Re - "better ask cornelius about that 30-70 rule!"
I don't know anything about any " 30 -70 rule" , but I do have an older Yoruba friend Femi, whose rule is this:" No women over nineteen!". For him that's an abiding principle. He says that he likes the "lambs", not the "UAC" (Used and condemned). The sour pussy older ladies tell him " Be your age man!"
When I was nineteen and I saw a forty-something year old wannabe talking to my girlfriend, I used to chuckle, what can such an old fellow do? It is only when I turned forty that I began to realise that 40-year-old oldies can also be very dangerous fellows.
Kenneth says, "ask cornelius" because he knows that Cornelius is going to take off on a rant that will most probably veer off course into familiar occupied or unfamiliar, unoccupied territories, apparently unrelated to the matter at hand, so here goes, obliquely:
Kenneth Harrow doesn't have to be the last prophet to know that. Unbeknownst to him, fact is that Cornelius Ignoramus believes that all matters are related. Cornelius Ignoramus too doesn't have to be the last prophet to know the meaning of Tawhid
Surely, there must be some handbooks written by some radical Nigerian community organiser on the simple subject on how to to arrange a demonstration or how to start a revolution?
I know all about Che Guevara and Emiliano Zapata but have very little practical experience in the field. In the early seventies, a CIA man appeared unto me from nowhere cursed Che for 45 minutes, told me some fanciful stories about underground city networks in the USA and then disappeared into thin air. Before and after that I have only been to very few demonstrations in my life, maybe, only three. The very first one was when Ian Smith declared a White Minority Government in Rhodesia on 11th November 1965. We demonstrated outside the British Embassy in Freetown and were dispersed - viciously - by the Sierra Leone Uncle Tom Police, just ask Jasper Jones. The second demonstration I took part in was against the 1986 United States bombing of Libya – and that's where I met Shia Muslims for the very first time, apparently they had organized the demonstration, the women pushing prams and the children in the front, the rest of us behind them chanting "Down with Reagan & Thatcher!" After the demonstration they kidnapped me - forcibly bundled me into the back of a car and drove off furiously to the mosque and started teaching me Shia Islam, on the spot. The last public demonstration I participated in was in Stockholm in 1987, when Shia Muslims had been massacred in Mecca.
Re – the various fears being expressed with regard to the extra vulnerability that comes with age these days, we know that whether in Uganda or Nigeria participating in an anti-government demonstration is the same as risking your life/ signing your own death warrant no matter how young or old you are, and there's always the likelihood of being decimated as happened with some demonstrators who were martyred by Operation Python Dance 1 & 2, in Eastern Nigeria.
So, since attending a demonstration in some countries is like going to the war front to be mowed down by trigger-happy police brutality, I think that both the older and the younger organisers the organisers of such demonstrations in e.g. Owerri had better take a good look at Devarim / Deuteronomy 20 : 5 – 10 which delineates those unqualified to Fight! ( Good to know: Judaism and warfare )
Re - The age business. When quoting the universal Shakespeare about these matters we had better understand what was life expectancy in Shakespeare's time and this bit of Dover Wilson that was compulsory reading in Secondary School. And then, unto The Seven ages of Man by which token most of the people in this forum are in category 4-7 ( we're all in the same basket) whilst half of Nigeria's population today has not yet got past stage three. About 20% are at stage four, that of "the soldier". If the Nigerians at stage 2– 4 in this life were to all turn activists overnight, turn out en mass in nationwide actions known as "Civil Disobedience" then the nation would come to a complete standstill. Brother Buhari's newly commissioned trains linking Lagos and Ibadan wouldn't run, the danfoes would remain parked at Chidi's Motor Park and all the other Motor Parks and along the roads all commercial traffic would be at a standstill; with all the School Children ( stage 2) and their parents and grandparents – including some of the Chibok Girls that have been since married off to the Boko Haram Jihadists and are now mothers (stages 3- 7) the school system would come to a halt. The factories too would grind to halt, oil production plummet to zero. I suppose that the only men and beasts that would still be moving would be the Fulani herdsmen and their cows still be romping southwards , the cows munching other farmers cabbages, grazing, foraging, continue dropping their dung, wherever they can find some rich foliage.
Long life is what we pray for, but every time I expect some sympathy and brotherly empathy from Baba Kadiri, he laughs uproariously and he only succeeds in making me nervous. This happens frequently. E.g., I tell him that weighing in at 77 kilograms / 170 lbs in my underwear, I have to lose weight or perish and then hopefully ascend to be reunited with my ancestors in heaven. He agrees that some people don't want to die but want to go to heaven. He laughs uproariously and tells me that I'm not going to go to heaven, that there is no such place for me to go to. He then tells me to eat to my heart's content, so that I may feed the worms. And then - paradoxically, he quotes from the very Bible that talks of Heaven, a passage that he learned at Sunday School, something about us being allotted a lifespan of three score years and ten, that we are living on overtime, thus making existential philosophers of us all. That we may be living in "the last days" only increases anxiety in the The Age of Anxiety
Fact too is that people age differently, biologically, mentally, musically etc. From day to day, some people look and feel old or older than the day before, others aspire to Forever Young due to genetics and other factors and I suppose that if you have Methuselah as a direct ancestor you could continue to count time differently.
