Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Adichie: Lights out in Nigeria

what struck me was how much she was imagining she was speaking for
everyone, whereas poor people might not experience the world as she
does. for instance, being unable to concentrate because of the heat.
does she imagine everyone can afford air conditioning? the more you
have, the more you need electricity, the more you are burdened by its
blackouts.
poorer=less of that. ironically.
ken

On 2/5/15 3:23 PM, Bode wrote:
> I actually enjoyed this piece. How best to illustrate a problem than to
> show how you live through it everyday. I don¹t see this as a put down. Not
> every criticism is a put down and a simple reflection on one¹s personal
> situation, which this is, while a not so subtle indictment of the
> Government, is by no means a dismissal of the country or a put down. In
> addition, I also don¹t see how this would have caught anyone¹s attention
> in Nigeria: what is the news in the Nigerian Guardian publishing Lights
> out in Nigeria? The piece, however, would have been more effective in such
> platform as the NYT if she had reflected on the environmental hazard to
> which she is contributing by her use of generators. It is estimated that
> there is going to be an epidemic of lung cancer in Nigeria in another
> decade due to the constant pollution from the generators. This, and the
> noise pollution that disrupts the psyche and mental balance of many
> Nigerians, albeit unknown to them, is the unfortunate missed opportunity
> of the piece.
>
> On 2/1/15, 7:47 AM, "'Ikhide' via USA Africa Dialogue Series"
> <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:
>
>> "Day after day, I awkwardly navigate between my sources of light, the big
>> generator for family gatherings, the inverter for cooler nights, the
>> small generator for daytime work.
>>
>> Like other privileged Nigerians who can afford to, I have become a
>> reluctant libertarian, providing my own electricity, participating in a
>> precarious frontier spirit. But millions of Nigerians do not have this
>> choice. They depend on the malnourished supply from their electricity
>> companies.
>>
>> In 2005, a law was passed to begin privatizing the generation and
>> distribution of electricity, and ostensibly to revamp the old system
>> rooted in bureaucratic rot. Ten years on, little has changed. Most of the
>> companies that produce electricity from gas and hydro sources, and all of
>> the distribution companies that serve customers, are now privately owned.
>> But the link between them ‹ the transmission company ‹ is still owned by
>> the federal government.
>>
>> I cannot help but wonder how many medical catastrophes have occurred in
>> public hospitals because of ³no light,² how much agricultural produce has
>> gone to waste, how many students forced to study in stuffy, hot air have
>> failed exams, how many small businesses have foundered. What greatness
>> have we lost, what brilliance stillborn? I wonder, too, how differently
>> our national character might have been shaped, had we been a nation with
>> children who took light for granted, instead of a nation whose toddlers
>> learn to squeal with pleasure at the infrequent lighting of a bulb."
>>
>> -Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
>>
>> Does Adichie ever write for Nigerians, say in the local Guardian, or
>> newspapers? Nigeria could use her voice and be comforted by her insights.
>> Like most African writers of stature, Adichie is always writing for the
>> West and many times her stories about Nigeria are put-downs. Not that
>> Nigeria makes it easy to respect her. She is of course fast becoming a
>> rogue state with the active connivance of the writers and thinkers that
>> write silly little things about her in the NYT, etc. So much for the
>> single story, what are we doing about these issues other than living a
>> symbiotic existence with Nigeria's parasites, or feigning
>> indifference/neutrality? Adichie takes full advantage of Nigeria's lack
>> of self-respect and goes full throttle, dissing her, put-down by
>> put-down. Nigerians deserve this.
>>
>>
>> http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/opinion/sunday/lights-out-in-nigeria.
>> html?referrer=
>>
>> - Ikhide
>>
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--
kenneth w. harrow
faculty excellence advocate
professor of english
michigan state university
department of english
619 red cedar road
room C-614 wells hall
east lansing, mi 48824
ph. 517 803 8839
harrow@msu.edu

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