Two young guys were picked up by the cops for smoking dope and appeared in court on Friday before the judge.
The judge said, "You seem like nice young men, and I'd like to give you
a second chance rather than jail time. I want you to go out this
weekend and try to show others the evils of drug use and get them to
give up drugs forever. I'll see you back in court Monday."
Monday, the two guys were in court, and the judge said to the first one, "How did you do over the weekend?"
"Well, your honor, I persuaded 17 people to give up drugs forever."
"17 people? That's wonderful. What did you tell them?"
"I used a diagram, your honor. I drew two circles like this:
...O...o
...and told them this (the big circle) is your brain before drugs and this (small circle) is your brain after drugs."
"That's admirable," said the judge.
"And you, how did you do?", he asked the second boy,
"Well, your honor, I persuaded 156 people to give up drugs forever."
"156 people! That's amazing! How did you manage to do that?!"
"Well, I used a similar approach. (draws two circles)
...o...O
"I said (pointing to the small circle) this is your asshole before prison..
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) -
Suspected Islamist Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in
northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground in a
pattern of violence that has become almost a daily occurrence,
according to police and witnesses.
All three
attacks happened on Thursday in remote parts of Borno state, the
epicenter of Boko Haram's increasingly bloody struggle for an Islamic
kingdom in religiously mixed Nigeria.
One took place right next to Chibok, by the Cameroon border, from where more than 200 school girls were abducted last month.
The most deadly was in the town of Kerenua, near the Niger border.
Scores of militants opened fire on residents, killing 20 of them, and
burned houses, a police source said.
Since the girls' abduction on April 14, at least 450 civilians have been killed by the group, according to a Reuters count.
A spate of bombings across north and central Nigeria has killed
hundreds, including two in the capital Abuja and one in the central city
of Jos on Tuesday that killed 118 people.
The source said some phone signals to the militants had been tracked to
Niger itself, suggesting they may have been directed from there. Dozens
had been wounded by bullets, he said.
Another attack occurred in a small village of Kubur Viu, a few kilometers away from Chibok, resident Simeon Yhana said.
The police source concurred with the attack and toll.
"They killed five people. This place is right next to Chibok. The
military is supposed to be protecting this area but we fear these people
(Boko Haram) are coming back," Yhana said.
Militants shot dead three other people during an attack on the village of Kimba, the police source said.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan was in South Africa on Saturday,
his office said, to discuss ways of tackling Islamist militancy across
the continent with African heads of state.
Nigeria and its neighbors say Boko Haram - which has killed thousands
during its five-year-old insurgency in Africa's top oil producer - now
threatens the security of the whole region.
The insurgents
initially attacked mostly security forces and government officials after
they launched their uprising in northeast Borno state's capital
Maiduguri in 2009. When Jonathan ordered an offensive a year ago to
flush them out, civilians formed vigilante groups to help out - making
them targets too.
Nigeria accepted help from the United States,
Britain, France and China last week and around 80 U.S. troops were
arriving in Chad to start a mission to try to free the girls, who remain
in captivity.
(Reporting by Lanre Ola; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Stephen Powell)
London, May 23 (IANS) The UN Security Council has
imposed sanctions against Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram,
which had abducted over 200 schoolgirls April 14 and has terrorised the
country.
The Boko Haram will now be added to the list of Al Qaeda Sanctions
Committee's list of designated entities and subjected to an arms embargo
and asset freeze, the BBC reported.
A UN official said that imposing sanctions on the militant group was
necessary to support the efforts to "defeat Boko Haram and hold its
murderous leadership accountable".
The sanctions would shut down important avenues of funding, travel and weapons for the group.
The announcement was made by the UN a day after twin bombings killed 122 people in the central Nigerian city of Jos.
The authorities suspect the Boko Haram of being behind them, but
there has so far been no claim of responsibility from the group.
The Boko Haram, under the leadership of Abubaker Shekau, abducted
more than 200 girls from school dormitories in the town of Chibok.
Shekau, in a video, claimed responsibility for the kidnappings and
threatened to sell the girls if his demands were not met.
Ab explosion May 18 in the northern city of Kano killed four people, including a 12-year-old girl.
More than 300 people were killed by the militants May 5 in the town of Gamboru Ngala.
A car bomb May 2 claimed at least 19 lives in Nigeria's capital Abuja.
The Boko Haram, meaning "Western education is sin", has killed
thousands of people in Nigeria through a wave of bombings and
assassinations since 2009, and is fighting to overthrow the government,
create an Islamic state and ban Western education
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SHORT STORY with moral:
A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery; He rushed in, changed his clothes & went directly to the surgery block. He found the boy’s father pacing in the hall waiting for the doctor. On seeing him, the dad yelled: “Why did you take all this time to come? Don’t you know that my son’s life is in danger? Don’t you have any sense of responsibility?” The doctor smiled & said: “I am sorry, I was not in the hospital & I came as fast as I could after receiving the call, and now, I wish you’d calm down so that I can do my work” “Calm down?" screamed the father, what if your son was in this room right now, would you calm down? If your own son dies now what will you do??” The doctor smiled again & replied: “I have learned to bless the name of God in every situation I find myself." Go & intercede for your son, we will do our best by God’s grace” “Giving advises when we’re not concerned is so easy” murmured the father. The surgery took some hours after which the doctor went out happy, “thank goodness!, your son is saved!” and without waiting for the father’s reply he carried on his way running. “If you have any questions, ask the nurse!” he yelled while leaving. The father then turned to a nurse to continue nagging: “Why is he so arrogant? He couldn’t wait some minutes so that I ask about my son’s state, how can a doctor be this careless and rude? The nurse answered, tears coming down her face: His son died yesterday in a road accident, he was at the burial when we called him for your son’s surgery. And now that he saved your son’s life, he left running to finish his son’s burial.
