They entered the hall and it was already filled with several employees at different stages of taking lunch. It was a big hall with two entrances that were immediately visible and available for the research institute worker. Some other much smaller doors and without the modern automatically opening and closing of the two doors were available for the cooks. Tim took the entrance closer too his department; well that's what the other mates whom he followed took. They went through the rituals of checking and putting money on their magnetic cards with which they would later pay for the lunch. There were three self-service machines installed to accomplish this and they weren't much different from the ones spotting the streets of Juelich except that these were not white and did not dispense cigarette.
Tim was going to panic. He did not so much like making a fool of himself; not that it's a crime to appear new in a new environment, but more than every other visiting scientists in the four-thousand staff-strong institute he had a right to be self-conscious. He was black.
"Just slow down," he told himself as he joined the queue his mates had joined, "and do what everyone is doing." He learnt that technique in England. But then there were no roadside cigarette dispensing robots in England and every other sign of civilisation he had come in contact there were mostly modern versions of the rudimentary ones he had been used to in Nigeria. Of course save for the vehicles driving on the left.
The queue dragged on, but then he noticed his card was different. Don't panic. He wondered why they wouldn't just take the damn cash from him. That's what's done in every civilised society. Apart from credit and debit cards.
"You'll have to buy a visitor's lunch card, it's £4."
"That's ok." He heaved a sigh and wish he could hug Claire for coming to his rescue. When they had all paid the five of them moved towards the inner hall past another file of people holding trays and ready to place them on a moving carrier.
"White sausage, interesting! We don't get this every day" Steffen walked past the sausages down the long table to inspect the displayed menu. The other members in the group were already busy discussing white sausages. Ohrft was saying something about cheese and in the same breath...barbaria. Tim doubted he heard correctly but he wasn't about to lose his mental focus on that. He suddenly felt like quitting, drop the tray he was holding and walked out. His stomach had stopped feeling hungry not with the different types of food on display. There were about thirty different types white rice and potato fry being redundant of each of the six long tables.
Rice. No stew or soup, not even gravvy he had come to relish in London especially Indian curry. Just plain rice, white and frightening. Apart from the rice and the fries every other thing was strange to him. Sausage? No way, someone had mentioned cheese and Tim was allergic to dairies.
The five had by now separated with everyone chasing different table. Claire was moving towards a table topped mostly with fries and red sausages and some sauce. When he saw what she was scooping onto the fries in her plate, he quickly changed his mind and followed Lee and started to imitate his choice without appearing too obvious. Remember, watch and do. He took some rice, some fish fillet pieces.
"You seem to like rice". He tried to open conversion with the diploma guy. He knew he was lying because the Chinese guy appeared out of his elements in the midst of the confusion on the tables.
Lee smiled and told him yes that they like rice a lot in China. He seemed to have mastered the dilemma of the lunch time after all he had been here a while. They chatted as they went through the treacherous process of deciding what could be real food for them. Neither of them voiced his thinking but they both understand what the other was going through. Lee said something about rice and having transparent noodles inside the soup but Tim wouldn't bother to rationalize why anyone would but noodles inside a soup. Perhaps it was something else he said but the chinese accent did not allow the English to sound like English. But Tim had heard the two words, rice and soup, very clearly.
He was already scooping a dangerously looking paste onto his rice before he realized his mistake. He notice he had also put fries on the rice. He looked at the plate on his tray and felt like crying. He also felt like punching Lee or at least giving him a knock on the head. His place was now looking terrible, worse than white rice alone. He looked at Lee and saw him look back as if to say, "that's the trick bro, you just have to pick at random". Lee's plate looked like he had nake his choice of food based on colour spectrun for all colours were represented. Except red.
Lee moved towards one of too small tables on which were positioned some manually operated pumps, about four per table. He squeezed one and a red paste flew onto his plate. Now it's complete. Tim thought to himself as he moved towards the small table to put ketchup on his plate too. He gathered salad from several options into a small bowl. Onion, cucumber, olive, tomato, some disgusting cream...Then he just picked and stopped thinking about what or why he picked it.
"I am now in trouble." He looked at his plate and and knew he had right to panic. The other three members of the group had finished picking theirs and were by now waiting for the two of them by a tall stainless table on which they put their trays. Both Tim and Lee took some soft drink and proceeded through the payment and collection of cutleries. Considering the spectrum of organic matter on the trays it made sense to pick spoon and fork and knife. You never know which one would be relevant.
