Rabbi Hamelberg,
Thank you for your explanation. You are a good-hearted person!!
However, I am puzzled to read the following from you: N.B. The heart, not the head is the seat of the intellect. It follows that a sentimental person that thinks with the heart will attempt to hug a person hanging a living cobra as a necklace around the neck. The consequence would be the sting of cobra and death of the sentimentalist. Whereas, a person that thinks with the head (brain) will rather greet a person with a life cobra necklace at distance so as to avoid being stung into six feet deep down the earth. Sentimentalists think with the heart and realists think with the brain.
S. Kadiri
Skickat: den 23 september 2017 23:02
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's Quote
Baba Kadiri,
Really, this is getting tedious. I don't crave that you respect me, but please, PLEASE, please respect yourself. First of all, I am a strong believer in Ahimsa, and just like Danny Glover, I don't believe in the death penalty. I don't want to execute, hang, lynch, kill or drown anyone, not even your baboon or Ogun's sacrificial animal man's best friend, the dog, in yon Lagos Lagoon.
Second of all, I don't masturbate. As to "intellectual", I am not one.
I understand that your problem may be that you are mostly used to reading factual literature, not fiction and there too, there's quite a range - apart from Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Teju Cole, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the other Nigerian greats. I on the other hand am fond of writing you friendly letters which you unfortunately misunderstand and of course do not find amusing. This is what I said and maybe due to your lack of comprehension or appreciation, I should translate it into your Yoruba dialect so that you may better comprehend the tone and texture of what I said as it it should be comprehended by normal users of Her Majesty's English or even the cowboy versions. Or maybe I should try to approach your Majesty in the Buckingham Palace version of Nigerian English?
Although I have previously tried to explain to you exactly what I meant, this is what you have translated to mean My FATWA - your words. " you actually sentenced me to the same fate as Ken Saro-Wiwa because of what I have been saying in the forum!! "
What I said:
"Without freedom of speech you wouldn't be able or free to say some of the things that you say in this forum and get away with it. You know that under some kinds of military rule you could have been hanged like Ken Saro-Wiwa or faced the firing squad more than once, before which hanging - God forbid - we would have heard Baba Kadiri beat his chest and proclaim like Nathan Hale, "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country!" or be gunned down in broad daylight in Owerri or like Dele Giwa open a parcel that explodes in your face for merely singing,
"Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny,
And in this judgement there is no partiality…"
Or for merely saying, "Biafra must be free!
-
gunned down in cold blood because it is "unconstitutional" or because such freedom is "non-negotiable" according to President Buhari , because of an old Lugardian decree that imposed African unity on Nigeria, on you and him, the way that some people would like to see a reunion of North and South Korea, Israel and the Palestinians under Ottoman rule, maybe North South Sudan too…
Let us be thankful to the Almighty for freedom of expression without which there would be so much locked up in our heads and yearning to be free. Let us also thank Him for the right to peaceful assembly – at least that's the way it's supposed to be, without being gunned down by the so called custodians of the peace."
Where in a court of law would you be able to persuade your lawyer that what you just read is tantamount to the sort of Fatwa that was passed on Salman Rushdie's head?
Typical: You also misrepresent me by attributing to me words that I did not write.
I wrote what you quote : " in the final analysis, it is up to the Igbos themselves, the Igbos spread throughout the Naija Federation and beyond, to decide for themselves if they want to have their Biafra or not to have their Biafra. To have a divorce or not."
You ask, surprisingly, "I don't know from where you got your information that the Igbos in Nigeria have decided to secede from Nigeria."
Where did I write that " The Igbos in Nigeria have decided to secede from Nigeria"?
Since you are such a stickler for language, truth and logic, please-read! What I said was "In other words, it may be foolish – from your point of view ( you want for your brother every good thing that you want for yourself etc) - but in the final analysis it is not up to you and Buhari and the Naija military - in the final analysis it is up the Igbos themselves, the Igbos spread throughout the Naija Federation and beyond, to decide for themselves if they want to have their Biafra or not to have their Biafra. To have a divorce or not."
Since a referendum has not yet been held, we are not yet in a position to know that "The Igbos" ( a majority of them?) have decided to leave the Federal Republic of Nigeria… for good...
