What to do with the internet connection.
Most of the cyber cafés are just having a lot of problems with their connection. I used to think that is was just certain areas that have problems but I would try in this article to share my experience with you on the internet connection in the nation. I have used the internet in the cities of Tiko, Douala, Buea, Limbe, Molyko and lastly at Mutengene.
The first place that I used the internet once I got into the country in the year 2005 was in long street Tiko. I went to the place to try and get some copies made on resumes that I planned on sending out to employers. The copying part of the transaction went very well. It was the internet that was moving very slowly to me at the time. I thought that it had to do with this particular location and left the place planning on testing different internet locations. The next area that I tested the internet connection was in an area in Mutengene and it work surprisingly well. At the time the internet places that I visited did not get as much traffic as they do now. I did talk to my uncle in Buea and he told me that the University campus in Buea does have internet connection and it was relatively inexpensive also. I believe you get two hours of internet connection for four hundred francs CFA. That is one hundred francs cheaper than in the rest of the other areas.
The University of Buea does have by far the best connection in all the places that I have visited. At the time that I started to go there, my visits were about two times a month. I mainly used the internet for reading news items.
Next stop was in Douala. In Douala there were so many internet cafes and you could make your choice of many. There was one that I used in an area called Bonaberi. When it was on, it worked very well despite the fact that there were many people using it at the time. Two other places that I used the internet in the Bonaberi area worked pretty well. There is a place just at the entrance of the ancient route and the connection there was pretty good. There was no interruption of the service also. The one at the end of the ancient route entrance was pretty good also. It was not as large as the first one but it worked pretty well. I did spend some time at Bonamoussadi and there the connections were very unsteady. A lot of interruptions. That was also the case in Akwa at an office that I worked at. You would be doing some work and the connection would just go off. Also there were some days that you did not get any connections at all.
Mutengene has a good connection on a place called Buea road. There are about three other places in the small town but the one on Buea road is the better one. There is connection in Molyko and Buea town .They work most of the time but there are also problems that might include interruption of electricity.
There has been talk of bringing better connection to the nation like the use of fiber optic cables instead of the phone line. The company in the country that deals with electricity had suggested that the future might include bringing the internet connection through the electrical lines. That might improve things a bit since there is electricity in a lot of areas.
There is also the question of how many people put the internet into use in the country. I believe that is one of the problems. A lot of individuals still do not use the internet and for the moment that might be the reason why investing a lot of money into it would not be such a great investment. The internet places are run by individuals with their own personal money and they have to make a profit before they could invest more money into getting a much faster connection for the customers.
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
त्रौब्ले इन साउथ अफ्रीका एंड Nigeria
Trouble in the Top Two African Nations.
South Africa is the richest of the African nations and they are due to host the World Cup next year. The Republic of Nigeria is Africa’s top populated country and it is also the continents top producer and exported of oil. Both nations are suppose to be the flag bearers of the continent but they are now both involved in social unrest with disturbing images being flashed across the world’s media about what is going on in both nations.
South Africa.
The first troubling sign was when workers involved in the construction of the world cup 2010 stadiums went on strike temporary demanding higher wages. That problem was taken care of in a hurry as not just South Africa but the world at large had something at stake in the world cup. The strike moved on to other areas of the work force though and it is this current strike that is having the most negative of images of the South African nation. The images are disturbing to say the least partly due to the history of the nation of South Africa. People are on the streets harassing government vehicles and littering the streets and some of the pictures look like they are going back to the days of apartheid.
Jacob Zuma got elected as President of South Africa last year amid a lot of controversy about his role in bribery and corruption that took place during his term as vice President of South Africa under the then government of President Thabo Mbeki. Jacob Zuma’s charges were dropped in the court of law and he went on to become the president of South Africa amid a lot of expectation from the masses that he was going to change their lives. Well so far that has not happened and it seems as if the same people that went to the polls to vote for him are now beginning to demand for real changes to their livelihoods in this nation in which the people have sacrifice a lot. The President has appeared on TV and he is questioning whether people have the right to be littering the streets in a move towards taking strong action against them. What I think he should be going is focusing on trying to find out what exactly the people are angry about and work towards finding a solution to the problem.
Nigeria.
Nigeria’s recent problem involves militants that are fighting to get their own nation in the northern state of Bauchi. They are of the Muslim faith and they are looking for a place in which they control and can practice a rigid form of the Islamic law. Some of their demands include no type of western education for their children, restriction on some of the rights for women and the large one is for them to have their own state. That would not happen though.
Nigeria went through a civil war in the 1960s and their leadership are quick to strike down on any actions that could lead the nation towards the path of war. The sect leader has recently been killed and some human rights groups are crying fowl. The reason that human rights organization are complaining is that the initial police report claimed that the sect leader was killed in combat. But later on a police chief said that the sect chief was in their custody when he died. So there is bound to be some investigation before the rest of the world can get a clear picture as to what really happened. The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar’ Adua though is less concern about the group and has ordered a major crack down on them with close to about 600 people now reported dead. The President of Nigeria got elected in a democratic process but there were allegations of election violations once he got into office. He has been a very quite leader of the heavily populated nation compared to Nigerian leaders of the past. He has been working hard though. He has brought the situation in the Delta Region under some sort of control by granting amnesty to their leader and negotiating with the group. Some of their demands are being met as major constructions are ongoing in this part of the country to trickle down some of the oil revenue that is being exploited in the region.
South Africa is the richest of the African nations and they are due to host the World Cup next year. The Republic of Nigeria is Africa’s top populated country and it is also the continents top producer and exported of oil. Both nations are suppose to be the flag bearers of the continent but they are now both involved in social unrest with disturbing images being flashed across the world’s media about what is going on in both nations.
South Africa.
The first troubling sign was when workers involved in the construction of the world cup 2010 stadiums went on strike temporary demanding higher wages. That problem was taken care of in a hurry as not just South Africa but the world at large had something at stake in the world cup. The strike moved on to other areas of the work force though and it is this current strike that is having the most negative of images of the South African nation. The images are disturbing to say the least partly due to the history of the nation of South Africa. People are on the streets harassing government vehicles and littering the streets and some of the pictures look like they are going back to the days of apartheid.
Jacob Zuma got elected as President of South Africa last year amid a lot of controversy about his role in bribery and corruption that took place during his term as vice President of South Africa under the then government of President Thabo Mbeki. Jacob Zuma’s charges were dropped in the court of law and he went on to become the president of South Africa amid a lot of expectation from the masses that he was going to change their lives. Well so far that has not happened and it seems as if the same people that went to the polls to vote for him are now beginning to demand for real changes to their livelihoods in this nation in which the people have sacrifice a lot. The President has appeared on TV and he is questioning whether people have the right to be littering the streets in a move towards taking strong action against them. What I think he should be going is focusing on trying to find out what exactly the people are angry about and work towards finding a solution to the problem.
Nigeria.
Nigeria’s recent problem involves militants that are fighting to get their own nation in the northern state of Bauchi. They are of the Muslim faith and they are looking for a place in which they control and can practice a rigid form of the Islamic law. Some of their demands include no type of western education for their children, restriction on some of the rights for women and the large one is for them to have their own state. That would not happen though.
Nigeria went through a civil war in the 1960s and their leadership are quick to strike down on any actions that could lead the nation towards the path of war. The sect leader has recently been killed and some human rights groups are crying fowl. The reason that human rights organization are complaining is that the initial police report claimed that the sect leader was killed in combat. But later on a police chief said that the sect chief was in their custody when he died. So there is bound to be some investigation before the rest of the world can get a clear picture as to what really happened. The President of Nigeria, Umaru Yar’ Adua though is less concern about the group and has ordered a major crack down on them with close to about 600 people now reported dead. The President of Nigeria got elected in a democratic process but there were allegations of election violations once he got into office. He has been a very quite leader of the heavily populated nation compared to Nigerian leaders of the past. He has been working hard though. He has brought the situation in the Delta Region under some sort of control by granting amnesty to their leader and negotiating with the group. Some of their demands are being met as major constructions are ongoing in this part of the country to trickle down some of the oil revenue that is being exploited in the region.
Friday, July 31, 2009
The latest in सोशल Interfacing
Twitter
Twitter is a social network in which young people and adults interact with each other. It is relatively new and it is just like Face book. You can register on it and try and find friends and love ones that have been missing for some time. The signing process is relatively easy. All you have to do is provide your email address, full names, and a username that would enable you to lock on into the website and of cause a password. You can write a blog on the site and you can interact with other individuals.