MORAL: Never judge anyone prematurely, every one is fighting his or her own battle totally unknown to you; and unless you have been in an exact situation yourself, you can never know whether you would react differently. Don't judge people's choices without knowing the options they had to choose from.
ABUJA (Reuters) - Suspected
rebels from Nigeria's Islamist militant group Boko Haram attacked a
Chinese plant in northern Cameroon near the town of Waza, a local
governor told Reuters on Saturday.
Waza is 20 km (12 miles) from the Nigerian border close to the Sambisa
forest, a stronghold of Boko Haram which has killed thousands in Nigeria
in a five-year insurgency for an Islamist state and threatens to
destabilize the wider region.
The vast Sambisa forest is close to the area where Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month.
The governor of Far North province Augustine Fonka Awa confirmed the attack but declined to give details.
Chinese state news agency Xinhua quoted Chinese officials as saying
unidentified assailants had attacked the camp of a Chinese enterprise
operating in Cameroon on Friday night, injuring one person and leaving
10 unaccounted for.
Boko
Haram has staged several attacks in northern Cameroon. Last month, it
attacked a police post, killing two people. The rebels kidnapped a
French family in February 2013.
West African leaders meet in Paris on Saturday to try to improve cooperation in their fight against Boko Haram.
Outrage over the kidnapping has prompted Nigerian President Goodluck
Jonathan, criticized at home for his government's slow response, to
accept U.S., British and French intelligence help in the hunt for the
girls.
(Reporting by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Bate Felix; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Nigerian forces believe they are zeroing in on Boko Haram,
but the Islamic terror group behind a wave of murders and abductions has
long tentacles that reach into the Central African nation's neighbors.
In Cameroon, which shares much of Nigeria's northeastern border,
officials say militants from the group led by Abubakar Shekau have
sneaked in with a tide of refugees, causing a rise in kidnappings,
fighting and criminal acts just across the border from Nigeria’s Borno
state.
"Right now, we are being infiltrated by Boko Haram,” Col. Didier Badjeck, spokesman for the Cameroon Ministry of Defense, told AllAfrica.com. “The
military has decided to strengthen the intelligence system to
effectively counter this threat, which seems to be gaining local
support.”
“The boundaries between Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger are simply lines on a piece of paper..."- John Campbell, former ambassador to Nigeria
No one knows exactly how many fighters comprise Boko Haram, which one
month ago kidnapped more than 300 Christian schoolgirls who Shekau has
said will be sold into slavery or as child brides. Estimates range from a
few hundred to a few thousand, but experts say that does not include a
much wider network of sympathizers, informants and spies placed in the
Nigerian government.
University of Massachusetts-Boston Professor Darren Kew estimates
that Boko Haram has 300 hard-line fighters, with another 1,000 held in
Nigerian prisons and as many as 2,000 more hired guns at its disposal.
But, he said, it’s important to keep in mind that Boko Haram is more of a
movement than an organization.
“In addition to the hard-liners at the center, there are numerous
other factions — including “moderates” and fence-sitters — and
part-timers as well, many of whom may be sympathetic to the cause, or
may simply be young men for hire when needed,” said Kew, who heads the
school's Center for Peace, Democracy, and Development.
Founded in 2002 with the goal of advancing Islamic law, Boko Haram's
name loosely translates to "Western education is sinful." It is unclear
how popular the group's message is, particularly after its most recent
savagery has garnered local and international condemnation. But there is
no doubt that the group moves easily across Central Africa's borders,
embraced by villagers either out of solidarity or fear.
“The boundaries between Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, and Niger are simply
lines on a piece of paper that were drawn there by the French and
English when they were in the region,” said John Campbell, senior fellow
for African Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former
ambassador to Nigeria, told FoxNews.com. “It’s very hard to know the
extent of support for Boko Haram in Nigeria itself let alone neighboring
countries.”
In recent months, Boko Haram's foothold in northern Cameroon and
southern Niger seems to have strengthened, as evidenced by an increase
in kidnappings, said Kew.
“As of January it appeared that Boko Haram had been largely contained
to [Nigeria's] Borno and Yobe states, but since February they have
clearly broken out of their core areas," Kew said.
Boko Haram at one point explored an alliance with Al Qaeda, meeting
with the terror group's African leaders in Mali last year, said Mark
Schroeder, vice president of Africa Analysis for geopolitical
intelligence firm Stratfor. But much of the secretive group's growth has
been carefully managed and restricted to nations bordering Nigeria, he
said.
“They [Boko Haram] have sought to recruit and raise their ranks,”
Schroeder said, “but they have been careful. If they grew in size
throughout the region they would likely have a coalition fight against
them.”
Cameroon officials, who have long prided themselves on their nation's
relative stability in the region, say violent spillover seems to come
when the Nigerian forces turn up the heat on Boko Haram. On May 5, more
than 30 Boko Haram fighters stormed a military post in Cameroon's Far
North Region, killing a security officer and a civilian who was being
held in custody. In another attack around the same time, Boko Haram
fighters attacked a public market in the Nigerian border town of
Gambourou, killing more than 200 and sending 3,000 Nigerian refugees
pouring into Cameroon.
"Our problems come from our neighbors," Far North Region Gov. Fonka
Awah Augustine told Voice of America. "Each time the Nigerian army
attacks, Boko Haram becomes destabilized and they are looking for a safe
ground to settle, and each time Boko Haram equally attacks either the
army or a particular community, they cause the flow of the population in
their thousands into our region.”
Friday, 16 May 2014
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Lagos (AFP) - Nigerian
Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Boko Haram's leader as an
"obscenity" who is likely to be incapable of dialogue, as the government
considers opening talks with the Islamists over the more than 200
abducted schoolgirls.
The winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature
told AFP by phone from Los Angeles that Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau
was "high on religion and drugs".
"For me, we are dealing with a sub-human species," Soyinka said. "How do you dialogue with that kind of obscenity?"
Debate
over the prospects of negotiating with Boko Haram and even Shekau
himself has been a controversial issue in Nigeria throughout the
extremist group's uprising which has killed thousands.
The issue
resurfaced on Monday after Shekau released a video suggesting the girls
kidnapped from a secondary school in the northeastern town of Chibok
could be released in exchange for Islamist prisoners held by the
government.
"It is a bind for the nation because the girls must
be secured," Soyinka said, voicing sympathy for the officials who must
assess the pros and cons of talking to Shekau.
A screengrab taken on May 12, 2014, from a video released by Nigerian Islamist extremist group Boko …
The shocking mass abduction has drawn worldwide condemnation,
partly thanks to a social media campaign supported by major world
leaders and celebrities.
Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan
has accepted military assistance from the United States, Britain,
France, Israel and China to help with the rescue effort.
Some
commentators have suggested that welcoming help from foreign militaries
was an embarrassment for Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and top
economy.
But Soyinka said such critics were showing a lack of compassion for the teenaged hostages.
"I don't know what they are talking about," he said. "This is a global crisis.
Women carry placards in support of schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram during a demonstration in Lag …
"In this situation, where we have these kind of killers,
homicidal maniacs who can go into schools and kidnap hundreds of
girls... all help is welcome," Soyinka said.
For the international community, given such horrifying violence, intervening is "not a favour", he added. "It is a duty."
Activists
have organised daily protests in the capital Abuja demanding the girls'
release and demonstrations have also been held in other cities across
the country.
Civil activism is rare in Nigeria, with the
prominent exception of massive demonstrations over the scrapping of a
popular petrol subsidy that shut down the country in January 2012.
Nigeria
has a track record of cracking down on protests and Soyinka warned
Jonathan against suppressing public anger over the plight of the girls
and the escalating Boko Haram violence.
Jonathan's
administration "had better be very, very careful, because people are in
pain and they have been in pain for a very, very long time", he
cautioned.
A few protests
have been disbanded by the police and there were disputed reports that
Jonathan's wife, Patience, had ordered the arrest of one protest leader
for falsely identifying herself as the mother of one of the hostages.
If the protests continue, Soyinka said, the government "had better get out of the way".
President
Jonathan says he's fine with foreign military aid on the kidnapped
girls. But Nigeria’s Army has been loath to allow close up inspection of
its operations and its many problems.
For more than five years, the
Islamist terror group Boko Haram has been trying to carve out an Islamic
caliphate in the north of Nigeria, in an insurgency that has claimed
thousands of lives. But it was not until the abduction of more than 200
schoolgirls last month that the full glare of the world turned on
Nigeria.
Now, egged on
by a global social media storm, Western governments are under pressure
to help Africa's most populous nation find the schoolgirls and beat the
insurgency. But the challenges are daunting, including working with
Nigeria's military, a force that is highly valued at home but whose
shortcomings have been glaringly exposed by the kidnappings.
On
Monday, Boko Haram released a video, obtained by Agence France-Presse,
showing around 130 of the girls, who were kidnapped from a school on
April 14. The girls are filmed sitting on scrubland, wearing hijabs and
repeatedly citing the first verse of Koran, followed by the words:
"Allah is the only God who should be worshiped and the prophet Muhammad
is the only messenger."
Boko
Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said he would release the girls who had
converted to Islam in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners.
The
video is the first indication that the group may be willing to
negotiate. Although the government will be reluctant to bow to terrorist
demands, it may have to concede to a degree to see some girls released.
Nigerian
President Goodluck Jonathan is making other concessions as well,
accepting some offers, at least provisionally, of foreign involvement
that he initially rejected. The United States, Britain, and France have
all offered assistance; the US has had a handful of advisers on the
ground and is sending more. The US is also flying manned surveillance
aircraft over Nigeria. Israel has pledged, at least, to send
anti-terrorism experts to Nigeria.
However,
the Mr. Jonathan’s acceptance of help from foreign powers will be
strictly on Nigeria’s terms: the United States has operated a drone base
in neighboring Niger since 2012; but Nigeria has long refused requests
for them to operate on its territory.
IS THE ARMY GOOD ENOUGH?
Diplomatic
sources maintain that any outside intervention is unlikely to involve
any military action, remaining limited to an advisory and technical
level. Nigeria is notoriously prickly about military operations,
maintaining an almost mafia-like code of silence, and it is immensely
proud of its Army.
The crisis with Boko Haram suggests that pride may have been misplaced.
Nigeria
has been a major contributor to foreign security operations, notably in
Liberia and Somalia, and has long been the largest African contributor
to United Nations peacekeeping operations.
Yet
despite being one of the most cohesive forces on the continent,
Nigeria’s military still come under fire for being poorly trained, ill
equipped, and badly organized. Funds creamed off government budgets do
not reach the lower ranks of the Army, a fact that limits the amount of
equipment for soldiers, who are often seen wearing flip-flops at key
checkpoints and communicating to their officers on mobile phones. Low
morale has left foot soldiers with little incentive to fight a guerrilla
movement with superior weaponry and knowledge of the rugged terrain.
A
number of sources argue that Nigeria is loath to open its door and
expose its military to outside observation, not wishing Western military
officials to see its failings and problems up close.
How
significantly foreign advisers will be held at bay or not truly
utilized, or restricted from operations in Borno State where the girls
were kidnapped, is unclear.
Security sources say the Nigerian
forces are still overstretched – leaving them struggling to extract
extremists from their lairs. The military campaign has also faced
credible accusations of human rights abuses.