True: In my dream world I may have created a chicken out of feather. You know that Jesus turned water into wine and not only that - as Leonard Cohen sang,
"And Jesus was a sailor
When he walked upon the water
And he spent a long time watching
From his lonely wooden tower
And when he knew for certain
Only drowning men could see him
He said "All men will be sailors then
Until the sea shall free them"
But he himself was broken
Long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human
He sank beneath your wisdom like a stone…" (Suzanne)
I like the lines of this love song - a lover's complaint , even better - lines from The Master Song
"And he took you up in his aeroplane,
Which he flew without any hands,
And you cruised above the ribbons of rain
That drove the crowd from the stands.
Then he killed the lights in a lonely Lane
And, an ape with angel glands,
Erased the final wisps of pain
With the music of rubber bands."
Finally , Baba Kadiri, I don't think that it has to be necessarily as you say, when you say to me, " so must it be unreasonable for you as a Saro man to love my fellow countrymen/women, the Igbos, than me."
However, it's not something that I would like to argue about.
Love? " Saro Man"? " Niger Man"? "Pan-African Man" ?
As Rumi the Sufi poet put it:
"When I come to Love, I am ashamed of all
That I have ever said about Love"
( Extracted from " In The Paradise of the Sufis)
N.B. The heart , not the head is the seat of the intellect...
On Saturday, 23 September 2017 20:58:10 UTC+2, ogunlakaiye wrote:
Rabbi Hamelberg,
In your Fatwa of 11 September 2017, posted on this forum, you actually sentenced me to the same fate as Ken Saro-Wiwa because of what I have been saying in the forum!! Your Fatwa has nothing to do with òmòwé Ìjìnlè (learned Professor) Falola.
I am yet to learn how to engage in intellectual masturbation like you, therefore, I will limit myself to the issue of the Igbos secession from Nigeria in this response.
You wrote, "..... in the final analysis, it is up to the Igbos themselves, the Igbos spread throughout the Naija Federation and beyond, to decide for themselves if they want to have their Biafra or not to have their Biafra. To have a divorce or not."
I don't know from where you got your information that the Igbos in Nigeria have decided to secede from Nigeria. The main Igbo States in South Eastern Nigeria, each with a democratically elected Governor and State Assembly and Local Government Councils, are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. None of the Igbo State's Assemblies has passed a resolution demanding secession from Nigeria and no Igbo State Governor has individually or collectively with others demanded secession from Nigeria. In your dream world, you have created a chicken out of a feather. Congratulation, chop your chicken!
While it is not up to me or Buhari or even the Nigerian constitution to prevent any ethnic group to severe relationship with Nigeria, it is my civic duty to point out that reasons tendered by the few Igbo ethnic chauvinists for secession (marginalization and persecution) are false, because Igbos are everywhere in Nigeria thriving and prospering. Speaking recently on how the activities of Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB endanger the lives of Igbos residing outside Igboland in Nigeria, the Governor of Abia State, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu said, "I want to announce to you that the population of the Igbos outside Igbo enclave is about 11.6 million. You don't play with such a large number of lives!!" http://www.tori.ng/
news/74530/biafra-how-the- activities-of-nnamdi-kanu-and- ipob.html
The Governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha said, "Check it out, no Hausa man living in the South East owns a duplex, neither can you see a Yoruba man who lives in a room and parlour of his own or an investment worth N20 million. But should Nigeria break up today, Igbos will lose trillions of properties in Lagos, the North and other parts of the country. This is why we all must condemn IPOB's call for break up. ...//... So where are we? This is why I said IPOB were childish in their struggle. We should all condemn the call for secession because if Nigeria breaks up, Igbo will lose."
http://igbolive.com/igbo-play-
worst-politics-in-nigeria- okorocha/ While there may be sense in what you said that I cannot love Igbos more than the Igbo themselves, so must it be unreasonable for you as a Saro man to love my fellow countrymen/women, the Igbos, than me. When I assert that it is in the deep sea that whales should live and prosper, you want to remove them into into a small pond of water to swim. You must be a wicked Samaritan, intentionally or unintentionally.
S. Kadiri
Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com > för Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 23 september 2017 15:03
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's QuoteBaba Kadiri
Have no fear ! At least in Ojogbon Falola's Forum in cyberspace there is no risk of Baba Kadiri being sentenced to the same fate as Ken Saro-Wiwa or Dele Giwa. Feel safe. Please. Ojogbon Falola is no military dictator. He is a humanist. And since you are such a sticker for language, truth and logic, a humanist is not to be conflated with the logical sequence or series that suggestively runs, if vegetarians eat vegetables then humanitarians eat human beings. The latter are cannibals.