The most popular of the features to me right now has to be to see just how popular some people are in the US or the world at large. To find out how popular somebody is, once you register you can go to the section- find person, type the person’s name and voila you get their popularity rating .I was just playing on the site today and it was surprising to me looking at some of the numbers.
Michael Jordan who is now retired from professional basketball as a player had about 25000 followers. He follows four people on twitter. The list of people that he follows includes Oprah.
Kobe Bryant, I was surprise had just close to 2513 followers, he tracks 16 of his friends on the website.
Lebron James has 6483 followers; he keeps track of 100 people, busy for a popular guy.
Golfer Tiger Woods had about 13000 followers, his number of followers to close to that of Michael Jordan.
I kept looking and then I hit on the people that are really popular in the US.
Shaq, who did his college education at LSU and still plays professional basketball, has just under 1.9million followers. He keeps track of 555 of his friends on the website. This is a huge following for the soon to be retired basketball player. He has openly express his desire to be a sheriff once he retires from the game of basketball. Maybe he should be looking at a higher position like running for Governor in the state of Louisiana and why not maybe run for the top job of the nation, president of the United States.
President Barrack Obama’s followers where close to that of Shaq at just under 1.9 million followers. The President though had everybody beat by a huge margin in terms of people that he keeps track of on the site. His number stands at 800,000. Nobody came anywhere close to that number in terms people that you keep track of on the website. For somebody who is the Chief executive officer of the nation, where does he get the time to keep in touch with all these people, just amazing?
Oprah tops the list with the most followers with just under 2million people keeping track of her on the website. She keeps track of four people on the site and the people that she follows include, you guess it Shaq.
Former President George Walker Bush has 23 followers. Bill Clinton has 1803 followers and he keeps track of nine individuals on the website.
Out of the US, I put in Nelson Mandela’s name and he had 1108 individuals that are his followers. He keeps track of six people.
Twitter is a social network in which young people and adults interact with each other. It is relatively new and it is just like Face book. You can register on it and try and find friends and love ones that have been missing for some time. The signing process is relatively easy. All you have to do is provide your email address, full names, and a username that would enable you to lock on into the website and of cause a password. You can write a blog on the site and you can interact with other individuals.
The most popular of the features to me right now has to be to see just how popular some people are in the US or the world at large. To find out how popular somebody is, once you register you can go to the section- find person, type the person’s name and voila you get their popularity rating .I was just playing on the site today and it was surprising to me looking at some of the numbers.
Michael Jordan who is now retired from professional basketball as a player had about 25000 followers. He follows four people on twitter. The list of people that he follows includes Oprah.
Kobe Bryant, I was surprise had just close to 2513 followers, he tracks 16 of his friends on the website.
Lebron James has 6483 followers; he keeps track of 100 people, busy for a popular guy.
Golfer Tiger Woods had about 13000 followers, his number of followers to close to that of Michael Jordan.
I kept looking and then I hit on the people that are really popular in the US.
Shaq, who did his college education at LSU and still plays professional basketball, has just under 1.9million followers. He keeps track of 555 of his friends on the website. This is a huge following for the soon to be retired basketball player. He has openly express his desire to be a sheriff once he retires from the game of basketball. Maybe he should be looking at a higher position like running for Governor in the state of Louisiana and why not maybe run for the top job of the nation, president of the United States.
President Barrack Obama’s followers where close to that of Shaq at just under 1.9 million followers. The President though had everybody beat by a huge margin in terms of people that he keeps track of on the site. His number stands at 800,000. Nobody came anywhere close to that number in terms people that you keep track of on the website. For somebody who is the Chief executive officer of the nation, where does he get the time to keep in touch with all these people, just amazing?
Oprah tops the list with the most followers with just under 2million people keeping track of her on the website. She keeps track of four people on the site and the people that she follows include, you guess it Shaq.
Former President George Walker Bush has 23 followers. Bill Clinton has 1803 followers and he keeps track of nine individuals on the website.
Out of the US, I put in Nelson Mandela’s name and he had 1108 individuals that are his followers. He keeps track of six people.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
अ ट्रिप तो लागोस,Nigeria
This journey begins in a small town called Tiko, located in the South West Province of the Republic of Cameroon. The purpose of the visit was to travel to Lagos, Nigeria to see a man called T. B Joshua who is really popular in this part of the world. The guy is noted for performing miracles like Jesus Christ did in his days and the idea was to go check it out. We traveled the three of us from where I live but there were a lot of people also traveling that I would get to meet during the course of the journey.
The means of transportation is a ship called "Asuka".It carries about 500 passengers at a time and it has a lower and an upper section. The lower section is the first class. We were in the second class and the cost of this part of the journey was about 50,000 francs CFA.In dollars that is about 100 dollars for a round trip ticket. This part of the journey would take us from Tiko to Calabar, Nigeria. The ship was loaded with both passengers and cargo, with some people lying on the floor through the whole journey. The journey started at around 11pm and we were told that by around 8am in the next day we should be at the port in Calabar. What you do once you get into the ship is to look for a place to seat and place your hand luggage. There is enough space in the ship for the rest of the merchandise that people are transporting to Nigeria. Most of it is foodstuff; a lot is merchandise that is going to be sold over there. There is a separate attachment to the ship that is quite huge and the crew of the ship loads and off load the cargo that goes into this area.
To make the journey convenience, there is a sales counter where you can get soft drinks, sandwiches and other foodstuffs. The counter stays open until about between 1 to 2 am in the morning. It reopens early at about 7am in the morning when breakfast is served. On the upper level in which we were located there were two 35 inches television monitors that showed movies through the journey. The movies alternated between western movies and movies from "Nollywood" that is the name of the Nigerian film industry. There are decks also that you can go out of the sitting area to relax outside. You could stand out there and get to see the ocean. That is my favorite part of the ship. I always love to look out at the sea. The time of year that we traveled, the sea was quite calm, at least during the first part of the journey. Also it looks like at night the sea is calm. The ship itself does not move very fast but there is enough distraction around to keep you busy so that the journey does not get boring at all.
The Immigration Officers
You have to go through some immigration formalities while you are inside the ship. The crew members collected 3000 francs, about 6 dollars from those of us of Cameroonian nationality. We would also get to pay about the same amount to get out of the ports once you reach Calabar, Nigeria. You would be required to show proof of vaccination at the Calabar port also before you can continue your journey. The vaccination was for yellow fever. On your way back to the Republic of Cameroon, you would repeat this immigration procedure. The Nigerian immigration would require you to pay 4000 francs CFA, about 8dollars before you can board the ship out of this country and once you get into the ship, there would be another 4000 francs charge, this time the fee is for Cameroonian immigration authorities and this is collected sometime before you arrive at the destination in Tiko.
Arriving Calabar.
We arrived at Calabar about 8am in the morning after being at sea for about 9 hours. That is the time it takes to complete the journey by ship. You get to pass quite a few people that are making the journey with speedboats and at times local canoes that are powered by engines. They are wide open at the sea making the journey with no type of protection at all. A lot of people have lost their lives traveling with these boats but the journeys are still going on. The method that we used is by no means the safest . There are no border patrols through the course of the journey and I get the feeling that if something happens in the open sea we were all on our own.
From Calabar to Lagos.
Once you got to Calabar, the next part of the journey is to travel by bus to your Lagos destination. There is a make shift motor park that is located right at the Calabar port and there you can board buses that take about 15 to 20 passengers for the trip to Lagos. Though we arrived at Calabar at around 8am in the morning, we did not get to leave from there until about 11am in the morning. There are a numbers of things that needed to be done, like getting the rest of our luggage off loaded off the ship. Also we had to convert our currency from CFA to Naira. Naira is the Nigerian currency and there is quite a market flourishing in the currency conversion business at the Calabar port. At the time that we traveled the rate of CFA to Naira was about 3CFA francs for I Naira. The advice that you get is to convert only the amount of money that you feel that you are going to need while in Nigeria. So that is what we did. We converted enough money that would cover us for transportation, hotel stay and feeding while we were in Nigeria.
The cost of the journey from Calabar to Lagos at the time we traveled was 5000 Naira.15, 000cfa or about 30 dollars. The journey itself by bus runs for about 11 to 12 hours depending on the skill of your driver. We did not make it to Lagos on the same day because it got dark at about the time that we arrived at Onitsha. The advice of the driver was that we spend the night there and continue the journey in the morning. He said it is not safe to travel at night in the country because of armed robbers. So we spend the night at a small hotel and continue the journey at about 7am in the morning. By about noon we had made it to the outskirt of Lagos.
