of writers is mostly scattered all over the globe; the democratization of writing through the Internet has dispersed their works all over the place and it is hard to pin their works in defined volumes. Who are these writers and thinkers? In addition to Nduka, I am thinking of writers like Olu Oguibe, Afam Akeh…

When the eleventh hour hath come on the twentieth and sixth day of the eleventh moon which Roman stargazers dedicate to the god Janus, in fulfillment of the prophecy, a man child was untimely ripped from his mother, one clear moon before due. Upon whom hath been bestowed an kingship as hath ere been heard in the land. Vouchsafe of his father, was the rank of the Archduke and Archcardinal even according to the lineage of his father, Jenkins and his grandfather Abraham and even unto his ancestor Igo, who hath chalked his eye in the wisdom of the stars, thence he hath the imperial blood of the kings and makers of kings in the generations of yore and even unto this day. This prophecy came to pass in the hospice of St. Anthonio in the citadel of Aba, in the lands of the east, one score, ten and two…

Its not enough to establish that a party to a marriage has committed adultery ( and contrary to what I have read elsewhere recently it DOES NOT only apply to the wife or female party). Remember evidence of adultery can be circumstantial, the court will consider preponderance of evidence and not proof beyond reasonable doubt.  The court will look for opportunity and familiarity.

There are a number of circumstances were adultery is generally presumed

1. where the parties are living together

2. Bigamy is proof of adultery

3. Confessions of adultery are also proof

4. The  fathers name registered on a child’s birth certificate

5. Frequent visits to brothels

6. Sexually transmitted diseases that the other spouse does not also have

The petitioner in a divorce case also needs to prove that he or she now finds it intolerable to live with the respondent. This intolerability need not arise as…

The richest literary prize in the world, the Nobel Prize, carries a US$1.1 million purse. The richest lit prize in Africa, the NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature, doesn’t quite match up, but it does guarantee the winner a whopping US$100,000. It’s been around since 2004, with the purse increasing from $20,000 to $40,000 in 2006 and finally to $100,000 in 2008. The latest prize, awarded at the start of November, went to Chika Unigwe for her novel “On Black Sisters Street.” Though there has been widespreadpraise for Unigwe across the Naijanet, talk of the politics of her win has been muted.

First a quick Birthday message for myspokenheart.

And we’re off…

Tip 10. Don’t do a hollywood ending.

Kill the main character. Don’t do the “they’re dead, they’re dead, oh, no, wait, their coughing, oh crap, they’re going to make it.” That is so bloody annoying. Just kill the little shit.

Having been forced through the torture of The Amazing Spiderman (aka TAS, possibly the worst “reboot” of a franchise in history) – I saw every awfulness imaginable in this Hollywood massacre.

[WARNING – SPOILERS]
[This movie is shit]
[There… spoiled it]

Spiderman’s dead uncle is forgotten in moments, his powers come almost immediately (he ‘learns’ his powers by skateboarding! Awfulness everywhere!), there is no ‘battle with himself’, anywhere… ever. He’s a twat.

I can’t remember many character names, perhaps due to the trauma of watching TAS, and no way in hell am I exposing myself to any more of it, so…

Part three of my essential Blog tips is here – whoo hoo. yay. great.

I have been told by the Society for the Protection of the Over-Sensitive that I cannot post this without including the following warning.

I say mean things about depressed people. If you’re a depressed person this may upset you. On the other hand it may make you laugh, and since depression has become the only faithful friend who has stuck by you all these years this threat to your incessant state of misery might also be upsetting.

On with the tips 🙂

Tip 4. To repeat tip 4 – Write with sensitivity.

Some people still believe they have real problems and will be very cross if you make fun of them. Just because you spent twenty years overcoming clinical depression does not mean everyone else is ready to laugh bitterly at their disorders.

Tip 7. Give…

Welcome to part two of my guide to writing. Simply follow these rules for writing the perfect blog and soon you will have more followers than Christ.

Tip 4. Write with sensitivity.

For example, never make gratuitous and potentially offensive references to other people’s deities.

Tip 5. Write what you want

You can write your blog for other people, and try and write what you think they want to read. This is a good method if you are psychic, which you are not (see point 3). It also makes you a bit of a whore, in the way Dan Brown is a whore because he writes what he knows will sell instead of writing good things. Dan Brown is not psychic, he is a cod-plagiarist (see point 3 previous post – and yes, it does mean he literally plagiarises from a fish! Have you read his stuff!?)

This is the…

Here’s a list of my top tips for being a Blogger – stick with these rules and you’ll go far my son / daughter / cousin / creepy guy who moved into my closet.

Tip 1. Write what you know.

This is important. For example, if you don’t know the word complexification you’re going to find it hard to spell. If you don’t know what the ideological state apparatus are, then mentioning them in a post will probably break the flow of your writing. If you don’t speak Spanish, writing your posts in Spanish is going to make things very difficult for you, and confusing for your French audience who live in Germany and speak Croatian.

If you want to start a blog on car maintenance then you’re very dull. All the same, it will be a better blog if you know something about car maintenance, you once owned a…