However, Baba, it's more than likely that you could be gunned down in the streets of Owerri or Umuahia, if you go around carrying a placard saying "Down With Biafra!"Gunned down by some miscreants who have never read the Bible and know nothing about the ten commandments or even just commandment six : "You shall not murder!", just as some people have never heard of the commandment " Thou shalt not commit adultery" and "Thou shalt not steal" - hence the rampage, the corruption epidemic ravaging our lands. For a Jew at heart it is better to die than to worship idols, desecrate the name of the Almighty, commit murder or adultery or to steal. One of the problems with Jesus the Perfect is that he said,
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery." But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."
So at the point where a randy Scot says, "That's a bloody good-looking woman ! " - too late , by his own admission and without any spermy transmission he has already committed the transgression.
Since circa 1970 thanks to one Terry Smutylo and his wife Ann who were our next door neighbours at the South Legon Chalets ( Our= my Better Half and I), Fritz Perls Gestalt prayer has been something to live by. Much more recently it has been a José Micard Teixeira quote popularised by Meryl Streep : "I no longer have patience for certain things..."
As for Kennedy Emetulu and Vincent Adepoju, I've only met them in cyberspace, but what we (you and me) and those two gentlemen have in common is greater than whatever differences of opinion may separate us from the ideals of humanity and as far as I may claim to know you Baba Kadiri, you too probably espouse the holy preamble to the American Declaration of Independence: " When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."
In other words, it may be foolish – from your point of view ( you want for your brother every good thing that you want for yourself etc) - but in the final analysis it is not up to you and Buhari and the Naija military - in the final analysis it is up the Igbos themselves, the Igbos spread throughout the Naija Federation and beyond, to decide for themselves if they want to have their Biafra or not to have their Biafra. To have a divorce or not.
And you too believe that " all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."
So what's the problem? The Holy Nigerian Constitution which forbids divorce? Or it the Great Nigerian Army ? In Donovan's The Universal Soldier the lyrics go
"He'a a Catholic, a Hindu, an Atheist, a Jain,
A Buddhist and a Baptist and a Jew.
And he knows he shouldn't kill,
And he knows he always will,
Kill you for me my friend and me for you"
I notice that he has not included " he's a Muslim too"; understandably, when Donovan Leitch wrote that song, it was not yet the age of Islamic terrorism.
You make a "problem" of the Biafra National Guard. So it's a David vs Goliath scenario ? In a nutshell, the 82nd Division of the awesome Naija military vs a little people's defence committee?
The grusome fact still remains that UNARMED IGBO YOUTHS - Nigerian human beings - somebody's children - are being and have been gunned down by your military.
You remember the little trouble that the Naija military had with Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky and the Shia of Nigeria?
Irony of ironies: I suppose that if, for whatever reason the 82nd Division of the Naija military was dispatched to arrest - God forbid – someone like the late great Sardauna of Sokoto or – astaghfirullah rabbi wa atubu ilayhi - today's Emir of Kano, Emir Muhammadu Sanusi II or in my oil- rich, environmentally degraded swamp , crocodile infested neck of the Naija Delta, The Amanyanabo of Kalabari – i.e. The King of Kalabari, it would be unnatural for the aforementioned leaders not to have their own bodyguards who may/ may not protect and defend their leaders? Their people? In the case of the Amanyanabo or indeed Goodluck Jonathan the very least that I would expect of Kalabari Brother Mujahid Dokubo-Asari plus M.E.N.D. plus the AVENGERS plus other Niger Delta Militants is that they would protect their leaders until they get some written assurances from the military that their leaders will be treated fairly…
On the other hand it is reported of Christianity's and Islam's Messiah
.
On Friday, 22 September 2017 21:55:02 UTC+2, ogunlakaiye wrote:Rabbi Hamelberg,
Just as with a nation, a person does not need a permanent friend but a permanent interest. You are now in a good company of Kennedy Emetulu and Vincent Oluwatoyin Adepoju. I know that your heart bled immediately the black and flat-nose Nnamdi Kanu proclaimed the 0.1% (zero point one per cent) Jewish blood in him. I will attend to this story of made-up Igbo Jewish origin another day.