The journey form Calabar to Lagos is not a smooth one at all. The roads in Nigeria are good in some areas but there are also some bad areas that make the journey much longer. That is the case in the country that we were coming from. So if you have heard stories that the Republic of Nigeria is full of paved superhighways everywhere, forget it, that is a myth. Armed security men are all over the highways. They would stop the vehicles occasionally, but most of the time they just wave you along. They are there to safeguard your free passage from one part of the country to another. The country is quite large though and there are stretches of land that is uninhabited. The Delta Niger area is on the news a lot because of the struggle that is ongoing between the rebels and the government for oil revenue sharing and we passed through this area. I kind of like the area a lot. The Nigerian government has started to do something about the problems of the people in this part of the country and you could see that in the highways that were being constructed in the region. An international airport was being built also and you could see part of it from the major highway.
Once we arrived at Lagos, the next step was to find out where the Synagogue, Church of All Nations is located because that is where we were heading. From all the talk about the Man of God that we got before leaving Cameroon, I thought that the first person that we talk to would know where the place is. The driver that took us had said that he knows where the place is but that was not the case. We had to spend about close to two hours driving through traffic in Lagos before we could finally get the right directions to reach the area. So arriving the outskirts of Lagos at around 12noon, we did not get to reach the church area until around close to 3pm.
We are in Lagos
We arrived at the church area and looking at the church building from outside, it is quite an impressive building. A lot of money and time was spent putting up the building, I would say. The place was also jammed pack with people from both within Nigeria and other neighboring countries. Word has sure got around that the Man of God is performing miracles here in Nigeria and people are flooding the area. As you move around you would see people that had just arrived and have no place to stay and they are sleeping on the streets underneath large Lorries. Some areas looked like make shift refugee camps. Hotel Accommodation could be gotten for about 8500 francs cfa a night that is about 16 dollars a night. A lot of people do not border to stay in a hotel which at 16 dollars a night is stiff to a lot of people here. So what they do is look for somebody that lives in the area and pay them 500 Naira, about 3 dollars a night and they are provided with a mat on which they could spend the night on.
So we arrived at Lagos on a Tuesday and on Wednesday we visited the area where the man of God is. The aim of the visit was to inquire as to how you get to see him in the first place. We were told that appointments have to be made on Thursdays and Fridays and then you get to meet the man at church service on a Saturday and Sunday. Saturdays and Sundays are the days in which the actual healing takes place. The area that we had to go for the appointment is a building that is opened at the sides. It is like an unfinished building, one that is under construction. There are enough seats for just about everybody that cares to take a seat. Just adjacent to this building is the built in restaurant of the church. They serve food at discounted prices. What you have to do is go to one of the counters and you purchase a meal ticket for about 50 to about 200 Naira, let's just say that for a little more than a dollar you can get the higher end ticket and then you proceed to the area that the various foodstuffs are being served. The Wednesday that we went to the open area for inquiry the Pastor happened to pass by with a little entourage. He want to the restaurant area briefly and then just left.
On Thursday at about noon we headed to the appointment hall to get a talk with one of the representatives of the Synagogue, Church of all Nations. There are many of them, of various nationalities also. They came from South Africa, some from England and also from the local area. The ones from overseas were said to be volunteers. What is done in the appointment area is to divide all of the visitors into various areas according to the purpose of your visit to the church. Announcement is made for people with mental disease to go to a certain area, people with HIV/AIDS to go to their own area, people with physical disabilities to go to their own area and then the rest of the group is placed in their own area. The reps are then assigned to the various groups. What they do is they talk to everybody that is in the hall to narrow down their problem. Those that can not be attended to on Thursday are attended to on Friday. They would ask you for an appointment during this period. It gets tricky here because when we visited we did not have an appointment. What saved us is that we had a recent medical report from a doctor. What the reps would explain to you is that you should not come if you do not have an appointment, which is understandable once you actually visit and see the amount of people that arrive daily to visit the church. At the very least you should get a medical report if your case warrants one. If you are just looking for a break-through in life as some of the cases might be, then it is a good idea to get an appointment. Quite a few people visit the church from far away countries and they do not get attended to at all. Some of them take a chance and extend their stay for another week in the area and hope that they would get attended to in the following week. There is an elderly man who came with his son and spend the whole week and returned without any attention. The man explained to me that he had to sell his farm that he had cultivated for a period of about twenty five years to raise the funds to make the trip from the Kumba area in the Republic of Cameroon to Lagos, Nigeria. He could not walk and he left the area without attending the healing service. He came without an appointment and had to be calling back home to raise some funds for transportation back home. So you might get lucky and get attended to without an appointment but to be on the safe side, it is a good idea to get an appointment before making the trip especially if you are coming from a foreign country.
So you get attended to by one of the representatives and what they do is talk to you, get some feed back and assign you to show up for church service on Saturday for the healing service. You have to go get a personal sign-board on which your problems are written on. If you have watched the program on television you would know what I am talking about. The signs are written up on the same day that you get assigned for church service. There is a different area that takes care of these and it is in this area that we met the Pastors wife who was helping with the writing up of the sign-boards. From this area you get to go inside the church and there is a video camera session inside the church itself during which everybody is video-taped with you displaying your sign. This is the last part of the appointment session and we left the area after this to be back on Saturday for the healing church service. The appointment time is written on a little piece of paper and indicates for you to show up at around 8am in the morning for the healing service. The note is your proof that you have gone through the screening process and you are ready for the healing service on Saturday.
What you do on your downtime.
When you visit the Synagogue, Church of all nations, the whole visit is supposed to take about a week. In our case we arrived at Lagos, on a Tuesday and left the following Monday for Calabar, Nigeria. We did not leave Nigeria until Wednesday morning when the ship bound for Tiko; the Republic of Cameroon left the Calabar port. So there is going to be a lot of downtime while you are in Nigeria. What I do during my visit to large cities is to walk a lot to see places that are in the vicinity of where I live. A did a lot of this while at Lagos to get a feel of what it is like to live in a city like this. I would get up in the morning and start my journey on foot around 9am in the morning. I would visit places like shops and market areas, computer centers and get home sometime before it gets dark. You really get a feel of what city life is like this way. Lagos, Nigeria is a busy city. By the time you get up, the streets are already crowded with people heading to various destinations. There are a lot of bikes in the city and three legs mini-vehicles. The mini-vehicles look like something right out of an Indian movie. There are also mid-size buses that is the primary means of transportation, second to the bikes. I found the mini-buses quite old and there were all painted yellow. As you walk on the streets of Lagos, there are hawkers everywhere. Mostly children and women hawking all types of items from cool drinking water to home-made bread and various soft drinks. We visited when the weather was quite hot and I spend a lot of money buying the drinking water to keep myself cool. I visited a few cyber-cafes and there was usually parked with young men and women, mostly university students. The cost was okay though the connection speed was quite slow. The service people would speak to you in English but amongst themselves they speak in their native language. This is true in all the places that we visited starting from Calabar.Each area that you go to the individuals speak in their native language amongst themselves. I found this rather interested. I believe the Federal Republic of Nigeria is made up of three mains tribes, Yoruba, Ibo and the Hausa which makes it possible for the people to be able to communicate easily in their native languages. This is in a country with close to 170 million people. You contrast that with a country like the Republic of Cameroon which is making up of about 16 million people but has close to 200 native languages and you see clearly the advantage that the Nigerians have in this category. I learn while in Nigeria that they do not have a national identity card. I guess it is easy for them to tell wether you are a foreigner or not. You have to know how to speak the local language. So once you open your mouth to speak they know right away that you are from a different country.
The Church or healing service.
