Hah!

Hoaah!I was reading Jason's blog the other day and I came across this post .He talked about several things but this bit caught my eye:

"Last week, I saw a guy almost get hit by a van while crossing the street. He was pissed and understandably so. He was in the crosswalk with the walk signal and the guy in the van was super aggressive in trying to get through; the guy actually had to run out of the way to avoid being knocked down. The guy was so pissed that when the van finally stopped to let him pass, he reached through the window and beat the driver on the head with his cell phone. As a sympathetic pedestrian, I almost went over there to help him."...

Hah!America,:).I wish he could spend some time in Nigeria, where even zebra crossings(=crosswalks here) have become meaningless and drivers actually increase their speed when approaching one*sigh*.His post just makes me laugh.Man so people are essentially the same everywhere.Well at least in the other places this behaviours is the exception and not the rule.

Seppuku on the increase in Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese police said on Tuesday they were investigating a suspected group suicide involving seven people who met through the Internet, the latest in a rash of suicides linked to the Web.

The four men and three women, mostly in their 20s, were found dead on Tuesday in a car parked on a mountain road in Minano in Saitama prefecture near Tokyo, officers said.

Police said they found four charcoal stoves in the car, which was wrapped in blue plastic sheets and had its windows sealed from the inside.

"We believe they all died after inhaling carbon monoxide from the charcoal," a police spokesman said. "We believe they got acquainted through the Internet."

One of the seven had sent an e-mail to a friend on Monday saying he would commit suicide, the spokesman said.

"We found no traces of violence that could have otherwise led to their deaths," he said.

Empty cans of liquor were found inside the car and a box of sleeping pills near the silver vehicle, Kyodo news agency said.

No religious prohibitions exist in Japan against suicide and it has long been seen as a way to escape failure or of saving loved ones from embarrassment for financial loss. However, it has also been stigmatized as a shameful, taboo subject.

In Kanagawa prefecture, just west of Tokyo, police said two women in their 20s had killed themselves in a car in what was believed to be another case of Internet suicide.

Cases dubbed by the Japanese media as "Internet suicide" pacts started to come to the fore in 2003. A total of 34 people killed themselves in such pacts last year, according to police data.

Police have asked Internet service providers to disclose information about those who post plans about suicides on the Web.

However, experts say it is pointless to blame the Internet and that a closer look should be taken at the society in which they occur.

Suicide rates have always been high in Japan, where there are about the same number each year as in the United States, which has more than double the population.

Last year, Japan reported a record 34,427 recorded cases of suicide. (Additional reporting by George Nishiyama

http://www.moloch.org/html/2004_10_10_archives.html#109759646440773041

Hmm...Can you say hypocrite?

The Times of London reports:
A LEAKED report has exposed the extent of alleged corruption in the United Nations’ oil-for-food scheme in Iraq, identifying up to 200 individuals and companies that made profits running into hundreds of millions of pounds from it. The report largely implicates France and Russia, whom Saddam Hussein targeted as he sought support on the UN Security Council before the Iraq war. Both countries were influential voices against UN-backed action.

A senior UN official responsible for the scheme is identified as a major beneficiary. The report, marked “highly confidential”, also finds that the private office of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, profited from the cheap oil. Saddam’s regime awarded this oil during the run-up to the war when military action was being discussed at the UN.

The report was drawn up on behalf of the interim Iraqi government in preparation for a possible legal action against those who may have illicitly profited under Saddam. The Iraqis hired the London-based accountants KPMG and lawyers Freshfields to advise on future action.

It details a catalogue of alleged bribery and corruption perpetrated by Saddam under the UN programme, revealing how the regime lined its pockets and those of influential politicians, journalists and UN officials.

The Joys (and pains) of teaching

The Joys (and pains) of teaching

 

Today was a little rough.I was late for an appointment today because I had ad usually great class.You never get to really appreciate them until you become yourself.For those of y'all who don't know  it, I'm a volunteer teacher at the school which my church has started, called the LoveWorld Academy; teaching Computer Studies (naturally!).Today  we started up with a rehash of the basics of computing .e.g. definitions of GUI, CUI,types of Software etc and they ended up learning the art form of constructing strong passwords!A little bit over their heads you say?Well after giving the examples like p@SSW0rD and 0p51shaLL , they came up with theirs like t@kum1 y@m1je though I blew them all away with MyN1bEn1!

    Well.. in the grand scheme of things I guess this isn't such a landmark, but then I'm starting to really feel the joy and commitment which motivates teachers the world over to take such crappy low-paying jobs and slug it out from day to day.Sometimes I feel like opening up their brains and emptying stuff inside.It's real challenge teaching children as well as adults ; most of which haven't had the benefits of a formal education.But today however..I can't really describe how I felt as I watched the spark of understanding light up in their eyes as they grasped the actual concept I was explaining.Man I felt like I was doing something.Well maybe I can describe that feeling.... one word..

priceless......

Marketing Al-Queda.

Marketing Al-Qaeda

Just saw my 2 Osama bin-Laden T shirt today.Add that to the 4 Saddam Hussein T-shirts, the 1 Tariq Azeez t- shirt and the full sized portrait of Osama I saw and one tends to come to the conclusion that's there's money marketing "terrorism".I guess the US Administration has done a really good job of alienating the world such that those kind of items can be displayed boldly here in Nigeria a "pro-US" country.Planning to get a fone cam so I share such images with the rest of y'all.

.. and I did I forget to mention that the Army just busted a gang of Taliban wannabes up north Last month?