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Friday, July 31, 2015

KILLING YOUR KILLER - ONE STEP CLOSER

Friday, July 31, 2015


This morning, I read an article which broke news of something researchers have discovered that could bring us closer to a cure for HIV. 

Shoro niyen abi? 

We have read so many such articles over the past many years; too many times we have been brought “a step closer” to a cure for HIV without being any the closer to any sort of cure. 

This BBC article is shaa different. Somehow. 

It tells of how researchers have shown in a study published in PLoS Pathogens that HIV can be “flushed out of its hiding places in the body” using a certain cancer drug. Yesso. There is this drug that is used to prevent cancer in sun-damaged skin; now, a component of it – called ingenol mebutate or PEP005 – is thought to be potentially useful in the struggle to find a cure for HIV. 

Let me tell you a short story about HIV, a story that will avoid the usual talk about how you can get infected (or infect others) and instead talk about how it behaves after it has established a military garrison inside your body. 
The HIV virus

You see, HIV is an expert at 21st century warfare. It fights hard and it fights dirty. It launches into an all-out shock-and-awe shooting campaign after it has spent several years using guerilla (hit-and-run) tactics to progressively wear down the body’s defences. 

The “hit” part of the tactics is well-known to doctors, nurses, and those gloved, needle-wielding, laboratory scientists who take your blood and perform your HIV test and then, with faces as bland as the word itself, write the result on a piece of paper, put that in an envelope, send it to a counselor who then calls you and, rather than tell you the result you are desperate to hear, launches into a lengthy sermon about abstinence from sex, faithfulness to one uninfected partner, and correct, consistent use of condoms. Yea. They all know the “hit” part, because that is the part that begins to give you symptoms. That is the part that makes you have that diarrhea that never stops, or to begin to have that mild cough that, for some reason, refuses to go away despite all the Septrins, Erythromycins, Augmentins, “miksierem ogwus”, and Aboniki balm-flavoured steam inhalations. It is also the hit part that ensures the virus is detected in blood when you run that test whose results they seem to take forever to tell you (sort of like how they behave when you go for a pregnancy test at a time when you hope you are anything BUT pregnant). 

But there is also the “run” part of the “hit-and-run”; the part where the virus evades attack by your body’s natural defences. 

Under normal circumstances, your body routinely fights against foreign invaders. Sometimes, it appears to enjoy those fights sef; those fights – which it turns into service drills – enable it to ensure that its white-blood-coat soldiers are kept “in form”, and that military equipment like “the complement system” are readily available and updated to meet new challenges; these drills ensure that subsequent challenges from enemies like chicken pox and tuberculosis are summarily dealt with, without you even being aware of it, and without your having to send a plane-load of cash to South Africa for purchase of equipment. 

HIV seems to be adept at avoiding your soldiers’ fire and merciless at destroying your military hardware. It penetrates your Defence Headquarters and compromises the military software too (that one you guys call DNA, abi?), at which point your body becomes its (and your) own enemy, generating more HIV cells instead of generating more soldiers to fight the HIV. Ya Allah, HIV is as devious as it is methodical. 

And more, it is forward-looking. It plans for the rainy day. It doesn’t just go taking and spending money from the Excess Crude Account without making provision for the occurrence of an unforeseen economic downturn, you get my drift? Yea, HIV “hides” copies of itself in areas of the body where it is very, very difficult or near impossible for drugs to reach in enough amounts to be useful. So, in the event of a rainy day when you finally get a drug that comes into your body and destroys all the viruses in your blood and clears them like President Obasanjo cleared Odi, Bayelsa, there are copies of the virus safely hidden away which can continue the missionary work of destruction once the drug’s job is done and the drug is gone. 

Which is why this news from the BBC is such cheery news. If indeed a drug is discovered which, in safe doses, is able to reactivate latent HIV and allow for the subsequent total elimination of the virus, which is in effect able to smoke HIV cells out from whatever holes they may be hiding in, then perhaps, perhaps…

Thursday, July 30, 2015

CLARIFYING MY STAND - ABI STANCE - ON ASPECTS OF CULTURAL ATTITUDES TO SAME-SEX RELATIONSHIPS

July 30, 2015


Two things:


One.
I am thoroughly against same-sex marriage and any redefinition of marriage from the traditional definition that includes both the words "man" and "woman" in any order. I am also against adoption of children by same-sex couples and by single parents. I am also against any legislation that attempts to give backing to either same-sex marriage or to child adoption by same-sex couples or single parents.