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Saturday 21 November 2009
Comment on The Nigerian Goverment's Reaction Soyinka's opinion on Obama's non-visit
I could wish we had more sense in our leadership...It beats me to understand where they got the initiative to question Wole Soyinka\'s position on Obama\'s non-visit to Nigeria. We have skeleton in our cupboard in Nigeria; the stark ugliness of the Niger-Delta case and the lack of direction of policies are better kept inside. It\'s going to be a prudent decision for Obama to stay away from Nigerian government and not to allow their shameless corruption and failed democracy to besmirch him...If Yar\'adua and co want the likes of Soyinka to say something good about them and the country, they should spare us too the embarrassment and shame of reading about their incompetence and administrative ineptitude on the world scene. The ones that call a spade a spade are the true Nigerians, not the ones that follow unquestioningly the aimlessly drifting executive robe of the government.
Thanks Prof Soyinka.
Jide Olubiyi
ThisDay Online
(05.24.2009 07:13)
A Reply to A Fellow Citizen
Re: Good people, Great nation
Hi Deola,
I have always enjoyed reading your write-ups since joining this group. I am a Nigerian but presently in the UK. I could recollect the feeling of anger, of shame, of frustration , and of disappointment and betrayal that assailed me when I first entered London airspace. The disorder of the Nigerian experience of governance suddenly became tangible to me standing judged by the order I was seeing even before landing. I felt betrayed. That our leaders have gone far and near, have seen that the greatness of a people necessarily consisted in the leadership…and yet we’re still where we are in the squalour of political mismanagement that has left many raped of their natural sense of patriotism.
I have severally wondered, how can a nation possessing such rich culture, history and religions remain so long in this abyss? I really wish I could pretend brilliance and give a one-cure-all solution to that. I wish our shared situation was this simple requiring just a single answer-renovate governance. And I wish all muscles of effort would not be geared towards replacing leadership only to find out that a new set of individuals that have long waited to ascend the ‘throne’ for selfish gains have just come…
I was once in a taxi ( I think in 2007) in Osogbo and some middle-aged women at the back were as usual running a baleful commentary on our leadership problems. They lamented how bad and evil it was for someone in governance to abuse the office to his/her own selfish advantage. And then one of them rounded-off by saying a prayer, that her children too would get there and would have the opportunity to so dishonestly enrich his/her folks.
Sad huh? Well while this singular experience may not represent every well-meaning individuals I believe not many people will find it difficult to believe that there is a dearth of the stuff leaders are made of even in the governed. But reading people like you and listening to people like Tobi Oluwatola and some other friends have suggested that quality still resides in some hearts.
I have come to realise that corruption and abuse of nationhood thrives where the ‘good’ people are silent. A near-holy hush still resides in many towards the affairs of our leaders; this results from a thoroughly suppressive military regime. This is a grave neglect and betrayal of our national duty-this decorum. Leaders are nothing but a mere reflection of the followers, after all that’s how democracy has been aptly qualified…a government of the people by the people… Our dailies and media are filled with publicity of gross under-performance…A governor donating bags of rice to fire victims, the Federal goverment increasing NYSC ‘allowy’ to N26,000, another government commissioning a one-kilometre road that’ll soon be swept away by rain the next season. And what do we do? We either shrug and say,”At least he’s better than last one” while some people actually come out dancing to meet the prodigal son that we have elected.
But where are the very people to call these men we voted in to accounts? Where is the insistent voice that publicly demands an answer from a government that seems comfortable with the pomp of giving rice bags to fire victims instead of providing a vibrant fire service that should have stymed the disaster in the first place? Where are the people that should ask the Federal Government why he’s increasing Corpers ‘allowing’ just days after our promising youths were murdered in Jos in the trust of the very people that should host and protect them for a year?
Really the failure of the government belongs more to us, for where the ‘good’ man will not talk then evil will go unchecked in the leadership.
We are the check.A corrupt goverment is like a cancer cell, it only becomes damaging and lethal while healthy cells fail to call it to order.
We are the goverment, the healthy cells needed to maintain sanity.
We should together destroy this evil culture of decorum. All is not yet well. Let us explore means to speak up, to question how we are being governed…It’s our business, after all we are the governed the direct recipient of all actions and inactions of the governing. Speaking up needn’t be so costly, and if it is we should understand that the journey of a thousand miles needn’t start with a step but with a decision.
Thanks Deola Kayode. I pray we’ll see in our time the Nigeria that we desire, the Nigeria that we deserve. And if not many people reckon this vision as pertinent let the few people who see the light at the end of the tunnel make their voice strong for there is yet hope. With time by God’s grace others will wake up too. In any case the night is long over it’s time to wake.