On your appointment slip they say that you should come to church on Saturday around 8am in the morning. This is true for both individuals that got their appointments either on Thursday or on Friday. So the healing service is the one that takes place on Saturday. Sunday is a regular church service, though some healing still goes on during that church service. We arrived at Church service at around 8am in the morning and the place is already packed with people. You are assigned seats into the Church with some people sitting downstairs, those that would be attended to first and rest of the people moving upstairs from where you can still get a clear view of what is going on. The healing area is located on the floor and it is clear of chairs. What you would find there are video cameras that are taking pictures during a large part of the service. The floor area would be surrounded with people and what the Pastor would do is to move around and touch each and every one of these individuals. That is part of how the healing process is. For some people he would spend more time actually preaching to you and depending on the case, he would yell to try and drive away the devil. Pastor T.B Joshua did not get into the church until about 2pm in the afternoon. So between the time that we arrived at the healing service time was spend between getting everybody seated and allowing some people during lunch time to go get something to eat and come back to church. The rest of the time is spend watching a large screen monitor on which past healing services are shown. There are a lot of sick people that visit the church and some of the video footage is quite gruesome. So you have to have a stomach for some of the stuff that would be displayed on the screen from disable people with individuals with terrible sores. People with HIV-AIDS, leprosy, mental illnesses, nothing was left without display. On the day that we attended the healing session, there were close to about 10.000 people present.
Arrival of T.B Joshua
The man of God arrived about 3pm in the afternoon and the place just got real electrifying. Everybody got on their feet and he began be given a little speech then proceeded with the healing process. What happens is that people are taken from their seats to the floor level and it is from there that they are placed in a circle. The man of God then goes around and touches everybody. In some of the case, you are literally pushed onto the floor. This process goes on until everybody in the church is touched. This is really something because we are taking here about close to 10,000 people that have to be attended to. Once this part of the work is over, the next part is that of giving out the anointed water. This process takes some time because TB Joshua has to leave the church to go bless the water before coming back into the church. He left that Saturday for about an hour and thirty minutes before returning. His workers accompanied him and upon his return there were the famous little plastic bottles with the water in them. There is a lot of ceremony that goes on before he starts throwing the water bottles into the crowd. You are advised to only take one bottle. That would be enough for each individual. There is the ability for you to refill the bottles once you return, so it is something that is supposes to last you a long time. There is a general prayer by the whole church to bless the water and you get to get about three drinks of it in the church before the whole process is done with. After the anointed water is distributed we get into testimonies. This is the part that people actually come up to the healing floor and say how they have been affected by the man of God. There are people that testify that their pains are all gone. Some that come on crutches claim that they can now walk and actually do a demonstration on the floor. It is quite something to watch. You would see some elderly people actually run on the floor and do some kind of dancing. The healing service did not end until sometime close to 10pm. That is quite a lot of church service for one day. I had no idea that I could attend church service for that long a period of time. There was announcement as to when the Sunday service will take place. This service is to cap your visit to the Synagogue, Church of All Nations.
There were going to be an early service and a late one. I believed that I made it to the later part of the early service and just continued throw the late service. There is voluntary thanksgiving during this service. This is one way that the church supports itself. The other way is through the sales of prophesy books, audio cassettes and video compact disc. You can also choose to be a member of the church and get admitted while there at the church. There is a fee for that, which they get to tell you once you are at the church service. There is testimonies that goes on during this service and a lot of experience sharing. Some people are exposed. There is a guy that used to be a gang member and came in for healing. He told us that all of his friends are all dead from gang related activities. There was a gentleman from the Republic of Gabon who had been claiming to be the personal representative of the man of God in Gabon. People had to pass through him to come to Lagos and he was collecting some money. He came to repent and he was forgiven.
The Sunday service ended around 7pm and that was the end of the visit. Everybody went home to start making arrangements for the trip back to their place of origin. Our delegation that traveled to Lagos, Nigeria were close to fifteen individuals. We did not all travel back to Calabar due to that fact that we did not get to stay in the same place. I left for Calabar early Monday morning, thinking that our ship would be returning to Cameroon on Monday night. It turned out that the ship would not depart from Calabar until early on Wednesday. The actual driving from Lagos to Calabar took place during the day. We had a very good and experience driver and he got us to Calabar in about 11 hours. The guy knew all of the back roads and used that knowledge to help us escape a lot of the traffic. We made some brief stops on our way back but overall the drive back was pretty quite. The armed police officers were still around. I guess that is just the reality of traveling in Nigeria by road. You get to pass through a lot of security. Most of the time, they just waved you through. The drivers also ignore them at times and get away with it. Our driver knew exactly when to stop and when to just keep going. I rested a bit on Monday and spend the whole of Tuesday sight seeing in Calabar. It turned out that Calabar is not a bad place at all. The area is quite good for residential purpose.
The Trip Back home.
Because I made a miscalculation on when the ship was to depart from Calabar, I had to spend the night at the port in Calabar and wait for the ship to arrive on Wednesday morning. There are a lot of workers that stay at the port in Calabar and you just look for a place and spend the night. The ship arrived on Wednesday morning and it was quite a relive to see it. After the passengers got out you could go in and place you luggage and look for a place to rest inside the ship. Departure was not due until some time early in the morning on Thursday. There was news that ships do not travel at night to return to Cameroon due to one reason or the other. My guess was one of safety. Before boarding back to Cameroon you had to check in one last time with the Nigeria immigration and pay a fee of 4000 CFA francs, about 8 dollars I would say. You are then provided with a pass that you would show to the authorities while in the ship. There would also be one more payment of about the same amount to the Cameroonian immigration authority while inside the ship and sometime before you reach Cameroon. We left Calabar about close to 6am on Thursday morning and did the whole trip on broad daylight. I had my Camera with me through the course of the journey but I did not have any films with me. I left Cameroon, thinking that I would get films while in Nigeria but it turned that they have completely move into the digital age over there. While in Cameroon you could walk into any electronic store and get films that was not the case in Nigeria. I looked all over Lagos and could not find a single store that sell films for Cameras. That was the case on my way to Lagos from Calabar and during the period that I stayed in Calabar.I look everywhere but could not find any films. It was really disappointing to me. Anyway it turned out that traveling during the day in the seas is a bit turbulent than at night. The sea was not really rough but it was not as smooth as during the day. The waves had arrived and you could actually feel or go outside and see the ship did a side by side wave on the open sea. I do not get scared at all but I guess to somebody that is not used to the open sea it could be quite a trip. I did get to check out areas on the ship and they had life jackets, although this was no mention of what to do in case of an emergency as they do on air fights. The open sea is always fascinating to me and I did like the fact that I got to go outside and take a look at the water. Oil drilling is going on and that is part of the landmark that takes you to and back from Nigeria in the open sea.
Conclusion.
Quite a trip if you asked me, I had been staying at home for quite a while and the call for adventure made me not to hesitate on making the trip. Going out in the open sea is always risky especially when you get to listen to stories of armed men boarding some of the ships to look for money. The stories that I got is that they come in and look for money and once that get the money the head out. They would only course trouble if their demands are not met. There was another story that one of the ships actually sank during one of those trips and a backup ship had to be sent in to move the passengers in open sea. Trying to rescue the cargo was out of the question.
This journey begins in a small town called Tiko, located in the south west Province of the Republic of Cameroon. The purpose of the visit was to travel to Lagos, Nigeria to see a man called T B Joshua who is really popular in this part of the world. The guy is noted for performing miracles like Jesus Christ did in his days and the idea was to go check it out. We travel the three of us from where I live but there were a lot of people also traveling that I would get to meet during the course of the journey.
The means of transportation is a ship called "Asuka".It carries about 500 passengers at a time and it has a lower and an upper section. The lower section is the first class. We were in the second class and the cost of this part of the journey was about 50,000 francs CFA.In dollars that is about 100 dollars. This part of the journey would take us from Tiko to Calabar, Nigeria. The ship was loaded with both passengers and cargo, with some people lying on the floor through the whole journey. The journey started at around 11pm at night and we were told that by around 8am in the morning we should be at the port in Calabar. What you do once you get into the ship is to look for a place to seat and place your hand luggage. There is enough space in the ship for the rest of the merchandise that people are transporting to Nigeria. Most of it is foodstuff; a lot is merchandise that is going to be sold over there. There is a separate attachment to the ship that is quite huge and the crew of the ship loads and off load the cargo that goes into this area.
To make the journey convenience, there is a sales counter where you can get soft drinks, sandwiches and other foodstuffs. The counter stays open until about between 1 to 2 am in the morning. It reopens early at about 7am in the morning when breakfast is served. On the upper level in which we were located there were two 35 inches television monitors that showed movies through the journey. The movies alternated between western movies and movies from "Nollywood" that is the name of the Nigerian film industry. There are decks also that you can go out of the sitting area to go relax outside. You could stand out there and get to see the ocean. That is my favorite part of the ship. I always love to look out at the sea. The time of year that we traveled, the sea was quite calm, at least during the first part of the journey. Also it looks like at night the sea is calm. The ship itself does not move very fast but there is enough distraction around to keep you busy so that the journey does not get boring at all.