Two. 
I am thoroughly in support of legislation that clearly decriminalizes consensual adult homosexual behaviour AND clearly criminalizes a discrimination against anyone on the basis of their sexual orientation WITHOUT PREJUDICE to the definition of marriage in a way that makes it the exclusive preserve of a man and a woman.


In other words, fuck who you want to so long as you are (both) old enough and you (both) agree. The word "both" is in parentheses in deference to those others for whom threesomes are the lowest they can do in terms of number of participants in one sexual session.


If you want children in your life however, kindly do the needful. Pay a nuptial visit to a human on the other side from you of the gender divide.

Luckily for the rest of the world, I am just one out of six to seven billion people. Would have been terrible if there were too many people who thought like I did, like I do.

Ah. That explains the terrible terribleness of our world. Too many of my kind are yet living. Yet to go to hell.

Hehehehehehehe......

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

THIS OLD BUHARI - by Jude Nnadozie [edited]

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

by Jude Nnadozie on Facebook

I guess it’s wise not to sit idly for too long waiting for dusk… it soon comes and breezes by.

It is much like standing along the highway and waiting for the car in the distance to come to you so you can make out the brand. It takes a while to come, is at your spot for only a split second, and is increasing the gap between you and it the rest of the time.

So did we gain the power to censure our government and, before we would put it to any meaningful use, we lost it.

As we prepare to commission a local refinery, some are out here screaming that Buhari desist from taking credit for it.

As we’re about to receive a pat on the back for the grounds we’ve covered against polio, some are out here screaming that Buhari desist from taking credit for it.

As the Boko Haram onslaught seems to have worsened, some are out here screaming that Buhari take the blame for it.

My dear friends, I do not think that this is how things should go.

With all due respect to Jonathanians, he is out of the ring. He is not coming back. We best get behind our current boxer, and make him our current hero – for we do need a hero.

More…

It is unfortunate if Buhari truly suggested that political reality means some regions of the country getting better treatment than others because of how they voted. It is disappointing. If a glass of water sells for ten naira by the river bank, it will go for a thousand in a desert. That solitary Ibo man who braved the ‘scorn’ of his brothers and voted for you deserves, in the terms you’re thinking, better than the Fulani man who has never thought about voting any but his kinsman all his life.

Sickening too are those who leap to Buhari’s and Jonathan’s defences. When the former seems to crowd his cabinet with those of his own tribe, his fans defend him by saying Jonathan did as much… as they defend his ‘political reality’ statement by saying Peter Obi did the same thing to Aguata Local Government in Anambara State. And I ask, are Jonathan and Obi the models of Democracy??

Those who act upon Social Media vibes could have been misled, I know, because this is an age of malicious lies and unconfirmed news reports. So I have been careful to use the word ‘seems’ here and there, cuz it only seems; it may not be true what I’ve heard or read.

But what I always thought was… being a septuagenarian ought to work in Buhari’s favour, and ultimately in Nigeria’s. By the Constitution he is President, and by age he could call himself the Father of Nigerians. Witch hunt and malice aren’t in the agenda of a father towards his children. Plus, he is past the age of walking with propped shoulders and thinking himself more successful than his peers. Age waters such youthful mentality.

As a matter of fact, a Nigeria as ethno-religiously polarized as the one we have today needs an elderly President who would shunt vengeful allies and aides and go ahead to meet the needs of every citizen as much as he can irrespective of their political affiliations. He has seen it all in this life, and must know that all our acrimonies are a waste of precious energy and the very limited time we have on this earth.

On his part, Jonathan’s disposition wherever he is shouldn’t be one of scorn and mockery laughter, but one of deep concern and a willingness to discreetly offer his advice and inputs wherever and whenever the incumbent needs them. After all, this is Our Nigeria.

As for the myriad of Nigerians who bicker and fight on social media over who was and/or is right, I refer you to another round of the European showpiece called Football that kicks off in less than two weeks. For years we have argued over who’s better or worse… Ronaldinho, Thierry Henry, David Beckham, Ronaldo de Lima, Zinedine Zidane, Oliver Khan, Jorge Campos, etc. Untouched by and unaware of our folly, these stars have given their best to their teams, and left the scene. But we have simply resumed our foolhardiness over CR7 and Leo Messi. But that’s fine. At least we’ve seen how the rules of the game have preserved the sport so that we cherish it so much even though we do not gain directly from it. But down here we encourage our flag bearers to trample the rules for after all the others have done so.

It is wrong.

As I conclude, may I express my great fear.

Issues amongst brothers in the home could escalate so that their father seeks the wisdom and counsel of his father to address the differences between his sons. Of course, if their grandfather can’t sue for and achieve peace amongst them, then, it might be a lost cause.