We will.
Count me in.
Jide Olubiyi
London.
(Written March, 2009)
Hi Deola,
I have always enjoyed reading your write-ups since joining this group. I am a Nigerian but presently in the UK. I could recollect the feeling of anger, of shame, of frustration , and of disappointment and betrayal that assailed me when I first entered London airspace. The disorder of the Nigerian experience of governance suddenly became tangible to me standing judged by the order I was seeing even before landing. I felt betrayed. That our leaders have gone far and near, have seen that the greatness of a people necessarily consisted in the leadership…and yet we’re still where we are in the squalour of political mismanagement that has left many raped of their natural sense of patriotism.
I have severally wondered, how can a nation possessing such rich culture, history and religions remain so long in this abyss? I really wish I could pretend brilliance and give a one-cure-all solution to that. I wish our shared situation was this simple requiring just a single answer-renovate governance. And I wish all muscles of effort would not be geared towards replacing leadership only to find out that a new set of individuals that have long waited to ascend the ‘throne’ for selfish gains have just come…
I was once in a taxi ( I think in 2007) in Osogbo and some middle-aged women at the back were as usual running a baleful commentary on our leadership problems. They lamented how bad and evil it was for someone in governance to abuse the office to his/her own selfish advantage. And then one of them rounded-off by saying a prayer, that her children too would get there and would have the opportunity to so dishonestly enrich his/her folks.
Sad huh? Well while this singular experience may not represent every well-meaning individuals I believe not many people will find it difficult to believe that there is a dearth of the stuff leaders are made of even in the governed. But reading people like you and listening to people like Tobi Oluwatola and some other friends have suggested that quality still resides in some hearts.
I have come to realise that corruption and abuse of nationhood thrives where the ‘good’ people are silent. A near-holy hush still resides in many towards the affairs of our leaders; this results from a thoroughly suppressive military regime. This is a grave neglect and betrayal of our national duty-this decorum. Leaders are nothing but a mere reflection of the followers, after all that’s how democracy has been aptly qualified…a government of the people by the people… Our dailies and media are filled with publicity of gross under-performance…A governor donating bags of rice to fire victims, the Federal goverment increasing NYSC ‘allowy’ to N26,000, another government commissioning a one-kilometre road that’ll soon be swept away by rain the next season. And what do we do? We either shrug and say,”At least he’s better than last one” while some people actually come out dancing to meet the prodigal son that we have elected.
But where are the very people to call these men we voted in to accounts? Where is the insistent voice that publicly demands an answer from a government that seems comfortable with the pomp of giving rice bags to fire victims instead of providing a vibrant fire service that should have stymed the disaster in the first place? Where are the people that should ask the Federal Government why he’s increasing Corpers ‘allowing’ just days after our promising youths were murdered in Jos in the trust of the very people that should host and protect them for a year?
Really the failure of the government belongs more to us, for where the ‘good’ man will not talk then evil will go unchecked in the leadership.
We are the check.A corrupt goverment is like a cancer cell, it only becomes damaging and lethal while healthy cells fail to call it to order.
We are the goverment, the healthy cells needed to maintain sanity.
We should together destroy this evil culture of decorum. All is not yet well. Let us explore means to speak up, to question how we are being governed…It’s our business, after all we are the governed the direct recipient of all actions and inactions of the governing. Speaking up needn’t be so costly, and if it is we should understand that the journey of a thousand miles needn’t start with a step but with a decision.
Thanks Deola Kayode. I pray we’ll see in our time the Nigeria that we desire, the Nigeria that we deserve. And if not many people reckon this vision as pertinent let the few people who see the light at the end of the tunnel make their voice strong for there is yet hope. With time by God’s grace others will wake up too. In any case the night is long over it’s time to wake.
We will.
Count me in.
Jide Olubiyi
London.
(Written March, 2009)
Sunday 15 November 2009
All these years!
I was in a discussion with a childhood friend of mine calling from the US yesternight and he made a statement. He said man might be able to remove another from the mud but that it's only God that's capable of removing mud from a man's life. How true especially in matters of our walk with God and religion. How very true!
Many times we take conscious steps to remove us from the mud of religion to be able to see clearly the blazing light of the life of our Lord. But we end up entrapped in our own personally contrived religion. How true that we can make all the efforts we want, we can even be very radical and oppose the religious practices around us but then it takes a definite baptism of the Lord to rid us from the mud within. No wonder it was prophesied that the coming Lord would baptise us not just with the Holy Ghost, but also with fire. I'd for long wondered, why the fire? Sometimes the truth would flittingly filter into my heart but then it would lift again and give way to the creed of my life, of my daily life.