There's also Babaji
There's a famous Sierra Leonean, and old Creole guy who was said to still have his natural black hair in his seventies, and the rumour was that this was so because he was a "Kabbalist "
"The rich seduce the poor and the old are seduced by the young"
Who among us wants to contest that this is so? Blame it on the wily serpent. I daresay that sometimes it's the older, chest-beating professors that are tempted then charmed and willingly or unwillingly finally submit or surrender - as in a war - overwhelmed by their beautiful female students. I daresay, at other times it is the opposite that takes place, when the long-time horny professor threatens her, saying, "My dear beautiful daughter of Eve, if you want to have a passing grade I will have to nack you at least five times." He says without any qualms whatsoever, feels that that it comes with the job and that's why he became a professor it's part of a professor's entitlements and endowments, this thing known as "powerful relations": "Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die", and to hell with the pretensions of the senate's so called " Ethics Committee"
It's hierarchical and essentially patriarchal starting with the ageless, transcendent, immanent, most merciful, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent king of the universes.
And on this earth which He created, in the kingdom of mankind, His servants, on the realm of the visible power structure, at the very top of the pyramid I don't know whether it's Aliko Dangote, since we seldom talk about him, he who seems to have most of the money in Nigeria, the land of milk and honey. Is it him sitting at the apex of the pyramid or is it President Buhari ? No money, no honey, and no funny, in whose shoes would you prefer to be, Dangote or Buhari ? I know that just like my pastor Olorubtobaa you are not a materialist, that it will be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven and that you are exceedingly a " nationalist", even a Pan-Africanist, but be honest now, Dangote or Buhari?
Since he is the one that e.g. Kperogi is fixated on – maybe not fixated on Dangote since Dangote may be capable of proposing an offer that he can't refuse, offer him something like Trump Towers thereby causing him to abandon his professorship forever...
Some people are more fixated on President Buhari than they are fixated on the Almighty, Allah subhan t'ala or Jesus – pray less than three times a day, criticize Brother Buhari at least five times a day as if on the Day of Judgement, they will be asked about President Buhari and not their own crimes, sins, shortcomings.
The purpose of life?
"Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me "pa"
That must be what it's all about,
That must be what it's all about "
--better ask cornelius about thatg 30-70 rule!ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2021 2:05 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today
Ken.
It really depends on what we mean by elders or older. For me it is between 30 and 70.
After 70 I agree with you we are talking of the very old and all your observations then apply.
My learned senior (WS)was still at the barricades against Abacha in his 60s when many younger 'leftocrats' shielded when psychopathy bared its fangs. It will be lunacy to require the same of him against Buhari in his 80s.
OAA
Sent from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: "Harrow, Kenneth" <harrow@msu.edu>Date: 07/06/2021 17:11 (GMT+00:00)To: USA African Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today
--i wanted to add to chidi's thought, older people are more likely to a stand than younger people, but not so much a stand in the street. i feel increasingly out of place in public demonstrations; but i take many many stands on line. i understand when there is a dangerous line, on-line. there are risks that might mean different things as we get older, and here i disagree most with oaa. it's not protecting what we have, so much, since as we get older, it becomes more protected in various ways, and what we have becomes increasingly our children and grandchildren whose health and finances become increasingly independent of us.we are more protected by the state as we get older; but we are more vulnerable as well. it just isn't a simple formulaken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 7, 2021 11:09 AM
To: USA African Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Thought For Today--The NADECO revolt of 1993/1994 was spearheaded by middle aged and old people.
-CAO.
--On Mon, Jun 7, 2021, 3:09 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovdepoju@gmail.com> wrote:
the older people are less likely to rebel bcs they want to protect what they have achieved
--On Mon, 7 Jun 2021 at 10:56, Chidi Anthony Opara, FIIM <chidi.opara@gmail.com> wrote:
A Nigerian writes from abroad urging rebellion in Nigeria, no problem about that, only that his family is with him abroad. Does that ring a bell as per urging rebellion in Nigeria?
I am not against rebellion, but those urging rebellion should be ready to loose as much as the other participants.
For example, if I am participating in a rebellion with a youngster of early 20s, chances are that such youngster would loose much more than myself.
I do not need further formal education, the youngster does. I am married for 29 years now with grown children, the youngster isn't. I have made appreciable advancement in my careers, the youngster does not even have a career yet.
If both of us are killed or incacerated, who, in practical and realistic manner lost more?
The youngsters can join rebellion, but should be stationed in sectors where consequences are minimal.
-Chidi Anthony Opara (CAO)
--
Chidi Anthony Opara is a Poet and Founder/Publisher of; PublicInformationProjects (www.publicinformationprojects.org)
--
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