The Immigration Officers
You have to go through some immigration formalities while you are inside the ship. The crew members collected about 3000 francs, about 6 dollars from those of us of Cameroonian nationality. We would also get to pay about the same among to get out of the ports once you reach Calabar, Nigeria. You would be required to show proof of vaccinations at the Calabar port also before you can continue your journey. The vaccinations were for yellow fever. On your way back to the Republic of Cameroon, you would repeat this immigration procedure. The Nigerian immigration would require you to pay about 4000 francs CFA, about 8dollars before you can board the ship out of this country and once you get into the ship, there would be another 4000 francs charge, this time the fee is for Cameroonian immigration authorities and this is collected sometime before you arrive at the destination in Tiko.
Arriving Calabar.
We arrived at Calabar about 8am in the morning after being at sea for about 9 hours. That is the time that takes to complete the journey by ship. You get to pass quite a few people that are making the journey with speedboats and at times local canoes that are powered by engines. They are wide open at the sea making the journey with no type of protection at all. A lot of people have lost their lives traveling with these boats but the journeys are still going on. The method that we used is by no means the safest was idea. There are no boarder guides through the course of the journey and I get the feeling that if something happens in the open sea we were all on our own.
From Calabar to Lagos.
Once you got to Calabar, the next part of the journey is to travel by bus to your Lagos destination. There is a made shift motor park that is located right at the Calabar port and there you can board buses that take about 15 to 20 passengers for the trip to Lagos. Though we arrived at Calabar at around 8am in the morning we did not get to leave from there until about 11am in the morning. There are a numbers of things that needed to be done, like getting the rest of our luggage off loaded from the ship. Also we had to convert our currency from CFA to Naira. Naira is the Nigerian currency and there is quite a market flourishing in the currency conversion business at the Calabar port. At the time that we traveled the rate of CFA to Naira was about 3CFA francs for I Naira. The advice that you get is to convert only the amount of money that you feel that you are going to need while in Nigeria. So that is what we did. We converted enough money that would cover us for transportation, hotel stay and feeding while we were in Nigeria.
The cost of the journey from Calabar to Lagos at the time we traveled was 5000 Naira.15, 000cfa or about 30 dollars. The journey itself by bus runs for about 11 to 12 hours depending on the skill of your driver. We did not make it to Lagos on the same day because it got dark at about the time that we arrived at Onitsha. The advice of the driver was that we spend the night there and continue the journey in the morning. He said it is not safe to travel at night in the country because of armed robbers. So we spend the night at a small hotel and continue the journey at about 7am in the morning. By about noon we had made it to the outskirt of Lagos.
The journey form Calabar to Lagos is not a smooth one at all. The roads in Nigeria are good in some areas but there are also some bad areas that make the journey much longer. That is the case in the country that we were coming from. So if you have heard stories that the Republic of Nigeria is full of paved superhighways everywhere, forget it that is a myth. Armed security men are all over the highways. They would stop the vehicles occasionally, but most of the time they just wave you along. They are there to safeguard your free passage from one part of the country to another. The country is quite large though and there stretches of land that is uninhabited. The Delta Niger area is on the news a lot because of the struggle that is ongoing between the rebels and the government for oil revenue sharing and when passed through this area. I kind of like the area a lot. The Nigerian government has started to do something about the problems of the people in this part of the country and you could see that in the highways that were being constructed in this part of the country. An international airport was being built also and you could see part of it from the major highway.
Once we arrived at Lagos, the next step was to find out where the Synagogue Church of All Nations is located because that is where we were heading. From all the talk about the Man of God that we got before leaving Cameroon, I thought that the first person that we talk to would know where the place is. The driver that took us had said that he knows where the place is but that was not the case. We had to spend about close to two hours driving through traffic in Lagos before we could finally get the right directions to reach the area. So arriving the outskirts of Lagos at around 12noon, we did not get to reach the church area until around close to 3pm.
We are in Lagos
We arrived at the church area and looking at the church building from outside it is quite an impressive building. A lot of money and time was spent putting up the building, I would say that. The place was also jammed pack with people from both within Nigeria and other neighboring countries. Word has sure got around that the Man of God is performing miracles here in Nigeria and people are flooding the area. As you move around you would see people that had just arrived the area and have no place to stay and they are sleeping on the streets underneath large Lorries. Some areas almost looked like make shift refugee camps. Hotel Accommodation could be gotten for about 8500 francs cfa a night that is about 16 dollars a night. A lot of people do not border to stay in a hotel which at about 16 dollars a night is stiff to a lot of people here. So what they do is look for somebody that lives in the area and pay them 500 Naira, about 3 dollars a night and they are provided with a mat on which they could spend the night on.
So we arrived at Lagos on a Tuesday and on Wednesday we visiting the area where the man of God is. The aim of the visit was to inquire as to how you get to see him in the first place. We were told that appointments have to be made on Thursdays and Fridays and then you get to meet the man at church service on a Saturday and Sunday. Saturdays and Sundays are the days in which the actual healing takes place. The area that we had to go for the appointment is a building that is opened at the sides. It is like an unfinished building, one that is under construction. There are enough seats for just about everybody that cares to take a seat. Just adjacent to this building is the built in restaurant of the church. They serve food at discounted prices. What you have to do is go to one of the counters and you purchase a meal ticket for about 50 to about 200 Naira, let’s just say that for a little more than a dollar you can get the higher end ticket and then you proceed to the area that the various foodstuffs are being served. The Wednesday that we went to the open area for inquiry the Pastor happened to pass by with a little entourage. He want to the restaurant area briefly and then just left the area.
On Thursday at about noon we headed to the appointment hall to get a talk with one of the representatives of the Synagogue, Church of all Nations. There are many of them, of various nationalities also. They came from South Africa, some from England and also from the local area. The ones from overseas were said to be volunteers. What is done in the appointment area is to divide all of the visitors into various areas according to the purpose of your visit to the church. Announcement is made for people with mental disease to do to a certain area, people with HIV/AIDS to go to their own area, people with physical disabilities to go to their own area and then the rest of the group is placed in their own area. The reps are then assigned to the various groups. What they do is they talk to everybody that in hall to narrow down their problem. Those that can not be attended to on Thursday are attended to on Friday. They would ask you for an appointment during this period. It gets tricky here because when we visited we did not have an appointment. What saved us is that we had a recent medical report from a doctor. What the reps would explain to you is that do not come if you do not have an appointment, which is understandable once you actually visit and see the amount of people that arrive daily to visit the church. At the very least you should get a medical report if you case warrants one. If you are just looking for a break-through in life as some of the cases might be then it is a good idea to get an appointment. Quite a few people visit the church from far away countries and they do not get attended to at all. Some of them take a chance and extend their stay for another week in the area and hope that they would get attended to in the following week. There is an elderly man who came with his son and spends the whole week and returned without any attention. The man explained to me that he had to sell his farm that he had cultivated for a period of about twenty five years to raise the funds to make the trip from the Kumba area in the Republic of Cameroon to Lagos, Nigeria. He could not walk and he left the area without attending the healing service. He came without an appointment and had to be calling back home to raise some funds for transportation back home. So you might get lucky and get attended to without an appointment but to be on the safe side, it is a good idea to get an appointment before making the trip especially if you are coming from a foreign country.
So you get attended to by one of the representatives and what they do is talk to you, get some feed back and assign you to show up for church service on Saturday for the Thursday appointments and Sunday service for the Friday appointments. You have to go get a personal sign-board on which your problems are written on. If you have watched the program on television you would know what I am talking about. The signs are written up on the same day that you get assigned for church service. There is a different area that takes care of these and it is in this area that we met the Pastors wife who was helping with the writing up of the sign-boards. From this area you get to go inside the church and there is a video camera session inside the church itself during which everybody is video-taped with you displaying your sign. This is the last part of the appointment session and we left the area after this to be back on Saturday for the healing or church service. The appointment time indicates for you to show up at around 8am in the morning for the healing service with a little note that they advise you not to loose. This is the proof that you have gone through the screening process and you are ready for the healing service on Saturday or Sunday.
What you do on your downtime.
