Madeleine McCann, Rhys Jones and the British Media

First off let me offer my condolences to the Parents of Rhys Jones and my deepest sympathies to Madeleine McCann's Parents. I pray that God comforts them at their time of loss and pain. No caring parent deserves to have a child taken away from them in the circumstances of either of these cases. My thoughts and deepest sympathies are with both sets of parents.

Do Missing, Stabbed or Shot Children need to be white to make Page One news?
I'm sure I don't need to remind anyone of the media circus that surrounded the Madeleine McCann case. David Beckham went on TV urging for information, a £2.5 million reward fund was launched and the parents were granted an audience with the Pope.

The Rhys Jones case is barely 36 hours old and it is all over the newspapers and TV and one can sense the momentum building. I would like to reiterate the statement of Sir Ian Blair, and accuse the british media of institutional racism in their reporting. The media choose which stories they would like to be front page and then they launch blanket publicity of certain cases which sometimes leads to mass public hysteria. Is it a coincidence that the children in both these cases are photogenic white children?

Does no one remember the black kids shot dead over the last 6 months; Kamilah Peniston, 12; Michael Dosunmu, 15; Adam Regis, 15; or stabbed to death Paul Erhahon, 14; or the missing Elizabeth Ogungbayibi, 6 or Dorothy Powell, 9? What do we need to do for these cases to gain more attention?

Dentists and Mechanics

I hate Dentists. Actually I should qualify that statement. I hate visiting the Dentists office. Despite this I somehow manage to drag myself to my dentist once every year. Today I visited my dentist for my annual 'routine' check up. After a clean and an xray I didn't request, I get hit with a bill for 95 quid.

Dentists and Mechanics, the only two professionals you go to and they don't need to give you an indication of the cost of the service before its incurred. Damn.

Just reminiscing with Youtube...

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim in early 2005 and by the end of the following year it had created such a cultural phenomenon that it was named on the front of Time Magazine as the best creation of the year. Never since the launch of CNN in the early nineties has a media been able to bring into our homes such a wealth of information. Have you missed out on any events that everyone is talking about? The Zidane headbutt, Peter Crouch Robot dance, the Spiderman 3 trailer, Lakisha Jones on American idol? Check it out on Youtube. This is the Youtube generation.

For those of you who haven't discovered Youtube yet, you haven't completely missed out yet but I would compare it to missing the early days of Napster, you missed out dudes! Since they have been bought out by Google its not the same, as increasingly a lot of videos are being taken down for copyright infringements. Anyway all is not lost as there are still a lot of gems to be found. (Otherwise check out some of the pretenders to the Youtube throne who don't have big business strangling them yet - Broadcaster.com, ifilm, revver.com, vidiac.com etc)

Had a bad case of insomnia tonight and thought to check out Naija stuff on Youtube. And came across the compilations of Naija tv adverts from the 1980s below and boy they sure brought back memories.



Some of these jingles were just so cheesy. "Wise men bank with UBA and women too with UBA, start a savings account today with UBA, UBA". Now let me think I am a big man on the island looking for a bank, oh Wise men bank with UBA, must bank there too. As if.

"You need a tonic for that engine Fatigue... now I'm feeling better cause the doctor he gave me Super Visco static, the doctor he cured my Engine fatigue" - The Ad finished by stating "One litre ₦3.50" If thats not a sign of inflation I don't know what is. I wonder how much it is now...

Chief Zebudaya and Samanja "Are you are, If you are want a good detergent to be wash deep down cleaner, brighter and fresher, go to be purchase the new Elephant blue detergent". That really says it all doesn't it.




"Omo, Omo, Super Blue Omo washes brighter and it shows" 68 kobo. Patti Boulaye as the Lux girl, Bar 40 kobo, Close Up appeal 75 kobo? This stuff brings tears to my eyes. What can you buy for 75 kobo in Nigeria today? (Well I guess it was 20 years ago...)

Anyway the enterprising dudes who put these old ads up have a glossy website inollywood where they are selling some old Nigerian classic TV series such as Cock Crow at dawn (Uncle Gaga), Icheoku, Village Headmaster, Mirror in the Sun (Barbara Soky) etc I really hope the original actors are still getting a cut of the action. Does anyone else have any old Naija tv stuff still on VHS/Betamax? Mail me at kushxkush@yahoo.co.uk lets make some dosh LOL!

Heres a video on Family planning done by Sunny Ade and Onyeka Onwenu around the same time. Happy Easter folks!

Nneka Plus Concert

Was at the "Nneka Plus" Concert last night and my ears are still ringing. Its definitely not due to the alcolhol I bought at the Students Union bar as I didn't take more more than a couple of bottle of some alcopop, I think I was just too close to one of the speakers all night.

Anyway the Concert was styled as Afropop featuring Nneka, Ximenez and with Styl-Plus as the headline act. I've got to confess to being pissed off big time with the organisation of the event. Styl-Plus only came on at half eleven and played for half an hour looking at their watches after every song. And they didn't even have live music so they were dependent on the CD of instumentals of their songs that the DJ was playing. Come on Guys surely you have to be more professional than this? My cousin even thought one of the Guys - Zeal was miming at one point.

The bands that impressed me were a group called Four Kornerz and Nneka.

Four Kornerz are a band made up of four brothers: Deji (27), TJ (25), Vidal (23) and Daniel (21), check them out at www.fourkornerz.com they have a great sound and the lead singer Deji is a real showman.

Nneka has a great voice and her music has a message that was difficult to follow due to the sound at the venue. Some dude came on after her called "Bantu" from Cologne, Germany and the girls didn't know where to look due to his "rough packaging'. Anyhoo, check out Nneka at www.myspace.com/nnekaworld

Styl-Plus in Concert in Jand...

...and Dublin. The band that brought you hits such as Olufunmi and Call my Name will be in Concert in the UK and Ireland in March. Can you afford to miss it?

For further details, Click here

Naijas Representing 2

Paula, Simon and Randy are stumped over how to pronounce Ikemefuna Nwabueze on American Idol. I wish they had let us hear him sing though, he could be the next Usher.

Is he Black Enough for the White House?

Can a Black Candidate win election to high office in the USA without the Black vote?

The fact that Barack Obama has endeared himself to white America is undeniable. For black people however they need to believe that by electing him it will change their lot. When Jesse Jackson launched his attempt to seek the democratic nomination in 1984 it was clear what platform he choose to stand on, where he thought his votes would come from.

Is it enough for black america just to have a black man in the white house or does his politics have to be black as well. Critics of Obama point out that 10years of having Clarence Thomas on the bench haven't done a damn thing for black America. Creating a symbol is no longer enough. Its a shame that the USA of the 21st Century has only seen 5 black governors ever.

Al Sharpton argues that America cannot afford to look beyond race in a climate that is still populated by inequalities that are inherently due to racial prejudice and historical inequalities