“Nigeria’s poor human
rights record with accusations of indiscriminate killings in northern
Nigeria complicates the amount of assistance we have been able to
provide the armed forces,” says a British military official, speaking on
the condition of anonymity.
Mr. Jonathan’s soldiers came under
intense criticism, for example, for a military counterattack after an
attempted jailbreak by Boko Haram that left around 600 people dead on
March 14, according to Amnesty International. It was the single
deadliest day since violence erupted in 2009.
SPLIT INTO SMALLER GROUPS?
The
video on Monday by Boko Haram leader Shekau fuels speculations that the
girls may have been split into smaller groups to avoid detection.
Finding
them in the cavernous Gwosa mountains straddling the Cameroonian border
or in the vast Sambisa forest, around the same size as West Virginia,
will be extremely challenging. A swap is possibly a more likely outcome
and could pave the way for further negotiations.
But for now, securing the girls safely is still a long way off.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) -
Boko Haram rebels killed four Nigerian soldiers in a night ambush
outside the northeastern city of Maiduguri and several insurgents also
died in the firefight, according to a statement on Wednesday from
Defence Headquarters.
Soldiers fired shots in the air at Maiduguri barracks on Wednesday
because they were angry with their commanders about having been made to
return at night to the city through an area where Boko Haram is fighting
an insurgency, soldiers told Reuters.
"Troops on patrol around Chibok were ambushed by insurgents yesterday.
Troops engaged the insurgents in a fierce combat and extricated
themselves from the ambush killing several insurgents. Four soldiers
however lost their lives during the ambush," said a statement from
Defence Headquarters.
"On
evacuation of the remains of the fallen troops, the General Officer
Commanding addressed the troops who registered their anger about the
incident by firing into the air. The situation has since been brought
under control," it said.
Boko Haram has waged a five-year insurgency in northern Nigeria for an
Islamic state. A month ago its fighters stormed a school in the village
of Chibok and seized 276 girls who were taking exams. Some escaped but
about 200 remain missing.
On
Monday, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau released a video showing some
of the girls in captivity and offered to exchange them for Boko Haram
prisoners held by the government.
(Reporting by Lanre Ola and Isaac Abrak; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by Andrew Roche)
The Nigerian lawyer who started the #BringBackOurGirls viral campaign
says he is humbled and overwhelmed by the unprecedented response.
“It’s gratifying that because of the popularity of the hashtag the whole world has an interest in the abduction of the girls.”
Ibrahim M Abdullahi, a managing partner at an Abuja-based law firm,
sparked off the social media movement with the poignant words
#BringBackOurGirls following a televised talk by Dr. Oby Ezekwesili,
vice-president of the World Bank for Africa.
In fact, during her
speech at a UNESCO event in the Nigerian city of Port Harcourt, Dr.
Ezekwesili used the expression “Bring Back Our Daughters” when referring
to the brutal kidnapping of 200 plus Nigerian girls.
Mr.
Abdullahi phrased her words and unwittingly sparked off what may well be
one of the biggest worldwide trending campaigns, which has garnished
attention from politicians and celebrities alike.
FILE - In this Oct. 10, 2008
file photo, Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman Lee Kun-hee arrives for his
trial at the Seoul Court House in Seoul, South Korea. Lee was
hospitalized in stable condition at a Seoul hospital Sunday, May 11,
2014, after suffering a heart attack, the company said in a statement.
(AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. Chairman
Lee Kun-hee remained hospitalized in stable condition Monday after being
treated for a heart attack, company officials said.
Lee, 72, was rushed to a hospital near his Seoul
home late Saturday after suffering breathing problems and received CPR
due to symptoms of a heart attack. He was later transferred to a
Samsung-affiliated hospital in Seoul, Samsung Medical Center, where he
underwent a stent placement procedure early Sunday in which tubes were
inserted into his body to widen blood vessels to prevent a heart attack,
according to Keich Lee, a spokeswoman at Samsung Global Communications.
The Samsung Group said in a statement Sunday that Lee "is in stable condition and making a recovery."
The
Samsung spokeswoman said Monday that Lee's spontaneous breathing
returned shortly after the operation and hospital officials expect good
results. She said Lee remained hospitalized Monday.
Lee, the de
facto chairman of Samsung Group, which is South Korea's largest
conglomerate, has a history of medical problems. He has been suffering
from respiratory complications since undergoing lung surgery in the late
1990s, and was hospitalized last August for treatment of pneumonia. He
returned to Seoul in April after spending the winter season in the U.S.
to prevent respiratory ailments.
Lee is also a high-ranking South Korean member of the International Olympic Committee.
Samsung
Electronics Co. has a top-heavy command structure that centers on the
founding family. Lee Kun-hee is the third son of Samsung founder Lee
Byung-chull and was tapped in 1979 by his father to lead what would
become South Korea's most valuable company — a global leader in
smartphones, TVs, household appliances and home entertainment systems.
The conglomerate also owns businesses in life insurance, hotel,
construction, shipbuilding, chemical industry, fashion, credit card and
other areas.
The company's
business operations are run by three CEOs, though Lee Kun-hee as the
head of the flagship electronics division wields significant control
over the company's direction.
The
Samsung Group has recently been carrying out a broad range of mergers
and reorganizations in what analysts say are preparations for handing
over the reins to Lee's three children — a son and two daughters.
Shares of Samsung Electronics Co. rose 1.4 percent in Seoul on Monday.
Nigerian schoolgirls could be given up in prisoner swap
By Matthew Mpoke Bigg
ABUJA (Reuters) - The leader of the Nigerian
Islamist rebel group Boko Haram has said he will release more than 200
schoolgirls abducted by his fighters last month in exchange for
prisoners, according to a video seen by Agence France-Presse on Monday.