When you visit the Synagogue, Church of all nations, the whole visit is supposed to take about a week. In our case we arrived at Lagos, on a Tuesday and left on a Monday for Calabar, Nigeria. We did not leave Nigeria until Wednesday morning when the ship bound for Tiko; the Republic of Cameroon left the Calabar port. So there is going to be a lot of downtime while you are in Nigeria. What I do during me visit to large cities is to walk a lot a see places that are in the vicinity of where I live. A did a lot of this while at Lagos to get a feel of what it is like to live in a city like this. I would get up in the morning and start my journey on foot around 9am in the morning. I would visit places like shops and market areas, computer centers and get home sometime before it gets dark. You really get a feel of what city life is like this way. Lagos, Nigeria is a busy city. By the time you get up, the streets are already crowded with people heading to various destinations. There are a lot of bikes in the city and three legs min-vehicles. The mini-vehicles look like something right out of an Indian movie. There also mid-size buses that is the primary means of transportation, second to the bikes. I found the mini-buses quite old and there were all painted yellow. As you walk on the streets of Lagos, there are hawkers everywhere. Mostly children and women hawking all types of items from cool drinking water to home-made bread and various soft drinks. We visited when the weather was quite hot and I spend a lot of money buying the drinking water to keep myself cool. I visited a few cyber cafes and there was usually parked with young men and women, mostly university students. The cost was okay though the connection speed was quite slow. The service people would spend in English but amongst themselves they speak in their native language. This true in all the places that we visited starting from Calabar.Each area that you go to the individuals speak in their native language amongst themselves. I found this rather interested. I believe the Federal Republic of Nigeria is made up of three mains tribes, Yoruba, Ibo and the Hausa which makes it possible for the people to be able to communicate easily in their native languages. This is in a country with close to 200 million people. You contrast that with a country like the Republic of Cameroon which is making up of about 16 million people but close to 200 native languages and you see clearly the advantage that the Nigerians have in this category. I learn while in Nigeria that they do not have a national identity card. I guess it is easy for them to tell weather you are a foreigner or not. You have to know how to speak the local language. So once you open your mouth to speak they know right away that you are from a different country.
The Church or healing service.
On your appointment slip they say that you should come to church on Saturday around 8am in the morning. This is true for both individuals that got their appointments either on Thursday or on Friday. So the healing service is the one that takes place on Saturday, Sunday is a regular church service, though some healing still goes on during that church service. So we arrived at Church service at around 8am in the morning and the place is already packed with people. You are assigned seats into the Church with some people sitting downstairs, those that would be attended to first and rest of the people moving upstairs from where you can still get a clear view of what is going on. The healing area is located on the floor and it is clear of chairs. What you would find there are video cameras that are taking pictures during a large part of the service. The floor area would be surrounded with people and what the Pastor would do is to move around and touch each and every one of these individuals. That is part of how the healing process is. For some people he would spend more time actually preaching to you and depending on the case, he would yell to try and drive away the devil. Pastor T.B Joshua did not get into the church until about 2pm in the afternoon. So between the time that we arrived at the healing service time was spend between getting everybody seated and allowing some people during lunch time to go get something to eat and come back to church. The rest of the time is spending watching a large screen monitor on which past healing services are shown. There are a lot of sick people that visit the church and some of the video footage is quite gruesome. So you have to have a stomach for some of the stuff that would be displayed on the screen from disable people with individuals with terrible sores. People with HIV-AIDS, leprosy, mental illnesses, nothing was left without display. By the way on the day that we attended the healing session, there were close to about 10.000 people that were present.
Arrival of T.B Joshua
The man of God arrived about 3pm in the afternoon and the place just got real electrifying. Everybody got on their feet and he began be given a little speech then proceeded with the healing process. What happens is that people are taken from their seats to the floor level and it is from there that they are placed in a circle. The man of God then goes around and touches everybody. In some the case you are literally pushed onto the floor. This process goes on until everybody in the church is touched. This is really something because we are taking here about close to 10,000 people that have to be attended to. Once this part of the work is over, the next part is that of given out the anointed water. This process takes some time because TB Joshua has to leave the church to go bless the water before coming back into the church. He left that Saturday for about an hour and thirty minutes before returning. His workers accompanied him and upon his return there were the famous little plastic bottles with the water in them. There is a lot of ceremony that goes on before he starts throwing the water bottles into the crowd. You are advised to only take one bottle. That would be enough for each individual. There is the ability for you to refill the bottles once you return, so it is something that is supposes to last you a long time. There is a general prayer by the whole church to bless the water and you get to get about three drinks of it in the church before the whole process are done with. After the anointed water is distributed we get into testimonies. This is the part that people actually come up to the healing floor and say how they have been affected by the man of God. There are people that testify that their pains are all gone. Some that come on crutches claim that they can now walk and actually do a demonstration on the floor. It is quite something to watch. You would say some elderly people actually run on the floor and do some kind of dancing. The healing service did not end until sometime close to 10pm. That is quite a lot of church service for one day. I had no idea that I could attend church service for that long a period of time. There was announcement as to go the Sunday service will take place. This service is to cap your visit to the Synagogue, Church of All Nations. There were going to be an early service and a late one. I believed that I made it to the later part of the early service and just continued throw the late service. There is voluntary thanksgiving during this service. This was one way that the church supports itself. The other way is through the sales of prophesy books, audio cassettes and video compact disc. You can also choose to be a member of the church and get admitted while there at the church. There is a fee for that, which they get to tell you once you are at the church service. There is testimonies that goes on during this service and a lot of experience sharing. Some people are exposed. There is a guy that used to be a gang member and came in for healing. He told us that all of his friends are all dead from gang related activities. There was a gentleman from the Republic of Gabon who had been claiming to be the personal representative of the man of God in Gabon. People had to pass through him to come to Lagos and he was collected some money. He came to repent and he was forgiven.
The Sunday service ended around 7pm and that was the end of the visit. Everybody went home to start making arrangements for the trip back to their place of origin. Our delegations that traveled to Lagos, Nigeria were close to fifteen individuals. We did not all travel back to Calabar due to that fact that we did not get to stay in the same place. I left for Calabar early Monday morning, thinking that our ship would be returning to Cameroon on Monday night. It turned out that the ship would not depart from Calabar until early on Wednesday. The actual driving from Lagos to Calabar took place during the day. We had a very good and experience driver and he got us to Calabar in about 11 hours. The guy knew all of the back roads and used that knowledge to help us escape a lot of the traffic. We made some brief stops on our way back but overall the drive back was pretty quite. The armed police officers were still around. I guess that is just the reality of traveling in Nigeria by road. You get to pass through a lot of security. Most of the time, they just waved you through. The drivers also ignore them at times and gets away with it. Our driver knew exactly when to stop and when to just keep going. I rested a bit on Monday and spend the whole of Tuesday sight seeing in Calamari turned out that Calabar is not a bad place at all. The area is quite good for residential purpose.
The Trip Back home.
Because I made a miscalculation on when the ship was to depart from Calabar, I had to spend me night at the port in Calabar and wait for the ship to arrive on Wednesday morning. There are a lot of workers that stay at the port in Calabar and you just look for a place and spend the night. The ship arrived on Wednesday morning and it was quite a relive to see it. After the passengers got out you could go in and place you luggage and look for a place to rest inside the ship. Departure was not due until some time early in the morning on Thursday. There was news that ships do not travel at night to return to Cameroon due to one reason or the other. My guess was one of safety. Before boarding back to Cameroon you had to check in one last time with the Nigeria immigration and pay a fee of about 4000 CFA francs, about 8 dollars I would say. You are then provided with a pass that you would show to the authorities while in the ship. There would also be one more payment of about the same amount to the Cameroonian immigration authority while inside the ship and sometime before you reach Cameroon. We left Calabar about close to 6am on Thursday morning and did the returned trip on broad daylight. I had my Camera with me through the course of the journey but I did not have any films with me. I left Cameroon, thinking that I would get films while in Nigeria but it turned that they have completely move into the digital age over there. While in Cameroon you could walk into any electronic store and get films that were not the case in Nigeria. I look all over Lagos and could not find a single store and sell films for Cameras. That was the case on my way to Lagos from Calabar and during the period that I stayed in Calabar.I look everywhere but could not find any films. I was really disappointing to me. Anyway it turned out that traveling during the day in the seas is a bit turbulent during the day that at night. The sea was not really rough but it was not as smooth at during the day. The waves had arrived and you could actually feel or go outside and see and the ship did a side by side wave on the open sea. I do not get scared at all but I guess to somebody that is not used to the open sea it could be quite a trip. I did get check out areas on the ship and they had life jackets, although theirs was no mention of what to do in case of an emergency as they do on air fights. The open sea is always fascinating to me and I did like the fact that I got to go outside and take a look at the water. Oil drilling is going on and that is part of the landmark that takes you to and back from Nigeria in the open sea.