Risking being sentenced to the fate of Ken Saro-Wiwa and Dele Giwa, I want to state the fact that while the machete wielding IPOB's Biafra National Guard in Nigeria are considered to be non-violent agitators by wishers of Nigeria's disintegration, the knife swinging Palestine Arabs in Israel are, on sight, shot dead as terrorist. While the Gaza strip is completely alienated, by Israel with high fences in what is known as the world largest open prison, the Igbo are free to move and live in any part of Nigeria. In Chidi Anthony Opara's post of Sunday, 17 September 2017 in this forum, Nigeria's current Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, an Igbo himself, wrote, "The Igbos have larger chunk of their investments outside the South-east. Our people (the Igbo) have invested heavily in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. They are into trading." Writing under the caption,'Social Consideration', Ekweremadu confirmed, "Nigeria has never been divided as it is today (due to utterances and actions of Biafra agitators). Parting ways under such level of bitterness could be risky to the investments and lives of the South Easterners. Realistically speaking, is it possible that all Ndigbo living in the other parts of Nigeria, many of whom were born and bred outside Igbo land, and have been well assimilated by their host communities will return home? Many have never visited home and do not even speak Igbo language. Can we realistically expect those who have their investments in other parts of Nigeria to willingly abandon them and head home?" In plain language, Igbos are the only true Nigerians since they are found, as Ekweremadu confirmed, in every nook and cranny of Nigeria outside Igboland, where they have been assimilated by their host communities. Igbo children in their host communities are Igbo only in names as they do not speak Igbo but their host community's language. If Igbos are persecuted and marginalized in Nigeria, as it is being propagated as the reason for demanding an Igbo sovereign state, how could they establish themselves in every nook and cranny of Nigeria outside Igbo land? Since Igbos are traders, do they have only Igbos as customers in the communities in which they reside?
IPOB's Biafra National Guard has challenged the Nigerian Army and the confrontation between the two forces and its consequence can never be described by any normal thinking person as wanton killing of civilians.
S. Kadiri
Från: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> för Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Skickat: den 22 september 2017 00:14
Till: USA Africa Dialogue Series
Ämne: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Today's QuoteBaba Kadiri,
As Gertrude Stein famously said, "a rose is a rose is a rose ", just as a terrorist is a terrorist is a terrorist and of course even the most diehard sceptic will agree that Nigeria is Nigeria is Nigeria with or without Biafra on the map. Not that we have the luxury of comparing terrorisms or varying state definitions of terrorism; after all we know that one man's freedomfighter is another man's terrorist,as was the case with the ANC and indeed the PAC ("One settler, one bullet") when we had that little trouble with Apartheid South Africa.
Since the IPOB leadership renounced the use or arms/ armed struggle a long time ago and has been pleading for a peaceful referendum for the past several months, almost a year now, it is disingenuous to start quoting statements made several years ago, statements that he has since renounced.
There is Fatah, there was Black September which perpetrated the heinous Munich massacre, there is HAMAS which has a political wing and the military wing the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and a host of other Palestinian Terrorist Organizations. Maybe to your consternation during the stream of terrorist "actions" often aided and abetted by al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Islamic Jihad etc, you did not hear the Israeli authorities issuing a warrant of arrest of Chairman Arafat or his successor Mahmoud Abbas or the leader of HAMAS each time a suicide bomber exploded his deadly load...and once upon a time in the old days of the Northern Ireland conflict we had the IRA the bane of the United Kingdom of England , Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
How best to calm the request for a referendum is a serious one . In The Fire Next Door ,
https://www.facebook.com/
modibbo.ibraheemelyaqub the author takes up serious questions….
On Thursday, 21 September 2017 21:04:07 UTC+2, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:Eze Kadiri,
Rejoice! At least, for the time being you've got some moral backup from comrade-in-arms Professor Segun Ogungbemi.
The very first question that you both have to answer is this: If IPOB is indeed a "terrorist organisation" could you kindly furnish us with details of the wanton acts of terrorism that the IPOB have committed thus far?
You could take note that the Catalans who are going to go ahead with their referendum to have their beloved Catalonia have not been tarred and feathered a "terrorist organisation"
Here is a list of other organisations that have been labelled terrorist in Nigeria
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