Around
100 girls wearing full veils and praying are shown in an undisclosed
location in the 17-minute video in which Boko Haram leader Abubakar
Shekau speaks, according to the French news agency.
Militants
fighting for an Islamist state stormed a secondary school in the
northeastern village of Chibok on April 14 and seized 276 girls who were
taking exams. Some managed to escape but around 200 remain missing.
The
group has killed thousands since 2009 and destabilized parts of
northeast Nigeria, the country with Africa's largest population and
biggest economy.
The attack has provoked global expressions of
outrage, and concern about the fate of the girls deepened when Shekau
threatened in a video released earlier this month to sell the girls "in
the market".
Nigeria said on Saturday it
had deployed two army divisions to the hunt for the girls while several
nations including the United States, Britain, Israel and France have
offered assistance or sent experts.
The
Nigerian government has been sharply criticized for its response to the
abductions but President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that
international military and intelligence assistance made him optimistic
about finding the girls.
French
President Francois Hollande on Sunday offered to host a summit in Paris
next Saturday with Nigeria and its neighbors focused on the militant
group.
The leaders of Benin,
Cameroon, Chad and Niger might also attend and Britain, the European
Union and the United States would probably be represented as well,
Hollande's aides said.
The
mass abduction of schoolgirls has touched a chord around the world, and
triggered a support campaign using the Twitter hashtag
#BringBackOurGirls.
(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
This would be an awesome quote under any circumstances, but the fact
that Fox has gone through so much and by all accounts kept a positive
perspective on life and retained his own dignity at all times, makes it
even more important.
If I can deal with adversity, then so can you is an additional message that I take away from this..
2. Johnny Depp
I love the quote because I think it can have two meanings (although I have no idea if that was intended).
On a personal level closing your eyes metaphorically to your own
problems, such as an abusive spouse, addictions or just an all round bad
attitude doesn’t mean you won’t feel the associated hurt any less.
But I also think it can be used on a more global level. That we can
ignore global problems like war, poverty, corruption, discrimination,
but that won’t make them go away, we actually have to make a stand if we
want to feel like we are making a difference.
3. Ashton Kutcher
I didn’t really know anything about Kutcher other then he married
Demi Moore and Punk’d people until I read this snippet from a speech he
gave at a school.
He sky rocketed in my estimation because this is brilliant. Maybe not
with this verbiage, but I could imagine the Dalai Lama saying this.
4. George Carlin
I’d never heard of Carlin until I moved to the US and now I’m sad
that I hadn’t because he wasn’t just a comedian, he was a modern day
philosopher.
Unfortunately, kids these days are told not to question and accept
what is taught them which is why there’s an entire generation who think
Christopher Columbus founded America and a group of people who believe
the world is only marginally older than Betty White.
5. John Lennon
I have a sneaking suspicion that there may be an element of this that
is apocryphal. Having said that, Lennon was a genius and he certainly
nailed this one.
After all, isn’t being happy the ultimate goal in life?
6. Elvis Presley
I think context with this is important because Presley grew up in the
time of segregation and racial intolerance, especially in the Deep
South where he heralded from.
I have no idea if racism was even in his mind (I suspect not), but my
guess is it caused a number of his followers to stop and think for a
moment. At least I hope so.
7. Marilyn Monroe
It’s only just recently started to understand that Marilyn Monroe was
nothing like I presumed. Sadly, I’d bought into the stereotype of her
being a vacuous self absorbed movie star only interested in her looks
and being told how wonderful she was.
I’m happy to say I was very wrong and she was a witty, caring and
intelligent women trying to fill a roll that was never right for her.
I hope more women take this message on board and ignore the
ridiculous attempts of the beauty industry to brain wash them into
thinking looks are more important than what’s on the inside.
8. John Stewart
How could I ignore such an awesome quote when I’m openly obsessed with values and think they are the most important aspect of self development.
I almost used Roy Disney’s quote “Making decisions is easy when you know what your values are“, but I gave this the nod.
9. Lucille Ball
This almost sounds self indulgent, but it’s not.
You are the most important person in the world to you and as such you have a duty to love yourself.
Too many people (and I have to say this is more of a female thing)
spend all their time putting others first. That is noble and I know it
has a positive intent, but not looking after yourself is not a recipe
for being a great parent, sibling, friend etc.
10. Will Smith
If you look around you every single thing you can see was at one time considered unrealistic.
If you only do things that you and the people around you think are
realistic then there is a high probability that you’ll never do anything
extraordinary.
11. Robin Williams
I used to know a guy who was a lighting engineer on big Hollywood movies.
I asked him who the nicest big star he ever met was and he
immediately replied, Robin Williams. He said he would always eat with
the technicians, even sometimes bringing them lunch and usually have
them in fits of laughter.
Williams has that spark of genius/madness and whereas it hasn’t been
all plane sailing for him with drug addiction etc, the world would be
worse off without people like him.
So why on earth do we work so hard on teaching kids to conform and not stand out in the crowd?
12. Ricky Gervais
I saw this the other day and laughed my ass off because it’s so true.
People who are highly offended by something often believe their indignation makes them more right. Er, it doesn’t.
13. Robert Downey Jnr
It’s dead easy to have no interest in others and I can certainly be guilty of it.
Yet we all have fascinating stories to tell and it’s not just the rich and famous who we can learn from.
14. Kurt Cobain
I think we can all agree Kurt had a few problems, he was certainly a
tortured soul and had an unhealthy relationship with drugs and shot
guns.
However, you couldn’t accuse him of playing the media game. In other
words he was authentic and not in the people pleasing business.
I try to be like this with this blog. I never want to offend people,
but I also don’t want to be censoring myself all the time and end up
delivering a vanilla inoffensive blog that inspires nobody.