I do not pretend to offer a revelation or deep truth here. This is more a diary of my thoughts written to me, that in days come-I pray-will be a mileage in my walk in the baptism fire of my Lord...
I looked at the years I've known the Lord and I trembled to think all these might have been a walk of blindness. Maybe you too reading my thoughts have been in this shoe. I had been called unto the Lord and I have come to behold the beauty of His ways. I have learnt He's my sufficiency and so have I experienced but then I still have come short of walking in this fire. This ravaging fire of Heaven that handles a man and consumes the mud of religion. How I wish You would walk me through Your words, through Your blazing words! How often have I come by my strength distracted by my need to be holy and righteous for You and so lost sight of the feast of the holiness You have prepared before me. How often have I counted myself as a citizen of this world and subject of the law of creation and forgotten who I am. How often have I these years overlooked the grace of Your name, the exceeding great value of Your shared flesh and shed blood. How often have I let slip those seemingly simple truths that have delivered my soul and affection unto You from the enemy that held me bound...Every time I sinned I had overlooked the eternal truth of Your death and resurrection saying sin no more has dominion over me. Each time I have gone defeated I have attested to it that I was a sloppy soldier, and ignorant heir of these great heritage we have in You.
Now this is my prayer that You will walk me by Yourself, by Your Spirit, again through Your word. That by the fire with which You baptise You will take the mud of religion out of my heart and life and make me behold You as You are. Be my Church O Son of David, and Your Spirit the Minister. Let my walk henceforth be purified by Your fire and by Your Spirit. When I knee down to pray, or stand or sit to do so, whether with a shout or by the silent voice of my heart, Jesus Christ let it be that with You I speak Eternal Father and let me hear the listening of Your ears by faith and the response of Your lips. As for my heart and me, we have made no other choice that to walk with You and make every remaining day a feast of love and obedience to You.
Purify me and mine by Your word, Your word is true,
Many times we take conscious steps to remove us from the mud of religion to be able to see clearly the blazing light of the life of our Lord. But we end up entrapped in our own personally contrived religion. How true that we can make all the efforts we want, we can even be very radical and oppose the religious practices around us but then it takes a definite baptism of the Lord to rid us from the mud within. No wonder it was prophesied that the coming Lord would baptise us not just with the Holy Ghost, but also with fire. I'd for long wondered, why the fire? Sometimes the truth would flittingly filter into my heart but then it would lift again and give way to the creed of my life, of my daily life.
I do not pretend to offer a revelation or deep truth here. This is more a diary of my thoughts written to me, that in days come-I pray-will be a mileage in my walk in the baptism fire of my Lord...
I looked at the years I've known the Lord and I trembled to think all these might have been a walk of blindness. Maybe you too reading my thoughts have been in this shoe. I had been called unto the Lord and I have come to behold the beauty of His ways. I have learnt He's my sufficiency and so have I experienced but then I still have come short of walking in this fire. This ravaging fire of Heaven that handles a man and consumes the mud of religion. How I wish You would walk me through Your words, through Your blazing words! How often have I come by my strength distracted by my need to be holy and righteous for You and so lost sight of the feast of the holiness You have prepared before me. How often have I counted myself as a citizen of this world and subject of the law of creation and forgotten who I am. How often have I these years overlooked the grace of Your name, the exceeding great value of Your shared flesh and shed blood. How often have I let slip those seemingly simple truths that have delivered my soul and affection unto You from the enemy that held me bound...Every time I sinned I had overlooked the eternal truth of Your death and resurrection saying sin no more has dominion over me. Each time I have gone defeated I have attested to it that I was a sloppy soldier, and ignorant heir of these great heritage we have in You.
Now this is my prayer that You will walk me by Yourself, by Your Spirit, again through Your word. That by the fire with which You baptise You will take the mud of religion out of my heart and life and make me behold You as You are. Be my Church O Son of David, and Your Spirit the Minister. Let my walk henceforth be purified by Your fire and by Your Spirit. When I knee down to pray, or stand or sit to do so, whether with a shout or by the silent voice of my heart, Jesus Christ let it be that with You I speak Eternal Father and let me hear the listening of Your ears by faith and the response of Your lips. As for my heart and me, we have made no other choice that to walk with You and make every remaining day a feast of love and obedience to You.
Purify me and mine by Your word, Your word is true,
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