Intellectuals and technocrats and no-nonsense fellows get to be ministers and DGs and chairmen and all… they’ll steer their various offices in the best possible ways. Pa Buhari is not just the President, he is the Patriarch… and the balance and love this home needs to prevail are up to him. And how lucky we are that he is a man of proven integrity and unwavering dedication!

I fear that if we fail to achieve a higher degree of social cohesion and harmony under his stewardship, it eludes us forever. Then, Asari Dokubo, Abubakar Shakau, and Nnamdi Kanu would only be little fishes compared to the grotesque sharks that will emerge in the future. That is, if we have a future.

I greet you all!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

PRESIDENT BUHARI, YOU MUST SUCCEED

Thursday, July 23, 2015

by Princess Chalya Miri-Gazhi on Facebook



President Buhari, I Am Going To Tell You Something - LISTEN CAREFULLY!

‪#‎YouMustSucceed‬!

I never voted for President Buhari. I voted for then President Jonathan. But Buhari won and even though I was pained that my Jona didn't win, in time I put away my pain and faced the reality that we had a new President who rode on the mantra of change to get into the green house.

The thing is that now that he is in there, he is doing things differently and that is as it should be. If doing things differently for Buhari means not choosing ministers through the random and arbitrary manner that his predecessors did, but consulting broadly, verifying the authenticity and background of the personalities and characters of the ministers he would eventually select, then it isn't a bad thing at all.

At first I was displeased that he has delayed in appointing his cabinet ministers but I am hoping that it is so that he can offer us a better set of well chosen ministers - not just experienced technocrats but people who are passionate about making the sectors they will head become productive, ministers who will dive into their duties, and proffer solutions and policies that would drive their human resources to provide better prompt and quality services to the waiting Nigerian public.

I want Buhari to succeed more than I want him to prove me right. I want Buhari to succeed in restoring sanity to every sector in Nigeria so that the standards of education in Nigeria will best that of UK; so that our health facilities will be equipped with affordable and accessible drugs and quality services for all Nigerians like the NHIS of UK and even better so that we will no longer have to travel outside for foreign care.

Let Buhari succeed in stopping Boko haram and giving Nigeria the peace we are all desperately aching for. Let Buhari succeed in transforming our aviation sector and bringing back the pride of our own national airline carrier as it was in the early eighties. Let Buhari succeed in changing the way business is done in Nigeria so that entrepreneurs and small business owners like me don't need to 'settle' anyone before getting a contract or getting paid for a contract. Let Buhari succeed so that a Plateau woman can one day be governor in Lagos state and a Yoruba man can be governor in Kano state.

Oh how I want Buhari to succeed in unifying every Nigerian to believe once more in the green white green flag and the words of our national anthem and pledge so that social media will no longer be filled with APC versus PDP voltrons but rather Patriotic Nigerians determined to help Nigeria be better; so that all these gloating by APC, and scrutiny of malice by PDP will stop from all and sundry and we can get back to the crux of the matter.

You must succeed Buhari, you must, so that we can move and graduate from this Wizkid mentality of 'twenty man shall fall that day if you cross my lane o' to 'all of us will stand as one on the same lane.'

So you see, Buhari must succeed beyond our personal egos, beyond our political differences, beyond our ethnic ideologies, beyond our cultural and religious faiths and doctrines...he gas succeed or we are doomed for real. Let's get him to give us change, not mock him to give us change.

Anyhow you look at it, whether from the sidelines, or as an insider, if Buhari fails, the ripples of that failure and its ramifications will get to us one way or another because the truth is, if the head is sick, the whole body is affected and it affects the wholesomeness of the polity. 

Let's get him to give us change, not mock him to give us change.

So succeed Buhari. 

You must succeed.

There's too much at stake for you not to succeed.

I beg you, shame the devil and succeed and Nigerians will forgive you for past and present mistakes - only if you succeed.

Succeed for you, for me, for us, for them and for our unborn children.

Whatever you must do to succeed, do it. 

You are now the Grand Commander of the Niger, the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Security Officer.

The buck stops on your table.

There is still too much power at the center but use it to shake and shape things up.

You've got a one way ticket. Make it count!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

SCREENSHOTS 1

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

[All screenshots were from my Facebook Timeline on July 14, 2015]






Saturday, July 11, 2015

OF AFRICAN WRITERS AND THEIR UNCLES

Saturday, July 11, 2015












You can visit this page to view the source from which this article was gleaned.

Sunday, July 5, 2015

NOTHING FURTHER

Sunday, July 05, 2015









Friday, July 3, 2015