Kurt inspired millions whether you like him or not.
15. Mathew Bomer
I had to Google who this guy was as I’d never heard of him, but I’m glad I have now.
He so nails discrimination. The moment we start to ponder whether we
are being discriminatory because of a persons race, sexuality or
religion is the moment we have lost the battle.
I know it’s not easy (largely down to social stereotyping) but we
haven’t beaten discrimination until we don’t even think about it.
16. Ellen DeGeneres
I have never met Ellen, nor do I ever expect to, so I could be
completely wrong in what I’m about to say, but everything about her
oozes authenticity, caring and compassion.
I for one thinks she means every word of this and I love that we have
such a powerful role model showing younger people that it’s not just
about looking after yourself.
17. John Cussack
What can I say other than, YES! Whether you’re a religious person or not, surely this has to make sense?
18. Willie Nelson
Another quote touching on values.
Not sure if it’s the years of weed use that has made him so laid back, or he’s just a nice guy!
19, Tina Fey
I could have picked any number from this very sassy and incredibly intelligent woman.
This not only makes a great point, it also made me laugh as only a
couple of weeks ago I had two Jehovah’s Witnesses on my door step trying
to tell me I had everything all wrong.
20. Jimi Hendrix
I have no idea if this will ever happen although I suspect not, but
when he wasn’t, having wild parties, getting high and kissing the sky,
Hendrix made a lot of sense
So what do you think?
I think there are some gems here from some people who we maybe wouldn’t normally associate such insights from.
So what’s your favorite, please let me know in the comments!
In Scandinavian folklore, a troll is a big, slow idiot
beast that eats people and turns to stone in the sunlight. After some
jiggering throughout history, a troll became an asshole who assholes his
way through life in an asshole way, but does so knowingly. This is key.
The difference between a troll and any asshole is that any asshole
doesn't even get that they're an asshole. They live in asshole
ignorance. Trolls do it on purpose, but they do it so well that it
becomes an all-consuming brand of psychotic assholery that some people
refuse to believe is real, because how could it be? How could this
person be such an asshole all the time if it's not genuine,
unintentional assholery? Well, there are some signs to look out for, and
I will guide you through it using four of the world's most prolific
trolls. Because I'm helpful like that.
#4. Nancy Grace
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News/Getty Images
Ugh. That's how every story on Nancy Grace should begin, owing to her
detestable and repugnant nature. If goodness smelled like roses, Nancy
Grace would smell like a Magnum condom dredged from the bottom of a
cistern in a Mumbai sewage treatment plant.
Grace has made her entire career out of loud mouthing her way through
tragedy at the expense of good sense and tact. She doesn't care if
she's right, or if she has all the facts, as long as she can
sensationalize something terrible and get people to listen to her shrill
caterwauling long enough to justify the network cutting her a paycheck.
In a more perfect world, they'd simply toss her a raw steak and lock
her back in the enclosure with the other shaven apes, but life isn't
fair, so here we are.
Milivoje Gencic/iStock/Getty Images
"When we dated, Nancy had the worst ass beard."
In a stunning and gut-churning twist, there was a time when Nancy
Grace was an actual legal professional. People's fates were partially in
her hands for real, and not just as a result of her slinging blame like
so much poop on her nauseating television shows. Fortunately for us,
her shittier nature put a swift end to her legal career, as she had
convictions overturned thanks to her withholding evidence and playing
"fast and loose" with facts. So basically the shit she does on TV now is
the shit she did in courtrooms when she was a lawyer -- she's a scumbag
liar who prejudges people based on her ass-brained understanding of the
situation.
I'll give Nancy the benefit of the doubt these days when it comes to
trolling -- either what she's doing is willful trolling or she's
electrodes-in-the-urethra-to-celebrate-Arbor-Day insane. But her
mean-spiritedness makes me feel like this isn't mental illness, just
twatishness. She's a twat.
Lisa F. Young/iStock/Getty Images
"I'll see you next Tuesday. Get it? Get it!?"
During the Elizabeth Smart case, Grace repeatedly called one suspect
guilty on television when it turned out he wasn't. After the death of
the Ultimate Warrior, Grace insinuated that his death was related to
drugs, which it wasn't, along with the deaths of numerous other
wrestlers who also hadn't been linked to drugs. This has been Grace's
problem since she hatched from the pit -- she takes one potentially
relevant assumption and rides it like a dying pony into the ground,
regardless of whether there's any need for it. She's a reactionary,
thoughtless slug of a human. If a bag of farts could wear blouses from
Big Lots, it would be Nancy Grace.
Now, if we're being rational, we know that Grace actually graduated
from law school, so technically she has to have at least some brains
mixed in with the shit in her head, and that means she has at least a
minimal understanding of the actual criminal justice system and the very
basic, very easy to understand presumption of innocence. It's literally
impossible for her to not be aware of it. And that means she's
willingly and flagrantly ignoring it. And why? Because that gets her
simian hide on the news and in social media. It's how she gets noticed.
Otherwise she's just an irrelevant sack of poop with a terrible haircut.
She's trolling for relevancy in a desperate attempt to maintain
influence. She doesn't care about the people she pretends to be
championing, and she couldn't give half a shit for justice. She wants to
be seen, like the world's most foul stripper -- look at me and give me
recognition and money. That's all. Fuck that filthy barnacle.
#3. Michael Bay
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty
Is Michael Bay a legit filmmaker or a glorified monkey with a film
camera and a penchant for titties and splosions? Is there necessarily a
difference? Any forum on the Internet (known in some circles as the
Hallowed Halls of Intellectualism) that discusses movies will endlessly
debate the merits of Michael Bay's film history, and more often than not
the decision will fall on the side of "shitastic." People love to hate
Michael Bay movies, even though every Michael Bay movie has made more
money than every other Michael Bay movie and we've all seen them.