Conclusion.
Quite a trip if you asked me, I had been staying at home for quite a while and the call for adventure made me not to hesitate on making the trip. Going out in the open sea is always risky especially when you get to listen to stories of armed men boarding some of the ships to look for money. The stories that I got is that they come in a look for money and once that get the money the head out. They would only course trouble if their demands are not met. There was another story that one of the ships actually was sinking during one of those trips and a backup ship had to be sent in to move the passengers in open sea. Trying to rescue the cargo was out of the question.
Breaking Down the Samuel Eto’o- Zlatan Ibrahimovic Trade.
It’s official now as both Eto’o Fils and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have signed for their respective new clubs. Eto’o Fils moves to Inter Milan of Italy while Ibrahimovic moves to the Nou Camp of Barcelona, Spain. Inter Milan got another player in the trade in addition to some cash of close to 25 million euros. Eto’o has been unsettled in the Nou Camp in the past few seasons with constant rumors about a possible trade or move to a different club. Even after winning the prestigious champions league with the club in 2005 there was some tension in 2007 when a new coach was brought in. Eto’o did stay with the club and had his usual productive goal scoring season. This time around after winning another champions league, Barca and Eto’o agreed to split ways.
Barcelona has been making some very shrewd moves of late and none had backfired so far. They got rid of Brazilian star forward Ronaldinho two seasons ago despite the fact that he was the driving force of their 2005 champions league victory. The move did not backfire as Argentina ace Lionel Messi stepped in and carried well the play making role of the team. Ronaldinho has not been the same since leaving Barca. To his credit, he had been at the top of his game for such a long period of time before his move to AC Milan. This time FC Barcelona is getting rid of somebody that has been their top goal getter for the past four seasons. Eto’o did like to stay in Barcelona but the relationship with the current coach had gotten to the stage that the later has openly express the view that he has no future plans for the former in the club.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is 27 years of age and so is Samuel Eto’o Fils and a straight up swap of the players would have been an even trade in my opinion. Just looking at the trade now before the players take to the field, I would have to say that Barcelona gave up much to get rid of Eto’o Fils.
Ibrahimovic can carry a club by himself partly due to his physical attributes, but he is going to a club that is full of play makers and his role in the new club would not be like the one in Inter Milan in which he was their motor. He is going into a good club though and his chances of getting a champions league ring has increased a bit. The timing is a little off as Barca is coming off a champion’s league victory last season and back to back champions’ league trophies are not easy to come by. Just ask Manchester United in their quest to repeat as champions last season. So he might have to wait a few years before getting the converted trophy.
Samuel Eto’o Fils has already gotten two of those trophies and good for him because although he is going to be making more money than he did with Barcelona, the last time an Italian team won the Champions league was when AC of Milan did it in the year 2006. I do not even remember the last time Inter of Milan won the champions league. They have been champions of the Italian league for the past two seasons.
Samuel Eto’o Fils is noted for his goal scoring ability but the Italian league is not a very friendly one for goal scorers. Defensive play is the order of the day in the league and he would not be getting as many goals as he did playing in the La Liga. The last big name that I can remember who scored goals with flair at the serie A is Marco Van Basten of AC Milan and the leading goal scorers of Europe have not been coming out of the serie A. He would have a great coach in Jose Mourinho and together they can make a move towards getting a champions league trophy for Inter Milan. It is not going to be easy at all because if I have to make a prediction now as to the favorites for that trophy next season, I would be looking at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, the ever present Liverpool and then maybe Inter of Milan.
It’s official now as both Eto’o Fils and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have signed for their respective new clubs. Eto’o Fils moves to Inter Milan of Italy while Ibrahimovic moves to the Nou Camp of Barcelona, Spain. Inter Milan got another player in the trade in addition to some cash of close to 25 million euros. Eto’o has been unsettled in the Nou Camp in the past few seasons with constant rumors about a possible trade or move to a different club. Even after winning the prestigious champions league with the club in 2005 there was some tension in 2007 when a new coach was brought in. Eto’o did stay with the club and had his usual productive goal scoring season. This time around after winning another champions league, Barca and Eto’o agreed to split ways.
Barcelona has been making some very shrewd moves of late and none had backfired so far. They got rid of Brazilian star forward Ronaldinho two seasons ago despite the fact that he was the driving force of their 2005 champions league victory. The move did not backfire as Argentina ace Lionel Messi stepped in and carried well the play making role of the team. Ronaldinho has not been the same since leaving Barca. To his credit, he had been at the top of his game for such a long period of time before his move to AC Milan. This time FC Barcelona is getting rid of somebody that has been their top goal getter for the past four seasons. Eto’o did like to stay in Barcelona but the relationship with the current coach had gotten to the stage that the later has openly express the view that he has no future plans for the former in the club.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is 27 years of age and so is Samuel Eto’o Fils and a straight up swap of the players would have been an even trade in my opinion. Just looking at the trade now before the players take to the field, I would have to say that Barcelona gave up much to get rid of Eto’o Fils.
Ibrahimovic can carry a club by himself partly due to his physical attributes, but he is going to a club that is full of play makers and his role in the new club would not be like the one in Inter Milan in which he was their motor. He is going into a good club though and his chances of getting a champions league ring has increased a bit. The timing is a little off as Barca is coming off a champion’s league victory last season and back to back champions’ league trophies are not easy to come by. Just ask Manchester United in their quest to repeat as champions last season. So he might have to wait a few years before getting the converted trophy.
Samuel Eto’o Fils has already gotten two of those trophies and good for him because although he is going to be making more money than he did with Barcelona, the last time an Italian team won the Champions league was when AC of Milan did it in the year 2006. I do not even remember the last time Inter of Milan won the champions league. They have been champions of the Italian league for the past two seasons.
Samuel Eto’o Fils is noted for his goal scoring ability but the Italian league is not a very friendly one for goal scorers. Defensive play is the order of the day in the league and he would not be getting as many goals as he did playing in the La Liga. The last big name that I can remember who scored goals with flair at the serie A is Marco Van Basten of AC Milan and the leading goal scorers of Europe have not been coming out of the serie A. He would have a great coach in Jose Mourinho and together they can make a move towards getting a champions league trophy for Inter Milan. It is not going to be easy at all because if I have to make a prediction now as to the favorites for that trophy next season, I would be looking at Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, the ever present Liverpool and then maybe Inter of Milan.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
थे न्यू फस ऑफ़ वार्फर-UMV
Unmanned Vehicles
The Changing Face of War.
UMV is how they are called and it stands for unmanned vehicles meaning the aircraft is capable of performing its combat duty without a pilot being in it. This is a technology that is already being used in the war in Afghanistan and in the next war there would not be any pilots flying planes into war zones anymore.
The first advantage of this has to be the fact that a pilot can fight from the safety of his base say in the US and accomplish his mission in a war zone in say Iraq. Talk about awesome technology. No more fear about a plane being shot down and the pilot trying to eject from the cockpit. The pilots are going to be so safe that the greatest risks to their lives would be their ability to drive their cars to and from work. This is really good news for families that have been serving the nation in the capacity of fighter pilots from one generation to another.
The military is training young men that are going to be controlling the UMV of the future right now and it is believed that playing video games could give you a head start over your competitors if are planning on a future as a fighter pilot. The video games in question involved those with remote controls and in which you could do precision aiming and shooting. The idea of bombing faraway locations is not new at all. There had been for some time now missiles that could be lunched to far away locations and they are totally unmanned. But the missiles are designed to cause damage to a large area. This was the case during the early days of the Iraq invasion. Shock and awe was how it was called and a lot of work damage was done from the air by precision bombing before any allied soldier touch the ground in Iraq.
The UMV are capable of targeting much smaller areas like people coming in and out of a building. This way a pilot can be in a base in Nevada and target and take out two or three individuals as far away as Afghanistan. It is believe that this is the manner in which some of the leaders of Al-Qaeda are being targeted and killed. With the public increasingly demanding that soldiers be pulled out of combat zones this is going to be a real good way for wars to be fought without a lot of casualties and terrorist could also be targeted and eliminated from far away locations without the lost of human life.