The question now, in 2014, after a solid 20 years of Michael Bay
movies, is how can you still believe he doesn't know what he's doing?
Ever since Bad Boys in 1995, Bay has been criticized for his
heavy reliance on explosions over dialogue and body counts of innocent
bystanders in the dozens (if not hundreds) over any kind of
accountability or responsibility for his central characters. He makes
action movies that are built on a solid foundation of images that would
flash through the head of a 15-year-old while he masturbates on a roller
coaster in a thunderstorm.
Purestock/Purestock/Getty Images
"There's something in my eye!"
Every new Bay movie is met with the same derision as his previous
works. Just look at the animosity already directed toward his unreleased
next feature, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which Bay is only
producing, not directing. Fans have reacted in a way that suggests that
Bay's influence has ruined the legacy of cartoon turtles that eat pizza
and fight a big alien
brain while receiving spiritual guidance from an elderly rat. No one
can ruin that. That's the dumbest fucking sentence I have ever typed.
Michael Bay could literally film himself fucking a real turtle with a
nunchuck and it would be no less artistic than the source material. But
the general consensus already is that Megan Fox was a terrible casting
choice and the turtle effects look shitty. Because we've all seen
bipedal man-turtles, and these ones don't live up to our expectations.
I would argue, after Transformers 2, in which a robot
literally had low-hanging testicles that were visible on screen and
noticed by all, that there is no way that Michael Bay is accidentally
making bad movies. The movies he has directed have made over $4.6
billion worldwide. No one is $4.6 billion stupid. That's in defiance of
nature and goodness. Michael Bay does what he does on purpose for $4.6
billion reasons. Everyone talks about his movies. Everyone goes to see
them, and everyone bitches enough to make everyone who hasn't seen them
take a look to see what the big deal is, and that roller coaster keeps
thundering through the wank storm.
Jackfruits grow on the branches and trunks of
tall trees. You don't wait to harvest until they drop of their own
accord — by that time, they'd be overripe.
iStockphoto
It's not every fruit that gets its own international symposium.
Then
again, the jackfruit is not your typical fruit. It's got a distinctive,
musky smell, and a flavor that some describe as like Juicy Fruit gum.
It
is the largest tree fruit in the world, capable of reaching 100 pounds.
And it grows on the branches — and the trunks — of trees that can reach
30, 40, 50 feet. (Trunk-growing is a good thing because it reduces the
odds of a jackfruit bopping you on the head.)
Jackfruits are
also a nutritional bonanza: high in protein, potassium and vitamin B.
And, with about 95 calories in about a half a cup, they aren't quite as
high-carb or caloric as staples like rice or corn.
Yet the jackfruit is "an underutilized crop" in the tropical-to-subtropical climate where it thrives, says ,
director of the graduate program in plant biology and conservation at
Northwestern University and the Chicago Botanic Garden. In countries
like India and Bangladesh, where the jackfruit was once widely
cultivated, it has fallen out of favor.
So in mid-May, the , will devote two days to revving up production
and marketing of the jackfruit as well as its cousin, the breadfruit.
For
parts of the world facing food insecurity — the buzz phrase for the
struggle to provide enough nutritious food — the jackfruit could be
manna from a tree. The tree itself requires "relatively little care once
it's been established," says Zerega. By contrast, popular crops like
wheat, rice and corn need lots of irrigation and pesticides. And the
jackfruit is a perennial so it doesn't require constant replanting.
There
won't be an instant payoff for new farmers. A tree takes five to seven
years to bear fruit. Eventually, a yearly yield might be in the 150- to
200-fruit range, says , a tropical fruit crop specialist at the University of Florida.
Fruits
are typically picked in summer and fall. You don't wait to harvest
until they drop of their own accord — by that time, they'd be overripe.
The tree belongs to the mulberry family. And it's got an impressive
lineage. Around 300 B.C., the Greek philosopher wrote: "There is also
another tree which is very large and ; it is used for food by the sages
of India who wear no clothes."
Probably was a jackfruit. India is thought to be its place of origin.
As for the name "jackfruit," it most likely emerged from what the Portuguese called it, "jaca," which was probably a version of a name used in southern India, "chakka pazham." Jackfruit has other names, too: kathal in Bangladesh, kanun in Thailand and nangka in Malaysia.
Whatever
you call it, it's a versatile food source — and thus a potential
economic boon for countries that market it. Jackfruits can be dried,
roasted, added to soups, used in chips, jams, juices, ice cream. The
seeds can be boiled, roasted or ground into flour. Even the tree itself
is valuable: high-quality, rot-resistant timber for furniture and
musical instruments.
Or you can eat a jackfruit fresh.
The
jackfruit is made up of hundreds or even thousands of individual
flowers that are fused together. We eat the "fleshy petals" that
surround the seed, which is the actual fruit, says Zerega.
The
edible portion of a young fruit has a slight crunch when you bite in. As
the fruit matures, it may remain firm, but in some varieties it becomes
softer and more custardlike.
Curious fruit lovers can find
fresh jackfruits in the U.S. Zerega has bought relative peewees
(12-pounders at about $2 a pound) at Asian markets in Chicago. Crane
sees fresh jackfruits at Asian and Caribbean stores in Florida, where
the jackfruit is grown on a limited scale and also imported from
Jamaica. Bottled, canned and other products are available online and in
specialty markets around the country.
All this reporting made
us eager to put the jackfruit to a taste test. We couldn't find a fresh
one in D.C., so we bought jackfruit packed in sugar syrup. Since Crane
mentioned that frozen jackfruit is "refreshing," we froze some and also
ate some out of the jar.
As potential tasters wafted by, the first comment was, "Oh, it has an aroma."
The
aroma was compared to overripe fruit, packaged fruit cup, smelly feet,
stinky cheese and pet food. But really, it wasn't that bad!
As
for the taste: "It tastes better than it smells," was a consistent
opinion. The taste was described as "mellow mango," a little peachy, a
little pearlike. The texture was compared to chunky applesauce or
overripe banana. Also a little mealy and stringy.
A taster who grew up eating jackfruits said he found them too gooey as a kid, and after one bite said, "Still too gooey."
But
most tasters liked it. They thought it was sweet in a good, tropical
kind of way. They imagined how yummy it would be mixed with yogurt. They
liked it semi-frozen (the frozen samples thawed out a bit) and were
eager to a try jackfruit popsicle.
But tasters who'd had fresh
jackfruits said they beat jackfruit from a jar by a long shot. When
pressed, they couldn't explain why.
Praise be to Satan. All photos by the author, who has a shitty camera phone
In January the Satanic Temple announced plans
to erect a monument glorifying the Dark Lord on the front lawn of the
Oklahoma Statehouse. An Indiegogo campaign was launched with what seemed
like a somewhat lofty goal of $20,000, but by the time donations ended
almost $30,000 had been raised. Now an artist trained in classical
sculpture is toiling away in New York, crafting a Baphomet
figure sitting beneath a pentagram and flanked by two children gazing
upward in loyalty. When it is finished, it will be cast in bronze and,
the Satanists hope, eventually displayed in Oklahoma.
The statue is a direct response to the state's installation of a Ten
Commandments monument outside the Capitol in 2012. State Representative
Mike Ritze paid for the controversial statue with his own money, and
therefore it was considered a donation and OK to place on government
property. Following that line of reasoning, the Satanic Temple submitted
a formal application for their monument.
As Trait Thompson of the Oklahoma Capitol Preservation Commission told CNN
last December, “Individuals and groups are free to apply to place a
monument or statue or artwork.” The applications are then approved or
rejected by the Commission. Unfortunately, the state has placed a halt
on issuing permits for any other monuments until a lawsuit filed by the
ACLU against Ritze’s Commandments monument is settled.
Nonetheless, the Satanists are building this thing, and I was offered
an early peek at the work in progress by Temple spokesperson Lucien Greaves.
Greaves told me he has received numerous threats from people who want
to attack the sculpture, but that he “wouldn’t expect these outraged and
nearly insensible reactionaries to actually know how to assault a
bronze monument without severely hurting themselves in the process.”
Still, he’s not taking any chances. The Temple is building a mold of the
sculpture so they can pop these things out like evil, terribly
expensive action figures whenever they need a new one.
“Depending on our insurance policy,” Greaves said, “we may be able to
cast two from the destruction of one, expediting our arrival to the next
battleground.”
The Temple estimates that the monument will be finished in a few
months. Once it’s done, they plan to put it in front of the Oklahoma
Statehouse regardless of the the Capitol Preservation Commission’s
ongoing battle against the ACLU. They feel this should be allowed
because their application was submitted before all the hullabaloo over
Ritze’s monument.
“After all,” Greaves told me, “the Ten Commandments still stand at the
State Capitol. We are fully willing to place our monument at the
Capitol, even while the ACLU suit is fought, with the understanding that
a judgment against the Ten Commandments will have ramifications for our
monument as well, likely resulting in the removal of both.”
The Baphomet, which will stand seven feet tall and be a testament to
the glory of the Angel of the Bottomless Pit, would be placed directly
beside the sculpture glorifying the laws given to Moses by the Christian
God. The idea of a Satanic monument sitting on government property in
Oklahoma—which is like the Bible Belt's Bible Belt—seems a bit
far-fetched, but Greaves says that "there has been quite a bit of
discussion among legal scholars who recognize how difficult it would
actually be for Oklahoma to turn us down… Constitutional law is quite
clear on this issue: The state can’t discriminate against viewpoints. If
they’ve opened the door for one, they’ve opened it for all.”
Ryan Kiesel from the Oklahoma ACLU seems to agree. He told the Libertarian Republic,
“If, at the end of the day, the Ten Commandments monument is allowed to
remain on the Capitol grounds with its overtly Christian message, then
the Satanic Temple’s proposal can’t be rejected because it is of a
different religious viewpoint.” When the monument is finished, the
Baphomet will rest on the block beneath the pentagram. His lap will
serve as a seat for children.
One popular argument being used against the Temple’s monument is that
it doesn’t have “any historical significance for the State of Oklahoma,”
as State Representative Paul Wesselhoft told a local news station
in January. “The only reason why the Ten Commandments qualified,” he
continued, “is because at the Capitol, what we do is we make laws. We
are lawmakers. Well, one of the earliest laws we have are the Ten
Commandments.” This, it is important to remember, was said by a current
democratically elected member of the legislature.
Greaves told me that “the idea that the Ten Commandments are
foundational to US or Oklahoman law is absurd and obscene… I would argue
that the message behind our monument speaks more directly to the
formation of US Constitutional values than the Ten Commandments possibly
could. It especially does so when it stands directly beside the Ten
Commandments, as it affirms no one religion enjoys legal preference.”
Regardless of what happens at the statehouse, the Temple is charging
ahead with the monument. And if it doesn’t end up in Oklahoma City and
the Ten Commandments are forced to be removed, the Satanists will try to
find a home for the Baphomet in another deserving state. Texas, for
instance, has had a monument of the Ten Commandments sitting on its
capitol grounds for 40 years. As Greaves put it, “There are no shortage
of public locations across the US where religious monuments await a
contrasting voice.” If you would like to support the Temple’s monument, go to their website and buy some nice Satan swag. All proceeds will go toward the Baphomet.
5. John Lennon
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