Some of the disadvantageous of UMV are that once they are lunched and reach their location the mission cannot be aborted. With a manned aircraft the pilot can make a decision once he reaches his destination as to whether he should carry out the strike or not. This is good in case there is a mistake and the target areas happen to include a lot of civilians. The UMV would not be capable of doing that, at least the ones that are being produced now. That might change in the future. Another disadvantage would be that there would be one less excuse not to go to war. The outcry about lost life would be lessened and those in charge would have an easy excuse to go to war.
The war on the ground still needs to be fought and the UMV are not going to replace the soldiers on the ground. The infantry has been an integral part of warfare since the early ages of war and that is not going to change in the future. The soldiers on the ground though are going to be getting more assistance from the guys with remote controls in far away locations.
The US had gotten the head start on UMV but they are not the only nation that is producing these vehicles. All of the big guys in terms of military strength like China, Russia, France, Great Britain, India just to name a few are all in the race to revolutionized how wars are going to be fought in the future.
The Changing Face of War.
UMV is how they are called and it stands for unmanned vehicles meaning the aircraft is capable of performing its combat duty without a pilot being in it. This is a technology that is already being used in the war in Afghanistan and in the next war there would not be any pilots flying planes into war zones anymore.
The first advantage of this has to be the fact that a pilot can fight from the safety of his base say in the US and accomplish his mission in a war zone in say Iraq. Talk about awesome technology. No more fear about a plane being shot down and the pilot trying to eject from the cockpit. The pilots are going to be so safe that the greatest risks to their lives would be their ability to drive their cars to and from work. This is really good news for families that have been serving the nation in the capacity of fighter pilots from one generation to another.
The military is training young men that are going to be controlling the UMV of the future right now and it is believed that playing video games could give you a head start over your competitors if are planning on a future as a fighter pilot. The video games in question involved those with remote controls and in which you could do precision aiming and shooting. The idea of bombing faraway locations is not new at all. There had been for some time now missiles that could be lunched to far away locations and they are totally unmanned. But the missiles are designed to cause damage to a large area. This was the case during the early days of the Iraq invasion. Shock and awe was how it was called and a lot of work damage was done from the air by precision bombing before any allied soldier touch the ground in Iraq.
The UMV are capable of targeting much smaller areas like people coming in and out of a building. This way a pilot can be in a base in Nevada and target and take out two or three individuals as far away as Afghanistan. It is believe that this is the manner in which some of the leaders of Al-Qaeda are being targeted and killed. With the public increasingly demanding that soldiers be pulled out of combat zones this is going to be a real good way for wars to be fought without a lot of casualties and terrorist could also be targeted and eliminated from far away locations without the lost of human life.
Some of the disadvantageous of UMV are that once they are lunched and reach their location the mission cannot be aborted. With a manned aircraft the pilot can make a decision once he reaches his destination as to whether he should carry out the strike or not. This is good in case there is a mistake and the target areas happen to include a lot of civilians. The UMV would not be capable of doing that, at least the ones that are being produced now. That might change in the future. Another disadvantage would be that there would be one less excuse not to go to war. The outcry about lost life would be lessened and those in charge would have an easy excuse to go to war.
The war on the ground still needs to be fought and the UMV are not going to replace the soldiers on the ground. The infantry has been an integral part of warfare since the early ages of war and that is not going to change in the future. The soldiers on the ground though are going to be getting more assistance from the guys with remote controls in far away locations.
The US had gotten the head start on UMV but they are not the only nation that is producing these vehicles. All of the big guys in terms of military strength like China, Russia, France, Great Britain, India just to name a few are all in the race to revolutionized how wars are going to be fought in the future.
Monday, July 27, 2009
थे मोवे तोवार्द्स मकिंग वीड लेगल इन थे स्टेट ऑफ़ California
The State of California is moving towards legalizing Weed.
The State of California has been debating for some time now whether to make the use of marijuana legal. There have been discussions ongoing for sometime now but their legislative body is now seriously moving towards voting on a bill that would make the drug legal in the state. The State of California is known for its forward thinking and if they go ahead and okay the legalization, they would be the first state to do so in the US. Other states would follow naturally. When I was living in Maryland, there was talk of trying to legalize marijuana for medical purpose but the movement never gathered enough steam for it to move into the local Congress. The fear at the time was that a lot of people that use the drug for recreational purposes would be flooding doctor’s offices to get prescription for illnesses that are invincible.
There are medical purposes for marijuana use like the easing up of pain. But once the drug gets legalized people that use it for recreational purposes would not need to be hiding from the police anymore. The drug is still considered illegal in the US, but it is not by any means the main cause of worry for law enforcement officers. That would be crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Some sports organization do not even at the moment test for marijuana use when they are conducting their mandatory drug test. If you openly claim that you are using weed as the drug is popularly known, then the authorities would be embarrassed not to do something about it. But they do not go out of their way to look for persons that use marijuana for recreational purposes.
Employers do test for it though. Most companies would put you through a drug test before they hire you and if you come out with a marijuana positive test, they would not hire you. The fear is that if you are doing weed, then you are capable of much more. That is the main criticism that is going to come out, if the state of California does go ahead and legalize the use of marijuana. There are going to be complains that once people get tired of using the drug, they would start looking for something stronger. Getting a stronger fix after the intrigue has been taking out of the use of weed.
The State of California has a huge budget deficit that is now at about 25billion dollars and there is little doubt that part of the drive to get the drug legalized now is to raise some funds in a move towards bringing down that deficit. Once the drug is made legal then the state can tax the sale of the drug and thus raise additional revenue.
The use of marijuana is by no means going to be without its drawbacks whether it is made legal or not. Like any drug there would be people that would abuse it. It is just like cigarette or alcohol. There is nothing like a safe limit to it. If you drink alcohol or smoke cigarette even at a small level, it kills you gently. Marijuana is that way also. I know people that have been taking marijuana since they were in their teens and they still have their entire faculty together in their forties. I also do know a lot of people that have gone totally mad from taking the drug over an extended period of time. So either way, legal or not, the drug would still kill you or make you go mad if you abuse over a period of time.
The State of California has been debating for some time now whether to make the use of marijuana legal. There have been discussions ongoing for sometime now but their legislative body is now seriously moving towards voting on a bill that would make the drug legal in the state. The State of California is known for its forward thinking and if they go ahead and okay the legalization, they would be the first state to do so in the US. Other states would follow naturally. When I was living in Maryland, there was talk of trying to legalize marijuana for medical purpose but the movement never gathered enough steam for it to move into the local Congress. The fear at the time was that a lot of people that use the drug for recreational purposes would be flooding doctor’s offices to get prescription for illnesses that are invincible.
There are medical purposes for marijuana use like the easing up of pain. But once the drug gets legalized people that use it for recreational purposes would not need to be hiding from the police anymore. The drug is still considered illegal in the US, but it is not by any means the main cause of worry for law enforcement officers. That would be crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Some sports organization do not even at the moment test for marijuana use when they are conducting their mandatory drug test. If you openly claim that you are using weed as the drug is popularly known, then the authorities would be embarrassed not to do something about it. But they do not go out of their way to look for persons that use marijuana for recreational purposes.
Employers do test for it though. Most companies would put you through a drug test before they hire you and if you come out with a marijuana positive test, they would not hire you. The fear is that if you are doing weed, then you are capable of much more. That is the main criticism that is going to come out, if the state of California does go ahead and legalize the use of marijuana. There are going to be complains that once people get tired of using the drug, they would start looking for something stronger. Getting a stronger fix after the intrigue has been taking out of the use of weed.
The State of California has a huge budget deficit that is now at about 25billion dollars and there is little doubt that part of the drive to get the drug legalized now is to raise some funds in a move towards bringing down that deficit. Once the drug is made legal then the state can tax the sale of the drug and thus raise additional revenue.
The use of marijuana is by no means going to be without its drawbacks whether it is made legal or not. Like any drug there would be people that would abuse it. It is just like cigarette or alcohol. There is nothing like a safe limit to it. If you drink alcohol or smoke cigarette even at a small level, it kills you gently. Marijuana is that way also. I know people that have been taking marijuana since they were in their teens and they still have their entire faculty together in their forties. I also do know a lot of people that have gone totally mad from taking the drug over an extended period of time. So either way, legal or not, the drug would still kill you or make you go mad if you abuse over a period of time.
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